Right and wrong

Latest papers: Erik O. Kimbrough & John Thrasher design two studies to measure the consensus-sensitivity of moral judgments doi.org/10.1080/0951... #philsky #philpsy

And to end the symposium, Melinda Gülsüm Esen reviews the book! doi.org/10.1080/0951... #vol39issue3 #newbooks #philsky #philpsy #booksky
9/9

(Still) defending mental fictionalism: A response to commentaries on Mind as Metaphor This paper responds to commentaries on Mind as Metaphor by Craig Bourne and Emily Caddick Bourne, Tamás Demeter, László Kocsis and Krisztián Pete, Zoe Drayson, M. Jimena Clavel Vázquez, and Kendall...

Adam Toon responds to his critics! A further defence of fictionalism about mental states doi.org/10.1080/0951... #vol38issue3 #philsky #philpsy
8/9

What motivates mental fictionalism? Mental fictionalists propose that we should continue to engage in truth-conditional discourse about the mind, even though we have reason to believe that the discourse lacks truthmakers. In Mind As ...

Zoe Drayson explores the motivation for #fictionalism about the mental, arguing that Toon’s positive argument seems to ontologically commit him to the types of mental states he is trying to deny doi.org/10.1080/0951... #vol38issue3 #philsky #philpsy
7/9

Kendall L. Walton asks whether fictionalism is just #behaviourism in his commentary: doi.org/10.1080/0951... #vol39issue3 #philsky #philpsy
6/9

M. Jimena Clavel Vázquez argues that we can articulate the fictionalist proposal in terms of collective #imagination understood as a shared or collective practice sedimented in habits and behaviours doi.org/10.1080/0951... #vol39issue3 #philsky #philpsy
5/9

Tamás Demeter, László Kocsis & Krisztián Pete aim to show that representationally essential #metaphors are incompatible with genuine causal #explanation doi.org/10.1080/0951... #vol38issue3 #philsky #philpsy
4/9

Craig Bourne & Emily Caddick Bourne offer the first commentary, where they develop David Lewis’s notion of a quasi-miracle to suggest an alternative form of #fictionalism to Toon's doi.org/10.1080/0951... #vol39issue3 #philsky #philpsy
3/9

Defending mental fictionalism: A précis of Mind as Metaphor Mind as Metaphor develops a new approach to the mind. This approach is called mental fictionalism. It claims that our concept of mind is fundamentally metaphorical: we project the “outer world” of ...

Next, Adam Toon presents the main themes of his book, Mind as Metaphor, in a precis: doi.org/10.1080/0951... #vol39issue3 #philsky #philpsy
2/9

Is the #mind just a metaphor? Dive into our new book symposium with this thread for #vol39issue3! Start with Kathleen Murphy-Hollies and Lisa Bortolotti's editorial doi.org/10.1080/0951... free access #vol39issue3 #philsky #philpsy
1/9

I am extremely grateful to @lisabortolotti.com and @kmurphyhollies.bsky.social for organising this symposium and to the fantastic contributors: Craig Bourne, Emily Caddick Bourne, Tamás Demeter, @zoedrayson.bsky.social, László Kocsis, Krisztián Pete, M. Jimena Clavel Vázquez, and Kendall L. Walton

Nicolás Sebastián Sánchez claims that Dennett’s views on the intentional stance shift in his later work, where he treats it as a “subspecies of the design stance" doi.org/10.1080/0951... #vol39issue3 #philsky #philpsy
16/16

Popperian animals and instrumental reasoning According to Daniel Dennett, some non-human animals are “Popperian creatures” who possess internal representational models that allow them to simulate different responses offline, evaluate their co...

Laura Danón aims to clarify which abilities should be considered critical to a Popperian animal and argues that having means-end reasoning suffices to count as a Popperian animal doi.org/10.1080/0951... #philsky #philpsy
15/16

Dan Lloyd addresses the #self as a centre of narrative gravity: doi.org/10.1080/0951... Fabulae, he suggests, capture the spirit and implications of Dennett’s idea, and illuminate a critical centre of our personal and interpersonal lives #vol39issue3 #philsky #philpsy
14/16

Free will is real—I could not have believed otherwise This paper seeks to advance the compatibilist theory of free will, particularly building upon contributions by Christian List (and also Daniel Dennett) regarding the agential capacity to act otherw...

Majid D. Beni seeks to advance the compatibilist theory of #FreeWill, building upon contributions by Christian List & Daniel Dennett regarding the agential capacity to act otherwise doi.org/10.1080/0951... #vol39issue3 #philsky #philpsy
13/16

Human autonomy with AI in the loop In the wake of recent advancements in the field of AI, this paper investigates the impact of recommender systems and generative models on human decisional and creative autonomy. For this purpose, w...

Eleonora Catena, Luca Tummolini & Vieri Giuliano Santucci investigate the impact of recommender systems and generative models on human decisional and creative autonomy, adopting Dennett’s conception of #autonomy as self-control doi.org/10.1080/0951... #vol39issue3 #philsky #philpsy
12/16

The Emancipation of the drone: A Dennettian thought experiment This paper presents an extended thought experiment conducted by Daniel Dennett and the author as a way of exploring how consciousness might develop without a central “Cartesian Theater.” The starti...

