•  7
    This paper sets out a phenomenological account of how the autobiographical past can, on occasion, assume certain future-like qualities. I begin by reflecting on the analogy of a bore wave, as employed in a novel by Julian Barnes. Building on this, I turn to Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre in order to address how our memories are revised in light of our current concerns and vice versa. Then, by adapting Edmund Husserl’s conception of temporal “protention,” I show how acts of remembering a…Read more
  •  23
    On losing certainty
    Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 1-19. forthcoming.
    This paper develops a phenomenological account of what it is to lose a primitive and pervasive sense of certainty. I begin by considering Wolfgang Blankenburg’s descriptions of losing common sense or natural self-evidence. Although Blankenburg focuses primarily on schizophrenia, I note that a wider range of phenomenological disturbances can be understood in similar terms—one loses something that previously operated as a pre-reflective, unquestioned basis for experience, thought, and practice. I …Read more
  •  38
    On feeling unable to continue as oneself
    European Journal of Philosophy 32 (4): 1293-1303. 2024.
    This paper sets out a phenomenological account of what it is to feel unable to continue as oneself. I distinguish the feeling that a particular identity has become unsustainable from a sense that the world has ceased to offer the kinds of possibilities required to sustain any such identity. In feeling unable to continue as oneself, possibilities may remain for carrying on in practically meaningful ways but not as who one is or was. I reflect on the kinds of self and feeling involved in such expe…Read more
  •  1
  •  12
    Emotions of the pandemic: phenomenological perspectives
    with Luna Dolezal
    Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 22 (5): 1023-1030. 2023.
    This article provides an introduction to the special issue “Emotions of the Pandemic: Phenomenological Perspectives”. We begin by outlining how phenomenological research can illuminate various forms of emotional experience associated with the exceptional circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, we propose that a consideration of pandemic experience, in all its complexity and diversity, has the potential to yield wider-ranging phenomenological insights. We go on to discuss the thirtee…Read more
  •  69
    Grief over Non-Death Losses: A Phenomenological Perspective
    Passion: Journal of the European Philosophical Society for the Study of Emotion 1 (1): 50-67. 2023.
    Grief is often thought of as an emotional response to the death of someone we love. However, the term “grief” is also used when referring to losses of various other kinds, as with grief over illness, injury, unemployment, diminished abilities, relationship breakups, or loss of significant personal possessions. Complementing such uses, we propose that grief over a bereavement and other experiences of loss share a common phenomenological structure: one experiences the loss of certain possibilities…Read more
  •  36
    The contents of experience
    In Matthew C. Haug (ed.), Philosophical Methodology: The Armchair or the Laboratory?, Routledge. pp. 353. 2013.
  •  20
    Phenomenology, Neuroscience, and Intersubjectivity
    In Hubert L. Dreyfus & Mark A. Wrathall (eds.), A Companion to Phenomenology and Existentialism, Wiley-blackwell. 2006.
    This chapter contains sections titled: Phenomenology and Naturalism Mirror Neurons and Intersubjectivity Perceiving Others Wriggling out of Naturalism.
  •  38
    The Phenomenology of Existential Feeling
    In Jörg Fingerhut & Sabine Marienberg (eds.), Feelings of Being Alive, De Gruyter. pp. 23-54. 2012.
  •  58
    The Underlying Unity of Hope and Trust
    The Monist 106 (1): 1-11. 2023.
    This paper addresses the relationships between hope and trust. I suggest that different kinds of hope and trust relate to one another in different ways, which I conceive of in dynamic terms. I propose that the movement of hope and trust has a unifying context: the changing structure of a human life and its dependence on other people. I further argue that the most fundamental forms of hope and trust are inextricable. Together, they comprise a diffuse way of anticipating things in general, which c…Read more
  •  40
    Lonely Places and Lonely People
    Topoi 42 (5): 1123-1132. 2023.
    Feeling lonely, being a lonely person, and living through lonely times can all be construed in terms of the emotional experiences of individuals. However, we also speak of lonely places. Sometimes, a place strikes us as lonely even when we do not feel lonely ourselves. On other occasions, finding a place lonely also involves feeling lonely, isolated, and lost. In this paper, I reflect on the phenomenological structure of loneliness by addressing what it is to experience a place as lonely. I sugg…Read more
  •  154
    Stance, feeling and phenomenology
    Synthese 178 (1): 121-130. 2011.
    This paper addresses Bas van Fraassen’s claim that empiricism is a ‘stance’. I begin by distinguishing two different kinds of stance: an explicit epistemic policy and an implicit way of ‘finding oneself in a world’. At least some of van Fraassen’s claims, I suggest, refer to the latter. In explicating his ordinarily implicit ‘empirical stance’, he assumes the stance of the phenomenologist, describing the structure of his commitment to empiricism without committing to it in the process. This latt…Read more
  •  37
    Philosophical empathy
    Continental Philosophy Review 54 (2): 219-235. 2021.
    Is there a sense in which we can be said to empathize with a philosophical position and, if so, what does empathy consist of here? Drawing on themes in the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, I sketch an account of the relationship between philosophical language and philosophical thought, according to which the task of understanding, evaluating, and building upon an explicit philosophical position can involve engaging with the experiential world of its author. If accepted, this account has broader im…Read more
  •  296
    The Pandemic Experience Survey II: A Second Corpus of Subjective Reports of Life Under Social Restrictions During COVID-19 in the UK, Japan, and Mexico
    with Mark M. James, Havi Carel, Tom Froese, Jamila Rodrigues, Ekaterina Sangati, Morgan Montoya, Federico Sangati, and Natalia Koshkina
    Frontiers in Public Health. 2022.
    In August 2021, Froese et al. published survey data collected from 2,543 respondents on their subjective experiences living under imposed social distancing measures during COVID-19 (1). The questionnaire was issued to respondents in the UK, Japan, and Mexico. By combining the authors’ expertise in phenomenological philosophy, phenomenological psychopathology, and enactive cognitive science, the questions were carefully phrased to prompt reports that would be useful to phenomenological investigat…Read more
  •  27
    Emotional sinking in
    Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy. forthcoming.
    In reflecting on events of considerable significance, it is commonplace to remark that ‘it hasn’t sunk in yet’ or ‘it’s still sinking in’. Such talk is sometimes associated with things seeming unreal, surreal, unfathomable, or somehow impossible. In this paper, I develop an account of what these experiences consist of. First of all, I suggest that they involve explicitly acknowledging the reality of one’s situation, while at the same time experiencing it as inconsistent with the organization of …Read more
  • Evaluating existential despair
    In Sabine Roeser & Cain Samuel Todd (eds.), Emotion and Value, Oxford University Press Uk. 2014.
  •  28
    Illness, Injury, and the Phenomenology of Loss: A Dialogue
    with Jonathan Cole
    Journal of Consciousness Studies 29 (9-10): 150-174. 2022.
    This paper explores similarities and differences between grief over the death of a person and other experiences of loss that are sometimes termed 'grief', focusing on the impact of serious illness and bodily injury. It takes the form of a dialogue between a physician/ neurophysiologist and a philosopher. Adopting a broad conception of grief, we suggest that experiences of lost or unrealized possibilities are central to all forms of grief. However, these unfold in different ways over prolonged pe…Read more
  • Delusional atmosphere and delusional belief
    In S. Gallagher & D. Schmicking (eds.), Handbook of Phenomenology and Cognitive Science, Springer. 2009.
  •  29
    Phenomenological reflections on grief during the COVID-19 pandemic
    Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 22 (5): 1067-1086. 2023.
    This paper addresses how and why social restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic have affected people’s experiences of grief. To do so, I adopt a broadly phenomenological approach, one that emphasizes how our experiences, thoughts, and activities are shaped by relations with other people. Drawing on first-person accounts of grief during the pandemic, I identify two principal (and overlapping) themes: (a) deprivation and disruption of interpersonal processes that play important roles in …Read more
  •  89
    Grief, self and narrative
    Philosophical Explorations 25 (3): 319-337. 2022.
    Various claims have been made concerning the role of narrative in grief. In this paper, we emphasize the need for a discerning approach, which acknowledges that narratives of different kinds relate to grief in different ways. We focus specifically on the positive contributions that narrative can make to sustaining, restoring and revising a sense of who one is. We argue that, although it is right to suggest that narratives provide structure and coherence, they also play a complementary role in di…Read more
  •  142
    On the Appropriateness of Grief to Its Object
    Journal of the American Philosophical Association 1-17. forthcoming.
    How we understand the nature and role of grief depends on what we take its object to be and vice versa. This paper focuses on recent claims by philosophers that grief is frequently or even inherently irrational or inappropriate in one or another respect, all of which hinge on assumptions concerning the proper object of grief. By emphasizing the temporally extended structure of grief, we offer an alternative account of its object that undermines these assumptions and dissolves the apparent proble…Read more