Paul Noordhof

Research interests

For the first three years of my appointment, I will hold a Major Leverhulme Research Fellowship in support of my research project on Consciousness and Representation. I would welcome prospective graduate students wishing to work in this area.

My main research interests are in philosophy of mind, action theory and metaphysics. I have been concerned with the question of whether difficulties in accounting for mental causation favour one view of the nature of mental events and states over another. I have tried to argue that they do not. This led me to attempt to provide a general theory of causation in terms of counterfactual chance-raising. The full presentation of this theory will occur in my forthcoming book, A Variety of Causes (under contract with OUP).

My other work in the philosophy of mind mainly focuses upon the nature and explanatory character of consciousness. A key idea is that, in all but some very interesting but highly exceptional circumstances, consciousness makes manifest the attraction of being disposed to act on what you take to be true. I have also defended representationalist accounts of consciousness against attack from those who favour disjunctivist approaches to perceptual consciousness as well as discussing the phenomenology of imaginative experience. These ideas take centre stage in the second part of a book, the first part of which draws together my work on mental causation, entitled Cement of the Mind (also under contract with OUP).

Editorial Work

Associate editor of Mind since 1991; Reviews Editor since July 1999.

I have edited a collection of papers on causation with Phil Dowe entitled Cause and Chance (Routledge). I was a contributor to The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, and a contributor of quotations to A Dictionary of Philosophical Quotations, regretfully of other people's rather than my own.

Teaching

I have taught the following courses in Nottingham

Self, Mind and Body
Philosophy of Mind
Objectivity, Reason and Value
Moral Philosophy
Philosophy of Art
Justice and Rights

at undergraduate level and

Self and Mind
Consciousness and Self-Consciousness

at MA level. As I am on leave for three years with the Leverhulme, my teaching at York after that is yet to be decided. As I hope my range of teaching so far indicates, I have been happy to teach a wide variety of the central areas of philosophy. I find this helps me broaden my outlook and throws up new research links and ideas. Sometimes I am inspired to write papers as a result of what I have taught.

Publications

Books

Edited Collections

• Phil Dowe and Paul Noordhof. 2004 (eds). Cause and Chance (London and New York, Routledge) (Introduction, pp. 1-11 and (2004a)) (ISBN 0-415-30098-3)

