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26How to get rich from inflationConsciousness and Cognition 117 (C): 103624. 2024.We seem to have rich experience across our visual field. Yet we are surprisingly poor at tasks involving the periphery and low spatial attention. Recently, Lau and collaborators have argued that a phenomenon known as “subjective inflation” allows us to reconcile these phenomena. I show inflation is consistent with multiple interpretations, with starkly different consequences for richness and for theories of consciousness more broadly. What’s more, we have only weak reasons favouring any of these…Read more
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31Episodic Memory and Unrestricted LearningPhilosophy of Science 1-29. forthcoming.Our thinking often uses rich memories of particular past events. Yet frequently we would do better to use other forms of memory. I show that existing accounts of the function of episodic memory cannot account for such cases, then develop an account which can. Roughly: rich representations of particular past events are required for Unrestricted Learning, learning which is not limited in how much of the world’s complexity it can capture; and episodic memory’s selection for Unrestricted Learning co…Read more
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83The Scientific Study of Consciousness Cannot and Should Not Be Morally NeutralPerspectives on Psychological Science 18 (3): 535-543. 2023.A target question for the scientific study of consciousness is how dimensions of consciousness, such as the ability to feel pain and pleasure or reflect on one’s own experience, vary in different states and animal species. Considering the tight link between consciousness and moral status, answers to these questions have implications for law and ethics. Here we point out that given this link, the scientific community studying consciousness may face implicit pressure to carry out certain research …Read more
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30How much of a pain would a crustacean “common currency” really be?Animal Sentience 32 (23). 2022.We should be suspicious of the idea that experiencing pain could enable animals to trade off different motivations in a common currency. It is not even clear that humans have a common motivational currency reflected in evaluative experience. Instead, pain may capture attention, inhibiting attention to competing motivations and needs, thereby making genuine trade-offs harder. Our criteria for pain in invertebrates should be part of a more subtle theory of the relationship between pain and decisio…Read more
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81Hakwan Lau: In Consciousness We Trust (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science Review of Books 2022. 2022.
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37Inter‐temporal rationality without temporal representationMind and Language 38 (2): 495-514. 2023.Recent influential accounts of temporal representation—the use of mental representations with explicit temporal contents, such as before and after relations and durations—sharply distinguish representation from mere sensitivity. A common, important picture of inter-temporal rationality is that it consists in maximizing total expected discounted utility across time. By analyzing reinforcement learning algorithms, this article shows that, given such notions of temporal representation and inter-tem…Read more
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272Positing numerosities may be metaphysically extravagant; positing representation of numerosities is notBehavioral and Brain Sciences 44. 2021.Clarke and Beck assume that approximate number system representations should be assigned referents from our scientific ontology. However, many representations, both in perception and cognition, do not straightforwardly refer to such entities. If we reject Clarke and Beck's assumption, many possible contents for ANS representations besides number are compatible with the evidence Clarke and Beck cite.
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London School of EconomicsDepartment of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific MethodResearch Officer In Animal Sentience
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London School of EconomicsPost-doctoral Fellow
London, London, City of, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Mind |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Cognitive Science |
Philosophy of Mind |