It’s that time of year again! Here are the top posts of 2011 (see last year’s clip show and the best of all time)
–Runner Up– News Flash: Philosophy Sucks!
Philosophy is unavoidable; that is part of why it sucks!
10. Epiphenomenalism and Russellian Monism
Is Russellian Monism committed to epiphenomenalism about consciousness? Dave Chalmers argues that it is not.
9. Bennett on Non-Reductive Physicalism
Karen Bennett argues that the causal exclusion argument provides an argument for physicalism and that non-reductive physicalism is not ruled out by it. I argue that she is wrong and that the causal exclusion argument does cut against non-reductive physicalism.
8. The Zombie Argument Requires Phenomenal Transparency
Chalmers argues that the zombie argument goes through even without an appeal to the claim that the primary and secondary intension of ‘consciousness’ coincide. I argue that it doesn’t. Without an appeal to transparency we cannot secure the first premise of the zombie argument.
7. The Problem of Zombie Minds
Does conceiving of zombies require that we be able to know that zombies lack consciousness? It seems like we can’t know this so there may be a problem conceiving of zombies. I came to be convinced that this isn’t quite right, but still a good post (plus I think we can use the response here in a way that helps the physicalist who wants to say that the truth of physicalism is conceivable…more on that later, though)
6. Stazicker on Attention and Mental Paint
Can we have phenomenology that is indeterminate? James Stazicker thinks so.
5. Consciousness Studies in 1000 words (more) or less
I was asked to write a short piece highlighting some of the major figures and debates in the philosophical study of consciousness for an intro textbook. This is what I came up with
4. Cohen and Dennett’s Perfect Experiment
Dennett’s response to the overflow argument and why I think it isn’t very good
This was big year for me in that I came into possession of some long-lost recordings of my death metal band from the 1990’s as well as some pictures. This prompted me to write up a brief autobiography of my musical ‘career’
A collection of philosophical jokes that I wrote plus some others that were prompted by mine.
Some reflections on Ned Block and Jake Berger’s response to my claim that higher-order thoughts just are phenomenal consciousness
Richard Brown 