Articles

• 2008a, 'Expressive Perception as Projective Imagining', Mind and Language, 23, no. 3, pp. 329-358 (ISSN 0268-1064).
• 2007a, 'A coherentist response to Stoneham's reductio', Analysis, 67 (3), July, pp. 267-268 (ISSN 0003-2638). This is an electronic version of an article publised in Analysis, complete citation information for the final version of the paper, as published in the print edition of Analysis, is available on the Blackwell Synergy online delivery service, accessible via the journal's Blackwell website or at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com.
• 2006b, ‘The Success of Consciousness’, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 13, no. 7-8, July/August 2006, pp. 109-119 (ISSN 1355 8250), and in Anthony Freeman (ed., 2006), Radical Externalism (Exeter, Imprint-Academic), pp. 109-119 (ISBN 1845400682).
• 2006a, 'Environment-Dependent Content and the Virtues of Causal Explanation', Synthese, 149, April 2006, pp. 551-575 (ISSN 0023-7857) (Special Edition edited by Alexander Bird and Johannes Persson).
• 2005c, 'In a State of Pain', Murat Aydede (2005, ed.), Pain (Cambridge, Massachusetts, The MIT Press), pp. 151-162 (ISBN 0-262-51188-6).
• 2005b, 'Morgenbesser's Coin, Counterfactuals and Independence', Analysis, 65 (3), July2005, pp. 261-263 (ISSN 0003-2638). This is an electronic version of an article published in Analysis, complete citation information for the final version of the paper, as published in the print edition of Analysis, is available on the Blackwell Synergy online delivery service, accessible via the journal's Blackwell website or at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com.
• 2005a, 'The Transmogrification of A Posteriori Knowledge: Reply to Brueckner', Analysis 65 (1), pp. 88-89 (ISSN 0003-2638). This is an electronic version of an article published in Analysis, complete citation information for the final version of the paper, as published in the print edition of Analysis, is available on the Blackwell Synergy online delivery service, accessible via the journal's Blackwell website or at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com.
• 2004b 'Outsmarting the McKinsey-Brown Argument', Analysis 64 (1), January 2004, pp. 48-56 (ISSN 0003-2638). This is an electronic version of an article published in Analysis, complete citation information for the final version of the paper, as published in the print edition of Analysis, is available on the Blackwell Synergy online delivery service, accessible via the journal's Blackwell website or at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com.
• 2004a 'Prospects for a Counterfactual Theory of Causation', in Phil Dowe and Paul Noordhof (2004, eds.), Cause and Chance (London and New York, Routledge), pp. 188-201.
• 2003d 'Self-Deception, Interpretation and Consciousness', Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 77 (1), July, pp. 75-100 (ISSN 0031-8205).
• 2003c 'Not old ... but not that new either: Explicability, Emergence and the Characterisation of Materialism', in Physicalism and Mental Causation: The Metaphysics of Mind and Action, ed. Sven Walter and Heinz-Dieter Heckman, Charlottesville, Imprint Academic, 2003, pp. 85-108, (ISBN 0-907-84547-9).
• 2003b 'Something Like Ability', Australasian Journal of Philosophy 81 (1), March pp. 21-40 (ISSN 0004-8402).
• 2003a 'Tooley on Backward Causation', Analysis, 63 (2) April pp. 157-162 (ISSN 0003-2638). This is an electronic version of an article published in Analysis, complete citation information for the final version of the paper, as published in the print edition of Analysis, is available on the Blackwell Synergy online delivery service, accessible via the journal's Blackwell website or at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com.
• 2002e 'Epiphenomenalism and Causal Asymmetry', invited contribution to Real Metaphysics, eds. Hallvard Lillehammer and Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra, London and New York, Routledge pp. 98-119.
• 2002d 'Imagining Objects and Imagining Experiences', Mind and Language 17 (4) pp. 426-455 (ISSN 0268-1064).
• 2002c 'Personal Dualism and the Argument from Differential Vagueness', Philosophical Papers 31 (1), 2002, pp. 63-85 (ISSN 0556-8641).
• 2002b. 'More in Pain', Analysis 62 (2), April 2002, pp. 153-154 (ISSN 0003-2638). This is an electronic version of an article published in Analysis, complete citation information for the final version of the paper, as published in the print edition of Analysis, is available on the Blackwell Synergy online delivery service, accessible via the journal's Blackwell website or at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com.
• 2002a. 'Sungho Choi and the "actual events" clause', Analysis 62, (1), January 2002, pp. 46-47 (ISSN 0003-2638). This is an electronic version of an article published in Analysis, complete citation information for the final version of the paper, as published in the print edition of Analysis, is available on the Blackwell Synergy online delivery service, accessible via the journal's Blackwell website or at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com.
• 2001c. 'In Defence of Influence', Analysis 61 (4), October 2001, pp. 323-327 (ISSN 0003-2638). This is an electronic version of an article published in Analysis, complete citation information for the final version of the paper, as published in the print edition of Analysis, is available on the Blackwell Synergy online delivery service, accessible via the journal's Blackwell website or at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com.
• 2001b. 'In pain', Analysis, 61, no. 2, April 2001, pp. 95-97 (ISSN 0003-2638). This is an electronic version of an article published in Analysis, complete citation information for the final version of the paper, as published in the print edition of Analysis, is available on the Blackwell Synergy online delivery service, accessible via the journal's Blackwell website or at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com.
• 2001a. 'Believe What You Want', Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 2001, 101, no. 3, pp. 247-265 (ISSN 0066-7374).
• 2000. 'Ramachandran's Four Counterexamples', Mind, April 2000, 109, no. 434, pp. 315-324 (ISSN 0026 - 4423).
• 1999e. 'Moral Requirements are still not Rational Requirements', Analysis, 59, no. 3, July 1999, pp. 127-137 (ISSN 0003-2638). This is an electronic version of an article published in Analysis, complete citation information for the final version of the paper, as published in the print edition of Analysis, is available on the Blackwell Synergy online delivery service, accessible via the journal's Blackwell website or at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com.
• 1999d. 'Causation by Content', Mind and Language, 14, no. 3, September 1999, pp. 291-320 (ISSN 0268-1064).
• 1999c. 'The Overdetermination Argument versus the Cause-and-Essence Principle - No Contest', Mind, April 1999, 108, no. 430, pp. 367-375 (ISSN 0026 - 4423).
• 1999b. 'Probabilistic Causation, Preemption and Counterfactuals', Mind, January 1999, 108, no. 429, pp. 95-125 (ISSN 0026 - 4423).
• 1999a. 'Micro-based Properties and the Supervenience Argument: a response to Kim', Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 1999, 99, Part 1, pp. 109-114 (ISSN 0066-7374).
• 1998d. 'Critical Notice: Causation, Probability, and Chance', D. H. Mellor, The Facts of Causation, Mind, October 1998, 107, no. 428, pp. 855-877 (ISSN 0026 - 4423).
• 1998c. 'Problems for the M-Set Analysis of Causation', Mind, April 1998, 107, no. 426, pp. 457-463. (ISSN 0026 - 4423).
• 1998b. 'Do Tropes Resolve the Problem of Mental Causation?' Philosophical Quarterly, April 1998, 48, no. 191, pp. 221-226 (ISSN 0031-8094).
• 1998a. 'For a (revised) PCA-analysis', (with Murali Ramachandran and Jonardon Ganeri) Analysis, 1998, 58, no. 1, pp. 45-47 (ISSN 0003-2638).
• 1997b. 'Making the Change: the Functionalist's way', The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 48, 1997, pp. 233-250 (ISSN 0007 0882).
• 1997a. 'The Mysterious Grand Properties of Forrest', Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 75, no. 1, March 1997, pp. 99-101 (ISSN 0004-8402).
• 1996b. 'Counterfactuals and Preemptive Causation', (with Murali Ramachandran and Jonardon Ganeri) Analysis, 56, no. 4, 1996, pp. 219-225 (ISSN 0003-2638).
• 1996a. 'Accidental Associations, Local Potency and a dilemma for Dretske', Mind and Language, 11, no. 2, June 1996, pp. 216-222 (ISSN 0268-1064).

