Nathaniel Baron‐Schmitt
Biographic Data
| ID | 9516786 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nathaniel Baron‐Schmitt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nathaniel |
| FAMILY NAME | Baron‐Schmitt |
| SIGNATURE | SCHMITT N B |
| AFFILIATIONS | IIT@MIT |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9511-8367 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 5 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 5 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Introduction
Powers pervade the natural world, from a flame’s power to burn to a plant’s power to grow. Certain powers seem to be special in being two-way . A two-way power is a single, unified power to do something or its opposite. Whereas a plant’s circumstances determine that it will grow, I seem to have the power to raise my arm or refrain from doing so: it is up to me whether or not to raise it. If this is right, then this power of mine is a two-way powe…
Thing causation
According to orthodoxy, the most fundamental kind of causation involves one event causing another event. I argue against this event‐causal view. Instead, the most fundamental kind of causation is thing causation, which involves a thing causing a thing to do something. Event causation is reducible to thing causation, but thing causation is not reducible to event causation, because event causation cannot accommodate cases of fine‐grained causation.…
Wronging Oneself
When, if ever, do we wrong ourselves? The Self-Other Symmetric answer is: when we do to ourselves what would wrong a consenting other. The standard objection, which has gone unchallenged for decades, is that Symmetry seems to imply that we wrong ourselves in too many cases—where rights are unwaivable, or “self-consent” is lacking. I argue that Symmetry not only survives these would-be counterexamples; it explains and unifies them. The key to Symm…
Who cares about winning
Why do we so often care about the outcomes of games when nothing is at stake? There is a paradox here, much like the paradox of fiction, which concerns why we care about the fates and threats of merely fictional beings. I argue that the paradox threatens to overturn a great deal of what philosophers have thought about caring, severing its connection to value and undermining its moral weight. I defend a solution to the paradox that draws on Kendal…
Contingent grounding
Contingent grounding
Who cares about winning
Why do we so often care about the outcomes of games when nothing is at stake? There is a paradox here, much like the paradox of fiction, which concerns why we care about the fates and threats of merely fictional beings. I argue that the paradox threatens to overturn a great deal of what philosophers have thought about caring, severing its connection to value and undermining its moral weight. I defend a solution to the paradox that draws on Kendal…
Thing causation
According to orthodoxy, the most fundamental kind of causation involves one event causing another event. I argue against this event‐causal view. Instead, the most fundamental kind of causation is thing causation, which involves a thing causing a thing to do something. Event causation is reducible to thing causation, but thing causation is not reducible to event causation, because event causation cannot accommodate cases of fine‐grained causation.…
Wronging Oneself
When, if ever, do we wrong ourselves? The Self-Other Symmetric answer is: when we do to ourselves what would wrong a consenting other. The standard objection, which has gone unchallenged for decades, is that Symmetry seems to imply that we wrong ourselves in too many cases—where rights are unwaivable, or “self-consent” is lacking. I argue that Symmetry not only survives these would-be counterexamples; it explains and unifies them. The key to Symm…
Introduction
Powers pervade the natural world, from a flame’s power to burn to a plant’s power to grow. Certain powers seem to be special in being two-way . A two-way power is a single, unified power to do something or its opposite. Whereas a plant’s circumstances determine that it will grow, I seem to have the power to raise my arm or refrain from doing so: it is up to me whether or not to raise it. If this is right, then this power of mine is a two-way powe…
Epistemology (3 works) · Philosophy (3 works) · Mathematical economics (2 works) · Philosophy and Theoretical Science (2 works) · Psychology (2 works) · Causation (1 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (1 works) · Computer Science (1 works) · Economics (1 works) · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics (1 works)