José Luis Bermúdez
Biographic Data
| ID | 3597561 |
|---|---|
| NAME | José Luis Bermúdez |
| GIVEN NAMES | José Luis |
| FAMILY NAME | Bermúdez |
| SIGNATURE | BERMUDEZ J L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Mitchell Institute |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8312-1013 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 39 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 26 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 39 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Aristotle, De Anima 3.7 (431a4–7)
This note addresses a grammatical objection, first raised by Torstrik, to the transmitted text of Aristotle’s De anima 3.7, namely that the text contains at 431a4–7 a μέν without a corresponding δέ (or another adversative particle). Rejecting Corcilius’s suggestion that this is a μέν solitarium , the note shows that modest repunctuation reveals a responding δέ and makes better sense of this part of the text
Are there epistemic norms of inquiry? Comments on David Thorstad’s Inquiry Under Bounds
Cognitive Science
The fourth edition of this popular text has been significantly rewritten to make it more accessible to students and easier for instructors to use. It remains distinctive in presenting a unified narrative of cognitive science as a field of inquiry in its own right. Thematically organized, Cognitive Science underscores the problems and solutions of cognitive science rather than more narrowly examining individually the subjects that contribute to it…
Bodily self-reference1
This chapter develops an account of bodily self-reference as a primitive, nonconceptual capacity that is shared with various types of nonlinguistic and prelinguistic creatures. After introducing the general distinction between conceptual and nonconceptual content and suggesting that possession of the first-person concept is an ability that depends upon participation in a public language, I argue that there is a significant gap between possessing …
Cognitive Science
Four Theses about Self-Consciousness and Bodily Experience
This article evaluates the following four theses about bodily experience and self-consciousness: Descartes's thesis (bodily experience is a form of self-consciousness); Kant's thesis (nothing can count as a genuine form of self-consciousness unless it is consciousness of oneself as a subject); Locke's thesis (in bodily experience we are presented with ourselves as physical objects); and Merleau-Ponty's thesis (the way we encounter ourselves in bo…
Fodor on multiple realizability and nonreductive physicalism
This paper assesses Fodor’s well-known argument from multiple realizability to nonreductive physicalism. Recent work has brought out that the empirical case for cross-species multiple realizability is weak at best and so we consider whether the argument can be rebooted using a “thin” notion of intra-species multiple realizability, taking individual neural firing patterns to be the realizers of mental events. We agree that there are no prospects f…
Cognitive Science
The Third Edition of this popular and engaging text consolidates the interdisciplinary streams of cognitive science to present a unified narrative of cognitive science as a discipline in its own right. It teaches students to apply the techniques and theories of the cognitive scientist's 'toolkit' - the vast range of methods and tools that cognitive scientists use to study the mind. Thematically organized, Cognitive Science underscores the problem…
The Bodily Self
How can we be aware of ourselves both as physical objects and as thinking, experiencing subjects? What role does the experience of the body play in generating our sense of self? What is the role of action and agency in the construction of the bodily self? These questions have been a rich subject of interdisciplinary debate among philosophers, neuroscientists, experimental psychologists, and cognitive scientists for several decades. José Luis Berm…
The Bodily Self
The Mirror of the World
While issues of selfhood, self-representation, and first person thought have been a recurrent theme in Christopher Peacocke's writings throughout his career, The Mirror of the World represents his first book-length treatment of the subject. It is a very welcome addition to the literature, displaying Peacocke's characteristic clarity and depth of thought and making a number of important and innovative contributions. The basic theoretical framework…
The Prisoner's Dilemma
The Prisoner's Dilemma is one of the most fiercely debated thought experiments in philosophy and the social sciences, presenting the simple insight that when two or more agents interact, the actions that most benefit each individual may not benefit the group. The fact that when you do what is best for you, and I do what is best for me, we end up in a situation that is worse for both of us makes the Prisoner's Dilemma relevant to a broad range of …
Language and Equilibrium
Book Review| April 01 2012 Language and Equilibrium Parikh, Prashant, Language and Equilibrium. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010. xiii+334 pp. José Luis Bermúdez José Luis Bermúdez Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google The Philosophical Review (2012) 121 (2): 294–298. https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-1539134 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook T…
Action and awareness of agency
