Research Interests

I work in the philosophy of mind, and in particular the phenomenology and content of perception and consciousness in the context of a variety of debates in (mainly) analytic philosophy. I'm curious about the extent to which minds result from the human tendency to be struck by other creatures, especially other humans, as being minded; whether consciousness is an essentially social phenomenon.

I am currently working on the problem of other minds, and am the recipient of a Japanese government (JSPS) research grant on "The Problem of Other Minds in an Age of Social Robots" (Grant number 23K00005).

Bio

I have been with the Department of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies since April 2013. I have been with the University Tokyo since 2006, when I arrived in Japan to take up a JSPS postdoctoral fellowship in Philosophy. Prior to 2006 I spent 3 years as postdoctoral fellow in the Philosophy Program of RSSS, ANU, Canberra. In 2002 I graduated with a Ph.D. in philosophy from Monash University, Melbourne. I spent the 1997-8 American academic year in graduate coursework in the Philosophy Dept of the University Maryland (College Park). Before that I studied philosophy and psychology toward a B.A. (Hons) (1996) from The University of Queensland, Brisbane, where I was born and near where I was raised.

Main Publications

"Perceptual constancy and the dimensions of perceptual experience. In Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 21 (2):421-434, 2020.

"Art and Ambiguity: A Gestalt-Shift Approach to Elusive Appearances. In Phenomenal Presence, edited by Fabian Dorsch and Fiona Macpherson, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.

"A Proprioceptive Account of the Senses." In Fiona Macpherson (ed.), The Senses: Classical and Contemporary Philosophical Perspectives. Oxford University Press. 2011.

"Transparency and the Unity of Experience." In E. Wright (ed.), The Case for Qualia. MIT Press. 2008.

"The Value in Equal Opportunity: Reply to Kershnar." Journal of Applied Philosophy 24 (2):177–187. 2007.

"Representationalism, Supervenience, and the Cross-Modal Problem." Philosophical Studies 130 (2):285-95. 2006.

"The Indexical Nature of Sensory Concepts." Philosophical Papers 32 (2):169-181. 2002.

Teaching

Undergraduate: Historical Introduction to Analytic Philosophy
Graduate: Readings in Analytic Philosophy