• What's New on This Site?
• Online Papers and Essays
• My book
• Philosophy Resources
• Publications
• About me and my research

• Philosophy
• Science and Mathematics
• Culture
• Politics

  
What's New?

• The Unfinishable Scroll: A blog about political thought, religion, and other weighty (and not so weighty) matters.

 
Online Papers and Essays

This site includes the following online papers and essays. All are in PDF format unless otherwise noted. Writings too informal to be papers are marked as "essay," "notes," or the like. The items labeled "HTML list" are HTML pages with lists of links to PDF papers. (Some items may be on more than one such list.)

This list doesn't include my published papers, which are on a separate list.

Consciousness and Mind

• "Qualia and the Problem of Universals"
• "I Am an Abstraction, Therefore I Am"
• "Platonizing the Abstract Self"
• "Can Machines Have First-Person Properties?" (HTML)
• "As True as 'You Think': Preserving the Core of Folk Psychology"
• "Yes, We Have Conscious Will"

Physics / Philosophy of Physics

• "The Quantum Mechanical Path Integral: Toward a Realistic Interpretation"
• Papers on branching spacetime (HTML list)
• Three papers on the foundations of physics (HTML list)

Philosophy of Chemistry

• "Chemical Possibility and Modal Semantics"

Other Philosophy

• "Restoring the Foundations of Human Dignity" (essay & links page; HTML format)
• "Getting Realistic about Nominalism"
• "Phonetic Possibility and Modal Logic"
• "How Subjective Fact Ties Language to Reality"
• "About Idealism" (essay; HTML format)
• Notes about subjective fact (notes; PDF format)
• Debunking the Skeptics (introductory page with links to essays; HTML format)

Mathematics

• "Generalizing the Algebra of Physical Quantities"
• Also, check out Mark's Mathematical Musings (an HTML list of papers and/or notes)

Culture

• "Liftoff to Progress":  The twentieth century was a century of progress. The twenty-first century can be even better, if we are willing to make it that way. Don't listen to the postmodernists and the naysayers. Read this essay!

Politics

• "Liftoff to Freedom":   My political subsite.

 
Philosophy Resources

Check out the Philosophy Resources and Other Links page.

 
My Book

My book, From Brain to Cosmos, explores some philosophical questions about consciousness, time and existence from a new vantage point. Click here now to learn more!

 
About Me

In case you're wondering about my background, I'm mainly a chemical physicist by training (Ph.D. in chemistry), but most of my research is in philosophy. My dissertation research was in statistical thermodynamics, a branch of chemical physics with known philosophical implications. Before that, I earned a bachelor's degree with a double major in physics and philosophy, followed by a masters' degree in biochemistry. My research has been published in peer reviewed journals in philosophy, physics and chemistry. Since I received my Ph.D., I've been a college instructor, a scientific computer programmer, and an independent writer and scholar.

 
About My Research

Here are some of my past and present research interests, in no particular order. For detailed information, please consult my publications list, my online papers, my book, and the rest of the page that you are now reading.

Contact me at: msharlow AT usermail DOT com

(replace the AT and DOT with the customary symbols, and take out the blank spaces)

Page updated 7/3/08