I'm a philosopher and I currently hold a lecturer position at the University of Zurich. I'm working on diverse topics in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science, in metaphysics and in the philosophy of language.
Profiles on academia.edu, google scholar and philpapers |
News
BOOK: Out now! My Cambridge Element Mental Content has just been published by Cambridge University Press. It can be downloaded for free until September 4, 2023: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009217286 [08/2023]
ARTICLE: A substantially revised & expanded version of the Stanford Encyclopedia article "Teleological Theories of Mental Content" (co-authored by me and Karen Neander) is now online: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/content-teleological/ [05/2022]
PAPER: My paper "No Functions for Rocks: Garson’s Generalized Selected Effects Theory and the Liberality Problem" has been published by Analysis! The "free-access link" is here. [10/2021]
TALK/WORKSHOP: On October 22, 2021, I will give a talk entitled "Borderlands of the Mind: Plants as Representational Systems?" at the University of Basel, as part of the workshop Green Intelligence? - Debating Plant Cognition that I am co-organizing together with Gabriele Ferretti and Markus Wild. [9/2021]
PAPER: My paper "Constancy and Distal Content: A Reply to Garson" has been published (online first) by The Philosophical Quarterly [3/2021]
TALK: I will give a talk entitled "Further Toward an Informational Teleosemantics" at the 4th International Conference on Philosophy of Mind and Cognition, hosted by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, on March 12, 2021 (Online). [2/2021]
ARTICLE: I'm now co-author of the Stanford Encyclopedia entry "Teleological Theories of Mental Content", originally written by Karen Neander. (So far, my main contributions to this article are a number of changes to section 3.2, but a more substantive update will be forthcoming in December of 2021.) [12/2020]
TALK/WORKSHOP: I'm giving a talk entitled "Smelling How the World Is: A Defense of Representationalism about Olfaction" at the workshop What the Nose tells the Brain: Olfaction and Mental Representation (organized by me together with Thomas Park) on November 12, 2020. [8/2020]
TALK/WORKSHOP: I will be giving a talk entitled "Representational Explanations Defended (On All Counts)" at the online workshop Representation, Computation, Mechanism: What is the Best Explanation of Cognition? (organized by me together with Nir Fresco and Beate Krickel) on August 20, 2020. [7/2020]
PAPER: Great news! My paper "The Nature of Perceptual Constancies" has been accepted by Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. Online first version here. [5/2020]
TALKS: I'll be giving a talk entitled "GSE Functions and Teleosemantics" at the workshop Biological Functions: From Zebra Stripes to Synapses in Bielefeld on February 1, 2020, and another talk, "Where does Representation Begin? Varitel Semantics and the Status Question" at the workshop Representation in Cognitive Science in Bochum on February 3, 2020. After that, I will head to Spain to talk about "Smelling How the World Is: The Representational Nature of Olfactory Experience" on February 14, 2020, at the University of Valencia. [1/2020]
PAPERS: This year, I have also published some papers in German: "Teleosemantik weitergedacht" (together with Fabian Hundertmark) in Information Philophie (a review article on recent work in teleosemantics), "Willensfreiheit als philosophisches Problem" in the volume Willensfreiheit, edited by Dagmar Kiesel and Cleophea Ferrari (an article on free will), and „Von Glückspilzen und Unglücksraben: Eine Untersuchung logisch-normativer Theodizeeprobleme“, in the volume Glaube und Rationalität: Gibt es gute Gründe für den (A)theismus?, edited by Romy Jaster and me (an article on the problem of evil). [10/2019]
TALK: I will be giving a talk entitled "Where does Mind begin? - Perceptual Representation, Perceptual Constancy and the Case for Substantive Gradualism" at the Workshop Animal Minds at the University of Zürich, on September 28, 2019. [08/2019]
IN OTHER NEWS: I'm now officially an Associate Member of the ZiF Research Group "Cognitive Behavior of Humans, Animals, and Machines: Situation Model Perspectives". Website: https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/(en)/ZiF/FG/2019Behavior/index.html [05/2019]
PAPER: My paper "Challenging Liberal Representationalism: A Reply to Artiga" has been accepted by Dialectica. [05/2019]
TALK: I will be giving a talk entitled "Borderlands of the Mind: Plants as Representational Systems?" at Umeå University, Sweden, on May 21, 2019.
