Professor of Philosophy and Affiliated Professor of Cognitive Psychology, Ph.D. Minnesota: Philosophy of Psychology; Philosophy of Logic/Philosophical Logic; History of Modern Philosophy; Metaphysics

I grew up in Belleville, Kansas and worked my way through college playing in rock-and-roll bands. I majored in psychology and eventually took a second major in philosophy in hopes that it would help me see how the data we got in the lab were related to the theories we were trying to test--a topic that still interests me. Over the past few years much of my work has been in philosophical logic, cognition, and metaphysics. A main interest now is reasoning under various degrees of uncertainty, particually in real-life applications (e.g., the stock market, intelligence gathering).

I have (qualified) hopes for the internet as a way of freely disseminating information (in a way that bypasses big business and big government) for everyone everywhere, especially those in places where they couldn't otherwise get it and for those who couldn't otherwise afford it. Hence, for some years I have been co-editor for the philosophy of science area and done other work on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (the best, I not disinterestedly think, philosophical encyclopedia in the world, and we are working very hard to keep it free for users all over the world). I also have a 640 page textbook on critical reasoning that is, along with slides, freely available on the net. Information is a source of empowerment, and I have an on-going project to make additional sorts of information, including information for nonspecialists, freely accessible on the net.

My wife Shari and I live on eleven wooded acres about ten miles east of Norman.