(photography by Trina Gonzales)

Eric Schwitzgebel

eschwitz at domain- ucr.edu

Associate Professor (Ph.D., U.C. Berkeley, 1997)

Areas of interest: Philosophy of psychology, philosophy of mind, cognitive development,

philosophy of science, classical Chinese philosophy,

epistemology, perceptual and cognitive psychology, metaphilosophy.

My Blog:

is here.

My Book with Russell T. Hurlburt: 

• Describing Inner Experience? Proponent Meets Skeptic MIT Press (2007).

Essays Sorted by Theme:

Belief:

• "Acting Contrary to Our Professed Beliefs" (in draft).
• "Belief" (2006), entry for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• "A Phenomenal, Dispositional Account of Belief" (2002), Nous, 36, 249-275.
  • "In-Between Believing" (2001), Philosophical Quarterly, 51, 76-82.
  • "On Containers and Content, with a Cautionary Note to Philosophers of Mind" (not for print publication).
• "Gradual Belief Change in Children" (1999), Human Development, 42, 283-296.

Our Poor Knowledge of Our Own Conscious Experience:

• "The Unreliability of Naive Introspection" (2008), Philosophical Review, 117, 245-273.
  • "No Unchallengeable Epistemic Authority, of Any Sort, Regarding Our Own Conscious Experience -- Contra Dennett?" (2007), Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 6, 107-113.  (For further thoughts in response to an exchange with Dennett, see here.)
• "Descartes Inverted" (forthcoming), from Describing Inner Experience? Proponent Meets Skeptic (with Russell T. Hurlburt).
• "Do You Have Constant Tactile Experience of Your Feet in Your Shoes? Or Is Experience Limited to What's in Attention?" (2007), Journal of Consciousness Studies, 14, no. 3, 5-35.
• "Do Things Look Flat?" (2006), Philosophy & Phenomenological Research, 72, 589-599..
• "Introspective Training Apprehensively Defended: Reflections on Titchener's Lab Manual" (2004), Journal of Consciousness Studies, 11, no. 7-8, 58-76..
  • "Difference Tone Training: A Demonstration Adapted from Titchener's Experimental Psychology" (2005), Psyche, 11, no. 6.
• "Why Did We Think We Dreamed in Black and White?" (2002), Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 33, 649-660.  
  • "Do People Still Report Dreaming in Black and White? An Attempt to Replicate a Questionnaire from 1942" (2003), Perceptual & Motor Skills, 96, 25-29; and 
  • (with Changbing Huang and Zhou Yifeng) "Do We Dream in Color? Cultural Variations and Skepticism" (2006), Dreaming, 16, 36-42.
• "How Well Do We Know Our Own Conscious Experience? The Case of Visual Imagery" (2002), Journal of Consciousness Studies, 9, no. 5-6, 35-53.
• (with Michael S. Gordon) "How Well Do We Know Our Own Conscious Experience? The Case of Human Echolocation" (2000), Philosophical Topics, 28, 235-246.

The Relationship Between Moral Reflection and Moral Behavior:

• (with Joshua Rust) "The Moral Behavior of Ethicists: Peer Opinion" (in draft).
• "Do Ethicists Steal More Books?" (in draft).
• (with Joshua Rust) "Do Ethicists and Political Philosophers Vote More Often Than Other Professors?" (in draft)
• "Human Nature and Moral Education in Mencius, Xunzi, Hobbes, and Rousseau" (2007) History of Philosophy Quarterly. 24, 147-168.
• (with Joshua Rust) "The Moral Behavior of Ethicists" (PowerPoint presentation: Society for Philosophy and Psychology, June 2007).

