Education
Ph.D., Harvard (2003)
Research
My main research areas are philosophy of mind, philosophy of logic, epistemology, and philosophy of language. Much of my current research investigates the nature of mental representation, often drawing on cognitive science, computability theory, probability theory, and other neighboring disciplines. More specific research topics include: non-propositional mental representation (with cognitive maps as the main case study); the computational theory of mind; foundations of Bayesian decision theory (with a focus on conditional probability and Conditionalization); Bayesian modeling of the mind (especially perception, motor control, and navigation); norms of assertion; the structure of epistemic justification.
Publications
Articles
- “Bayesian Defeat of Certainties,” Synthese (forthcoming).
- “Non-Factive Kolmogorov Conditionalization,” The Review of Symbolic Logic (forthcoming).
- “Neural Implementation of (Approximate) Bayesian Inference,” Expected Experiences: The Predictive Mind in an Uncertain World, eds. Tony Cheng, Ryoji Sato, and Jakob Hohwy (forthcoming).
- “Reflecting on Diachronic Dutch Books,” Noûs 57 (2023): pp. 511-538.
- “An Improved Dutch Book Theorem for Conditionalization,” Erkenntnis 87 (2022): pp. 1013-1041.
- “Bayesian Modeling of the Mind: From Norms to Neurons,” WIREs Cognitive Science 12 (2021): p. e1540.
- “On the Proper Formulation of Conditionalization,” Synthese 198 (2021): pp. 1935-1965.
- “Reifying Representations,” What Are Mental Representations?, eds. Joulia Smorthchkova, Tobias Schlicht, and Krzysztof Dolega. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2020): pp. 135-177.
- “How Particular is Perception?”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 100 (2020): pp. 721-727. (Contribution to a book symposium on Susanna Schellenberg’s The Unity of Perception.)
- “A Realist Perspective on Bayesian Cognitive Science,” Inference and Consciousness, eds. Anders Nes and Timothy Chan. Routledge (2020): pp. 40-73.
- “Perceptual Co-Reference,” The Review of Philosophy and Psychology 11 (2020): pp. 569-589.
- “Motor Computation,” The Routledge Handbook of the Computational Mind, eds. Matteo Colombo and Mark Sprevak. Routledge (2018): pp. 424-435.
- “A Dutch Book Theorem and Converse Dutch Book Theorem for Kolmogorov Conditionalization,” The Review of Symbolic Logic 11 (2018): pp. 705-735.
- “Levels of Computational Explanation,” Philosophy and Computing: Essays in Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind, Logic, and Ethics, ed. Thomas Powers. Springer (2017).
- “An Interventionist Approach to Psychological Explanation,” Synthese 195 (2018): pp. 1909-1940.
- “From Ockham to Turing — and Back Again,” Turing 100: Philosophical Explorations of the Legacy of Alan Turing, in Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History, eds. Alisa Bokulich and Juliet Floyd. Springer (2017): pp. 279-304
- “Maps in the Head?”, The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Animal Minds, eds. Kristin Andrews and Jacob Beck. Routledge (2018): pp. 34-45
- “Bayesian Sensorimotor Psychology,” Mind and Language 31 (2016): pp. 3-36.
- “The Representational Foundations of Computation,” Philosophia Mathematica 23 (2015): pp. 338-366.
- “Some Epistemological Ramifications of the Borel-Kolmogorov Paradox,” Synthese 192 (2015): pp. 735-767.
- “Bayesian Perceptual Psychology,” The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Perception, ed. Mohan Matthen. Oxford University Press (2015): pp. 694-716.
- “Computational Modeling of the Mind: What Role for Mental Representation?”, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science 6 (2014): pp. 65-73.
- “Can Perception Halt the Regress of Justifications?”, Ad Infinitum, eds. Peter Klein and John Turri. Oxford University Press (2014): pp. 179-200.
- “The Causal Relevance of Content to Computation,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 88 (2014): pp. 173-208.
- “Perceptual Constancies and Perceptual Modes of Presentation,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 88 (2014): pp. 468-476. (Contribution to a book symposium on Tyler Burge’s Origins of Objectivity.)
- “A Theory of Computational Implementation,” Synthese 191 (2014): 1277-1307.
- “Against Structuralist Theories of Computational Implementation,” The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 64 (2013): pp. 681-707.
- “Rationality as a Constitutive Ideal,” A Companion to Davidson, eds. Ernie Lepore and Kirk Ludwig. Wiley-Blackwell (2013): pp. 472-488.
- “Millikan on Honeybee Navigation and Communication,” Millikan and Her Critics, eds. Dan Ryder, Justine Kingsbury, and Kenneth Williford. Wiley-Blackwell (2013): pp. 87-102.
- “How to Integrate Representation into Computational Modeling, and Why We Should,” The Journal of Cognitive Science 13 (2012): pp. 1-38.
- “Are Computational Transitions Sensitive to Semantics?”, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 90 (2012): pp. 703-721.
- “Copeland and Proudfoot on Computability,” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science A 43 (2012): pp. 199-202.
- “Predication and Cartographic Representation,” Synthese 169 (2009): pp. 175-200.
- “Shifting the Burden of Proof?”, The Philosophical Quarterly 59 (2009): pp. 86-109.
- “Epistemic and Dialectical Regress,” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 87 (2009): pp. 43-60.
- “Assertion and its Constitutive Norms,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 79 (2009): pp. 98-130.
- “Chrysippus’s Dog as a Case Study in Non-Linguistic Cognition,” The Philosophy of Animal Minds, ed. Robert Lurz. Cambridge University Press (2009): pp. 52-71.
- “Cognitive Maps and the Language of Thought,” The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 60 (2009): pp. 377-407.
- “A Linguistic Reason for Truthfulness,” Truth and Speech Acts, eds. Dirk Greimann and Geo Siegwart. Routledge (2007): pp. 250-279.
- “Church’s Thesis and the Conceptual Analysis of Computability,” Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 48 (2007): pp. 253-280.
Other Publications
- “Review of Jared Warren’s Shadows of Syntax: Revitalizing Logical and Mathematical Conventionalism,” History and Philosophy of Logic (forthcoming).
- “Review of Nicholas Shea’s Representation in Cognitive Science,”The Philosophical Review 130 (2021): pp: 180-185.
- “Review of Gaultiero Piccinini’s Neurocognitive Mechanisms: Explaining Biological Cognition,” Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (November 2021).
- “The Language of Thought Hypothesis,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2019), ed. Edward Zalta.
- “Review of Andy Clark’s Surfing Uncertainty,” Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (January 2017).
- “Review of Gualtiero Piccinini’s Physical Computation,” BJPS Review of Books (2016)
- “The Computational Theory of Mind,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2015), ed. Edward Zalta.
- “Review of Dominic Gregory’s Showing, Sensing, and Seeming,” Mind 124 (2015): pp. 911-914.
- “Review of Nico Orlandi’s The Innocent Eye,” Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (January 2015).
- “Review of Gary Hatfield’s Perception and Cognition,” The Philosophical Quarterly 61 (2011): pp. 205-207.
- “Convention,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (published in Fall 2007; substantive revisions in Fall 2011 and Winter 2015), ed. Edward Zalta.
- “Review of Christopher Gauker’s Words without Meaning,” The Philosophical Review 115 (2006): pp. 121-124.