Writings of 2015

I guess it's a tradition for me now, posting a retrospect of the past year's writings on New Year's Day. (Here are the retrospects of 2012, 2013, and 2014.)

Three notable things this past year were (a.) more commitment to writing in popular venues, including three pieces in the Los Angeles Times, (b.) a couple of journal articles on skepticism, bringing together some of my work on the psychology of philosophy with my long-standing (but mostly unpublished) interest in skeptical epistemology, and (c.) work connecting my interest in science fiction with issues in philosophical methodology and the ethics of technology. I am also continuing to work on some of my other favorite topics: self-knowledge, moral psychology, the nature of attitudes, classical Chinese philosophy, and the moral behavior of ethicists.

Full-length non-fiction essays appearing in print in 2015:

• “Philosophers' biased judgments persist despite training, expertise, and reflection” (first author, with Fiery Cushman), Cognition 141, 127-137.
• “Cheeseburger ethics” Aeon Magazine, featured article Jul. 14.
• “Experimental evidence for the existence of an external world” (first author, with Alan T. Moore), Journal of the American Philosophical Association 1, 564-582.
• “If materialism is true, the United States is probably conscious”, Philosophical Studies 172, 1697-1721.
• “A defense of the rights of Artificial Intelligences” (first author, with Mara Garza), Midwest Studies in Philosophy 35, 98-119.
• “Death and self in the incomprehensible Zhuangzi” (trans. into Chinese by R. Wang), Journal of Shangqiu Normal University.
• (revised and updated) “Belief”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Full-length non-fiction finished and forthcoming:

• “The behavior of ethicists” (first author, with Joshua Rust), in W. Buckwalter and J. Sytsma, eds., Blackwell Companion to Experimental Philosophy (Wiley-Blackwell).

Shorter non-fiction in print or forthcoming:

• “Philosophy via Facebook? Why Not?” Los Angeles Times op-ed Jul. 19 (Wiley-Blackwell).
• “What's missing in college philosophy classes? Chinese philosophers” Los Angeles Times op-ed Sep. 11.
• “You are ignorant of yourself” Slate, Templeton Big Ideas: What do we know?
• “We have greater moral obligations to robots than to humans” Aeon Opinion, Nov. 12.
• “Will your driverless car kill you so that others may live?” Los Angeles Times op-ed Dec. 4. [reprinted in The Chicago Tribune and several other venues]
• (forthcoming) Preface to Marco Caracciolo and Russell T. Hurlburt, A passion for specificity, Ohio University Press.

Editing work:

• special issue of Midwest Studies in Philosophy, on science fiction and philosophy.
• Philosophical speculative fiction: Recommendations from 41 philosophers, with a brief introduction on the philosophical value of science fiction.
• “Philosophers recommend science fiction films” (an abbreviated version of the speculative fiction list, focusing on film) The Philosophers Magazine 71, 101-106.
• (forthcoming) “Philosophers recommend science fiction” (another abbreviated version of the list), in S. Schneider (ed.) Science Fiction and Philosophy, 2nd ed. Wiley-Blackwell.

Non-fiction in draft and circulating:

• “The intrinsic value of self-knowledge (comments on Q. Cassam)”.
• “Against intellectualism about belief (comments on J. Marley-Payne”.
• “Do ethics classes influence student behavior?” [a 2013 manuscript I'm not quite happy with but which I'm still collecting thoughts about].

Science fiction stories:

• “Out of the Jar”, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 128, 118-128.
• “The Tyrant's Headache”, Sci Phi Journal 3, 78-83.
• “Momentary Sage”, The Dark 8, 38-43.
• “The Dauphin's metaphysics”, Unlikely Story 12 [Locus recommended by Lois Tilton].
• (reprint) “Reinstalling Eden”, (first author, with R. Scott Bakker), StarShipSofa 392.
• (reprint forthcoming) “Reinstalling Eden” (first author, with R. Scott Bakker), in S. Schneider (ed.) Science Fiction and Philosophy, 2nd ed. Wiley-Blackwell.

Some favorite blog posts:

• Memories of my father (Jan. 23)
• How robots and monsters might break human moral systems (Feb. 3)
• How to disregard extremely remote possibilities (Apr. 16)
• The immortal's dilemma (May 29)
• Profanity inflation, profanity migration, and the paradox of prohibition (Jul. 8)
• Percentage of women at APA meetings 1955, 1975, 1995, 2015 (Nov. 17)
• How prominently is women's philosophical work discussed? One empirical measure (Dec. 31)

Selected interviews:

• at Closer to Truth on consciousness.
• at Unlikely Story on my story "The Dauphin's Metaphysics".
• at People for the Ethical Treatment of Reinforcement Learners (with Mara Garza) on robot rights.
• at Kingdoms of Evil on speculative fiction, philosophy, and my story "Momentary Sage".
• at Philosophical Percolations on philosophy and science fiction.
• at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction on my story "Out of the Jar".
• at Very Bad Wizards on moral psychology.
• at Rationally Speaking on the moral behavior of ethicists.

Here's hoping for a similarly fun and productive 2016!