•  405
    There have been many objections to the possibility oftime travel. But all the truly interesting ones concern the possibility of reversecausation. What is objectionable about reverse causation? I diagnose that the trulyinteresting objections are to a further possibility: that of causal loops. I raisedoubts about whether there must be causal loops if reverse causation obtains; but devote themajority of the paper to describing, and dispelling concerns about, various kinds ofcausal loop. In short, I…Read more
  •  258
    The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Language (edited book)
    Wiley-Blackwell. 2006.
    This engaging and accessible introduction to the philosophy of language provides an important guide to one of the liveliest and most challenging areas of study in philosophy. Interweaving the historical development of the subject with a thematic overview of the different approaches to meaning, the book provides students with the tools necessary to understand contemporary analytical philosophy. The second edition includes new material on: Chomsky, Wittgenstein and Davidson as well as new chapters…Read more
  •  119
    Skepticism Revisited: Chalmers on The Matrix and brains-in-vats
    Cognitive Systems Research 41 (March 2017): 93-98. 2017.
    Thought experiments involving The Matrix, brains-in-vats, or Cartesian demons have traditionally thought to describe skeptical possibilities. Chalmers has denied this, claiming that the simulations involved are real enough to at least sometimes defeat the skeptic. Through an examination of the meaning of kind terms in natural language I argue that, though the Chalmers view may be otherwise attractive, it is not an antidote to skepticism.
  •  118
    Much ado about nothing: Critical realism examined
    Philosophical Studies 115 (2). 2003.
    Critical realism is the view that fictional characters arecontingent, actual, abstract individuals, ontologically on a par with such things as plots and rhyme schemes, andquantified over in statements such as “A character inHamlet is a prince.” A strong contender for thecorrect account of fictional characters, critical realismnevertheless has difficulty satisfying all that we intuitivelyrequire of such an account.
  •  102
    A modest proposal
    Public Affairs Quarterly 18 (1): 1-12. 2004.
    Peter Singer does not think that eating meat is wrong in and of itself. The case he makes in Practical Ethics against the use of non-human animals for food consists of two connected arguments.1 It will be convenient to call them the Suffering Argument and the Killing Argument. The Suffering Argument is primarily an argument against factory farm- ing—the mass production of meat and animal products as it occurs in developed nations at least—and is well expressed by paraphrasing an explicit argumen…Read more
  •  81
    Universities and colleges all over the United States are currently revising and implementing policies concerning sexual harassment and sexual misconduct, under the generally expressed concern to comply with Title IX requirements. But there is a very basic problem of equivocation. Both “sexual harassment” and “sexual misconduct” are used in very different ways in different contexts, often by the same entity. The result is a mess in which members of campus communities cannot be sure of their oblig…Read more
  •  73
    A wolf in sheep’s cloning?
    Monash Bioethics Review 18 (1): 59-62. 1999.
    Cloning scares the hell out of people, because the idea of cloning people scares the hell out of people. Some of this fear is well-founded. Like any new reproductive technology, the cloning of entire human organisms can be put to good or bad effect, for good or bad reasons. But much of the fear is not well-founded. Before you could say “Hello, Dolly,” the U.S. administration moved to ban federal funding of human cloning research; and there is considerable support in Congress for an outright ban …Read more
  •  40
    Professor Richard Hanley faced the dilemma plaguing so many philosophy professors today—how to entice students into the classroom. Based upon his own successful course, Is Data Human presents a thoroughly unique and enjoyable way of introducing students to the basic concepts of philosophy as seen through the lens of Star Trek. From the nature of a person, of minds, and of consciousness, to ethics and morality, to the nature and extent of knowledge and free will, Hanley brings a fresh perspective…Read more
  •  35
    Lewis on Truth in Fiction
    In Frank Jackson & Graham Priest (eds.), Lewisian Themes: The Philosophy of David K. Lewis, Oxford University Press. pp. 113. 2004.
  •  34
    Never the Twain Shall Meet: Reflections on the Very First Matrix
    In Christopher Grau (ed.), Philosophers Explore the Matrix, Oxford University Press. pp. 115. 2005.
  •  33
    Homo Sapiens, Robots, and Persons in/, Robot and Bicentennial Man
    with Stephen Coleman
    In Sandra Shapshay (ed.), Bioethics at the Movies, Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 44. 2009.
  •  10
    Where is the Twilight Zone?
    In Noël Carroll & Lester H. Hunt (eds.), Philosophy in the Twilight Zone, Wiley‐blackwell. 2009.
    This chapter contains sections titled: Way 1: Fictional Truth Way 2: Other Dimensions Interlude: Could There have been a Twilight Zone? Way 3: Real Non‐Existence Way 4: Modal Realism Way 5: Abstract Fictional Realism Conclusion Notes.
  •  9
    A minor philosophical industry has sprung up in recent years defending the possibility and epistemic utility of miracles: supernatural interventions in the world by a Christian God. By examining some staples of science fiction, this chapter finds a way to agree: miracles are possible, and could tell us something about reality. Nobody is sure exactly what David Hume himself thought, but there is an identifiable Humean tradition on miracles. It makes two main points. First, by definition a miracle…Read more
  •  4
    On Valuing Radical Transformation
    Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 74 (3): 209-220. 1993.
  •  2
    David Lewis’s attempt to defuse grandfather paradoxes consistently without special restrictions on the ability of time travelers to act in the past is controversial. Kadri Vihvelin uses the case of possible autoinfanticide—killing one’s infant self—to argue on Lewisian grounds that Lewis is wrong, since all counterfactual attempts at autoinfanticide would fail. I present a new defense of Lewis against Vihvelin premised on the possibility of personal _reinstatement_, where a person who dies prema…Read more
  • Introduction
    In Michael Devitt & Richard Hanley (eds.), The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Language, Wiley-blackwell. 2006.
    This chapter contains sections titled: Foundational Issues Part II: Meaning Part III: Reference.
  • Send in the clones: The ethics of future wars
    In Kevin S. Decker & Jason Eberle (eds.), Star Wars and Philosophy: More Powerful than you can Possibly Imagine, Open Court. pp. 93-103. 2005.
    An examination of a somewhat neglected topic in the ethics of warfare: the training and treatment of one's own forces. The creation of clone soldiers with diminished autonomy in _Star Wars_ has parallels with actual military training procedures that reinforce obedience by manipulating nurture rather than nature. I argue that objections to cloning and eugenics in general do not have much force in mounting a case against the use of diminished clones. Indeed, there likely are situations in which tr…Read more