My philosophical views

The answers shown here are not necessarily the same provided as part of the 2009 PhilPapers Survey. These answers can be updated at any time.

See also:

QuestionAnswerComments
A priori knowledge: yes or no?Lean toward: yes
Abstract objects: Platonism or nominalism?Lean toward: nominalism
Aesthetic value: objective or subjective?Lean toward: objectiveI'm not entirely sure what the subjective/objective distinction is doing here. If the question is whether there would be aesthetic value if there were no persons, then aesthetic value is plainly subjective. However, given persons and their peculiar constitution I'm inclined to think that some aesthetic value is real and independent of what we say and think about it.
Analytic-synthetic distinction: yes or no?Lean toward: no
Epistemic justification: internalism or externalism?Reject bothI think there is no piece of philosophical jargon I loathe more intensely than externalism/internalism distinctions.
External world: idealism, skepticism, or non-skeptical realism?Reject one, undecided between othersI reject skepticism.
Free will: compatibilism, libertarianism, or no free will?Accept more than oneI endorse a form of two-world compatibilism such that compatibilism and incompatibilism are compatible.
God: theism or atheism?Accept: atheism
Knowledge: empiricism or rationalism?Reject both
Knowledge claims: contextualism, relativism, or invariantism?Lean toward: contextualism
Laws of nature: Humean or non-Humean?Lean toward: non-Humean
Logic: classical or non-classical?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Mental content: internalism or externalism?Reject bothI find internalism/externalism distinctions entirely unhelpful. Partially because there are so many of them--three just in this survey.
Meta-ethics: moral realism or moral anti-realism?Lean toward: moral realism
Metaphilosophy: naturalism or non-naturalism?Lean toward: naturalism
Mind: physicalism or non-physicalism?Lean toward: physicalism
Moral judgment: cognitivism or non-cognitivism?Accept an intermediate view
Moral motivation: internalism or externalism?Reject bothI find internalism/externalism distinctions universally unhelpful.
Newcomb's problem: one box or two boxes?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Normative ethics: deontology, consequentialism, or virtue ethics?Accept more than oneI'm currently endorsing an axiological deontology in which value is pluralistic. However, such a view does not treat all relevant characterological issues; one could be on the sunny side of the deontology and yet be of substandard character. Thus I am also attracted to some form of virtue ethics as a supplement.
Perceptual experience: disjunctivism, qualia theory, representationalism, or sense-datum theory?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Personal identity: biological view, psychological view, or further-fact view?Accept an intermediate view
Politics: communitarianism, egalitarianism, or libertarianism?Lean toward: communitarianism
Proper names: Fregean or Millian?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Science: scientific realism or scientific anti-realism?Lean toward: scientific realism
Teletransporter (new matter): survival or death?Lean toward: death
Time: A-theory or B-theory?Insufficiently familiar with the issue
Trolley problem (five straight ahead, one on side track, turn requires switching, what ought one do?): switch or don't switch?Accept: switch
Truth: correspondence, deflationary, or epistemic?Lean toward: epistemic
Zombies: inconceivable, conceivable but not metaphysically possible, or metaphysically possible?Lean toward: conceivable but not metaphysically possible