TALK: I'm giving a talk entitled "The Nature of Perceptual Constancies" in the COBHAM Colloquium at the CITEC Bielefeld on May 10, 2019. [04/2019]
TALK: I will be giving a talk entitled "Intentional Explanations: Simply Autonomous" at the UB Barcelona on January 23, 2019 (more details here). [10/2018]
PAPER: My paper "Grounding Nominalism" has been accepted by the Pacific Philosophical Quarterly. Online first version here. [8/2018]
PAPER: My new paper, "Why Mental Content is Not Like Water: Reconsidering the Reductive Claims of Teleosemantics", has been accepted by Synthese. Online first version: doi.org/10.1007/s11229-018-1808-6 [6/2018]
TALKS: In September 2018, I will be present a paper entitled "Smelling How the World Is: Do Olfactory Experiences Represent?" at the GAP.10 in Cologne and at the ESPP in Rijeka, Croatia, and a paper entitled "No Representation without Explanation: Representational Status and the Explanation of Behavior" at the conference The Future of Teleosemantics (Website) in Bielefeld [6/2018]
PAPER: My new paper, "Naturalizing the Content of Desire", has been accepted by Philosophical Studies. Online first version: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-017-1010-6 [10/2017]
TALK: On October 30th, 2017, I will be giving a presentation on "Informational Teleosemantics and the Distality Problem" at Duke University (Durham, USA). [9/2017]
PAPER: A new paper, "Perceiving the World Outside", is coming out in The Philosophical Quarterly. Online first version: https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqx052 [9/2017]
ARTICLE: A substantially revised & expanded version of the Stanford Encyclopedia article "Teleological Theories of Mental Content" (co-authored by me and Karen Neander) is now online: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/content-teleological/ [05/2022]
PAPER: My paper "No Functions for Rocks: Garson’s Generalized Selected Effects Theory and the Liberality Problem" has been published by Analysis! The "free-access link" is here. [10/2021]
TALK/WORKSHOP: On October 22, 2021, I will give a talk entitled "Borderlands of the Mind: Plants as Representational Systems?" at the University of Basel, as part of the workshop Green Intelligence? - Debating Plant Cognition that I am co-organizing together with Gabriele Ferretti and Markus Wild. [9/2021]
PAPER: My paper "Constancy and Distal Content: A Reply to Garson" has been published (online first) by The Philosophical Quarterly [3/2021]
TALK: I will give a talk entitled "Further Toward an Informational Teleosemantics" at the 4th International Conference on Philosophy of Mind and Cognition, hosted by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, on March 12, 2021 (Online). [2/2021]
ARTICLE: I'm now co-author of the Stanford Encyclopedia entry "Teleological Theories of Mental Content", originally written by Karen Neander. (So far, my main contributions to this article are a number of changes to section 3.2, but a more substantive update will be forthcoming in December of 2021.) [12/2020]
TALK/WORKSHOP: I'm giving a talk entitled "Smelling How the World Is: A Defense of Representationalism about Olfaction" at the workshop What the Nose tells the Brain: Olfaction and Mental Representation (organized by me together with Thomas Park) on November 12, 2020. [8/2020]
TALK/WORKSHOP: I will be giving a talk entitled "Representational Explanations Defended (On All Counts)" at the online workshop Representation, Computation, Mechanism: What is the Best Explanation of Cognition? (organized by me together with Nir Fresco and Beate Krickel) on August 20, 2020. [7/2020]
PAPER: Great news! My paper "The Nature of Perceptual Constancies" has been accepted by Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. Online first version here. [5/2020]
TALKS: I'll be giving a talk entitled "GSE Functions and Teleosemantics" at the workshop Biological Functions: From Zebra Stripes to Synapses in Bielefeld on February 1, 2020, and another talk, "Where does Representation Begin? Varitel Semantics and the Status Question" at the workshop Representation in Cognitive Science in Bochum on February 3, 2020. After that, I will head to Spain to talk about "Smelling How the World Is: The Representational Nature of Olfactory Experience" on February 14, 2020, at the University of Valencia. [1/2020]
PAPERS: This year, I have also published some papers in German: "Teleosemantik weitergedacht" (together with Fabian Hundertmark) in Information Philophie (a review article on recent work in teleosemantics), "Willensfreiheit als philosophisches Problem" in the volume Willensfreiheit, edited by Dagmar Kiesel and Cleophea Ferrari (an article on free will), and „Von Glückspilzen und Unglücksraben: Eine Untersuchung logisch-normativer Theodizeeprobleme“, in the volume Glaube und Rationalität: Gibt es gute Gründe für den (A)theismus?, edited by Romy Jaster and me (an article on the problem of evil). [10/2019]
TALK: I will be giving a talk entitled "Where does Mind begin? - Perceptual Representation, Perceptual Constancy and the Case for Substantive Gradualism" at the Workshop Animal Minds at the University of Zürich, on September 28, 2019. [08/2019]
IN OTHER NEWS: I'm now officially an Associate Member of the ZiF Research Group "Cognitive Behavior of Humans, Animals, and Machines: Situation Model Perspectives". Website: https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/(en)/ZiF/FG/2019Behavior/index.html [05/2019]
PAPER: My paper "Challenging Liberal Representationalism: A Reply to Artiga" has been accepted by Dialectica. [05/2019]
TALK: I will be giving a talk entitled "Borderlands of the Mind: Plants as Representational Systems?" at Umeå University, Sweden, on May 21, 2019.
TALK: I'm giving a talk entitled "The Nature of Perceptual Constancies" in the COBHAM Colloquium at the CITEC Bielefeld on May 10, 2019. [04/2019]
TALK: I will be giving a talk entitled "Intentional Explanations: Simply Autonomous" at the UB Barcelona on January 23, 2019 (more details here). [10/2018]
PAPER: My paper "Grounding Nominalism" has been accepted by the Pacific Philosophical Quarterly. Online first version here. [8/2018]
PAPER: My new paper, "Why Mental Content is Not Like Water: Reconsidering the Reductive Claims of Teleosemantics", has been accepted by Synthese. Online first version: doi.org/10.1007/s11229-018-1808-6 [6/2018]
TALKS: In September 2018, I will be present a paper entitled "Smelling How the World Is: Do Olfactory Experiences Represent?" at the GAP.10 in Cologne and at the ESPP in Rijeka, Croatia, and a paper entitled "No Representation without Explanation: Representational Status and the Explanation of Behavior" at the conference The Future of Teleosemantics (Website) in Bielefeld [6/2018]
PAPER: My new paper, "Naturalizing the Content of Desire", has been accepted by Philosophical Studies. Online first version: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-017-1010-6 [10/2017]
TALK: On October 30th, 2017, I will be giving a presentation on "Informational Teleosemantics and the Distality Problem" at Duke University (Durham, USA). [9/2017]
PAPER: A new paper, "Perceiving the World Outside", is coming out in The Philosophical Quarterly. Online first version: https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqx052 [9/2017]