Recent Papers and Reviews

Here are some papers published in the past 18 months or in press. In some cases the published version differs from that posted here, so you should check the published versions where it might matter (e.g., when quoting).

in press, How to Situate Cognition: Letting Nature Take its Course (with Andy Clark) for Murat Aydede and Philip Robbins (editors), The Cambridge Handbook of Situated Cognition.  Articulates and defends a conception of situated cognition as cognitive extension, using the extended mind thesis to make sense of situated cognition and respond to several recent attacks on that view.  [~12 000 words]

in press, Meaning Making and the Mind of the Externalist in Richard Menary (editor), The Extended Mind.  Aldershot: Ashgate.  Explores the problem of intentionality, given the assumption that the mind is extended.  [~8500 words]

in press, Realization (with Carl Craver).  Review essay for the Handbook of the Philosophy of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Kluwer, edited by Paul Thagard.  Brings together work of the two authors on realization and mechanism, especially about the mind and brain.  [~12 000 words]

in press, What Computers (Still, Still) Can't Do: Jerry Fodor on Computation and  Modularity in R, J. Stainton, M. Ezcurdia, and C. D. Viger (eds.), New Essays in Philosophy of Language and Mind.  Supp. issue 30 of the Canadian Journal of Philosophy,   Focus on Fodor's "The Mind Doesn't Work That Way", but not on its main message about evolutionary psychology.  Has Fodor become Granny?  [~6500 words] 

2005, Collective Memory, Group Minds, & the Extended Mind Thesis special issue Cognitive Processing, 6 (4), December 2005, ed. by John Sutton.  Review essay on collective memory in the biological and social sciences that draws on the extended mind thesis. [~8500 words].

2005, Persons, Social Agency, and Constitution Social Philosophy and Policy 22  (Summer 2005), pp.49-69.  Also published in E. Frankl Paul, Fred D. Miller, Jr., and Jeffrey Paul (editors), Personal Identity, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2005.  Explores Lynn Baker's constitution view of persons in making sense of both individual and collective social agency. This is the penultimate version; for the final version, see the journal or the book. [~10 000 words]

2005, Introduction: Philosophy of Psychology  Review essay for S. Sarkar and J.  Pfeiffer (eds.), The Philosophy of Science: An Encyclopedia, 2 volumes.  New York: Routledge.  Overview essay for this section of the encyclopedia. The version here was written in July 2001, scheduled for publication in 2002, but such is the life of encyclopedia projects ...  [~4000 words]

2005, Review of Derek Melser, The Act of Thinking (MIT Press, 2004), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (2005.04.02) See also NDPR itself.  [~2000 words]

2004, Test Cases, Resolvability, and Group Selection: A Critical Examination of the Myxoma Case Philosophy of Science 71 (July 2004): 380-401.    Discussion of the case of myxomatosis in Australian rabbits, long presented as a textbook example of group selection in the wild that reveals complexities overlooked by proponents of both individual and group selection. [~9500 words]

2004, Recent Work in Individualism in the Social, Behavioural and Biological  Sciences Biology and Philosophy 19 (June 2004), pp.397-423.  Review essay that draws on work from both Boundaries of the Mind and Genes and the Agents of Life, as well as new material on evolution, cognition, and sociality. [~9000 words]

2004, Review of Joseph LaPorte, Natural Kinds and Conceptual Change (Cambridge University Press), Philosophy in Review 24 (December 2004), pp.423-426. [~2000 words]

2004, Critical review of Philip Kitcher, In Mendel's Mirror (Oxford University Press, 2003), Human Nature Review, 4 (1 January 2004), pp.1-13.  See also http://human-nature.com/nibbs/04/rawilson.html. [~5000 words]