Professor of Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy at The University of Kansas
My research interests include epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of computer science, and general philosophy of science. A list of my books and papers, and links to some of them are below
- My current projects include a study of the concept of resilience and (with Jack Horner) a book on the way that computers are changing science.
- I love teaching introductory courses in logic and critical thinking. You can find some of my instructional material from these classes here.
- Check out the work of some of my grad students: Andrew McFarland, Ramón Alvarado, Hassan Alsharif,
- About once a month I am invited to talk on KKFI 90.1 FM Kansas City. Among other topics, I’ve talked about markets-and-morality, skepticism, meaning, time, work, truth, and chaos.
Books:
Formal Reasoning: A Guide to Critical Thinking (Dubuque: Kendall Hunt 2017)
The Architecture of Cognition: Rethinking Fodor and Pylyshyn’s Systematicity Challenge Co-edited with Paco Calvo (Cambridge: MIT press 2014)
Daniel Dennett: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers (New York: Routledge 2014)
Special Sciences and the Unity of Science Co-edited with Olga Pombo, Shahid Rahman, and Juan Manuel Torres (New York: Springer 2012)
Philosophy of Physics; 5+1 Questions. Co-edited with Juan Ferret (Automatic Press, 2010)
Otto Neurath and the Unity of Science. Co-edited with Olga Pombo (New York: Springer 2010)
Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Psychology. Co-edited with Paco Calvo (New York: Routledge, 2009)
Masses of Formal Philosophy. Co-edited with Vincent Hendricks (Automatic Press, 2006)
Formal Philosophy. Co-edited with Vincent Hendricks (Automatic Press, 2005)
Questions, Quantifiers and Quantum Physics: Essays on the Philosophy of Jaakko Hintikka. Co-edited with Dan Kolak (New York: Springer, 2004)
Logic, Epistemology and the Unity of Science. Co-edited with Jean Paul van Bendegem, Dov Gabbay and Shahid Rahman (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2004)
On Dennett, (Belmont CA: Wadsworth, 2002). Translated into Slovak by Juraj Hvorecky as Dennett (Bratislava: Albert Marenčin 2004) Translated into French by Mathieu Aury with additional chapters on Quinean naturalism, as Dennett: Un naturalisme en chantier. (Paris: Presses Universitaire de France, 2005)
Papers:
Epistemic Logic (Revised and Uncorrected version for Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – final version coming soon) (With Rasmus Rendsvig)
Understanding Error Rates in Software Engineering: Conceptual, Empirical, and Experimental Approaches (With Jack Horner) (draft)
Epistemic entitlements and the practice of computer simulation (With Ramón Alvarado) (draft)
“Why is it so difficult to ensure that software is reliable?” (With Jack Horner) (draft)
“Brute facts about emergence” in Vintiadis and Mekios (eds.) Brute Facts. Oxford University Press pp.177-196, 2018
Metaphysical and scientific approaches to emergence: Varieties of fundamentality and theoretical completeness forthcoming in Mittal, Diallo and Tolk (eds.) : Emergent Behavior in Complex Systems Engineering: A Modeling and Simulations Approach Wiley (pp.3-20) March 2018 DOI: 10.1002/9781119378952.ch1
“Software Error as a Limit to Inquiry for Finite Agents: Challenges for the Post-human Scientist” (With Jack Horner) in Powers, T. (ed.) Philosophy and Computing: Essays in Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind, Logic, and Ethics. Springer pp. 2017 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61043-6_5
“Can we Trust Big Data? Applying Philosophy of Science to Software” (with Ramon Alvarado) Vol 3, Issue 2 First published date: September-02-2016 10.1177/2053951716664747 PDF
“Teleosemantics and Natural Information” in Floridi, L. (ed.) Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Information. Routledge pp. 263-276 2016
“Physicalism, Scientific Respectability and Strongly Emergent Properties” In Tudorel Dima and Mihaela Luca (eds.) Cognitive Sciences: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Bucharest: Pro Universitaria pp. 14-37 2015
“Software Intensive Science” (with Jack Horner) Philosophy and Technology, Volume 27, Issue 3, pp 461-477, 2014
“Reply to Angius and Primiero on Software Intensive Science” (with Jack Horner) Philosophy and Technology Volume 27, Issue 3, pp 491-494, 2014
“Computing with Bodies: Morphology, Function, and Computational Theory.” (with Paco Calvo) in Charles Wolfe (ed.) Brain Theory: Essays in Critical Neurophilosophy New York: Palgrave pp. 91-106, 2014
“The Emergence of Systematicity in Minimally Cognitive Agents” (with Paco Calvo and Emma Martin) in The Architecture of Cognition: Rethinking Fodor and Pylyshyn’s Systematicity Challenge Co-edited with Paco Calvo Cambridge: MIT press 397-434, 2014
“Systematicity: an Overview” (with Paco Calvo) in The Architecture of Cognition: Rethinking Fodor and Pylyshyn’s Systematicity Challenge Co-edited with Paco Calvo Cambridge: MIT press 3-30, 2014
“How Computational Models Predict the Behavior of Complex Systems” Foundations of Science (with Fabio Boschetti) Foundations of Science 18 (4), 809-821, 2013.
“Applying Logic: Some Remarks on the Reciprocal Influence of Experimental and Formal Investigations of Identification“ Acta Philosophica Fennica, 90, 99-111, 2013.
