My research interests are in the philosophy of mind, metaphysics and epistemology. A recent major project concerns the intersection of these areas in the philosophy of perception. In particular: which account of the nature of conscious perceptual experience is most conducive to the defence of empirical realism? A book length treatment, Perception and Its Objects, was recently published by OUP. Final draft material is available below. My next major project concerns the parts and persistence of macroscopic material objects. In particular, I am interested in arguing for a robust endurantism from the fact that such objects are the mind-independent direct objects of our perception.

Selected Publications

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Books

• Spatial Representation, jointly edited with Naomi Eilan and Roz McCarthy. Oxford: OUP, 1999
• Perception and Reason. Oxford: OUP, 1999.
• Perception and its Objects. Oxford: OUP, 2011. Chapters: Intro, ch. 1, ch. 2, ch. 3, ch. 4, ch. 5, ch. 6, ch. 7, Bib.

Papers

• 'Self-Location and Agency'. Mind, 101, 1992.
• 'Unilateral neglect and the Objectivity of Spatial Representation', Mind and Langauge, 7, 1992.
• 'The Integration of Spatial Vision and Action'. In N. Eilan, R. McCarthy and B. Brewer (eds.), Spatial Representation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
• 'Thoughts about Objects, Places and Times. In C. Peacocke (ed.), Objectivity, Simulation and the Unity of Consciousness: Proceedings of the British Academy, 83, 1994.
• 'Neglect and Philosophy', Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 4, 1994.
• 'Bodily Awareness nd the Self', in J. Bermudez, A. J. Marcel and N. Eilan (eds.), The Body and The Self. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995.
• ‘Learning from Experience: A Commentary on Alan Baddeley and Larry Weiskrantz (eds.), Attention: Selection, Awareness and Control’, Mind and Language, 10, 1995, 179-191.
• 'Mental Causation: Compulsion by Reason', Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 69, 1995, 237-253.
• 'Internalism and Perceptual Knowledge', European Journal of Philosophy, 4, 1996, 259-275.
• 'Foundations of Perceptual Knowledge', American Philosophical Quarterly, 34, 1997, 41-55.
• 'Experience and Reason in Perception'. In A. O'Hear (ed.), Current Issues in Philosophy of Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
• ‘The Foundations of Perceptual Knowledge’. In P. Gutowski and T. Szubka (eds.), Filozofia brytyjska u schylku XX wieku. Lublin: TN KUL, 1998.
• 'Levels of Explanation and the Individuation of Events: a difficulty for the token identity theory', Acta Analytica, 20, 1998, 7-24.
• ‘Self-Knowledge and Externalism’. Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy, vol.5, ed. R. Cobb-Stevens, 39-47, 2000.
• 'Externalism and A Priori Knowledge of EmpiricalFacts'. In C. Peacocke and P. Boghossian (eds.), New Essays on the A Priori. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
• ‘Self-Knowledge and Externalism’. Proceedings of the International Congress on Cognitive Science, 2000.
• 'Emotion and Other Minds'. In P. Goldie (ed.), Understanding Emotions. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001.
• Précis of Perception and Reason, and response to commentators (Naomi Eilan, Richard Fumerton, Susan Hurley, and Michael Martin) for a book symposium in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 2001.
• Précis of Perception and Reason, and response to commentator (Michael Ayers) for a book symposium in Philosophical Books, 2001.
• 'Review of Michael Tye's Consciousness, Colour and Content', Mind, 110, 2001, 869- 874.
• 'Stroud's Quest for Reality'. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 68, 2004, 408-414.
• 'Self-Knowledge and Externalism'. In J. M. Larrazabal and L. A. Pérez Miranda (eds.), Language, Knowledge and Representation. Holland: Kluwer, 2004.
• 'Reference and Subjectivity'. In J. Greco (ed.), Ernest Sosa and his Critics. Oxford. Blackwell, 2004.
• 'Realism and the Nature of Perceptual Experience'. Philosophical Issues, 14, 2004, 61-77.
• ‘Do Sense Experiential States Have Conceptual Content?’ Debate with Alex Byrne. In M. Steup and E. Sosa (eds.), Contemporary Debates in Epistemology. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005.
• ‘Perception and Content’. European Journal of Philosophy, 2006
• ‘Perception and its Objects’ Philosophical Studies, 2007.
• ‘How To Account for Illusion’. In F. Macpherson and A Haddock (eds.), Disjunctivism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
• ‘Realism and Explanation in Perception’. In H. Lerman and J. Roessler (eds.), Causation and Objectivity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Forthcoming

• 'Attention and Direct Realism'. In A. Pautz and D. Stoljar (eds.), Themes from Block. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
• 'Enduring Material Unities'
• 'Objectivity and Endurance'.
• 'Vagueness and Endurance'.

 

Email:

B.Brewer@warwick.ac.uk