David Pitt
Department of Philosophy
California State University
5151 State University Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90032
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Language, Metaphysics
Areas of Competence
Philosophy of Linguistics, Philosophy of Music
Employment
California State University, Los Angeles, Full Professor, from Fall 2012
Director, Central European University, Summer University, New Perspectives in Philosophy of Mind, Budapest, July 2025
Director, Central European University, Summer University, Cognitive Phenomenology, Budapest, July 2019
Director, Central European University, Summer University, Matter, Mind and Consciousness, Budapest, July 2016
Visiting Professor, Department of Philosophy, Central European University, Budapest, Fall 2014
California State University, Los Angeles, Associate Professor (with tenure), Fall 2007-Summer 2012
California State University, Los Angeles, Assistant Professor, Fall 2003-Summer 2007
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Visiting Assistant Professor, Spring 2003, 1996-1999
Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, Visiting Assistant Professor, 2000-2002
Iowa State University, Visiting Assistant Professor, 1999-2000
Hunter College of the City University of New York, Adjunct Assistant Professor, 1995-1996
Swarthmore College, Visiting Instructor, 1993-1994
Education
PhD, Philosophy: Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 1994
MA, Musical Composition: Queens College of the City University New York, 1985
BA, Musical Composition: Haverford College, 1981
Fellowships and Scholarships
Visiting Scholar, Faculty of Philosophy, Cambridge University, May-June 2016 (under the auspices of Tim Crane’s New Directions in The Study of the Mind Templeton Foundation funded project)
Fulbright Scholar, Hungary, 2014-2015
Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Central European University, 2014-2015
Australian National University, Visiting Fellow, Department of Philosophy, July 2013
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Robert Chambers Research Fellow, Department of Philosophy, Fall 2002
University of California, Santa Cruz, Visiting Fellow, Department of Philosophy, Summer 2002 (NEH Institute, “Consciousness and Intentionality,” David Chalmers and David Hoy, Directors)
Cornell University, Visiting Fellow, Department of Philosophy, Summer 1996 (NEH Seminar, “Metaphysics of Mind,” John Heil, Director)
Publications
Book
The Quality of Thought, Oxford University Press 2024
Reviewed in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, November 2024
Subject of a New Books in Philosophy podcast, February 2025
Subject of a symposium in The Journal of Consciousness Studies, April 2025
Reviewed the European Journal of Philosophy, December 2025
Critical study forthcoming in Grazer Philosophiche Studien
Articles
“3I Cognition”, in Representation in Ab/Use: Representations in Science and Cognition, I. Danka and Z. Kondor, eds., Bloomsbury Publishing, Forthcoming.
“Précis” and “Replies to Siewert, Coleman and Mendelovici,” Journal of Consciousness Studies 32, 2025: 153-157; 214-224
“A Return to Simple Sentences,” Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Reference, S. Biggs and H. Geirsson, eds., New York: Routledge, 2020: 145-52
“Loar’s Compromised Internalism,” in A. Sullivan, ed., Sensations, Thoughts, Language: Essays in Honor of Brian Loar, New York: Routledge, 2019: 203-224
“Acquaintance and Phenomenal Concepts,” in S. Coleman, ed., Cambridge Classic Arguments Series: The Knowledge Argument, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019: 87-101
Consciousness and Intentionality,” in R. Gennaro, ed., The Routledge Handbook of Consciousness, New York: Routledge, 2018: 260-270
“What Kind of Science is Linguistics?” in C. Behme and M. Neef, eds., Essays on Linguistic Realism, John Benjamins, 2018: 7-20
The Paraphenomenal Hypothesis,” Analysis 77, October 2017: 735–741
“Phenomenal Compositionality and Context Effects,” Inquiry 61, September 2017: 494-498
“Conscious Belief,” Book forum on Tim Crane’s Aspects of Psychologism, Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Pscologia Vol 7, N° 1, 2016: 121-126
“Indexical Thought,” in U. Kriegel, ed., Phenomenal Intentionality: New Essays, Oxford University Press, 2013: 49-70
“Conscious Thinking,” in H. Pashler, ed., Encyclopedia of the Mind, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2013: 186-189
"Introspection, Phenomenality and the Availability of Intentional Content,” in T. Bayne and M Montague, eds., Cognitive Phenomenology, Oxford University Press, 2011: 141-173
“Intentional Psychologism,” Philosophical Studies 146, October 2009: 117-138
“The Phenomenology of Cognition, or, What Is It Like to Think That P?”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research LXIX, July 2004 [accepted for publication 2002]: 1-36
“On Markerese,” Philosophical Forum 34, Nos 3&4, Special Issue: The Philosophical Ideas of Jerrold J. Katz, D. Pitt, guest ed., Fall/Winter 2003: 267-300
Reply to Kac,” Language 79, March 2003: 197-201.
