|
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. |
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 |
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Office hours for Spring
2021 Wednesdays 2:00 PM – 5:00
PM And by appointment All office hours are held
by Zoom at https://ufl.zoom.us/j/2723717387 Registered UF accounts
only
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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. Spring
2021 Teaching PHP 5785 Foundations of
Analytic Philosophy "Analytic
Philosophy" is the label used for that sort of philosophy that developed
in the first half of the 20th Century and became dominant in the
English-speaking philosophical world up until the present day. There is
little agreement on what the label signifies other than a common philosophical
inheritance. That inheritance is precisely what this course covers: a survey
of influential work by Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Carnap, Quine, and others.
We will focus on methodological issues in philosophy and how theories of
language, knowledge, and metaphilosophy have shaped the debate over the best
way to proceed in addressing philosophical questions. Our goal is in part
historical but more importantly philosophical: the hope is to gain a clear
understanding of the arguments, theories, and questions that animated this
literature and which continue to shape the dominant philosophical tradition
today. Selected
Publications "Full and Partial Grounding."
With Kelly Trogdon. Forthcoming in Journal
of the American Philosophical Association. "Dual
Carving and Minimal Rationalism." Forthcoming in Analytic Philosophy. "Physicalism
UnBlocked." Canadian Journal of Philosophy 50 (7):890-904
(2020). https://doi.org/10.1017/can.2020.35 "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. 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. |
