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5Introspection, Consciousness and the Mind-Body ProblemPhilosophia 52 (2): 229-234. 2024.Alter’s The Matter of Consciousness is not only the most systematic defense of the knowledge argument, it is so crystal clear, so compelling, that it should be required reading not only for those interested in consciousness, but for those interested in clear philosophical writing. In some circles The Knowledge Argument (KA) gets a bad rap. Philosophers in those circles should read this book. Though I am someone who takes the argument quite seriously, I have argued that the metaphysical conclusio…Read more
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Should ethics be taught? Ethics in the secular universityIn C. R. Crespo & Rita Kirk (eds.), Ethics at the heart of higher education, Pickwick Publications. 2020.
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4Kant, the ‘I Think’, and Self-AwarenessIn Predrag Cicovacki, Allen Wood, Carsten Held, Gerold Prauss, Gordon Brittan, Graham Bird, Henry Allison, John H. Zammito, Joseph Lawrence, Karl Ameriks, Ralf Meerbote, Robert Holmes, Robert Howell, Rudiger Bubner, Stanley Rosen, Susan Meld Shell & Yirmiyahu Yovel (eds.), Kant's Legacy: Essays in Honor of Lewis White Beck, Boydell & Brewer. pp. 117-152. 2001.
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26Self-Awareness and The Elusive SubjectOxford University Press. 2023.The existence of a self seems both mysterious and inevitable. On the one hand, philosophers from the Buddha to Sartre doubt its existence. As Hume writes, when we introspect we find thoughts, feelings, and conscious states, but nothing that has them. The subject of experience is elusive, but its existence seems certain. Descartes’ cogito is beyond doubt and the thought that “I am thinking” involves an undeniable form of self-awareness. Self-Awareness and the Elusive Subject develops and defends …Read more
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2The God Dialogues: A Philosophical JourneyOxford University Press USA. 2010.The God Dialogues is an intriguing and extensive philosophical debate about the existence of God. Engaging and accessible, it covers all the main arguments for and against God's existence, from traditional philosophical "proofs" to arguments that involve the latest developments in biology and physics. Three main characters represent the principal views: Theodore Logan, the theist; Eva Lucien, the atheist; and Gene Sesquois, the agnostic. Their debate takes place during a post-college cross-count…Read more
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5Consciousness and the Mind-Body Problem: A ReaderOup Usa. 2011.Ideal for courses in consciousness and the philosophy of mind, Consciousness and The Mind-Body Problem: A Reader presents thirty-three classic and contemporary readings, organized into five sections that cover the major issues in this debate: the challenge for physicalism, physicalist responses, alternative responses, the significance of ignorance, and mental causation. Edited by Torin Alter and Robert J. Howell, the volume features work from such leading figures as Karen Bennett, Ned Block, Dav…Read more
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17Reflecting on Pre-Reflective Self-ConsciousnessProtoSociology 36 157-185. 2019.Most philosophers in the phenomenological tradition hold that in addition to the explicit self-consciousness we might get in reflection, there is also a pre-reflective self-consciousness. Despite its popularity, it can be a little difficult to get a grasp on this notion. It can seem impossibly thin—such that it really amounts to little more than a restatement of the notion of consciousness—or problematically robust—such that it seems to conflict with the apparent transparency of consciousness. T…Read more
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35Physicalism, supervenience, and monismSynthese 200 (6): 1-19. 2022.Physicalism is standardly construed as a form of monism, on which all concrete phenomena fall under one fundamental type. It is natural to think that monism, and therefore physicalism, is committed to a supervenience claim. Monism is true only if all phenomena supervene on a certain fundamental type of phenomena. Physicalism, as a form of monism, specifies that these fundamental phenomena are physical. But some argue that physicalism might be true even if the world is disorderly, i.e., not order…Read more
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27Physicalism, Infinite Decomposition, and ConstitutionErkenntnis (4): 1735-1744. 2022.How could physicalism be true of a world in which there are no fundamental physical phenomena? A familiar answer, due to Barbara Gail Montero and others, is that physicalism could be true of such a world if that world does not contain an infinite descent of mentality. Christopher Devlin Brown has produced a counterexample to that solution. We show how to modify the solution to accommodate Brown’s example: physicalism could be true of a world without fundamental physical phenomena if that world d…Read more
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11Kant and the Demands of Self-Consciousness (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 63 (3): 733-736. 2001.