Reviews and Miscellaneous Contributions

• 2008b, Review of The Good and the Right by Robert Audi in Philosophical Books, 49, no. 2, April, pp. 175-178 (ISSN 0031-8051).
• 2007b, 'Keeping Up Standards: Commentary on Understanding People by Alan Millar', SWIF Philosophy of Mind.
• 2004. Review of David-Hillel Ruben, Action and its Explanation, in TLS, September 24th 2004, no. 5295, p. 22.
• 2003f. Review of Michael Tye, Consciousness, Color and Content, in Mind and Language, 18, no. 5, pp. 538-545.
• 2003e. Review of Carolyn Price, Functions in Mind, in Philosophical Books, 44, no. 3, July 2003, p. 280 (ISSN 0031 - 8051).
• 2001d, 'Getting Personal: Pietroski’s Dualism' A Field Guide to the Philosophy of Mind
• 1999f. Review of Annette Barnes, Seeing Through Self-Deception in Philosophical Books, 40, no. 3, July 1999, pp. 180-184 (ISSN 0031 - 8051).
• 1997c. Review of Robert Cummins, Representations, Targets, and Attitudes in Philosophical Books, 38, no. 4, October 1997 (ISSN 0031 - 8051).
• Contributor to the Oxford Companion to Philosophy ed. Ted Honderich (Oxford University Press, 1995) (Contributions on Arthritis in the Thigh, Introspection, Mental Indispensability, Millikan, Neuroscience - Philosophical Relevance of, Occasionalism, Panpsychism, Psycho-neural Intimacy, Scientism, Thinking Causes, Union Theory) (ISBN 0 - 19 - 866132 - 0)
• 1994. Review of Consciousness, eds. Martin Davies and Glyn W. Humphreys in Philosophical Books, 35, no. 4, October 1994, pp. 271-273. (ISSN 0031 - 8051)
• 1993. Review of Kim Sterelny, The Representational Theory of Mind in Mind, 102, no. 407, July 1993. (ISSN 0026 - 4423).
• 1992. Review of Justin Gosling, Weakness of Will in Mind, 101, no. 403, July 1992. (ISSN 0026 - 4423).
• 1991. Review of Igor Primoratz, Justifying Legal Punishment, and John Braithwaite and Philip Pettit, Not Just Deserts in Journal of Applied Philosophy, 8, no. 1, 1991, pp. 127-129. (ISSN 0264 - 3758).
• 1990. Review of J. Dancy, J. M. E. Moravcsik and C. C. W. Taylor (eds.), Human Agency: Language, Duty and Value, Philosophical Essays in honour of J. O. Urmson in Ethics, 100, no. 2, January 1990.