Embedded Files
Welcome to my website. I am Professor and Faculty Head of Philosophy at Arizona State University (Tempe Campus). I have a PhD in philosophy from Rutgers University, which has long been considered one of the very best philosophy departments in the English speaking world, and a BS in Mathematics from Tufts University. I immigrated to the U.S. from Peru when I was ten years old.
I have published on a variety of topics but mostly in Epistemology, Philosophy of Language and Experimental Philosophy. Links to this work appear below.
I am a co-editor (with Joshua Knobe and Shaun Nichols) of the Oxford Studies in Experimental Philosophy book series.
I am a big believer in making academic knowledge more widely accessible. I founded and built publicscholarship.org, an AI-powered search engine database. It is now the largest discovery search engine of public facing scholarship in the world.
I am currently spearheading the creation of an Artificial Intelligence and Philosophy BA degree at ASU, one of the first such degrees in the nation. I believe every college student should have the conceptual, ethical, and practical skills to use AI to improve their own lives and to contribute to the flourishing of humanity.
2026 NEWS
2026 NEWS
March. 'Capturing the Signal in Public Humanities' published in Public Humanities.
May. PublicScholarship.org is made available through Arizona State University Libraries, reaching over 200,000 students and faculty.
June. 'Why Are Humanists so Bad at Defending the Humanities. published in the Chronicle of Higher Education. (free version)
June. Presenting paper, "An Analysis of Doubt?" in Berlin, Germany
August. Awarded a Cosmos Artificial Intelligence for Truth Seeking Grant (with Nat Hansen) for a project which develops and researches network structures of artificial intelligence agents to aid discovery.
September. Presenting paper on the structure of concepts in Cagliari, Italy,
September. Panel discussion on AI and Teaching at the Humanities Institute, Arizona State University.
BOOKS
BOOKS
Why We Doubt: A Cognitive Account of Our Skeptical Inclinations. Oxford University Press. October 2023.
Chapter 5 (The Narrow Function of Skeptical Doubt)
Chapter 7 (Skepticism in Society)
Review International Journal for the Study of Skepticism (Branden Fitelson, Chad Gonnerman & John Waterman, Mark Walker)
Review Philosophical Review (Matt McGrath)
Doubt in an Uncertain World: A Philosophical Theory of Doubt. Under contract with Oxford University Press
Oxford Studies in Experimental Philosophy. Volume 6. (Forthcoming) Eds (J. Knobe, S. Nichols, A. Pinillos)
ACADEMIC PAPERS
ACADEMIC PAPERS
Capturing the Signal in Public Humanities (Forthcoming in Public Humanities)
A Modest Solution to Skepticism (with Branden Fitelson)
An Experimental Study on Concepts (with Ben Phillips and Eleonore Neufeld)
Cohen on the Attraction and Defeat of Skeptical Hypotheses. Essays in Honor of Stewart Cohen (2024). Matt McGrath and Juan Comesana (Editors).
Banks, Stakes and Normative Facts. Oxford Studies in Experimental Philosophy. 2023
Bayesian Sensitivity Principles for Evidence Based Knowledge. 2022 Philosophical Studies
Evidence Sensitivity as a Heuristic for Doubt. Midwest Studies in Philosophy. Volume 45. 2021
De Jure Anti-Coreference and Mental Files In Singular Thoughts and Mental Files. Oxford University Press. 2020
A Counterfactual Explanation for the Action Effect in Causal Judgment With Paul Henne, Laura Niemi, Josh Knobe and Felipe De Brigard. 2019 Cognition
Asymmetric Belief Sensitivity and Justification Explain the Wells Effect. COGSCI 2019 (with Sara Jaramillo and Zach Horne).
Skepticism and Evolution in Pragmatic Encroachment. 2019 Routledge
Knowledge and the Permissibility of Action. Synthese. 2019.
Skepticism and the Acquisition of 'Knowledge' with Shaun Nichols. Mind and Language 2018
Cause By Omission and Norm with Paul Henne and Felipe De Brigard. 2017 Australasian Journal of Philosophy.
