Declan Smithies
Biographic Data
| ID | 1063304 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Declan Smithies |
| GIVEN NAMES | Declan |
| FAMILY NAME | Smithies |
| SIGNATURE | SMITHIES D |
| AFFILIATIONS | The Ohio State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6489-8580 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 61 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
A Hedonic Theory of Desire
Replies to Feldman, Greco, and Malmgren
In The Epistemic Role of Consciousness, I defend phenomenal accessibilism, which is a version of evidentialism that combines phenomenalism about evidence with accessibilism about the evidential support relation. My critics in this symposium challenge phenomenal accessibilism from various angles. Richard Feldman accepts phenomenalism, although he rejects my version of accessibilism. In contrast, Daniel Greco accepts accessibilism, but he rejects p…
The epistemic role of consciousness
The Epistemic Role of Consciousness (Smithies 2019) develops a theory of epistemic justification that gives a fundamental epistemic role to phenomenal consciousness. The book works from the bottom up to build this epistemological theory from foundational assumptions in the philosophy of mind. This précis reverses the order of presentation: it works from the top down to put the epistemological motivations for the theory in the foreground. The book…
Delusions and madmen
Moral Knowledge by Deduction
How is moral knowledge possible? This paper defends the anti‐Humean thesis that we can acquire moral knowledge by deduction from wholly non‐moral premises. According to Hume’s Law, as it has become known, we cannot deduce an ‘ought’ from an ‘is’, since it is “altogether inconceivable how this new relation can be a deduction from others, which are entirely different from it” (1739: 3.1.1). This paper explores the prospects for an inferentialist th…
The Epistemic Role of Consciousness
What is the role of consciousness in our mental lives? This book argues that consciousness plays an essential role in explaining how we can acquire knowledge and epistemically justified belief about ourselves and our surroundings. On this view, our mental lives cannot be preserved in unconscious creatures—zombies—who behave just as we do. Only conscious creatures have epistemic justification to form beliefs about the world. Zombies cannot know an…
Ideal rationality and logical omniscience
The Significance of Cognitive Phenomenology
This is the second in a series of two articles that serve as an introduction to recent debates about cognitive phenomenology. Cognitive phenomenology can be defined as the experience that is associated with cognitive activities, such as thinking, reasoning, and understanding. What is at issue in contemporary debates is not the existence of cognitive phenomenology, so defined, but rather its nature and theoretical role. The first article examines …
Teaching and Learning Guide for Cognitive Phenomenology
Cognitive phenomenology can be defined as the experience that is associated with cognitive activities, such as thinking, reasoning, and understanding. What is at issue in contemporary debates is not the existence of cognitive phenomenology, so defined, but rather its nature and theoretical significance. Debated questions about the nature of cognitive phenomenology include the following: What is the relationship between the phenomenology of cognit…
The Nature of Cognitive Phenomenology
This is the first in a series of two articles that serve as an introduction to recent debates about cognitive phenomenology. Cognitive phenomenology can be defined as the experience that is associated with cognitive activities, such as thinking, reasoning, and understanding. What is at issue in contemporary debates is not the existence of cognitive phenomenology, so defined, but rather its nature and theoretical role. The first article examines q…
The Mental Lives of Zombies
What Is the Role of Consciousness in Demonstrative Thought?
Perception enables us to think demonstrative thoughts about the world around us, but what must perception be like in order to play this role? Does perception enable demonstrative thought only if it is conscious? This paper examines three accounts of the role of consciousness in demonstrative thought, which agree that consciousness is essential for demonstrative thought, but disagree about why it is. First, I consider and reject the accounts propo…
Moore’s Paradox and the Accessibility of Justification
Moore’s Paradox and the Accessibility of Justification
Ideal rationality and logical omniscience
The Mental Lives of Zombies
The Nature of Cognitive Phenomenology
This is the first in a series of two articles that serve as an introduction to recent debates about cognitive phenomenology. Cognitive phenomenology can be defined as the experience that is associated with cognitive activities, such as thinking, reasoning, and understanding. What is at issue in contemporary debates is not the existence of cognitive phenomenology, so defined, but rather its nature and theoretical role. The first article examines q…
Delusions and madmen
Moral Knowledge by Deduction
How is moral knowledge possible? This paper defends the anti‐Humean thesis that we can acquire moral knowledge by deduction from wholly non‐moral premises. According to Hume’s Law, as it has become known, we cannot deduce an ‘ought’ from an ‘is’, since it is “altogether inconceivable how this new relation can be a deduction from others, which are entirely different from it” (1739: 3.1.1). This paper explores the prospects for an inferentialist th…
The Significance of Cognitive Phenomenology
This is the second in a series of two articles that serve as an introduction to recent debates about cognitive phenomenology. Cognitive phenomenology can be defined as the experience that is associated with cognitive activities, such as thinking, reasoning, and understanding. What is at issue in contemporary debates is not the existence of cognitive phenomenology, so defined, but rather its nature and theoretical role. The first article examines …
What Is the Role of Consciousness in Demonstrative Thought?
