University of Liverpool

Faculty Member, Philosophy

Lecture in Philosophy

About

I am a Lecturer of Philosophy at the University of Liverpool, and am currently Research Fellow at David Chalmers’ Centre for Consciousness (Australian National University). I am working on a monograph arguing against that consciousness cannot be explained in conventional scientific terms.

Fundamentally I am a metaphysician who thinks that metaphysicians don’t think enough about consciousness.

Twitter@philipagoff

Journal articles

1.'What's wrong with strong necessities?,' co-written with David Papineau, forthcoming in a symposium on The Character of Consciousness by David Chalmers in Analysis Reviews.
2.'Does Mary know I mean plus rather than quus? A new hard problem,' Philosophical Studies (forthcoming).
3.'A priori physicalism, lonely ghosts and Cartesian doubt,' Consciousness and Cognition (special issue containing the papers from the Second Online Consciousness Conference) (forthcoming).
4.A posteriori physicalists get our phenomenal concepts wrong,' (2011) Australasian Journal of Philosophy (forthcoming). 89: 2, 191-209.
5.‘Ghosts and sparse properties: Why the physicalist has more to fear from ghosts than zombies,' Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 81: 1, 119-39 (2010).
6.‘Orthodox truthmaker theory cannot be defended by cost/benefit analysis,' Analysis, 79:1 (2010).
7.‘Why pansychism doesn’t help explain consciousness,' Dialectica, 63: 3 (2009).
8.‘A non-eliminative form of austere nominalism,' European Journal of Philosophy, 16: 1 (2008).
9.‘Kirk on empirical physicalism’, Ratio, 20: 1 (2007).
10.‘Experiences don’t sum,' Journal of Consciousness Studies, 13: 6 (2006).

Articles in books

1.'Experiences don't sum,' is also forthcoming in Consciousness and the Mind-Body Problem: Essential Readings, Torin Alter and Robert J. Howell (eds.), Oxford University Press.
2.‘Property dualists should be panpsychists,’ will be printed with a reply by Bill Robinson in a volume with Springer of the papers from the third Online Consciousness Conference. Other contributors to the volume include Paul Churchland and Ruth Millikan. 
3.‘Against funny physicalism,’ Yujin Nagasawa and Torin Alter have invited me to contribute this paper to a collection they are editing on Russellian physicalism.
4.‘There is more than one thing,’ Monism in Spinoza, Philip Goff (ed.), Palgrave Macmillan (forthcoming).
5.‘There is no combination problem,’ Process Thought Series, Nicholas Rescher, Johanna Seibt and Michael Weber (eds.), Ontos Publishing House (forthcoming).
6. ‘Idealism,' Encyclopedia of the Mind, Hal Pashler (ed.), Sage Reference (forthcoming).
7.‘Could the Daleks stop the pyramids being built?,' Dr. Who and Philosophy, Courtland Lewis and Paula Smithka (eds.) Open Court Press. (2010).
8.‘Can the panpsychist get round the combination problem?,' in The Mind that Abides: Panpsychism in the New Millennium, (ed.) David Skrbina: Benjamins Publishing (2009).
9.‘Propertied objects as truth-makers,' in Topics on General and Formal Ontology, (ed.) Paulo Valore: Polimetrica International Scientific Publisher (2006).
10.‘Experiences don’t sum’ has also been published in, Consciousness and its Place in Nature, (ed.) Anthony Freeman: Imprint Academic (2006).

Books

1.Metaphysics: The Key Concepts (with Helen Beebee and Nikk Effingham), Routledge (2010).
2.Spinoza on Monism. Forthcoming with Palgrave Macmillan as part of their Philosophers in Depth series. Contributors include Terry Horgan, Jonathan Schaffer, Jonathan Lowe and John Heil. I have recently submitted the completed manuscript.

Book reviews
1.Review of ‘Consciousness, Function, and Representation’, Ned Block, Mind (forthcoming)
2.Critical notice of ‘Emergence in Mind’ by Macdonald and Macdonald (eds.) (5000 words), Notra Dame Philosophical Reviews (2011).
3.Review of ‘Real Materialism’ by Galen Strawson, Philosophical Quarterly, 60: 240, 652-6 (2010).
4.‘No hobbits?’ Review of ‘Truth and Ontology’ by Trenton Merricks, Times Literary Supplement (May 16th 2008).
5.‘Why zombies are scary’ Review of ‘Zombies and Consciousness’ by Robert Kirk, Times Literary Supplement (November 24th 2006).

Contact Information