Chris Frith’s target chapters contain a wealth of interesting experiments and striking theoretical claims. In these comments I begin by drawing out some of the key themes in his discussion of action and the sense of agency. Frith’s central claim about conscious action is that what we are primarily conscious of in acting is our own agency. I will review some of the experimental evidence that he interprets in support of this claim and then explore …
Pitfalls for realistic decision theory
Decision theory and rationality
The concept of rationality is a common thread through the human and social sciences - from political science to philosophy, from economics to sociology, and from management science to decision analysis. But what counts as rational action and rational behavior?" "Jose Luis Bermudez explores decision theory as a theory of rationality. Decision theory is the mathematical theory of choice and for many social scientists it makes the concept of rationa…
I
Book Review| October 01 2008 I: The Meaning of the First Person Term Maximilian De Gaynesford, I: The Meaning of the First Person Term. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. x + 198 pp. José Luis Bermúdez José Luis Bermúdez Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google The Philosophical Review (2008) 117 (4): 634–637. https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-2008-025 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissio…
What Is at Stake in the Debate on Nonconceptual Content
It is now 25 years since Gareth Evans introduced the distinction between conceptual and nonconceptual content in The Varieties of Reference. This is a fitting time to take stock of what has become a complex and extended debate both within philosophy and at the interface between philosophy and psychology. Unfortunately, the debate has become increasingly murky as it has become increasingly ramified. Much of the contemporary discussion does not do …
Negation, Contrariety, and Practical Reasoning
Zombies and Consciousness ? Robert Kirk
Journal Article Zombies and Consciousness – Robert Kirk Get access Zombies and Consciousness. Robert Kirk(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005. Pp. xii + 235. Price £35.00.) José Luis Bermúdez José Luis Bermúdez Washington University in St Louis Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 57, Issue 227, April 2007, Pages 306–308, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9213.2007.486_5.x Published: …
Animal reasoning and proto-logic
This chapter examines the concept of animal reasoning and proto-logic. It provides an account of rational processes can be correlated or applied to animals and explains how non-linguistic animals might be rational in the sense of PP-rationality. It explains how analogues of familiar reasoning processes might be possible in the absence of linguistic structure and how it might be possible for non-linguistic animals to reason without exploiting the …
Philosophy of psychology
José Luis Bermúdez introduces the philosophy of psychology as an interdisciplinary exploration of the nature and mechanisms of cognition. Philosophy of Psychology charts out four influential 'pictures of the mind' and uses them to explore central topics in the philosophical foundations of psychology, including the relation between different levels of studying the mind/brain; the nature and scope of psychological explanation; the architecture of c…
Currents and radiated electromagnetic fields in lightning strikes to tall structures
The paper presents recent developments in the study of lightning discharges - electrical transient components of a thunderstorm - striking elevated objects. In the computation of lightning return stroke currents, we analyze the disturbance introduced by the elevated strike object. A new methodology in lightning return strike modeling is proposed, and applied in the computation of lightning electromagnetic fields at far distances. We compared the …
Ascribing Thoughts to Non-linguistic Creatures
I'-Thoughts and Explanation
Brian Garrett has criticized my diagnosis of the paradox of self‐consciousness. In reply, I focus on the classification of ‘I’‐thoughts, and show how the notion of immunity to error through misidentification can be used to characterize ‘I’‐thoughts, even though an important class of ‘I’‐thoughts (those whose expression involves what Wittgenstein called the use of ‘I’ as object) are not themselves immune to error through misidentification. ‘I’thou…
What Is at Stake in the Debate on Nonconceptual Content
It is now 25 years since Gareth Evans introduced the distinction between conceptual and nonconceptual content in The Varieties of Reference. This is a fitting time to take stock of what has become a complex and extended debate both within philosophy and at the interface between philosophy and psychology. Unfortunately, the debate has become increasingly murky as it has become increasingly ramified. Much of the contemporary discussion does not do …
The Paradox of Self-Consciousness
In this book, José Luis Bermúdez addresses two fundamental problems in the philosophy and psychology of self-consciousness: (1) Can we provide a noncircular account of fully fledged self-conscious thought and language in terms of more fundamental capacities? (2) Can we explain how fully fledged self-conscious thought and language can arise in the normal course of human development? Bermúdez argues that a paradox (the paradox of self-consciousness…
On the Edge of Europe
