Andrew Cullison

When I teach personal identity in Intro and Metaphysics, I often have a student suggest that what it takes to have the same person across time is for the persons to have the same DNA structure. A good response to this has always been to point out that identical twins have the same DNA structure, [...]

Filed under: metaphysics, philosophy by Andrew Cullison
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A common view in philosophy is that counterfactual conditionals with impossible antecedents are all vacuously true. But I’m very worried about that view. There are several counterfactuals with impossible antecedents that seem false. Here are some examples. Counterfactuals involving Metaphyical ClaimsConsider Metaphysical Nihilism, the thesis that there are no composite objects (just simples). According to [...]

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A lot of materialists will admit that there are some kinds of entities that are a little more difficult to make sense of within a materialist ontology. For example - propositions. Here’s an argument for immaterialism that I encountered that seems to be aimed at materialists who would accept the existence of propositions. I’ve encountered [...]

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Seriously? Guantanamo detainees are not human beings or persons? What!?

Filed under: metaphysics, philosophy by Andrew Cullison
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This is pretty half-baked, but consider the following proposition: (1) January 9, 2008 is present. I think it is a vague matter whether or not this is true. Imagine the minutes are slowly ticking away on January 8. It’s 11:59. As the time passes, January 9 will be determinately present, but exactly when that happens [...]

Filed under: metaphysics, philosophy, philosophy of language by Andrew Cullison
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