Foundational Issues in Cognitive Development:

• (with Victoria McGeer) "Disorder in the Representational Warehouse" (2006), Child Development, 77, 1557-1562.  [This is a commentary on an essay by Jacqueline Woolley, but it is written so as to be comprehensible without knowledge of Woolley's paper.]
• "Gradual Belief Change in Children" (1999), Human Development, 42, 283-296.  [Also listed under "Belief" above.]
• "A Difficulty for Simulation Theory Due to the Close Connection of Pretense and Action in Early Childhood" (2000, not for print publication)
• "Children's Theories and the Drive to Explain" (1999), Science & Education, 8, 457-488.
  • "Theories in Children and the Rest of Us" (1996), Philosophy of Science, Supplemental Issue, 63, s202-s210.
• "Representation and Desire: A Philosophical Error with Consequences for Theory-of-Mind Research" (1999), Philosophical Psychology, 12, 157-180.
• "Difficulties in Davidson's Arguments Against Belief Without Language" (1997, not for print publication)

Metaphilosophy:

• (with Alison Gopnik) "Whose Concepts Are They, Anyway?  The Role of Philosophical Intuition in Empirical Psychology" (1998),  in M.R. DePaul and W. Ramsey (eds.), Rethinking Intuition (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield).
• "Zhuangzi's Attitude Toward Language and His Skepticism" (1996), in P. Kjellberg and P.J. Ivanhoe (eds.), Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi (SUNY Press).

Chinese Philosophy:

• "Human Nature and Moral Development in Mencius, Xunzi, Hobbes, and Rousseau" (2007) History of Philosophy Quarterly, 24, 147-168.  [Also listed under "The Relationship Between Moral Reflection and Moral Behavior" above.]
• "Why Don't We Know Our Chinese Philosophy?" (2001), APA Newsletter on the Status of Asian & Asian-American Philosophers & Philosophies, 1, 26-27.
• "Zhuangzi's Attitude Toward Language and His Skepticism" (1996), in P. Kjellberg and P.J. Ivanhoe (eds.), Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi (SUNY Press).  [Also listed under "Metaphilosophy" above.]

Other:

• (with Josh Dever) "The Two Envelope Paradox and Using Variables Within the Expectation Formula" (2008), Sorites, 20, 135-140 -- also see our Simple Explanation of the Two Envelope Paradox.

Dissertation:

• Words about Young Minds: The Concepts of Theory, Representation, and Belief in Philosophy and Developmental Psychology (U.C. Berkeley, Philosophy Department, 1997).

General Description of My Main Research Themes:

• Our poor knowledge of our own conscious experience.
• In-between cases of belief and the dispositional approach to believing.
• Key concepts in developmental psychology.
• Metaphilosophical empiricism and pragmatism.
• Moral reflection and moral behavior.

Miscellaneous Thoughts:

• Conjugal love.
• Marilyn Vos Savant on Goliath and Lump1.

Recent Courses:

Lower Division: 

Evil (Spring 2007, Winter 2006, Winter 2005; Fall 2003)

Upper Division: 

Classical Chinese Philosophy (Winter 2007, Fall 2005, Winter 2004)

Senior Seminar: Consciousness (Fall 2007); Chalmers on Consciousness (Fall 2006); Philosophy of Mind (Winter 2005)

Philosophy of Science (Fall 2005, Winter 2002)

Philosophy of Mind (Fall 2004, Spring 2003)

Sophomore-Junior Seminar (Winter 2004)

Graduate Seminars:

Visual Consciousness (Winter 2008)

Workshop: Moral Psychology (Winter 2008)

Moral Reflection and Moral Behavior (Winter 2007)

Self-Knowledge (Spring 2006)

Moral Sentiments (Spring 2005)

Introspected Experience (Spring 2004)

Consciousness (Spring 2003)

Click here for more detailed information on my courses.

Dissertations completed under my direction:

• Nick Baiamonte (2008): On The Possibility of Being Virtuous in a Wicked World: The Nature, Character, and Power of Genuine Moral Reflection.
• Joshua Rust (2005): John Searle's Ideal Type: Max Weber and the Construction of Social Reality.
• Ted M. Preston (2005): Bridging the Gap Between Normative Beliefs and Actions.

Click here to see pictures of my wife and son and for non-academic information about me.  The pictures of my son are out of date now, I'm afraid.  But they're still cute!

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