“Alter Egos and Their Names,” The Journal of Philosophy XCVIII, October 2001: 531-552
“Nativism and the Theory of Content,” ProtoSociology 14, 2000: 222-239
“Compositional Idioms” (with Jerrold J. Katz), Language 76, June 2000: 409-432
“In Defense of Definitions,” Philosophical Psychology 12, June 1999: 139-156
“What is Tonality?”, International Journal of Musicology IV, 1995: 291-300
Encyclopedia Entries
“Mental Representation,” Stanford Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, March 2000; Major
Revisions 2004, 2008, 2012, 2020 (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mental-representation) (Italian
translation, “La rappresentazione mentale,” G. Galloni and E. Vizzinisi, eds., Identità e
Rapprasentazione, Stamen, 2006)
“Jerrold J Katz,” H. Stammerjohann, ed., Lexicon Grammaticorum, 2nd edition, Max Niemeyer
Verlag, 2009
Book Reviews
Peter Kivy, Introduction to a Philosophy of Music, and New Essays on Musical Understanding, The Sunday Times of London Literary Supplement, April 2004
Mark Norris Lance and John O’Leary-Hawthorne, The Grammar of Meaning, Philosophical Books 41, April 2000 (With authors’ replies.)
Review of Lynne Rudder Baker, Explaining Attitudes, Philosophical Psychology, 11, March
1998: 99-104
Miscellany
“George Perle: An Appreciation,” Theory and Practice 33, 2008 (volume dedicated to composer/theorist George Perle, 1915-2009)
Presentations
"Naive and Direct Realism"
• Workshop on Perception, University of California, San Diego, February 2026
“Higher-Order Illusionism”
• University of Memphis, September 5, 2025
• Metaphysics Conference, Inter-University Center, Dubrovnik, Croatia, June 2025
• Society for Philosophy and Neuroscience, inaugural conference, St Louis, MO, May 1, 2025
“Comments on Gausselin”
• American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division Meeting, San Francisco, CA, April 2025
“The Quality of Thought”
• Invited colloquium Department of Philosophy, Cal State Chico, February 10, 2025
• Book Symposium, American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting, Portland, OR, March 2024: “Replies to Critics”
• Summer Mind Workshop, Mind, Brain and Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, August 2023
“Two Arguments for Internalism”
• Invited Symposium: Consciousness and Cognition, Canadian Philosophical Association
Annual Congress, Montreal, CA, June 2024
“Comments on Autumn Averitt’s “Mind the G.A.P.: Phenomenal Contrast Offers More than Just Generic Achievement Phenomenology”
• American Philosophical Association Central Division Meetings, Denver, CO, February 2023
“When Andy Met Fausto”
• Metaphysics Conference, Inter-University Center, Dubrovnik, Croatia, June 2022
“Analytic Phenomenology”
• London Mind Group, London, UK, June 2022
• John Tienson Memorial Conference, University of Memphis (online), November 2020
“Objects and Their Phases”
• Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference: Metaphysics on the Mountain 3 (online), July 2020
• Metaphysics Conference, Inter-University Center, Dubrovnik, Croatia, June 2019
• Moral Sciences Club, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK, May 2016
• Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, November 2014
• University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary, November 2014
• Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, July 2013
• California State University Northridge, Northridge, CA, May 2013
• Northwest Philosophy Conference, Portland, OR, November 2011
• California State University Chico, Chico, CA, November 2010
“Singular Thought”
• Workshop: Phenomenal intentionality, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany, June 2019
• Institut Jean Nicod, Paris, France, June 2018
“What Kind of Science Is Linguistics?”
