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?Lean toward: yesInnateness and some limited for of modularity seem impossible to deny.
Abstract objects: Platonism or nominalism?Lean toward: nominalismLean more toward Max Velman's reflexive monist approach in understanding "real" world
Aesthetic value: objective or subjective?Lean toward: subjectiveOne man's ___ is another man's ___.
Analytic-synthetic distinction: yes or no?The question is too unclear to answerToo many conflicting definitions.
Epistemic justification: internalism or externalism?Accept bothNot incompatible. Need clearer definititions, less parochialism and more neurophysiological information.
External world: idealism, skepticism, or non-skeptical realism?Accept more than oneKant's space and time are looking better and better these days. Not QM spacetime - but the good old "transcendental synthetic unity of apperception."
Free will: compatibilism, libertarianism, or no free will?Accept an intermediate viewAll the different "isms" aside, there really is no issue here. Free will and determinism speak to, identify, are different COMPATIBLE manifestations of the same INTENTIONAL PROCESS.
God: theism or atheism?Accept: atheismThough I'm fascinated by QM, the speed of light and the mysticism of Peter Russell. Not sure if/when a new paradigm might gain acceptance. But I do believe we've reasoned ourselves into a corner (see David Chalmers, Max Velman).
Knowledge: empiricism or rationalism?Accept bothAgain, not incompatible.
Knowledge claims: contextualism, relativism, or invariantism?Insufficiently familiar with the issueNot an issue that inspires me.
Laws of nature: Humean or non-Humean?Lean toward: HumeanBut with a a caveat, the non-humean sense of self that I feel "results" from human experience. See my upcoming manuscript (Summer, 2010) In particular, the "burden of self" section in Chapter 3.
Logic: classical or non-classical?Accept bothI've been influenced by St. Augustine as well as Nietzsche. I'm presently trying to integrate "existential" notions of time (Heidegger, Sartre, Levinas) into the Free Will vs. Determinism discussion.
Mental content: internalism or externalism?Accept another alternativeThough I lean toward internalism, Velmans and Russell have me thinking about bigger picture.
Meta-ethics: moral realism or moral anti-realism?The question is too unclear to answerEthics. Not my issue.
Metaphilosophy: naturalism or non-naturalism?Accept both"There's more to heaven and earth, Horatio..." Inclination is that naturalism is easier to grasp but non-naturalistic theories will appear in abundance in coming decades.
Mind: physicalism or non-physicalism?Lean toward: physicalismWith the proviso that neural correlates and/or electro-chemical activity ARE PART OF THE MATERIAL WORLD and not merely adjuncts to mental processes. For 200 ms., they have causal clout.
Moral judgment: cognitivism or non-cognitivism?Insufficiently familiar with the issueWho cares? Police, priests, politicians, propagandists, public relations folks - for their own particular purposes.
Moral motivation: internalism or externalism?Lean toward: internalismAgain, not my strong suit, though the "anals" really have beaten the FW/Det thing to death... at the near total exclusion of other schools of thought ie. existentialism.
Newcomb's problem: one box or two boxes?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Normative ethics: deontology, consequentialism, or virtue ethics?There is no fact of the matterI have ZERO interest in ethical matters. Morals are for priests, politicians, pollsters, policemen - in short, people who really don't think.
Perceptual experience: disjunctivism, qualia theory, representationalism, or sense-datum theory?Lean toward: representationalismAccept much of Dennett's "dispositional" nature of primary perceptual experience. Still not certain about the architecture and functional nature of "attitudinal prism" that seems to reflect a notion of non-Humean self
Personal identity: biological view, psychological view, or further-fact view?Accept more than oneMy personal resolution of this issue will affect everything else I write. I'm leaning toward a position I refer to as a "psychic schemata". More to come.
Politics: communitarianism, egalitarianism, or libertarianism?Accept more than oneFeel the need for social intervention for basic services. Believe in New York style freedom of speech, religion, politics, etc. Think we need a paradigm shift (rather than "regime changes") if we're going to survive as a species. Think "My god is better than your god" is the source of many of the world's political problems.
Proper names: Fregean or Millian?Agnostic/undecidedI am not an algorithm. I detest symbolic logic. The Vienna Circle thinkers did serious damage to philosophical thought. I am not a fan of Wittgenstein. Bertand Russell bores me to tears. Do you feel my pain?
Science: scientific realism or scientific anti-realism?Lean toward: scientific realismSee physicalism.
Teletransporter (new matter): survival or death?Accept another alternativeFirmly believe that "mental-stuff" survives death of organism in which it "results."
Time: A-theory or B-theory?Accept an intermediate viewAll behavior is intentional. Not Dennett's intentionality, but the mind's temporally projected intentionality. FW/Det aside, we are the things we say and do... PERIOD.
Trolley problem (five straight ahead, one on side track, turn requires switching, what ought one do?): switch or don't switch?Insufficiently familiar with the issueAnother mind game?
Truth: correspondence, deflationary, or epistemic?Accept more than oneNot my strong suit.
Zombies: inconceivable, conceivable but not metaphysically possible, or metaphysically possible?Reject allI immediately skip andy/all references to zombies "in the literature." I'd like to think that philosophy can arrive at reasonable conclusions without zombies, Chinese boxes, blindsight, red & green balls, etc. Please!