With the former USSR becoming more accessible to climbers, skiers and trekkers, this book is a timely collection of classic writing about Europe's most neglected climbing area, opened up by men like Freshfield, Dent and Mummery. Audrey Salkeld is the author of People in High Places, The Mystery of Mallory and Irving and editor of One Step in the Clouds
Nonconceptual Self-Consciousness And Cognitive Science
Naturalized Sense Data
This paper examines and defends the view that the immediate objects of visual perception, or what are often called sense data, are parts of the facing surfaces of physical objects-the naturalized sense data (NSD) theory. Occasionally defended in the literature on the philosophy of perception, most famously by G. E. Moore (1918-1919), it has not proved popular and indeed was abandoned by Moore himself. The contemporary situation in the philosophy …
Negation, Contrariety, and Practical Reasoning
Naturalism and Conceptual Norms
The normative dimensions of concept possession pose a serious problem for naturalistic approaches to the mental. Taking Christopher Peacocke’s recent proposal for a naturalistic accommodation of conceptual normativity as a stalking‐horse, I argue that no proposal formulated in terms of law‐like generalizations about the judgements which a concept possessor must find primitively compelling or self‐evident can capture the crucial distinction betwee…
Scepticism and Science in Descartes
Recent Descartes scholarship has revised the traditional view of the Cartesian project as one of strictly deductive rationalism. This revision has particularly stressed the role of science in Descartes' thought. The revisionist conception of Descartes also downplays the significance of the sceptical arguments offered in the First Meditation, seeing them as tools for 'turning the mind away from the senses' in the interest of Cartesian science, rat…
Practical Understanding vs Reflective Understanding
An interesting dualism runs through John Campbell's Past, Space and Self. It is a dualism between two different modes of representing the world. One such mode, the causally indexical mode, is practical and engaged. The other, the causally non-indexical mode, is disengaged and reflective. Campbell's primary project in the book is a neo-Kantian attempt to map the conceptual abilities which together make up the capacity for genuinely self-conscious …
Syntax, Semantics and Levels of Explanation
Journal Article Syntax, Semantics and Levels of Explanation Get access José Luis Bermúdez José Luis Bermúdez Cambridge University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 45, Issue 180, July 1995, Pages 361–367, https://doi.org/10.2307/2219656 Published: 01 July 1995
On the Edge of Europe
With the former USSR becoming more accessible to climbers, skiers and trekkers, this book is a timely collection of classic writing about Europe's most neglected climbing area, opened up by men like Freshfield, Dent and Mummery. Audrey Salkeld is the author of People in High Places, The Mystery of Mallory and Irving and editor of One Step in the Clouds
Syntax, Semantics and Levels of Explanation
Journal Article Syntax, Semantics and Levels of Explanation Get access José Luis Bermúdez José Luis Bermúdez Cambridge University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 45, Issue 180, July 1995, Pages 361–367, https://doi.org/10.2307/2219656 Published: 01 July 1995
The Social Body
The Body and the Self
Scepticism and Science in Descartes
Recent Descartes scholarship has revised the traditional view of the Cartesian project as one of strictly deductive rationalism. This revision has particularly stressed the role of science in Descartes' thought. The revisionist conception of Descartes also downplays the significance of the sceptical arguments offered in the First Meditation, seeing them as tools for 'turning the mind away from the senses' in the interest of Cartesian science, rat…
Practical Understanding vs Reflective Understanding
An interesting dualism runs through John Campbell's Past, Space and Self. It is a dualism between two different modes of representing the world. One such mode, the causally indexical mode, is practical and engaged. The other, the causally non-indexical mode, is disengaged and reflective. Campbell's primary project in the book is a neo-Kantian attempt to map the conceptual abilities which together make up the capacity for genuinely self-conscious …
The Body and the Self
The Paradox of Self-Consciousness
In this book, José Luis Bermúdez addresses two fundamental problems in the philosophy and psychology of self-consciousness: (1) Can we provide a noncircular account of fully fledged self-conscious thought and language in terms of more fundamental capacities? (2) Can we explain how fully fledged self-conscious thought and language can arise in the normal course of human development? Bermúdez argues that a paradox (the paradox of self-consciousness…
Naturalism and Conceptual Norms
The normative dimensions of concept possession pose a serious problem for naturalistic approaches to the mental. Taking Christopher Peacocke’s recent proposal for a naturalistic accommodation of conceptual normativity as a stalking‐horse, I argue that no proposal formulated in terms of law‐like generalizations about the judgements which a concept possessor must find primitively compelling or self‐evident can capture the crucial distinction betwee…
The Paradox of Self-Consciousness
Naturalized Sense Data
