History of Philosophy of Mind
Tracing how Descartes, Hume, James, and Husserl grappled with consciousness.
Tracing how Descartes, Hume, James, and Husserl grappled with consciousness, and what their partial successes and failures still teach us about contemporary debates.
The history of philosophy of mind is not merely an academic exercise. Understanding how earlier thinkers framed the mind-body problem helps us see which of our own assumptions are genuinely warranted and which are inherited artifacts of earlier confusions.
Key Questions
- What can Descartes’ equivocation teach us about contemporary dualism?
- How did Hume’s bundle theory anticipate modern deflationism about the self?
- What does William James’s radical empiricism offer to consciousness studies?
- How does Husserl’s phenomenology relate to modern neuroscience?
Selected Publications
- Historical Perspectives on Consciousness — Cambridge University Press, 2023
- Descartes Was Half Right — Aeon, 2025