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: yesbut on my version of "a priori"
Abstract objects: Platonism or nominalism?Lean toward: nominalism
Aesthetic value: objective or subjective?Lean toward: objective
Analytic-synthetic distinction: yes or no?Lean toward: yes
Epistemic justification: internalism or externalism?Accept both
External world: idealism, skepticism, or non-skeptical realism?Accept more than oneLevels of 'reality', again, all true in their own way
Free will: compatibilism, libertarianism, or no free will?Accept: libertarianism
God: theism or atheism?Accept: theism
Knowledge: empiricism or rationalism?Accept bothNearly all of my answers are "lean toward" even when it is not an option. I love wisdom and being wholly certain of some things does not seem wise to me.
Knowledge claims: contextualism, relativism, or invariantism?There is no fact of the matterI hate -isms, and I gather some others are with me on that. They never quite capture our views. You'd be better to create a quiz with yes/no questions e.g."is classical logic the only valid form currently expressed?" Perhaps allow the -isms as options for those few who would espouse the exact views. You might actually get better truth out of our views. For the theism views, you may as well just ask for religious/spiritual affiliation as a drop-down box
Laws of nature: Humean or non-Humean?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Logic: classical or non-classical?Accept both
Mental content: internalism or externalism?Accept both
Meta-ethics: moral realism or moral anti-realism?Lean toward: moral realism
Metaphilosophy: naturalism or non-naturalism?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Mind: physicalism or non-physicalism?Accept both
Moral judgment: cognitivism or non-cognitivism?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Moral motivation: internalism or externalism?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Newcomb's problem: one box or two boxes?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Normative ethics: deontology, consequentialism, or virtue ethics?Accept more than oneI have a foot in all of these, I think
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?Accept more than oneAgain, there is more distinction to many of my views than can be captured in a particular -ism
Proper names: Fregean or Millian?Lean toward: Fregean
Science: scientific realism or scientific anti-realism?Lean toward: scientific realism
Teletransporter (new matter): survival or death?There is no fact of the matter
Time: A-theory or B-theory?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Trolley problem (five straight ahead, one on side track, turn requires switching, what ought one do?): switch or don't switch?Accept another alternativeSwitch and YELL--the response of which is that person is deaf and no one else can possibly move to save either. Just ask if I'd be willing to be the actor in a utilitarian "end game". The answer is yes, I would. I'm relatively Kantian.
Truth: correspondence, deflationary, or epistemic?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Zombies: inconceivable, conceivable but not metaphysically possible, or metaphysically possible?Insufficiently familiar with the issue