“What is a Model, Why People Don’t Trust Them and Why They Should.” (with Boschetti F, Fulton E.A., Bradbury, R.H.) In Negotiating Our Future: Living scenarios for Australia to 2050, Vol 2. Australian Academy of Science 107-119, 2012
“Beyond Error Correction” Frontiers in Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00423 September, 2012 (with Paco Calvo and Emma Martin)
“Thinking About Pain in Hell: Identifying Qualia Across Possible Worlds.” Southwest Philosophical Studies. 32: 1-11 2012
‘Borders’ (with Josiah Heyman) in A Companion to Moral Anthropology. Didier Fassin ed. Wiley-Blackwell 540-559, 2012
“Limiting Skepticism” (with Vincent Hendricks) Logos and Episteme 2, 2 211-224, 2011
“Six Questions on Complex Systems’ Numerical Analysis and Applied Mathematics ICNAAM 20111389, 956-958, 2011
“Novel properties generated by interacting computational systems: A minimal model” (with Fabio Boschetti) Complex Systems 20, 151-164, 2011
“Logic and Formal Semantics for Epistemology” in Routledge Companion to Epistemology. Duncan Pritchard and Sven Bernecker (eds) New York: Routledge. 571-586, 2011
“Ontology and Methodology in the Analytic Philosophy” in Theories and Applications of Ontology Vol. 1 J. Seibt and R. Poli (eds.) New York: Springer. 349-394, 2010.
“The Individuality of Organisms and Artifacts” History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences Vol. 32, no. 2-3, 233-47, 2010
“Teleology in Biology: Haddox on the Basic Principles of the Living World” in Thought and Social Engagement in the Mexican-american Philosophy of John H. Haddox: A Collection of Critical Appreciations. Carlos Alberto Sanchez and J.Simon ed. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2010
“Epistemic Logic’ (with Vincent Hendricks) in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2009 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2009/entries/logic-epistemic/
“Supervenience” in The Encyclopedia of Neuroscience. New York: Springer, vol. 19, 3901-3903, 2009
“What has Philosophy of Psychology Become?” Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Psychology. John Symons and Paco Calvo (eds.) New York: Routledge xxi-xxiv, 2009
“Inquiry and Functionalism” in Cédric Dégremont, Laurent Kieff and Helge Rückert (eds.) Dialogues, Logic and Other Strange Things; Essays in Honour of Shahid Rahman. London: College Publications 385-393, 2008
“Intuition and Philosophical Methodology” Axiomathes 18: 67-89, 2008
“Detecting Emergence in the Interplay of Networks” Interplay of Networks”, in Goran P. Trajkovski and Samuel G. Collins (eds.) (2008) Emergent Agents and Socialities: Social and Organizational Aspects of Intelligence, AAAI Technical Report FS-07-04. Menlo Park, California: The AAAI Press. 86-93
“Functionalism-and Fallibility” Southwest Philosophical Studies 30, 79-84, 2008
“Computational Models of Emergent Properties” Minds and Machines 18, 4: 475-491, 2008 Reprinted in Nigel Gilbert (ed) Computational Social Science. London: Sage publications 2010
“A Computational Modeling Strategy for Levels” Philosophy of Science 75, 608-620. 2008
“Understanding the Complexity of Information Processing Tasks in Vision.’” In Carlos Gershenson,
Diederik Aerts, and Bruce Edmonds (eds.) Philosophy and Complexity: Essays on Epistemology, Evolution, and Emergence. Singapore: World Scientific 300-314, 2007
“Towards a General Description of Physical Invariance in Category Theory” (with Vladik Kreinovich and Julio Urenda) Journal of Uncertain Systems 1: 170-175, 2007
“Pattern-oriented analysis of communication flow: the case study of Cicada barbara lusitanica.” (with Louçã, J, Rodrigues, D., Morais, A.)Proceedings of the 21st European Conference on Modelling and Simulation ECMS 2007, Ivan Zelinka, Zuzana Oplatková, Alessandra Orsoni, ed. Prague: ECMS pp. 229-234, 2007
“Quine, Barcan-Marcus and Kripke on Modality” Southwest Philosophical Studies 29, 49-54, 2007
“No Mere Formality: On Why Formal Philosophy Matters” (with Vincent Hendricks) The Philosophers’ Magazine 3rd quarter 35-38, 2007
“Where’s the Bridge? Epistemic logic and epistemology” (with Vincent Hendricks) Philosophical Studies 128:137-167, 2006
“The Results are in: On the scope and import of Hintikka’s philosophy”, (With Daniel Kolak) in Questions, Quantifiers and Quantum Physics. New York: Springer 190-258, 2004
“Systems of visual identification in neuroscience: Lessons from epistemic logic.” With Jaakko Hintikka Philosophy of Science 70: 89-104, 2003 Reprinted in Hintikka, J. Socratic Epistemology: Explorations of Knowledge-Seeking by Questioning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2007
“Logic, Epistemology and the Unity of Science: An Encyclopedic Project in the Spirit of Diderot and Neurath” With Shahid Rahman in Logic, Epistemology and the Unity of Science. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers: 4-36, 2003
“Emergence and Reflexive Downward Causation” Principia 6: 14-39, 2002
“Information, Representation, and the Dynamic Systems Approach to Language: Commentary on Shanker and King”, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 25 640-641, 2002
“Explanation, Representation and the Dynamical Hypothesis” Minds and Machines 11: 521-541, 2001
“What can Neuroscience Explain?” Brain and Mind 2: 243-248, 2001