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?Lean toward: Platonism
Aesthetic value: objective or subjective?Lean toward: objective
Analytic-synthetic distinction: yes or no?Lean toward: yesThis depends on who I've recently read. If Quine, then No. If Chalmers, then Yes.
Epistemic justification: internalism or externalism?Accept: internalismInternalist when I teach epistemology. When I'm out in the world doing errands, I'm an externalist.
External world: idealism, skepticism, or non-skeptical realism?Lean toward: idealism
Free will: compatibilism, libertarianism, or no free will?Lean toward: libertarianism
God: theism or atheism?Accept: atheism
Knowledge: empiricism or rationalism?Accept both
Knowledge claims: contextualism, relativism, or invariantism?Accept more than one
Laws of nature: Humean or non-Humean?Lean toward: non-Humean
Logic: classical or non-classical?Accept both Depends on what I need to do. Logics are like going to the grocery store and buying what you need.
Mental content: internalism or externalism?Lean toward: internalism
Meta-ethics: moral realism or moral anti-realism?Accept: moral realism
Metaphilosophy: naturalism or non-naturalism?Accept: non-naturalism
Mind: physicalism or non-physicalism?Accept: non-physicalismOn Tuesdays and Fridays. Other times I lean toward physicalism, except on Sundays, when I accept both (hey, I'm a dialetheist, after all)
Moral judgment: cognitivism or non-cognitivism?Reject bothStrong moral realism (even tho' I'm a scientific anti-realist)
Moral motivation: internalism or externalism?Accept both
Newcomb's problem: one box or two boxes?The question is too unclear to answerIt depends on how my stock portfolio is doing and whether on that day, I think ALL knowledge is defeasible or not (and even *how* defeasible)
Normative ethics: deontology, consequentialism, or virtue ethics?Accept: deontology
Perceptual experience: disjunctivism, qualia theory, representationalism, or sense-datum theory?Lean toward: qualia theory
Personal identity: biological view, psychological view, or further-fact view?Lean toward: further-fact view
Politics: communitarianism, egalitarianism, or libertarianism?Lean toward: libertarianism
Proper names: Fregean or Millian?Accept: Millian
Science: scientific realism or scientific anti-realism?Accept: scientific anti-realism
Teletransporter (new matter): survival or death?Lean toward: death
Time: A-theory or B-theory?Accept: B-theoryWell, *now* I do.
Trolley problem (five straight ahead, one on side track, turn requires switching, what ought one do?): switch or don't switch?Accept: switchWell, I'm with the neuroscientists here and Haidt as well. I really decide to let the "switch" part of my brain do the driving.
Truth: correspondence, deflationary, or epistemic?Reject all T(p) =/= p Why? B/c the LHS is from a different point of view than the RHS, hence they say different things.
Zombies: inconceivable, conceivable but not metaphysically possible, or metaphysically possible?Lean toward: conceivable but not metaphysically possibleSome of the most famous philosophers today are zombies (Dennett), but I always get hung up on the Zombie Paradox (Zombie twins are required (not just zombies in general), but how could my zombie twin possibly contemplate *its* consciousness?). I think this paradox is deadly . . . to zombies.