Eric Saidel
Assistant Professor of Philosophy

Areas of Specialization: Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Biology, Cognitive Science
Areas of Competence: History of Modern, Logic, Metaphysics and Epistemology, Aesthetics

My main interest is in better understanding the mind. Questions about the mind can be metaphysical - What is the relationship between the mind and the body? Do mental events cause physical events? - evolutionary - How did the mind evolve? What is the evolutionary history of the mind? What is the function of the mind? - based in studies of nonhuman animals - Do nonhuman animals have minds? What counts as evidence for the presence of a mind? I'm interested in all of these approaches. To best understand the mind, we need to triangulate, rather than adhere to only one approach.

I am currently trying to finish a book about the project of naturalizing mental content. The first part of the book examines what is probably the most popular option - teleosemantics - a theory which enlists natural selection as a determinant of the content of mental states. I argue that teleosemantics fails for several philosophically interesting reasons. In the second part of the book, I present my own attempt to solve the problem.

Some recent publications and presentations include:

• "Animal Thoughts," in Lurz, Robert, ed, Animal Minds, (Cambridge University Press) forthcoming in 2009.
• "But Is It Art?" Presented at conference on "Art and the Brain" at The Phillips Collection, September 2006.

Education

B.A. Wesleyan University
M.A., Ph.D. University of Wisconsin