CV

Curriculum Vitae
Matthew Skene
Syracuse University

Education

B.A.       University of Colorado, Boulder            2002 (magma cum laude)
Ph.D.       Syracuse University                        Ph.D. expected Spring, 2010
Dissertation: Putting the Ghost Back in the Machine: A Defense of Common Sense Dualism
Supervisor: Robert Van Gulick
Abstract: My dissertation is a defense of interactive substance dualism.  I begin by articulating and defending the common sense approach to philosophy.  This defense rests heavily on an account of justification and of evidence that gives strong presumptive weight to elements of common sense.  I then argue that common sense commits us to substance dualism.  I examine our ordinary understanding of the mind and argue that there is a commitment to active, immaterial minds built in to our ordinary means of conceiving of reality.  This fact grants interactive substance dualism a strong presumptive status in the field.  Finally, I look at the various objections to this account of the mind, and I argue that they fail to overcome the presumption that dualism obtains from its common sense status.

Areas of Specialization

Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind

Areas of Competence

Meta-Ethics, Thomas Reid, Early Modern Epistemology, Logic, Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysics, Ethics

Teaching Experience

Syracuse University

Teaching Assistant

Introduction to Logic                               Fall 2003, Spring 2004, 2005

Human Nature                                     Fall 2004

Sole Instructor
Theories of Knowledge and Reality (Epistemology, Existence of God, Free Will, Phil. Mind)
(8 terms, 13 total classes)                        Fall 2005-Summer 2008
Community College of Aurora
Introduction to Philosophy                         Spring 2010
Platt College
Critical Thinking                                    Second Quarter, 2010

Academic Experience

Conference Organizer, 2007 Graduate Conference in Philosophy, Syracuse University.

Presentations

  1. “Allowing for Unjustified Deliberative Beliefs”, commentary on Elizabeth Palmer’s “Deliberative Belief Formation as an Action”, April 8, 2005, Graduate Conference in Philosophy, Syracuse University.
  2. “Questioning the need for Usefulness and for Non-Circular Justification”, commentary on Deke Gould’s “Rule Circular Justification and Deduction”, ABD Series Presentation, March 30, 2007, Syracuse University.
  3. “Seemings and the Possibility of Epistemic Justification”, ABD Series Presentation, September 4, 2007, Syracuse University.
  4. “The Causal Argument Against Physicalism”, ABD Series Presentation, April 2, 2009, Syracuse University.



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