Philosophy of Mind Commons^™

Carruthers And Constitutive Self-Knowledge, John C. Hill '13

Student Publications

In his recent book, The Opacity of Mind, Peter Carruthers advances a skeptical theory of self-knowledge, integrating results from experimental psychology and cognitive science. In this essay, I want to suggest that the situation is not quite as dire as Carruthers makes it out to be. I respond to Carruthers by advancing a constitutive theory of self-knoweldge. I argue that self-knowledge, so understood, is not only compatible with the empirical research that Carruthers utilizes, but also helps to make sense of these results.

The Intricacy Of Death And Destiny, Christopher Rogers

Undergraduate Publications

It is our eternal shadow and our ultimate judge. It is our shared destiny and greatest fear; death. The conceptualization of death has always been a fascination of man; we have forever explored it, pondered it, dissected it, but never conquered it. We know how to live, but yet very few of us know how to die.

Two of the most brilliant explorations of this dynamic are vastly different yet inherently important works. The genius of both George Orwell’s political satire 1984, and Albert Camus’ The Plague is their accessibility to the imagination regarding dying, the authors ability to ...

The Resilience Of A Refined Higher-Order Thought Theory Of Consciousness, Lee-Anna T. Sangster

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation consists of three independent papers, each defending the Higher-Order Thought (HOT) Theory of Consciousness against a different objection. First the HOT theory is defended against the Theory of Mind (TOM) Objection. Since the HOT theory requires that a subject be able to represent mental states in thought in order to have mental states that are conscious, objectors argue from empirical evidence that few creatures pass TOM tests to the conclusion that few creatures must be capable of having conscious mental states according to the HOT theory. The counter-intuitiveness of this claim is then taken as reason for rejecting ...