This paper examines and defends the view that the immediate objects of visual perception, or what are often called sense data, are parts of the facing surfaces of physical objects-the naturalized sense data (NSD) theory. Occasionally defended in the literature on the philosophy of perception, most famously by G. E. Moore (1918-1919), it has not proved popular and indeed was abandoned by Moore himself. The contemporary situation in the philosophy …
The Paradox of Self-Consciousness (Representation and Mind)
Nonconceptual Self-Consciousness And Cognitive Science
Currents and radiated electromagnetic fields in lightning strikes to tall structures
The paper presents recent developments in the study of lightning discharges - electrical transient components of a thunderstorm - striking elevated objects. In the computation of lightning return stroke currents, we analyze the disturbance introduced by the elevated strike object. A new methodology in lightning return strike modeling is proposed, and applied in the computation of lightning electromagnetic fields at far distances. We compared the …
Ascribing Thoughts to Non-linguistic Creatures
I'-Thoughts and Explanation
Brian Garrett has criticized my diagnosis of the paradox of self‐consciousness. In reply, I focus on the classification of ‘I’‐thoughts, and show how the notion of immunity to error through misidentification can be used to characterize ‘I’‐thoughts, even though an important class of ‘I’‐thoughts (those whose expression involves what Wittgenstein called the use of ‘I’ as object) are not themselves immune to error through misidentification. ‘I’thou…
Thinking without words
This title expounds a challenging new theory of the nature of non-linguistic thought. The author offers a conceptual framework for treating human infants and non-human animals as genuine thinkers. Written for an interdisciplinary readership, this will appeal to philosophers, psychologists and animal behaviourists
Philosophy of psychology
José Luis Bermúdez introduces the philosophy of psychology as an interdisciplinary exploration of the nature and mechanisms of cognition. Philosophy of Psychology charts out four influential 'pictures of the mind' and uses them to explore central topics in the philosophical foundations of psychology, including the relation between different levels of studying the mind/brain; the nature and scope of psychological explanation; the architecture of c…
Animal reasoning and proto-logic
This chapter examines the concept of animal reasoning and proto-logic. It provides an account of rational processes can be correlated or applied to animals and explains how non-linguistic animals might be rational in the sense of PP-rationality. It explains how analogues of familiar reasoning processes might be possible in the absence of linguistic structure and how it might be possible for non-linguistic animals to reason without exploiting the …
What Is at Stake in the Debate on Nonconceptual Content
It is now 25 years since Gareth Evans introduced the distinction between conceptual and nonconceptual content in The Varieties of Reference. This is a fitting time to take stock of what has become a complex and extended debate both within philosophy and at the interface between philosophy and psychology. Unfortunately, the debate has become increasingly murky as it has become increasingly ramified. Much of the contemporary discussion does not do …
Negation, Contrariety, and Practical Reasoning
Zombies and Consciousness ? Robert Kirk
Journal Article Zombies and Consciousness – Robert Kirk Get access Zombies and Consciousness. Robert Kirk(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005. Pp. xii + 235. Price £35.00.) José Luis Bermúdez José Luis Bermúdez Washington University in St Louis Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 57, Issue 227, April 2007, Pages 306–308, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9213.2007.486_5.x Published: …
I
Book Review| October 01 2008 I: The Meaning of the First Person Term Maximilian De Gaynesford, I: The Meaning of the First Person Term. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. x + 198 pp. José Luis Bermúdez José Luis Bermúdez Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google The Philosophical Review (2008) 117 (4): 634–637. https://doi.org/10.1215/00318108-2008-025 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissio…
Decision theory and rationality
The concept of rationality is a common thread through the human and social sciences - from political science to philosophy, from economics to sociology, and from management science to decision analysis. But what counts as rational action and rational behavior?" "Jose Luis Bermudez explores decision theory as a theory of rationality. Decision theory is the mathematical theory of choice and for many social scientists it makes the concept of rationa…
Action and awareness of agency
Chris Frith’s target chapters contain a wealth of interesting experiments and striking theoretical claims. In these comments I begin by drawing out some of the key themes in his discussion of action and the sense of agency. Frith’s central claim about conscious action is that what we are primarily conscious of in acting is our own agency. I will review some of the experimental evidence that he interprets in support of this claim and then explore …
Philosophy (24 works) · Psychology (22 works) · Epistemology (19 works) · Computer Science (14 works) · Philosophy and Theoretical Science (14 works) · Linguistics (10 works) · Cognitive science (9 works) · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics (9 works) · Consciousness (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works)