Why Study Philosophy?

Philosophy is traditionally defined as the love of wisdom, the ability to think well about the foundations of human action, the nature of reality, and the purposes and priorities of life.

The department offers the opportunity for a systematic study of the philosophies of past and present, of East and West, a study that deepens and broadens one's outlook on the world and on human affairs, and thus provides a more secure basis on which to develop one's own philosophy.

Department of Philosophy - James Blackmon

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Contact

Office: Humanities 571

Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 5:00-6:00 p.m., and by appointment

Phone: (415) 338-1827

Email: jblackmo@sfsu.edu

Website: http://jcblackmon.googlepages.com/home

Interests

Philosophy of Mind
Metaphysics
Philosophy of Science

Courses

Formal Logic
Philosophy of Natural Science
Critical Thinking
Philosophy of Mind

Publications:

"Atomistic Learning in Non-Modular Systems", with Robert Cummins, David Byrd, Pierre Poirier, and Martin Roth Philosophical Psychology 2005

"What Systematicity Isn't: Reply to Wayne Davis", with Robert Cummins, David Byrd, Alexa Lee, and Martin Roth, Journal of Philosophical Research 2005

"Systematicity and the Cognition of Structured Domains", with David Byrd, Martin Roth, R. Cummins, Pierre Poirier, and Georg Schwarz, The Journal of Philosophy XCVII, No. 4: 167-185 2001

"The Epistemology of Non-symbolic Cognition: Atomistic Learning and Forgetting", with David Byrd, Martin Roth, Robert Cummins, Pierre Poirier, and Georg Schwarz. Tech. Report Phil99-3, UC Davis

Department of Philosophy College of Humantities