Ambiguous Reference . (with Shaun Nichols and Ron Mallon). Mind 2016
Experiments on Contextualism and Interest Relative Invariantism in Blackwell Companion to Experimental Philosophy 2016
A Bayesian Framework for Knowledge Attribution:Evidence from Semantic Integration in Cognition 2015 (with Derek Powell, Zachary Horne and Keith Holyoak)
Millianism, Relationism and Attitude Ascriptions. On Reference. Oxford University Press. 2015
Ambiguity and Referential Machinery in Advances in Experimental Philosophy of Language, 2015. Bloombsury
Justified True Belief (in a Gettier case) Triggers False Recall of 'Knew'.(with Derek Powell, Zachary Horne and Keith Holyoak) (CogSci 2013)
Semantic Integration as a Method for Investigating Concepts (with Derek Powell and Zachary Horne.) 2014 Advances in Experimental Epistemology
Experimental Evidence in Support of Anti-Intellectualism About Knowledge 2014 Advances in Experimental Epistemology (Bloomsbury) with Shawn Simpson
Attitudes, Supervaluations and Vagueness in the World 2014 Vague Objects and Vague Identity (Verlag)
Knowledge, Experiments and Practical Interests, 2012 New Essays On Knowledge Ascriptions Oxford University Press.
Coreference and Meaning Philosophical Studies. 2011.
Time Dilation, Context and Relative Truth. 2011 Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
Recent Work in Experimental Epistemology . Philosophy Compass. 2011
'Philosophy's New Challenge: Experiments and Intentional Action. with Nick Smith, G. Shyam Nair, Cecilea Mun, Peter Marchetto. Mind and Language 2011
Counting and Indeterminate Identity. Mind 2003.
OTHER WRITING
OTHER WRITING
Why Are Humanists so Bad at Defending the Humanities. June 2026. Chronicle of Higher Education. (free version)
Where is MAGA's plan to unify the country? June 2025 The Fulcrum
Why Arguments Still Work (November 11, 2020) The Medium.
Interview (In German)
Knowledge, Ignorance and Climate Change. New York Times (Nov 26, 2018) In 'Most Emailed Article' list in the NYT for two days in a row. Reprinted in Question Everything. WW Norton
Review of J. Saul "Simple Sentences, Substitution and Intuitions" Mind.
'Experimental Philosophy' (coauthored) Oxford Bibliographies Online.
I regularly write in the Substack This Sacred Simulation.
TALKS
TALKS
(Invited) University of Glasgow, Scotland. May 2027
(Invited) Anbar Lecture at Syracuse University. April 2027
(Invited) The Future of Humanities, Plenary Session at the Western Association of Graduate Schools. Coeur d’Alene, ID. March 2027
(Invited) Symposium Speaker on Doubt and Confidence. American Philosophical Association. Denver, CO. February 2027.
(Invited) Panel member on whether AI should be used in philosophical writing. American Philosophical Association. Boston, MA. January 2027.
(Invited) Panel member on AI and Learning. Humanities Institute. Tempe, AZ. September 2026.
(Refereed) “Five Theories, Three Experiments: Adjudicating Models of Natural Kind Categorizations.” European Experimental Philosophy. Sardinia, Italy. September 2026
(Invited) “Is There an Analysis of Doubt?” Berlin, Germany. June 2026.
(Invited) “Skepticism as a Mindset.” Fifth Annual Formal and Experimental Philosophy Workshop (FAX5). March 2026.
(Invited) Templeton Foundation Humility in Inquiry Final Conference. September 2025.
(Invited) “Doubt and Conspiracy Theory.” Scripps College. March 2025.
(Invited) “Humility and Skepticism.” Northeastern University. Fall 2024.
(Invited) Comments on Paolo Bonardi. Pacific APA, Portland. March 2024.
(Invited) “The Attraction of Skepticism.” Skepticism in the Real World Workshop, Tempe, AZ. January 2024.
(Invited) “Externalism About Contextualism.” Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany. December 2023.
(Invited) “The Attraction of Skepticism.” East Carolina University. November 2023.
(Invited) “Skepticism and Humility.” UNC–Chapel Hill. November 2023.
(Invited) “The Point of Skepticism.” University of British Columbia. September 2023.
(Invited) Three Lectures. National University of San Marcos, Lima, Peru. Spring 2023.
(Invited) “Knowledge and Doubt.” Washington University in St. Louis (Philosophy Colloquium). January 2023.
(Invited) Workshop on Doubt. Helsinki. November 2022.
(Invited) Conference on Ordinary Language. Berlin. June 2022.
(Refereed) “Sensitivity Principles.” Society for Exact Philosophy, Toronto. May 2019.
(Invited) “De Jure Anti-Coreference.” Ohio State University. April 2019.
(Refereed) “Skepticism and Bayesian Cognition.” Buffalo Experimental Philosophy Conference. September 2018.
(Refereed) “Are Omissions Really Less Causal?” With Josh Knobe, Paul Henne, Laura Niemi, and Felipe De Brigard. Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Ann Arbor, MI. July 2018. [Presented by Henne]
(Refereed) “Skepticism: An Evolutionary Perspective.” Buffalo Experimental Philosophy Conference. August 2017.
(Invited) “The Allure of Skepticism: Evolutionary Perspectives.” Institut Jean Nicod, Paris. 2017.
