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4Philosophy of space-time physicsIn Peter Machamer & Michael Silberstein (eds.), Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Science, . pp. 173-198. 2002.
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In Defence of Ontological Emergence and Mental CausationIn Philip Clayton & Paul Davies (eds.), The Re-Emergence of Emergence: The Emergentist Hypothesis From Science to Religion, Oxford University Press. 2006.
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59Extending Neutral Monism to the Hard ProblemJournal of Consciousness Studies 22 (3-4): 181-194. 2015.We agree with critics that enactive, sensorimotor, and ecological accounts of conscious experience do not in and of themselves fully deflate the hard problem of consciousness. As we noted in our earlier work, even if an extended account of cognition and intentionality allows us to be rid of qualia by deflating the dualism between intentionality and phenomenal experience, the heart of the hard problem, namely subjectivity, still remains. We argue that in order to resolve or deflate the hard probl…Read more
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40Editorial Introduction: Consciousness Unbound: Going Beyond the BrainJournal of Consciousness Studies 22 (3-4): 6-15. 2015.
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13The implications of neural reuse for the future of both cognitive neuroscience and folk psychologyBehavioral and Brain Sciences 39. 2016.
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142Panentheism, neutral monism, and advaita vedantaZygon 52 (4): 1123-1145. 2017.It is argued that when it comes to the hard problem of consciousness neutral monism beats out the competition. It is further argued that neutral monism provides a unique route to a novel type of panentheism via Advaita Vedanta Hinduism.
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47Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking (third edition) (review)Teaching Philosophy 18 (4): 377-379. 1995.
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21We propose a new path integral based interpretation of quantum field theory. In our interpretation, QFT is the continuous approximation of a more fundamental, discrete graph theory whereby the transition amplitude Z is not viewed as a sum over all paths in configuration space, but measures the symmetry of the differential operator and source vector of the discrete graphical action. We propose that the differential operator and source vector of theory X are related via a self-consistency criterio…Read more
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What is the Matter with MindDissertation, The University of Oklahoma. 1994.Nonreductive physicalism is the conjunction of the following three statements. Firstly, mental properties are real. Secondly, mental properties are neither reducible to nor identifiable with physical properties, and thirdly, mental properties are causally efficacious with respect to physical properties. Nonreductive physicalists hold these assumptions to be true not only for mental properties but all special science and macrophysical properties. I will defend the following three theses: first, i…Read more
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64Emergence, Theology, and the Manifest ImageIn Philip Clayton (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science, Oxford University Press. pp. 784-800. 2006.Accession Number: ATLA0001712279; Hosting Book Page Citation: p 784-800.; Language(s): English; General Note: Bibliography: p 799-800.; Issued by ATLA: 20130825; Publication Type: Essay
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99Constraints on Localization and Decomposition as Explanatory Strategies in the Biological SciencesPhilosophy of Science 80 (5): 958-970. 2013.Several articles have recently appeared arguing that there really are no viable alternatives to mechanistic explanation in the biological sciences (Kaplan and Bechtel; Kaplan and Craver). We argue that mechanistic explanation is defined by localization and decomposition. We argue further that systems neuroscience contains explanations that violate both localization and decomposition. We conclude that the mechanistic model of explanation needs to either stretch to now include explanations wherein…Read more
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56The Blackwell guide to the philosophy of science (edited book)Blackwell. 2002.This volume presentsa definitive introduction to the core areas of philosophy of science.
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710After the Philosophy of Mind: Replacing Scholasticism with SciencePhilosophy of Science 75 (1): 1-27. 2008.We provide a taxonomy of the two most important debates in the philosophy of the cognitive and neural sciences. The first debate is over methodological individualism: is the object of the cognitive and neural sciences the brain, the whole animal, or the animal--environment system? The second is over explanatory style: should explanation in cognitive and neural science be reductionist-mechanistic, inter-level mechanistic, or dynamical? After setting out the debates, we discuss the ways in which t…Read more
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213In defence of ontological emergence and mental causationIn Philip Clayton & Paul Davies (eds.), The re-emergence of emergence: the emergentist hypothesis from science to religion, Oxford University Press. pp. 203. 2006.
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100Reductive physicalism and the explanatory gap: A dilemmaIn Peter K. Machamer & Michael Silberstein (eds.), Guide to the Philosophy of Science, Blackwell. 2002.
