John Bengson is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin.
He has held appointments at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Harvard University, the Centre for Consciousness at the Australian National University, and the University of Wyoming. He was awarded a fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for 2021-22 and summer 2023.
His research interests span practical and theoretical philosophy, encompassing topics in epistemology, philosophy of mind and action, metaethics, metaphysics, and methodology. These include intuition, perceptual experience, understanding, know-how, skill, intelligence and intelligent action, moral knowledge, the nature and grounds of normativity, constitution, essence, explanation, data, thought experiments, and philosophical progress.
Recent publications include: "The Source of Normativity" (Mind, 2023), "Socially Conscious Moral Intuitionism" (Noûs, 2023), "Pricean Reflection" (British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2023), "Intuition in Philosophical Inquiry" (Seemings, forthcoming), and Philosophical Methodology: From Data to Theory (OUP, 2022).
CV - - - Contact: johnbengson@gmail.com
books
Philosophical Methodology: From Data to Theory, Oxford University Press, 2022.
(with Terence Cuneo and Russ Shafer-Landau)
Knowing How: Essays on Knowledge, Mind, and Action, Oxford University Press, 2011.
(co-edited with Marc Moffett)
Reviews: Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, European Journal of Philosophy, Philosophy in Review
in progress
The Moral Universe, OUP, forthcoming (exp. July 2024).
on metaphysical and normative dimensions of morality
Grasping Morality, OUP, in progress.
on epistemic and practical dimensions of morality
(both with Terence Cuneo and Russ Shafer-Landau)
>> papers in progress on love, understanding people, Socratic intellectualism, moral know-how, conceptions, concept mastery, and essence explanation
articles
understanding
"The Unity of Understanding", in Making Sense of the World: New Essays on the Philosophy of Understanding, Oxford University Press, 2017
"Practical Understanding: Skill as Grasp of Method", in Concepts in Thought, Action, and Emotion, Routledge Press, 2020
"A Noetic Theory of Understanding and Intuition as Sense-Maker", Inquiry, 2015
"True Enough", Mind, 2020
intuition
"Intuition in Philosophical Inquiry", in Seemings: New Arguments, New Angles, Routledge Press, 2024
"The Myth of Quick and Easy Intuitions", Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Reference, 2020
"Pricean Reflection", British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2023 (with Terence Cuneo and Russ Shafer-Landau)
"Socially Conscious Moral Intuitionism", Noûs, 2023 (with Terence Cuneo and Russ Shafer-Landau)
"Trusting Moral Intuitions", Noûs, 2020 (with Terence Cuneo and Russ Shafer-Landau)
"The Intellectual Given", Mind, 2015
Selected by The Philosopher's Annual as one of "the ten best articles published in philosophy" in 2015
"Grasping the Third Realm", Oxford Studies in Epistemology, 2015
Runner-up for the Sanders Prize in Epistemology.
"A Noetic Theory of Understanding and Intuition as Sense-Maker", Inquiry, 2015
"How Philosophers Use Intuition and 'Intuition' ", Philosophical Studies, 2014
"Experimental Attacks on Intuitions and Answers", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 2013
"Review of Elijah Chudnoff's Intuition", Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
skill / know-how / intelligence
"Practical Understanding: Skill as Grasp of Method", in Concepts in Thought, Action, and Emotion, Routledge Press, 2020
"Practical Perception and Intelligent Action", Philosophical Issues (Noûs supplement), 2016
"Non-propositional Intellectualism", in Knowing How: Essays on Knowledge, Mind, and Action, Oxford University Press, 2011 (with Marc Moffett)
"Two Conceptions of Mind and Action: Knowing How and the Philosophical Theory of Intelligence", state of play essay in Knowing How: Essays on Knowledge, Mind, and Action, Oxford University Press, 2011 (with Marc Moffett)
"The Folk on Knowing How", Philosophical Studies, 2009 (with Marc Moffett and Jen Wright)
"Know-how and Concept Possession", Philosophical Studies, 2007 (with Marc Moffett)
"Knowledge How and Knowledge That", in Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences, 2013
perception
"Practical Perception and Intelligent Action", Philosophical Issues (Noûs supplement), 2016
"Presentation and Content", Noûs, 2013
"A New Framework for Conceptualism", Noûs, 2011 (with Enrico Grube and Dan Korman)
Also: naive realism in "Grasping the Third Realm", Oxford Studies in Epistemology, 2015
presentationalism in "The Intellectual Given", Mind, 2015
metaethics
"Normative Authority", in Normative Realism, Oxford University Press (with Terence Cuneo and Russ Shafer-Landau)
"The Source of Normativity", Mind, 2023 (with Terence Cuneo and Russ Shafer-Landau)
"Moral Conceptual Truths", The Oxford Handbook of Moral Realism, 2023 (with Terence Cuneo and Russ Shafer-Landau)
"Moral Realism", The Continuum Companion to Ethics, 2023 (with Terence Cuneo and Russ Shafer-Landau)
"Socially Conscious Moral Intuitionism", Noûs, 2023 (with Terence Cuneo and Russ Shafer-Landau)
"Trusting Moral Intuitions", Noûs, 2020 (with Terence Cuneo and Russ Shafer-Landau)
"The Projectability Challenge to Moral Naturalism", Journal of Moral Philosophy, 2020 (with Terence Cuneo and Andrew Reisner)
"Asymmetries in Judgments of Responsibility and Intentional Action", Mind & Language, 2009 (with Jen Wright)
methodology
"Theory Construction in Metaethics", in Oxford Handbook of Metaethics, forthcoming (with Terence Cuneo and Russ Shafer-Landau)
"Method in the Service of Progress", Analytic Philosophy, 2019 (with Terence Cuneo and Russ Shafer-Landau)
"Methods, Goals, and Data in Moral Theorizing", in Routledge Handbook of Moral Epistemology, Routledge Press, 2019 (with Terence Cuneo and Russ Shafer-Landau)
"Intuition in Philosophical Inquiry", in Seemings: New Arguments, New Angles, Routledge Press, 2024
"How Philosophers Use Intuition and 'Intuition' ", Philosophical Studies, 2014
essence and constitution
essence and essence explanation: §§3-4 of "The Source of Normativity", Mind, 2023
constitution and constitutive explanation: §§5-6 of "Grasping the Third Realm", Oxford Studies in Epistemology, 2015
epistemology of essence: "Pricean Reflection", BJHP, 2023
essences of concepts and the essentialist conception of conceptual truth: §§2-4 of "Moral Conceptual Truths", OHMR, 2023