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Personal bio
James received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley in May 2009. His research concerns our ability to experience and think about the world around us. In particular, he is interested in understanding the nature of perceptual consciousness, and how it makes possible the acquisition of concepts. He's currently working on two related projects: the first involves developing an account of perceptual experience that meets three desiderata: (1) it accounts for the common sense observation that perceiving provides us with direct awareness of our environment; (2) it can explain supposedly erroneous perceptual experiences, such as illusions and hallucinations; and (3) it is compatible with a plausible account of perceptual justification and knowledge. The second is an inquiry into what epistemic constraints, if any, govern our ability to think about and refer to particular objects. He is also very interested in the empirical study of the mind, and has explored experimental approaches to the study of semantic reference and conceptual structure in joint work with Prof. Tania Lombrozo (Dept. of Psychology, UC Berkeley). During the 2011-2012 academic year, James will be a teaching fellow for Word and Image and Philosophical Perspectives on Science, and in Winter quarter will be teaching an upper-level course on the philosophy of perception in the Stanford Philosophy Department. |