In a paper started with Dennett himself, Keith Frankish presents an extended thought experiment, the Emancipation of the Drone, as a way of exploring how #consciousness might develop without a central Cartesian Theater doi.org/10.1080/0951... open access #vol39issue3 #philsky #philpsy
11/16

Who is the spectator in the Cartesian Theater? The “Cartesian Theater” is Dennett’s metaphor for the error of positing a homunculus or “little man” who watches an inner screen on which our thoughts appear – “the most tenacious bad idea bedevill...

Peter Slezak asks who the spectator is in the Cartesian theatre doi.org/10.1080/0951... open access #vol39issue3 #consciousness #philsky #philpsy
10/16

An enactivist response to the Cassette Theory This paper proposes a response to the Cassette Theory based on an enactivist interpretation of dreaming experiences. The Cassette Theory proposes the possibility that the content of dream reports i...

Qiantong Wu offers an enactivist response to the Cassette Theory of the content of #dreams reports doi.org/10.1080/0951... #vol39issue3 #philsky #philpsy
9/16

When counting conscious subjects, the result needn’t always be a determinate whole number Could there be 7/8 of a conscious subject, or 1.34 conscious subjects, or an entity indeterminate between being one conscious subject and seventeen? Such possibilities might seem absurd or inconcei...

Eric Schwitzgebel & Sophie R. Nelson argue that the processes underlying #consciousness are sufficiently complex to render it implausible that conscious subjects must always arise in determinate whole numbers doi.org/10.1080/0951... open access #vol39issue3 #philsky #philpsy
8/16

Consciousness interpreted: an interpretation of Dennett’s view of consciousness Dennett’s work has had a profound impact on philosophical and scientific understanding of consciousness. However, interpreting Dennett’s work on consciousness is notoriously challenging. Some have ...

Henry Taylor develops and defends an interpretation of Dennett’s views on #consciousness, on which consciousness is a real pattern: doi.org/10.1080/0951... open access #vol39issue3 #philsky #philpsy
7/16

Lay perceptions of psychology: the (mis)match between lay beliefs and explanatory stances People do not think that all psychological phenomena are equally explainable through science: Psychological phenomena associated with a high first-person subjective experience (henceforth, FPSE; i....

Francisco Cruz & André Mata discuss explanatory stances and test people's beliefs about whether first person subjective experiences can be accounted by science doi.org/10.1080/0951... #vol39issue3 #philsky #philpsy
6/16

What should philosophers do with “deceptive” intuition pumps? Restrictionism vs reformism Philosophers commonly use thought experiments to elicit intuitions that serve as evidence for or against philosophical theories. Daniel Dennett calls such thought experiments “intuition pumps” and ...

Arata Matsuda & Masashi Takeshita investigate thought experiments as #intuition pumps and argue that philosophers should continue the use of deceptive intuition pumps after reforming them doi.org/10.1080/0951... #vol39issue3 #philsky #philpsy
5/16

Jag Williams & Ann-Sophie Barwich take a fresh look at Daniel Dennett’s naturalist legacy in #philosophy, focusing on his rethinking of philosophical #methods: doi.org/10.1080/0951... #vol39issue3 #philsky #philpsy
4/16

First contribution to the special issue is by Elly Vintiadis on the relationship between #science and #philosophy: doi.org/10.1080/0951... #vol39issue3 #philsky #philpsy
3/16

Dennett’s powerful ideas Published in Philosophical Psychology (Vol. 39, No. 3, 2026)

Next is Lisa Bortolotti's editorial briefly presenting the contributions to the special issue, dividing them into a section on methods and approaches, a section on consciousness, and a section on self and agency. Free access here: doi.org/10.1080/0951... #vol39issue3 #philsky #philpsy
2/16

Artificial intelligence and the breakdown of the intentional stance Published in Philosophical Psychology (Vol. 39, No. 3, 2026)

What are Dennett's powerful ideas? Discover it in this new thread on #vol39issue3. Let's start with an editorial by Felipe De Brigard on #AI and the breakdown of the intentional stance, free access here: doi.org/10.1080/0951... #philsky #philpsy
1/16

Mind as Metaphor book cover

Daniel Dennett photo

Very exciting new issue published today! It contains a special issue on the philosophy of Daniel Dennett (Dennett's Powerful Ideas) and a symposium on Adam Toon's book, "Mind as Metaphor" #vol39issue3 Enjoy! www.tandfonline.com/...

Lisa Bortolotti on BPA site

Our editor in chief was awarded the 2026 BPA prize for Public Communication of Philosophy. Congratulations Lisa! bpa.ac.uk/prizes2026/ #philsky #philosophyforeveryone #philosophymatters

A research gap being investigated

Latest papers: Melina Tsapos addresses the gap in a unified explanation of what motivates conspiracy belief by introducing a framework that incorporates multiple dimensions of conspiracy belief in this open access paper doi.org/10.1080/0951... #philsky #philpsy