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: nominalismIf our best theories require quantification over numbers for their success, then so be it
Aesthetic value: objective or subjective?Agnostic/undecided
Analytic-synthetic distinction: yes or no?Accept: yes
Epistemic justification: internalism or externalism?Agnostic/undecidedThere are both interalistic and externalistic versions of contextualism. I'm undecided on what kind of contextualist I am
External world: idealism, skepticism, or non-skeptical realism?Accept: non-skeptical realism
Free will: compatibilism, libertarianism, or no free will?Lean toward: compatibilism
God: theism or atheism?Accept: atheismHowever, while I do not believe that the actual world contains a God, I do believe there could have been gods insofar as necessary existence isn't an essential attribute of a deity.
Knowledge: empiricism or rationalism?Agnostic/undecided
Knowledge claims: contextualism, relativism, or invariantism?Accept: contextualism
Laws of nature: Humean or non-Humean?Lean toward: HumeanIn my opinion, though I see the attractiveness of non-Humean conceptions of laws, all the available options seem to have more costs than benefits
Logic: classical or non-classical?Accept: classical
Mental content: internalism or externalism?Accept: externalism
Meta-ethics: moral realism or moral anti-realism?Accept: moral realismHowever, I prefer ethics which attempt to reduce moral facts to facts about what behaviours best maximize the interest of everyone
Metaphilosophy: naturalism or non-naturalism?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Mind: physicalism or non-physicalism?Accept: physicalism
Moral judgment: cognitivism or non-cognitivism?Accept: cognitivism
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 an intermediate viewI'm a Rawlsian, so my ethics looks to be consequentialist though the justification for action is deontological
Perceptual experience: disjunctivism, qualia theory, representationalism, or sense-datum theory?Lean toward: representationalism
Personal identity: biological view, psychological view, or further-fact view?Agnostic/undecidedI think counterpart theory allows that person stages can be related by a multiplicity of counterpart relations. I think the debate is a context dependent matter depending on what counterpart relation is relevant
Politics: communitarianism, egalitarianism, or libertarianism?Accept: egalitarianism
Proper names: Fregean or Millian?Lean toward: Fregean
Science: scientific realism or scientific anti-realism?Accept: scientific realism
Teletransporter (new matter): survival or death?Lean toward: survivalIf the relevant genidentity relation requires continuity and connectedness then fine, survival. If not, then death
Time: A-theory or B-theory?Lean toward: B-theory
Trolley problem (five straight ahead, one on side track, turn requires switching, what ought one do?): switch or don't switch?Accept: switch
Truth: correspondence, deflationary, or epistemic?Accept: correspondence
Zombies: inconceivable, conceivable but not metaphysically possible, or metaphysically possible?Accept: conceivable but not metaphysically possible