Perception enables us to think demonstrative thoughts about the world around us, but what must perception be like in order to play this role? Does perception enable demonstrative thought only if it is conscious? This paper examines three accounts of the role of consciousness in demonstrative thought, which agree that consciousness is essential for demonstrative thought, but disagree about why it is. First, I consider and reject the accounts propo…
Moore’s Paradox and the Accessibility of Justification
The Mental Lives of Zombies
The Significance of Cognitive Phenomenology
This is the second in a series of two articles that serve as an introduction to recent debates about cognitive phenomenology. Cognitive phenomenology can be defined as the experience that is associated with cognitive activities, such as thinking, reasoning, and understanding. What is at issue in contemporary debates is not the existence of cognitive phenomenology, so defined, but rather its nature and theoretical role. The first article examines …
Teaching and Learning Guide for Cognitive Phenomenology
Cognitive phenomenology can be defined as the experience that is associated with cognitive activities, such as thinking, reasoning, and understanding. What is at issue in contemporary debates is not the existence of cognitive phenomenology, so defined, but rather its nature and theoretical significance. Debated questions about the nature of cognitive phenomenology include the following: What is the relationship between the phenomenology of cognit…
The Nature of Cognitive Phenomenology
This is the first in a series of two articles that serve as an introduction to recent debates about cognitive phenomenology. Cognitive phenomenology can be defined as the experience that is associated with cognitive activities, such as thinking, reasoning, and understanding. What is at issue in contemporary debates is not the existence of cognitive phenomenology, so defined, but rather its nature and theoretical role. The first article examines q…
Ideal rationality and logical omniscience
The Epistemic Role of Consciousness
What is the role of consciousness in our mental lives? This book argues that consciousness plays an essential role in explaining how we can acquire knowledge and epistemically justified belief about ourselves and our surroundings. On this view, our mental lives cannot be preserved in unconscious creatures—zombies—who behave just as we do. Only conscious creatures have epistemic justification to form beliefs about the world. Zombies cannot know an…
Moral Knowledge by Deduction
How is moral knowledge possible? This paper defends the anti‐Humean thesis that we can acquire moral knowledge by deduction from wholly non‐moral premises. According to Hume’s Law, as it has become known, we cannot deduce an ‘ought’ from an ‘is’, since it is “altogether inconceivable how this new relation can be a deduction from others, which are entirely different from it” (1739: 3.1.1). This paper explores the prospects for an inferentialist th…
Delusions and madmen
Replies to Feldman, Greco, and Malmgren
In The Epistemic Role of Consciousness, I defend phenomenal accessibilism, which is a version of evidentialism that combines phenomenalism about evidence with accessibilism about the evidential support relation. My critics in this symposium challenge phenomenal accessibilism from various angles. Richard Feldman accepts phenomenalism, although he rejects my version of accessibilism. In contrast, Daniel Greco accepts accessibilism, but he rejects p…
The epistemic role of consciousness
The Epistemic Role of Consciousness (Smithies 2019) develops a theory of epistemic justification that gives a fundamental epistemic role to phenomenal consciousness. The book works from the bottom up to build this epistemological theory from foundational assumptions in the philosophy of mind. This précis reverses the order of presentation: it works from the top down to put the epistemological motivations for the theory in the foreground. The book…
A Hedonic Theory of Desire
Epistemology (10 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics (9 works) · Philosophy and Theoretical Science (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Consciousness (5 works) · Metaphysics (5 works) · Cognition (4 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Introspection (4 works)