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25Self-knowledge and self-referencePhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 72 (1): 44-70. 2006.Self-Knowledge and Self-Reference is a defense and reconciliation of the two apparently conflicting theses that the self is peculiarly elusive and that our basic, cogito-judgments are certain. On the one hand, Descartes seems to be correct that nothing is more certain than basic statements of self-knowledge, such as "I am thinking." On the other hand, there is the compelling Humean observation that when we introspect, nothing is found except for various "impressions." The problem, then, is that …Read more
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7Immunity to Error and SubjectivityCanadian Journal of Philosophy 37 (4): 581-604. 2007.Since Sydney Shoemaker published his seminal article ‘Self-Reference and Self-Awareness’ in 1968, the notion of ‘Immunity to Error through Misidentification’ has received much attention. It crops up in discussions of personal identity, indexical thought and introspection, and has been used to interpret remarks made by philosophers from Wittgenstein to William James. The precise significance of IEM is often unspecified in these discussions, however. It is unclear, for example, whether itconstitut…Read more
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7A Dialogue on ConsciousnessOup Usa. 2009.A Dialogue on Consciousness introduces readers to the debate about consciousness and physicalism, starting with its origins in Descartes, through a lively and entertaining dialogue between unemployed graduate students, who, secretly living in a university library, discuss major theories and quote passages from classic and contemporary texts in search of an answer.
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10Draining the Will to Make the Sale: The Impermissibility of Marketing by Ego-DepletionNeuroethics 11 (1): 1-10. 2017.We argue that many modern marketing techniques are morally problematic because they take advantage of a phenomenon known as ‘ego-depletion’ according to which willpower is, similar to physical strength, a limited resource that can be depleted by predictable factors. We argue that this is impermissible for the same reason that spiking someone’s drink to impair their judgment is impermissible.
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14The skeptic, the content externalist, and the theistInternational Journal for Philosophy of Religion 69 (3): 173-180. 2011.Some philosophers argue that content externalism can provide the foundations of an argument against the traditional epistemological skeptic. I maintain that if such an argument is available, it seems there is also an a priori argument against the possibility of a creationist god. My suspicion is that such a strong consequence is not desirable for the content-externalists, and that the availability of this argument therefore casts doubt on the anti-skeptical position. I argue that all content ext…Read more
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11Sensations, swatches, and speckled hensPacific Philosophical Quarterly 84 (4): 371-383. 2003.We argue that there is a interesting connection between the old problem of the Speckled Hen and an argument that can be traced from Russell to Armstrong to Putnam that we call the “gradation argument.” Both arguments have been used to show that there is no “Highest Common Factor” between appearances we judge the same – no such thing as “real” sensations. But, we argue, both only impugn the assumption of epistemic certainty regarding introspective reports.
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34The Physicalist's Tight Squeeze: A Posteriori Physicalism vs. A Priori PhysicalismPhilosophy Compass 10 (12): 905-913. 2015.Both a priori physicalism and a posteriori physicalism combine a metaphysical and an epistemological thesis. They agree about the metaphysical thesis: our world is wholly physical. Most agree that this requires everything that there is must be necessitated by the sort of truths described by physics. If we call the conjunction of the basic truths of physics P, all physicalists agree that P entails for any truth Q. Where they disagree is whether or not this entailment can be known a priori. The a …Read more
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5Review of mark Siderits, Evan Thompson, Dan Zahavi (eds.), Self, No-Self? Perspectives From Analytical, Phenomenological, and Indian Traditions (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2011 (7). 2011.
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2Make your self scarce: The Ego Trick: What Does it Mean to be You? by Julian Baggini (Granta)£ 14.99 (review)The Philosophers' Magazine 55 100-101. 2011.
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29Emergentism and supervenience physicalismAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 87 (1). 2009.A purely metaphysical formulation of physicalism is surprisingly elusive. One popular slogan is, 'There is nothing over and above the physical'. Problems with this arise on two fronts. First, it is difficult to explain what makes a property 'physical' without appealing to the methodology of physics or to particular ways in which properties are known. This obviously introduces epistemic features into the core of a metaphysical issue. Second, it is difficult to cash out 'over-and-aboveness' in a w…Read more
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16The knowledge argument and objectivityPhilosophical Studies 135 (2): 145-177. 2007.In this paper I argue that Frank Jackson