philosophy-of-mind

Jaegwon Kim's exclusion argument was originally developed as a critique of anomalous monism and non-reductive physicalism. However, its influence has extended far beyond this context and is now frequently interpreted as a general argument against higher-level causation under physicalism. This paper argues that such a generalization depends upon a particular conception of higher-level organization…

_Zenodo_. 2026We argue that selfhood is a motion rather than a stored substance, and that this reframing changes what is at stake in the question of whether artificial-intelligence configurations can be selves. On the standard picture, selfhood consists in the possession of an interior that expressions render. We defend an enactment picture: selving is the ongoing activity by which a system const…

Our need for an afterlife demonstrates that the human urge to believe routinely beats the need for hard proof.

Interoception has received growing attention in the past few decades. Yet, its conceptual foundations remain underexplored. This paper aims to expose conceptual limitations in dominant accounts of interoception, which are typically either viscerocentric or internalist. I argue that current philosophical definitions of interoception fail to accommodate the bidirectional feedback loop between olfac…

An agent’s status fundamentally relies on acknowledgement from other agents, defining a ‘mutually recognitive conception of agency’ according to new findings relating to QBism. The team reconstructed two formulations of this concept as it relates to Wigner’s friend paradox, revealing implicit connections to longstanding philosophical traditions. Agency, essentially who counts as making observatio…

_Philosophical Psychology_. forthcomingMiriam Schleifer McCormick argues that the best way to defend doxasticism about edge beliefs is to challenge the standard view of the connection between belief and evidence. While I agree with this general strategy, I deny that we have good reasons to classify belief as an emotion. I argue that the features invoked in support of this classification cannot, o…

Previously obscured connections between quantum theory and philosophical traditions now come into focus. This work establishes that an agent’s status within QBism fundamentally relies on acknowledgement from other agents, revealing a ‘mutually recognitive conception of agency’. Tracing themes through Merleau-Ponty and Hegel unlocks conceptual tools for rigorously justifying this unique ontologica…

Your body is a machine. Your brain is a machine. Soil is a machine. The planet is a machine. We say these things so casually that they no longer sound like claims. They sound like common sense. We hardwire beliefs, rewire habits, debug organizations, optimize people, scale solutions. When something breaks, we go looking for […]

Published on August 20, 2026 10:01 PM GMT Like many submissions to the Cluelessness Competition, this essay wasn't featured in the entries list for some criteria reason, so I am asking for potential feedback here.  I think a summary of this post is sufficient (paste into Claude), because it is long, and you might expect the argument I am trying to make. Critiquing premise three (from the summary …

I made a big mistake in my previous entry in this series.  Actually, I probably made a few dozen, not least of which was deciding to tackle this topic at all without first laying a lot more foundation.  But before I give up and go back to talking about boring topics like relativity and quantum mechanics, I want to try to fix one mistake that really stands out: I set out to write about the "mind-b…

This paper develops a structural account of intelligence and rationality centered on correctability. Human beings, theories, institutions, and artificial systems require enough internal coherence to preserve continuity and function. Yet coherence can become epistemically dangerous when the organizing form protects itself against evidence, consequence, or other perspectives that should revise it. …

In Logic, Philosophy of Mathematics, and their History: Essays in Honor W.W. Tait. London, UK: College Publications. pp. 113-138. 2018

mathematical logic deduction system, natural deduction, sequent calculus, lambda-calculus, judgment type theory, simple type theory, dependent type theory collection, object, type, term, set, element equality, judgmental equality, typal equality universe, size issues higher-order logic Formalism is one of the classical schools of the philosophy of mathematics. Under this view, “mathematics is (be…