Current Research

Here is a recent copy of my full CV.

I am currently at work on a book project, tentatively entitled Belief and Possibility.

My aim is to develop and defend the view that beliefs are dispositions, as opposed, say, to propositional attitudes or internal states.  This is a description of the ideas and a chapter by chapter plan of the book.  I will post chapters as they become complete.

I am also working on issues about critical thinking.

Here is a draft of Critical Thinking: the power of effective decision making, a  textbook I am working on.

I am also involved, in collaboration with Catherine Cooke-Cottone of the Counseling Psychology Department at University at Buffalo, on an empirical study of the cognitive development of critical thinking dispositions.

Finally, I am working on questions about the assessment of critical thinking, including the use and design of critical thinking rubrics. Last year, I chaired a SUNY-wide committee that designed this Critical Thinking Rubric. It is now being used at many SUNY campuses to assess student critical thinking competency. The committee also developed the following Anchor Essays, illustrating how the rubric can be used to grade a student’s work. For more information, visit the SUNY General Education website.

Recent and Upcoming Events

“Belief and Subjectivity”, Annual Meeting of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, March 2006.

The symposium members are Ruth Millikan, Jose Bermudez, and Eric Schwitzgebel and will be chaired by Robin Jeshion.

This will be part of my book.

                                                                              

Chair of a session for the Association for Informal Logic and Critical Thinking, at the Annual Meeting of the Pacific Division of the

          American Philosophical Association, Portland, March 2006

 

“Dispositionalism about Belief and Frege’s Puzzles”, Annual Meeting of the Canadian Philosophical Association, London, Ontario.

May 2005.  This talk was part of a symposium I organized. Charles Travis and Eric Schweitzgebel also participated.

 

 

 

Upcoming (and recent) Critical Thinking Presentations

 

“Critical Thinking Assessment”, Keynote Address at the Western New York Community College CORE conference, Buffalo, October 2006.

 

“Critical Thinking: the power of effective decision making”, annual meeting of the American Society for Training and Development,

Houston, June 2006

 

“Critical Thinking Rubrics”, at a conference entitled Program-Level Assessment, at the SUNY Training Center at the University at

          Buffalo, November 2005.  Here is a copy of the Powerpoint Presentation.

 

“Critical Thinking and Evidence-Based Decision Making”, HealthCare Executives Forum, Buffalo, September 2005

 

Publications

Journal                 ‘Soames and Widescopism’, forthcoming in Philosophical Studies

Articles                  ‘Is Thinking an Action?’, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, 133-148

‘On Representing Content’, Protosociology, Vol. 17, 2002

                   ‘Knowledge and Understanding’, Mind and Language, Vol. 16, No. 5, November 2001, 542-546

‘Mind-Brain Identity and the Nature of States’, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 79, No. 3, September 2001, 366-376

‘Understanding and Belief’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. LVIII, No. 3, September 1998, 559-579

‘Understanding, Justification and the A Priori’, Philosophical Studies, Vol. 87, No.2, 1997, 119-141

‘Definition in Frege’s Foundations of Arithmetic’, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 77, No. 2, June 1996, 88-107

 

Book Chapters      ‘Contextualism, Skepticism and Objectivity’, forthcoming in Compositionality, Context and

                                      Semantic Value, edited by R. Stainton and C. Viger. Springer-Verlag.

 

Article Length       ‘Critical Notice of Gabriel Segal’s A Slim Book about Narrow Content, (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press

Critical Notices               2000)’, December 2003, Vol. 37, Issue 4, 724-745

          ‘Consciousness and Conceivability: a Critical Notice of John Perry’s Knowledge, Possibility and Consciousness (MIT Press 2001)’, The Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Volume 33, Number 2, June 2003, 285-304

 

Encyclopedia        ‘Communication, understanding, and interpretation: philosophical aspects’, forthcoming in The Entry Encyclopedia of

Entry                              Language and Linguistics, 2nd. Ed., Elsevier

 

Dictionary             Biographical entries on Robert Stalnaker and George Boolos, forthcoming in The Dictionary of Modern American

Entries                            Philosophers, edited by Ernie Lepore, Thoemmes Press

 

Brief Review                   ‘Review of Gary Ebbs’ Rule-Following and Realism. (Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press 1997),

Philosophical Review, Vol. 108, No. 3, July 1999, 425-27

 

 

Here is a recent copy of my full CV.

 
 

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