My philosophical views

The answers shown here are not necessarily the same provided as part of the 2009 PhilPapers Survey. These answers can be updated at any time.

See also:

QuestionAnswerComments
A priori knowledge: yes or no?Accept: yes
Abstract objects: Platonism or nominalism?Accept: PlatonismPlatonism is not only the default way of thinking about numbers and other abstracta in mathematics, it's also the most consistent with scientific realism. In science, we hold many unobservable entities to be real because it is necessary for good scientific theory-- mathematical entities (numbers, sets, etc.) are just another one of those unobservable entities. Additionally, nominalist accounts of explaining mathematics do not do as well or in some accounts fail miserably.
Aesthetic value: objective or subjective?Lean toward: objective
Analytic-synthetic distinction: yes or no?Accept: yes
Epistemic justification: internalism or externalism?Lean toward: externalism
External world: idealism, skepticism, or non-skeptical realism?Accept: non-skeptical realism
Free will: compatibilism, libertarianism, or no free will?Lean toward: compatibilismI'm more of a compatibilist, but I can see how the case could be made for hard determinism or libertarianism. The lack of a good deterministic explanation for the evolution and role of consciousness is, I think, a point towards some form of libertarian/indeterministic free will, but I think some deflationary view of free will can still be compatible with a completely deterministic world. Hard determinism could be supported by pointing out that the line between outright coercion and mere external influence isn't so sharp and that because of this, none of our actions are really made by pure choice.
God: theism or atheism?Other
Knowledge: empiricism or rationalism?Lean toward: rationalism
Knowledge claims: contextualism, relativism, or invariantism?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Laws of nature: Humean or non-Humean?Lean toward: non-Humean
Logic: classical or non-classical?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Mental content: internalism or externalism?Agnostic/undecidedExternalism about mental content has for long been the dominant view and has some good arguments in favor of it, but many of the arguments for it seem to depend on a lot of intuitions that may be the result of cultural influence.
Meta-ethics: moral realism or moral anti-realism?Accept: moral realism
Metaphilosophy: naturalism or non-naturalism?Lean toward: non-naturalismAt best, I would subscribe to a weak naturalism, but as a platonist and moral non-naturalist, I think that reality has non-natural aspects.
Mind: physicalism or non-physicalism?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Moral judgment: cognitivism or non-cognitivism?Accept: cognitivism
Moral motivation: internalism or externalism?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Newcomb's problem: one box or two boxes?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Normative ethics: deontology, consequentialism, or virtue ethics?Agnostic/undecided
Perceptual experience: disjunctivism, qualia theory, representationalism, or sense-datum theory?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Personal identity: biological view, psychological view, or further-fact view?Lean toward: psychological view
Politics: communitarianism, egalitarianism, or libertarianism?Insufficiently familiar with the issueNeed to study political philosophy more to give an informed view.
Proper names: Fregean or Millian?Lean toward: Fregean
Science: scientific realism or scientific anti-realism?Lean toward: scientific realism
Teletransporter (new matter): survival or death?Insufficiently familiar with the issueA reading of the thought experiment has left me with the impression that the result would be death, but I probably need to read more on the matter.
Time: A-theory or B-theory?Accept: B-theory
Trolley problem (five straight ahead, one on side track, turn requires switching, what ought one do?): switch or don't switch?Agnostic/undecidedNot entirely sure.
Truth: correspondence, deflationary, or epistemic?Lean toward: correspondence
Zombies: inconceivable, conceivable but not metaphysically possible, or metaphysically possible?Lean toward: conceivable but not metaphysically possible