Faculty

Robert Howell

Associate Professor of Philosophy

 

 



PhD Brown, 2001
Philosophy Department
Hyer Hall 211F
Southern Methodist University
P.O. Box 750142
Dallas TX 75275-0142
214-768-3063
rhowell@smu.edu
CV
Webpage: http://www.rjhjr.com

 


        

Fall Office Hours:
Tues and Thurs 3:30 -5:00                                      
Fall Syllabus:
Intro to Philosophy
History of Western Philosophy
(Ancient)


Current Research

In general, my work concerns the nature of subjectivity, the self and the mind. As a result, I wind up working in metaphysics, epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. Most recently, I have been developing a view called "Subjective Physicalism," which maintains that while everything is physical, some physical states cannot be fully grasped unless they are occupied.

Representative Publications

  • "The Ontology of Subjective Physicalism," Nous
  • "Subjective Physicalism," in The Case for Qualia, MIT Press, edited by Edmund White.
  • "Self-Knowledge and Self-Reference," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
  • "The Knowledge Argument and Objectivity," Philosophical Studies.
  • "Emergentism and Supervenience Physicalism," Australasian Journal of Philosophy.
  • "Immunity to Error and Subjectivity," Canadian Journal of Philosophy.
  • "The Two-Dimensionalist Reductio," Pacific Philosophical Quarterly
  • A Dialogue on Consciousness (Oxford University Press, 2009)
  • The God Dialogues (Oxford University Press, forthcoming)

Work in Progress

  • "Deduction, Necessitation and Consciousness"
  •  "Space and the Physical"
  • "Perception from the First-Person Perspective"
  • "The Theist's Defeater: A Response to Descartes and Plantinga"
  •  Before and After: A Philosophical Approach to the Question of Anti-Depressants
  • "The Hard Problem of the Self"

Teaching

  • Philosophy of Mind
  • Ancient Philosophy
  • Introduction to Philosophy
  • Existentialism
  • Epistemology