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224Why quantum mechanics favors adynamical and acausal interpretations such as relational blockworld over backwardly causal and time-symmetric rivalsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 39 (4): 736-751. 2008.We articulate the problems posed by the quantum liar experiment (QLE) for backwards causation interpretations of quantum mechanics, time-symmetric accounts and other dynamically oriented local hidden variable theories. We show that such accounts cannot save locality in the case of QLE merely by giving up “lambda-independence.” In contrast, we show that QLE poses no problems for our acausal Relational Blockworld interpretation of quantum mechanics, which invokes instead adynamical global constrai…Read more
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1Essay Review: Why Neutral Monism is Superior to Panpsychism (review)Mind and Matter 7 (2): 239-248. 2009.
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113Being, Becoming and the Undivided Universe: A Dialogue Between Relational Blockworld and the Implicate Order Concerning the Unification of Relativity and Quantum TheoryFoundations of Physics 43 (4): 502-532. 2013.In this paper two different approaches to unification will be compared, Relational Blockworld (RBW) and Hiley’s implicate order. Both approaches are monistic in that they attempt to derive matter and spacetime geometry ‘at once’ in an interdependent and background independent fashion from something underneath both quantum theory and relativity. Hiley’s monism resides in the implicate order via Clifford algebras and is based on process as fundamental while RBW’s monism resides in spacetimematter …Read more
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262Quantum MechanicsIn Editors Seibt and Burkhard (ed.), Philosophia Verlag Handbook of Mereology, . forthcoming.
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72Reduction, emergence and explanationIn Peter Machamer & Michael Silberstein (eds.), The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Science, Blackwell. pp. 80--107. 2002.This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction: The Problem of Emergence and Reduction The Varieties of Reductionism: Ontological and Epistemological The Reduction and Emergence Debate Today: Specific Cases Seeming to Warrant the Label of Ontological or Epistemological Emergence Questions for Future Research.
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45An adynamical, graphical approach to quantum gravity and unificationIn Ignazio Licata (ed.), Beyond peaceful coexistence: the emergence of space, time and quantum, Imperial College Press. 2016.We propose an adynamical, background independent approach to quantum gravity and unification whereby the fundamental elements of Nature are graphical units of space, time and sources. The transition amplitude for these elements of “spacetimesource” is computed using a path integral with discrete Gaussian graphical action. The unit of action for a spacetimesource element is constructed from a difference matrix K and source vector J on the graph, as in lattice gauge theory. K is constructed from g…Read more
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140Metaphysics or science: The battle for the soul of philosophy of mindPhilosophical Psychology 24 (4): 561-573. 2011.Philosophical Psychology, Volume 24, Issue 4, Page 561-573, August 2011
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342Complexity and Extended Phenomenological‐Cognitive SystemsTopics in Cognitive Science 4 (1): 35-50. 2012.The complex systems approach to cognitive science invites a new understanding of extended cognitive systems. According to this understanding, extended cognitive systems are heterogenous, composed of brain, body, and niche, non-linearly coupled to one another. This view of cognitive systems, as non-linearly coupled brain–body–niche systems, promises conceptual and methodological advances. In this article we focus on two of these. First, the fundamental interdependence among brain, body, and niche…Read more
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281In this talk, we defend extended cognition against several criticisms. We argue that extended cognition does not derive from armchair theorizing and that it neither ignores the results of the neural sciences, nor minimizes the importance of the brain in the production of intelligent behavior. We also argue that explanatory success in the cognitive sciences does not depend on localist or reductionist methodologies; part of our argument for this is a defense of what might be called ‘holistic scien…Read more
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2Space, Time, and MagicIn David Baggett, Shawn E. Klein & William Irwin (eds.), Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts, Open Court. pp. 186--99. 2004.
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54Emergence and the mind-body problemJournal of Consciousness Studies 5 (4): 464-82. 1998.In the first part of the paper I argue that neither physicalism nor standard forms of dualism can provide an explanatory framework for consciousness or cognition - neither account can existence of conscious experience nor its relationship to cognition and the brain. Physicalism and fundamentalism fail to provide an explanatory framework for consciousness because they both share, at least with respect to the physical universe, the same misguided commitment to part/whole reductionism and microredu…Read more
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150We use a new, distinctly “geometrical” interpretation of non-relativistic quantum mechanics (NRQM) to argue for the fundamentality of the 4D blockworld ontology. We argue for a geometrical interpretation whose fundamental ontology is one of spacetime relations as opposed to constructive entities whose time-dependent behavior is governed by dynamical laws. Our view rests on two formal results: Kaiser (1981 & 1990), Bohr & Ulfbeck (1995) and Anandan, (2003) showed independently that the Heisenberg…Read more