(Invited) “De Jure Anti-Coreference.” Conference on Relational Thought, University of Illinois at Chicago. September 2016.
(Invited) “Referential Ascriptions.” University of Warsaw, Poland. April 2016.
(Invited) “The Allure of Skepticism.” Arizona State University. December 2015.
(Invited) “The Allure of Skepticism.” University of Pittsburgh. October 2015.
(Invited) “De Jure Anti-Coreference and Mental Files.” Conference on Mental Files, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey. September 2015.
(Invited) “Coordination in Mind and Language.” University of Houston. April 2015.
(Invited) “Coreference and Mental Files.” Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas, UNAM, Mexico City. April 2015.
(Invited Keynote) “Relativism.” Southwest Graduate Conference. 2014.
(Invited) “Intuitions and Perceptions.” Authors-Meet-Critics session for Intuition by Elijah Chudnoff (Oxford University Press). December 2014.
(Invited) “Bayesian Analysis of Knowledge and Semantic Integration.” University of Arizona Experimental Philosophy Group. October 2014.
(Invited) “Ambiguity and Reference.” UC Davis Philosophy Colloquium. October 2013.
(Refereed) “Justified True Belief (in a Gettier Case) Triggers False Recall of Knowledge.” With D. Powell, Z. Horne, and K. Holyoak. CogSci 2013, Berlin. July 2013. [Co-authors presented]
(Refereed) “Justified True Belief (in a Gettier Case) Triggers False Recall of Knowledge.” With D. Powell, Z. Horne, and K. Holyoak. Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Providence, RI. June 2013.
(Invited) “Gettier and Practical Interests.” Symposium, Pacific APA. 2013.
(Invited) “Ambiguous Reference.” Conference on Empirical Data and Philosophical Theorizing, University of Barcelona, Spain. October 2012.
(Invited) “Three Ways Truth May Be Relative.” Boise State University. April 2012.
(Invited) “What Is Experimental Philosophy?” Boise State University. April 2012.
(Refereed) “Relativism: Linguistic or Worldly.” Ordinary Language, Linguistics and Philosophy, University of St. Andrews, Scotland. June 2011.
(Invited) “Knowledge and Stakes: Experimental Work.” Can Experimental Philosophy Contribute to Traditional Epistemology? San Diego, CA. April 2011.
(Invited) “Experiments and Knowledge.” University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. February 2011.
(Invited) “Knowledge and Practical Interests.” Conference on Experimental Philosophy, University of Arizona. January 2011.
(Invited) “The Role of Morality and Practical Interests in Knowledge Attributions.” Faculty Seminar Series, Arizona State University. January 2011.
(Invited) “Knowledge and Stakes.” Group Session on Experimental Philosophy, APA, Boston, MA. December 2010.
(Invited) “Moral Relativism.” Arizona State University Philosophy Colloquium. October 2010.
(Invited) “Relationism and Reference.” Conference on Reference, University of Parma, Italy. September 2010.
(Invited) “Mental Content and Moral Relativism.” Symposium, Pacific APA, San Francisco. 2010.
(Invited) “Philosophical Judgments.” University of Arizona Philosophy Department. January 2010.
(Refereed) “Philosophy’s New Challenge.” AHRC Philosophy Methodology Conference, University of St. Andrews, Scotland. April 2009.
(Refereed) “Relativistic Semantics for Temporal (and Spatial) ‘Duration.’” Mountain-Plains Philosophy Conference. October 2008.
(Refereed) “Representing as the Same.” World Congress of Philosophy, Seoul, South Korea. August 2008. [Accepted; declined due to funding cuts]
(Invited) “Relativism.” ASU Ph.D. Applied Linguistics Program Faculty Interests Day. September 2008.
(Refereed) “Coreference and Transitivity.” Pacific APA. March 2008. [Commentator: Michael Nelson]
(Invited) “The Role of Meaning in Logical Inference.” Vassar College. February 2006.
(Invited) “The Role of Meaning in Logical Inference.” Southern Methodist University. February 2006.
(Invited) “The Role of Meaning in Logical Inference.” Arizona State University. February 2006.
(Invited) “The Role of Meaning in Logical Inference.” University of California, Los Angeles. January 2006.
(Invited) “Frege on Sense.” Mt. Holyoke College. January 2006.
(In-House) “The Variable.” Rutgers University. April 2005.
(Refereed) “Counting and Indeterminate Identity.” Eastern APA. December 2002. [Commentator: Terry Parsons; Winner, Graduate Student Prize]
(In-House) “Belief Attributions and the Hidden Indexical Theory.” Rutgers University. April 2001.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse