University of California, Santa Barbara
Department of Philosophy, University of California, Santa Barbara
PhD, 2011
Mexico City, Mexico
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Language
Philosophy of Mind
  •  24
    Mental Files and Times
    Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy 57 127-134. 2018.
    This paper argues that applying the mental files framework for singular thought to thoughts about specific times could produce an account of tensed thought with significant advantages over competing theories. After describing the framework and motivating the paper, I discuss the possible make-up and function of a NOW indexical mental file. The last section argues that, if all ‘now’ thoughts can be coherently analyzed as thinking of a time under the NOW file, one would have a plausible explanatio…Read more
  •  501
    The structure of propositions and cross-linguistic syntactic variability
    Croatian Journal of Philosophy (39): 399-419. 2013.
    In Jeffrey King’s theory of structured propositions, propositional structure mirrors the syntactic structure of natural language sentences that express it. I provide cases where this claim individuates propositions too finely across languages. Crucially, King’s paradigmatic proposition-fact ^that Dara swims^ cannot be believed by a monolingual Greek speaker, due to Greek syntax requiring an obligatory article in front of proper names. King’s two possible replies are: (i) to try to streamline the…Read more
  •  324
    On Two Arguments for Temporally Neutral Propositions
    Disputatio 5 (37): 329-337. 2013.
    Tsompanidis, Vasilis_On Two Arguments for Temporally Neutral Propositions.
  •  60
    Smart and tensed beliefs
    Philosophia 38 (2): 313-325. 2010.
    The aim of this paper is to defend a prototype B-theory answer to McTaggart’s Puzzle about Time. Smart hopes to solve the issue by pointing to the “anthropocentricity” of temporal A-notions. There is one important problem: explaining Prior cases (for instance being relieved that a painful experience is over ) in B-theoretic terms. First, it is argued that the problem is how to explain the nature of the subject’s tensed belief in Prior cases; the essential indexicality of the concept ‘ now ’. The…Read more
  •  310
    I attempt to set the stage for a constructive analysis of the nature and function of tensed belief as a distinct psychological type. After introducing tensed beliefs, I describe the philosophical issues that implicate them, including Prior’s “ thank goodness it’s over ” argument against the B-theory of time. I proceed to flesh out, and then argue against, two traditional treatments of tensed belief from the philosophy of time: the A-theoretic view, which starts from present facts or properties, …Read more
  •  314
    Tensed Belief
    Dissertation, University of California Santa Barbara. 2011.
    Human beings seem to capture time and the temporal properties of events and things in thought by having beliefs usually expressed with statements using tense, or notions such as ‘now’, ‘past’ or ‘future’. Tensed beliefs like these seem indispensable for correct reasoning and timely action. For instance, my belief that my root canal is over seems inexpressible with a statement that does not use tense or a temporal indexical. However, the dominant view on the nature of time is that it forms, with …Read more
  •  63
    Mental Files and Times
    Topoi 34 (1): 233-240. 2015.
    This paper argues that applying a mental files framework for singular thought to thoughts about specific times could produce an account of tensed thought with significant advantages over competing theories. After describing the framework , I argue for the conceivability of treating particular times as res of singular thoughts , and the possibility that humans open ‘object files’ for them during perception . Then I discuss the possible make-up and function of a NOW indexical mental file . The las…Read more