• Workshop on Essays on Linguistic Realism, Canadian Philosophical Association
Annual Congress, Vancouver, British Columbia, June 2019
• Workshop: Realist Linguistics, University of Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany, June 2015
“A Plea for Agnosticism”
• Conference: Dualism in the Twenty-First Century, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, December 2018
“Two Arguments Against Two Arguments Against Internalism, and Two Arguments for Internalism”
• Metaphysics Conference, Inter-University Center, Dubrovnik, Croatia, June 2018
“How Do Thoughts Find Their Objects?”
• University of Milan, Milan, Italy, May 2018
• Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, January 2018
“Phenomenal Sorites and Unconscious Qualia”
• Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany, June 2018
• City College, City University of New York, New York, NY, October 2017
• Metaphysics Conference, Inter-University Center, Dubrovnik, Croatia, June 2017
• The Science of Consciousness, Tucson, AZ, March 2016
• Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary, April 2015
“The Paraphenomenal Hypothesis”
• Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, July 2017
• Australasian Association of Philosophy Annual Conference, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, July 2013
• Toward a Science of Consciousness 2010, Tucson, AZ, April 2010
“Acquaintance and Phenomenal Concepts”
• LOGOS Research Group in Analytic Philosophy, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, June 2017
• University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland, May 2016
• Conference: Non-physicalist Views of Consciousness, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK, May 2016
“Thinking with Names”
• University of Miami, Miami, FL, March 2017
• Workshop: Perceptual and Non-perceptual Phenomenology, Centre for Philosophical
Psychology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, December 2014
• Workshop: Dimensions of Intentionality, Institut für Philosophie II, Ruhr University,
Bochum, Germany, September 2014
• Conference: Consciousness, Intentionality and Phenomenality, Rice University, Houston, TX, October 2011
“Indexical Thought”
• Keynote, University of Fribourg Summer School: Intentionality, Rationality, and the Subject, Trogen, Switzerland, June 2016
“Compositionality and Phenomenal Contrast Effects”
• University of Milan, Milan, Italy, May 2016
“What Is Tonality?”
• Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary, July 2015
“Unconscious Thought”
• Workshop: Phenomenal Intentionality, philosophy department, Central European University (co-organized with Katalin Farkas, CEU), Budapest, Hungary, November 2014
• Fourth Tucson Conference on Consciousness, Tucson, AZ, April 2000
• Tokyo Conference on Consciousness, United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan, May 1999
• Pacific Division APA meetings, Berkeley, CA, March 1999
• Conference of the Alabama Philosophical Society, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, November 1997
“Thought and Consciousness”
• Fellows Seminar, Institute for Advanced Study, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, November 2014
“The Quality of Thought”
• Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary, October 2014
“Knowledge by Acquaintance and Acquaintance as Knowledge”
• University of Graz, Graz, Austria, October 2014
• Workshop: Intentionality at the Beach, Australian National University, Kioloa Beach Campus, Kioloa, Australia, July 2013
“The Opacity of Mind”
• SPAWN Conference: Transparency of Mind, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, August 2013
“There is No Such Thing as Derived Intentionality”
• Toward a Science of Consciousness 2014, Tucson, AZ, April 2014
• Workshop: Interfaces of the Mind, Ruhr-Universität, Bochum, Germany, July 2012
“Phenomenal Demonstratives”
• Toward a Science of Consciousness, Tucson, AZ, April 2012
“The Phenomenology of Thought”
• Invited Symposium on the Phenomenology of Thought, American Philosophical
Association Eastern Division Meetings, Boston, MA, December 2010 (with Joseph Levine and Michael Tye)
“Demonstrative Thoughts”
• University of Miami, Miami, FL, March 2011
• University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, October 2010
• City University of New York Graduate Center (eighth annual Jerrold J. Katz Lecture), New York, NY, February 2010
• 12th Southern California Philosophy Conference, Pitzer College, CA, November 2009
• Workshop: Consciousness and Thought, Dubrovnik Inter-University Center, Croatia, August 2008
• Meeting of the Phenomenal Intentionality Research Group, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, October 2008
“The Introspective Availability of Intentional Content”
• California Phenomenology Circle, Los Angeles, CA, December 2008
• Toward a Science of Consciousness, Tucson, AZ, April 2008
• Conference: The Phenomenology of Cognition, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo, CA, June 2007
“Cognitive Acuity”
• Toward a Science of Consciousness, Budapest, Hungary, July 2007
“Intentional Psychologism”
• Toward a Science of Consciousness, Tucson, AZ, April 2006
• University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, December 2005
• Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, June 2005
“The Burgean Intuitions”
• Southern California Philosophy Conference, University of California, Irvine, October 2004
• City University of New York Graduate Center, New York, NY, February 2004 (second annual Jerrold J. Katz Lecture)
• University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE, October 2002
• Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, November 1996 (early version)
“Mental Sense”
• University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, December 2002
“Psychologism in Linguistics”
• University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, September 2002
• University of Miami, Miami, FL, April 2002
• Cognitive Science Symposium and Discussion Group, City University of New York Graduate Center, New York, NY, November 2001
“Alter Egos and Their Names”
• Pacific Division American Philosophical Association Meetings, San Francisco, CA, March 2001
• New Jersey Regional Philosophical Association Meetings, Lodi, NJ, November 2000
• City University of New York Graduate Center, New York, NY, March 2000
• University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, April 1999
• Conference of the Alabama Philosophical Society, Orange Beach, AL, November 1998
“The Phenomenology of Cognition, Or, What Is It Like to Think That P?”
