Self and Other is divided into what at first might look like three distinct parts. There are, however, a number of interlocking themes that run through the book and makes it into one interconnected whole. Let me today present some themes from the first part of the book that is …
Thanks to John Schwenkler for offering me this opportunity to share some thoughts regarding my new book Self and Other: Exploring Subjectivity, Empathy, and Shame (OUP 2014). Before going into some details about the book, let me just say a few introductory words about my own background. I have been …
In my final post here, I would like to present some material from the final chapter of The First Sense on pleasant touch. Perceptual experience is often more than merely descriptive or informational; it is also often evaluative and motivational. Offering an account of this component is critical to our understanding …
Touch seems like a paradigm contact sense. In order to experience things through touch it seems necessary that we be in direct contact with them. I argue that this is false. We can and often do experience things not in direct (or even apparent) contact with our bodies. We do …
Active or haptic touch typically involves externally directed experiences of things in the world. We experience through touch tables, chairs, breezes, cups, dogs, microwaves, even other people. Such experiences are directed at ordinary material objects and their properties, just like vision is typically directed at external objects and their features …
First let me thank the wonderful people here at Brains for asking me to blog over the next couple of weeks. I’m really looking forward to it. I was recently asked to summarize my philosophical interests and approach in a single sentence. I was put on the spot, but I …
I’m very glad to be introducing Matthew Fulkerson, who will contribute several featured posts at the Brains blog beginning this week. Matt is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego, where he has taught since 2012. Prior to that he was a …
