fragments of consciousness

The extended will

Joel Anderson gave a nice talk in CAPPE a few days ago on "Scaffolded Autonomy and the Extended Will".  The talk focuses on the role of environmental triggers in facilitating the control of action, and on the ensuing possibility of an extended view of the will.  The paper isn't online, but see his "Procrastination and the Extended Will" (co-authored with Joseph Heath) for the general idea.

Joel wasn't certain whether he wanted a real extended will thesis, or a weaker embedding thesis on which the environment plays a crucial explanatory role in the processes that support and sustain an (internally constituted) will.  I think the key issue in choosing between them is whether one can get an Otto/Inga case going for the extended will, and especially whether one can get a twin case going, as one needs for a strong extension thesis.  Something like the following three cases are my best stab at it:

(1) Ida is working on her book, which is important to her.  She regularly is distracted with thoughts of watching TV.  Every time the thought occurs she quashes it, and realizes that she should return to work.  So she returns to work.

(2) Ollie is working on his book, which is important to him.  He regularly is distracted with thoughts on watching TV.  Every time thought occurs, he looks toward the TV, sees a sign saying "Return to work!", and realizes that he should return to work.  So he returns to work.

Five papers

For the last couple of years I have mostly been working on books, so I have not posted many papers here.  But I've recently significantly revised three old drafts and written up two new ones (previously circulated as talks), as follows:

• Verbal Disputes and Philosophical Progress: This is a written-up version of the old Powerpoint on Terminological Disputes (I gave in and went with the more common "verbal dispute").  Still extremely drafty in places.
• Revisability and Conceptual Change: A written-up version of an earlier handout on Conceptual Analysis meets "Two Dogmas of Empiricism".  It's a critique of Quine's argument from revisability in "Two Dogmas", using a Bayesian version of a Carnapian criterion for conceptual change.
• Frege's Puzzle and the Objects of Credence.  A heavily revised version of  "Probability and Propositions".  It argues against referentialist views of the objects of credence and develops a nonreferential view.  It now includes some new material on updating beliefs with centered-world contents and on chance-credence principles.
• The Nature of Epistemic Space.  A revised version of a paper that has been kicking around since 2001, now forthcoming in the Epistemic Modality volume edited by Andy Egan and Brian Weatherson.  It contains a long new section on Kaplan's paradox concerning the cardinality of the space of possible worlds.
• Propositions and Attitude Ascriptions: A Fregean Account.  A revised version of my paper spelling out a detailed two-dimensional account of attitude ascriptions.  As a bonus includes material on the Fregean hierarchy and communication, as well as a treatment of many puzzle cases and some replies to Scott Soames' arguments against 2D accounts of attitude ascriptions.  Forthcoming in Nous.

Conference season wrap-up

OK, I haven't been very good about keeping this blog up-to-date.  I'll try to do better.  First, recent conferences (here "recent" means since April).

• St. Andrews conference on Philosophical Methodology: I've posted photos.  An audio file of my talk on verbal disputes (and also of Jonathan Schaffer's talk on modality and methodology) is online.
• Fullerton conference on Consciousness and Self: I've posted photos and Powerpoint for my wrap-up talk on "The Varieties of Self-Awareness".  Someone uploaded the entire talk to YouTube.
• Hong Kong conference on consciousness: I've posted photos.  Once again, my talk (on the extended mind revisited) found its way to YouTube.
• ANU conference on consciousness and attention.  Photos and Powerpoint for wrap-up: "Consciousness First?  Attention First?"
• AAP conference in Melbourne: Photos and handout for my talk on "Kaplan's Paradox and Epistemically Possible Worlds".
• Utah NEH Institute on Experimental Philosophy: Photos and Powerpoint for my talk on "What Can Experimental Philosophy Do?".