• Third Tucson Conference on Consciousness, Tucson, AZ, April 1998
• Pacific Division APA meetings, Los Angeles, CA, March 1998
• City University of New York Graduate Center, New York, NY, March 1998
• Auburn University, Auburn, AL, April 1997
• California State University, Los Angeles, CA, February 1997 (very early version)
“Nativism and the Theory of Content”
• Society for Philosophy and Psychology, New York, NY, June 1997 (Poster)
• University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, March 1997
• Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, November 1996
• Harvard/MIT Graduate Students’ Conference, Cambridge, MA, March 1995
Teaching Experience
Central European University, Budapest
Director, New Perspectives in Philosophy of Mind, Summer University, July 2025
Director, Cognitive Phenomenology, Summer University, July 2019
Director, Matter, Mind and Consciousness, Summer University, July 2016
PhD/MA seminar, Phenomenal Intentionality, Fall 2014
California State University, Los Angeles
MA Seminars
The Quality of Thought (2017, 2021, 2024); Philosophy of Mind (Phenomenal Intentionality (2013)); Cognitive Phenomenology (2012, 2005); Panpsychism (2011); Emergentism (2010); Demonstrative Thought (2009); Mental Causation (2009); Recent Work on Consciousness (2008, 2004)); Metaphysics; Philosophy of Music (2007)
Undergraduate Courses (continuing)
Philosophical Ideas: Knowledge and Reality; The Nature of Consciousness; Philosophy of Mind; Philosophy of Language; Metaphysics; Introduction to Symbolic Logic
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
PhD seminars: Consciousness and Intentionality; Direct Reference
Undergraduate Courses: Philosophy of Mind, Epistemology, Philosophy of Law, Medical Ethics, Introduction to Philosophy, Applied Ethics
Brooklyn College, CUNY
Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Language, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Psychology, Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, Epistemology, Introduction to Philosophy
Iowa State University
Minds, Brains and Computers, 20th Century Anglo-American Philosophy, Introduction to Philosophy
Swarthmore College
Language and Meaning (Philosophy/Linguistics Senior Honors Seminar), Introduction to Philosophy of Language, Introduction to Formal Logic and Philosophy
Hunter College
Introduction to Philosophy, Introduction to Moral Philosophy, Introduction to Formal Logic and Scientific Method, Critical Thinking
Service to the Profession
Referee
Journals
American Philosophical Quarterly, Analysis, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Dialogue, Ergo, Erkenntnis, Grazer Philosophische Studien, Journal of Consciousness Studies, Journal of Philosophy, Language, Mind, Noûs, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Psychology, Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Studies, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Philosophy and the Mind Sciences, Synthese, Theoria
University Presses
Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, The MIT Press
Peer Review Committee Member (Advisor), Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, 2016, 2017, 2022, 2025
Program Committee Member, American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division, 2012-2015
References
Ned Block, Department of Philosophy, New York University
David Chalmers, Department of Philosophy, New York University
Tim Crane, Department of Philosophy, Central European University, Vienna
Katalin Farkas, Department of Philosophy, Central European University, Vienna
Terry Horgan, Department of Philosophy, University of Arizona
Joe Levine, Department of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Charles Siewert, Department of Philosophy, Rice University
Galen Strawson, Department of Philosophy, University of Texas, Austin