Faculty

chris swoyer

Chris Swoyer Professor & Affiliated Professor of Cognitive Psychology
Ph.D., Minnesota
Research areas: Philosophy of Psychology & Social Science, Applied Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Science

627 Dale Hall Tower
(405) 325-6447
cswoyer@ou.edu
office hours

Over the years I have worked on history of modern philosophy, philosophy of logic, metaphysics, and philosophy of science. My current interests are primarily in human representation (especially models), including the nature of representations and our representational practices. I am also interested in cultural and philosophical thought over the last fifty to a hundred years, especially more recent work.

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.

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. Never going back to the city.

Recent courses:

Dual-Process Theories of Cognition
Dewey
Rawl's Political Liberalism
Later Wittgenstein
Nature & Nurture
Symbolic Logic II

Selected publications:

“Properties,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

“Relativism,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

“Abstract Entities” (lead paper, refereed) in Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics, Theodore Sider, John Hawthorne, and Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.) (Blackwell, 2008).

“Rational Choice” (with Steve Ellis), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd  Edition, vol. 9, William A. Darity, Jr. (ed.) (Gale Group, 2008), pp. 2006-2008. (.pdf)

“Conceptualism,” in Universals, Concepts and Qualities: New Essays on the Meaning of Predicates, P. F. Strawson and Arindam Chakrabarti (eds.) (Ashgate, 2006), pp. 127-154.

“Judgment and Decision Making: Extrapolations and Applications,” in Judgments, Decisions, and Public Policy, Rajeev Gowda and Jeffrey C. Fox (eds.) (Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 9-35. (.pdf)

“Complex Predicates and Logics of Properties and Relations,” Journal of Philosophical Logic, 27 (1998); 295-325.

“Complex Predicates and Conversion Principles,” Philosophical Studies, 87 (1997); 1-32.  Selected as one of the ten best philosophy papers of 1997 and reprinted in Philosopher's Annual, 20 (1998).

“C. I. Lewis's Calculus of Predicates,” History and Philosophy of Logic, 16 (1995); 19-37.

“Leibnizian Expression,” Journal of the History of Philosophy, 33 (1995); 65-99. (.pdf)

“Leibniz's Calculus of Real Addition,” Studia Leibnitiana, 26 (1994); 1-30.

“Hume and the Three Views of the Self,” Hume Studies, 8 (1982); 43-61. (.pdf)