My time in academia ended in 2004 and, where there are arguments, they do not necessarily represent my current views.
2004
Ockham’s Razor in Russell’s Philosophy
The concern for simplicity is a unifying theme in much of Bertrand Russell’s philosophical works; particularly in his theory of definite descriptions, logical atomism and neutral monism. The latter two theories’ connection with simplicity-considerations will be briefly mentioned, while special attention will be given to the resolution of the three central puzzles in Russell’s ‘On Denoting’. Last, Russell’s justifications for the use of Ockham’s razor will be considered.
Propositional attitudes are, Dennett maintains, here to stay, contrary to the arguments of eliminative materialists. Furthermore, they are not part of “the furniture of the world” as realists maintain, but neither are they mere convenience as instrumentalist see them. Rather, they are real patterns discernable from the intentional stance. What is a stance? What is the intentional stance, in particular? What constitutes a real pattern? Do these notions sufficiently distinguish Dennett’s position from others? How real are real patterns and is their reality problematic?
2003
Steve Austin Versus the Symbol Grounding Problem (cowritten with Dr. Scott Burgess) In Proc. Selected Papers from the Computers and Philosophy Conference (CAP2003), Canberra, Australia. Conferences in Research and Practice in Information Technology, 37. Weckert, J. and Al-Saggaf, Y., Eds., ACS. 21-25.
Harnad (1994) identifies the symbol grounding problem as central to his distinction between cognition and computation. To Harnad computation is merely the systematically interpretable manipulation of symbols, while cognition requires that these symbols have intrinsic meaning that is acquired through transducers that mediate between a cogitator and the environment. We present a careful analysis of the role of these transducers through the misadventures of Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man. Putting Steve through a series of scenarios allows us to analyze what role transducers play in cognition.
2001
Evolutionary Psychology: Objections and Replies
Evolutionary psychology is the study of human cognitive structures and the resultant behaviors in the light of evolutionary theory. The methodology, results and very existence of evolutionary psychology have been objected to on both ethical and scientific grounds. This essay attempts to address some of the most important objections to evolutionary psychology and show them to be either of legitimate concern or simply mistaken. No objections are found to be defeaters for evolutionary psychology.