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Email: <gwitmer> Office: 308
Griffin-Floyd Hall Phone: (352)
273-1830 Due to the ongoing pandemic, I will not be in my office on a regular
basis; it is best to reach me by email. Department of
Philosophy 330
Griffin-Floyd Hall University of
Florida Gainesville,
FL 32611-8545 |
Associate
Professor of Philosophy Ph.D., Rutgers
University, 1997 Areas of research: Metaphysics, philosophy of mind,
physicalism, consciousness, a priori knowledge My areas of
research lie in metaphysics and philosophy of mind, often focusing on the
doctrine of physicalism. I have worked on such topics as the nature of
intrinsic properties, metaphysical grounding, mental causation,
functionalism, conceptual analysis, and a priori knowledge. A book defending
a kind of a priori physicalism is planned. My interests extend as well to
meta-ethics, epistemology, and philosophy of religion. My curriculum vitae. My page on Philosophical Papers,
including links to various papers and my positions
on many philosophical issues. Faculty < Department < College < University |
|
Office
hours for Fall 2020: Tuesdays
and Thursdays 3:00
PM - 4:30 PM And
by appointment All
office hours are held by Zoom at Registered
UF accounts only
|
Undergraduate
Advising For the 2020-2021
academic year, I am the department's Undergraduate Advisor. If you are a
philosophy major or minor or just a student interested in finding out more
about the department's undergraduate curriculum, feel free to get in touch
with me at gwitmer@ufl.edu. Office hours are listed on the left. Fall
2020 Teaching PHI 3700 Philosophy of
Religion The
philosophy of religion can range over many different areas, including issues
in epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics. Instead of a broad survey, however,
in this course we focus on what is arguably the most fundamental question in
this area, namely, whether or not there exists something deserving of the
title "God." The course is structured around a fictional dialogue
between a theist, an atheist, and an agnostic as well as supplementary papers
provided in a coursepack that supplement parts of the dialogue. Topics
include the relationship between God, value and morality; arguments from
design (teleological arguments), including both classical biological and more
contemporary "fine-tuning" arguments; cosmological or "first
cause" arguments; the infamous ontological argument (which aims to show
just from the definition of God that he must exist); the significance of
religious experience and claims about miracles; the problem of evil as a
reason to be an atheist; the idea that we might "bet" on God's
existence as per Pascal's Wager; and the nature of faith. By the end of the
course you should have a substantial understanding of the most important
lines of argument concerning the existence of God. PHI 6326 Seminar in
Philosophy of Mind Topic: Consciousness, Analysis, and the Knowledge
Argument. In this exploratory research seminar, we will focus on two
related questions about consciousness in relation to the mind-body problem.
The first concerns the concept of consciousness: are there any significant a
priori truths about (kinds of) conscious experience, and, if so, what are
they? The second concerns Jackson's famous knowledge argument against
physicalism: what is the physicalist's best response to that argument? Our
exploration of the first of these is intended to help address the second: if
there are significant a priori truths about (kinds of) conscious experience,
those are available in principle to Mary, the vision scientist trapped in the
black-and-white environment. Readings consist of a variety of individual
papers on consciousness, the knowledge argument, conceivability and modal
arguments, the explanatory gab, functionalism, absent qualia, recognitional
concepts, a priori entailment more generally, and an anthology of new essays
on the knowledge argument. Selected Publications "Full and Partial Grounding."
With Kelly Trogdon. Forthcoming in
Journal of the American Philosophical Association. "Physicalism
UnBlocked." Forthcoming in Canadian
Journal of Philosophy. "Platonistic
Physicalism without Tears." Journal
of Consciousness Studies 24 (9-10): 72-90. 2017. Part of a collection of
papers responding to Susan Schneider's "Does the Mathematical Nature of
Physics Undermine Physicalism?" "Physicality
for Physicalists." Topoi 37
(3): 457-472. September 2018. Special issue "The Character of
Physicalism" edited by Andreas Elpidorou. FDOI:
10.1007/s11245-016-9415-y. "Chudnoff
on our Awareness of Abstract Objects." Florida Philosophical Review 16 (1): 105-116. Winter 2016. "Physicalism
and Metaphysical Naturalism." Oxford
Bibliographies Online. 2015. "A
Simple Theory of Intrinsicality." In Robert M. Francescotti, ed., Companion to Intrinsic Properties.
Berlin: DeGruyter, 2014. Review
of Robert Kirk, The Conceptual Link
from Physical to Mental (Oxford University Press, 2013). In Analysis Reviews 0, 1-5 (2014). "Naturalism
and Physicalism." Encyclopedia entry in Robert Barnard and Neil Manson,
eds., The Bloomsbury Companion to
Metaphysics, Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly Continuum), 2012. Review of Jens Kipper, A Two-Dimensionalist Guide to Conceptual
Analysis (Ontos Verlag, 2012). Notre
Dame Philosophical Reviews. January 11, 2013. "Stalking
the Elusive Physicalist Thesis." Review of Daniel Stoljar, Physicalism
(Routledge, 2010). Metascience 21: 71-75. 2012. Review
of Jakob Howhy and Jesper Kallestrup, eds.,
Being Reduced: New Essays on Reduction, Explanation, and Causation
(Oxford University Press, 2008). Mind
120 (479): 882-888. July 2011. Review
of Timothy Williamson, The Philosophy of Philosophy (Blackwell,
2007). Metaphilosophy (2011) 42: 155-160. Selected
Presentations Comments on Daniel
Giberman and David Kovacs, "Property Dualism (not?) for Property
Nominalists." February 26, 2020.
Central Division, American Philosophical Association. Chicago, IL. "Grounds for a Free
Lunch." November 1, 2019. Florida
Philosophical Association. Gainesville, FL. "Goff's
Insufficiently Minimal Minimal Rationalism." November 2, 2018. Florida
Philosophical Association. Pensacola, FL. "Metaphysics and A
Priori Vindication." May 10, 2018. Invited
talk at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Comments on Paul Boswell,
"There Are No Intrinsic Desires," February 2018 at the
Central Division, American Philosophical Association. Chicago, IL. Comments on Zach Blaesi, "Grounding,
Physicalism, and the Explanatory Gap." January 6, 2018. Eastern
Division, American Philosophical Association. Savannah, GA. (Presented in
absentia.) Comments on Fermin Fulda,
"Three Grades of Naturalistic Involvement." October 6, 2017.
Conference of the Society for the Metaphysics of Science. New York, NY. Comments on Todd Ganson, "What
are Sensory Powers?" January 7, 2017. Eastern
Division, American Philosophical Association. Baltimore, MD. Comments on Kenneth L.
Pearce, "Counteressential Conditionals." March 3, 2016. Central
Division, American Philosophical Association. Chicago, Illinois. "Physicality for
Physicalists." Invited talk for the
Graduate Center at the City University of New York. New York, NY. September
30, 2015. Comments on Andreas
Elpidorou, "Defending Actualist Physicalism." September 18, 2015. Conference
of the Society for the Metaphysics of Science. Newark, NJ. |
