Deciding to be Good I start with an imaginary case to oil the wheels of thought. Suppose there are people who go through a specific schedule of moral development: around the age of ten their moral thinking crystallizes around the question, “Should I be a good person?” At this time […]
Philosophy as Logical Analysis The method of philosophy is sometimes described as “conceptual analysis”. This is not wrong, but it can mislead and it carries unwanted baggage. The phrase makes it sound as if the philosopher’s object of interest is a mental entity not an objective feature […]
Knowledge and Reasons for Belief Suppose I believe that you plagiarized me. Suppose that it’s true that you plagiarized me. Suppose also that I have irrefutable evidence that you plagiarized me, in the form of my exact words appearing in a paper of yours (this evidence exists precisely […]
Panpsychist Phenomenalism Phenomenalism analyzes material-object statements in terms of the actual and potential experiences of perceivers: for a table to exist is for table-type experiences (“sense data”) to exist—say, for it to look as if there is a table. This has the consequence that there can be no material objects unless […]
Degrees of Consciousness Think of the last time you sat opposite someone you know well and talked for a while. You had all sorts of conscious experiences: the look of the person’s face, the sound of his or her voice, and so on. At some point you may have said […]
Phenomenology of Memory We didn’t need Proust to teach us that memories can be remarkably vivid and emotion-laden, even distant memories. All of us experience those Proustian moments when we are pierced by the dagger of memory—pleasantly or unpleasantly. This is when “it all comes back as if it were […]
Universals of Consciousness “There is something it is like to be a conscious being”: let’s examine the logical form of this statement. There are two possible readings of it, depending on the scope of the quantifiers: one reading says, “For any conscious being B, there is something L it is like to […]
Expressive Language? There are obviously expressive vocalizations in both humans and animals: grunts, groans, sighs, moans, shrieks, laughs, barks, purrs, meows. Some of these vocalizations use the same sounds as spoken speech, such as the common utterance of Ach when something goes wrong; and some have a conventional […]
Games and Languages Evidently, play evolved among animals, including humans: there is a “ludic instinct”. The most likely explanation for this fact is that play provides the opportunity to practice skills that will be useful in the animal’s life—hence its appearance during childhood. But games in the formal cultural […]
Thought and Time A speech act occurs in time: it has a beginning, middle, and an end–it can be clocked. The more words a sentence contains the longer it takes to say it. Some people speak more quickly than others, thus taking up less time to utter the same sentence. Writing […]