Academic Positions

August 2010 – Present
Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Humanities
East Tennessee State University

Education

University of Pittsburgh
-- PhD, History and Philosophy of Science (2010)
-- MA, Philosophy (2008)
-- MA, History and Philosophy of Science (2006)

University of Minnesota
-- BS, Computer Science (2003; with honors, emphasis in AI)
-- Dual Major in Philosophy, Minor in Psychology
-- BS, Neuroscience (1999)

Selected Publications

(forthcoming) "A New Perspective Concerning Experiments on Semantic Intuitions." Justin Sytsma and Jonathan Livengood. Australasian Journal of Philosophy.

[abstract] [preprint ]

11.

(forthcoming) "Two Conceptions of Subjective Experience." Justin Sytsma and Edouard Machery. Philosophical Studies.

[abstract] [preprint ]

(2010) "Folk Psychology and Phenomenal Consciousness." Philosophy Compass, 5/8: 700-711.

[abstract] [preprint ]

9.

(2010) "Philosophical Temperament ." Jonathan Livengood, Justin Sytsma, Adam Feltz, Richard Scheines, and Edouard Machery. Philosophical Psychology, 23(3): 313-330.

[abstract] [preprint ]

7.

(2010) "Dennett's Theory of the Folk Theory of Consciousness." Journal of Consciousness Studies, 17(3-4): 107-130.

[abstract] [preprint ]

5.

(2009) "How to study Folk Intuitions about Phenomenal Consciousness." Justin Sytsma and Edouard Machery. Philosophical Psychology, 22(1): 21-35.

Author Posting. (c) Taylor & Francis, 2009. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Taylor & Francis for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Philosophical Psychology, Volume 22 Issue 1, February 2009. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09515080802703653)

[abstract] [preprint ] [article ]

a. Reprinted in: (in preparation) La Philosophie Expérimentale. J. Dutant et al. (eds.), Paris: Vuibert. (French translation.)

4.

(2007) "Language Police Running Amok." Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 27(1): 89-103.

3.

(2007) "Neuroscience and Theoretical Psychology: What’s to worry about?" Peter Machamer and Justin Sytsma, Theory & Psychology, 17(2): 199-216.

2.

(2005) "Knowing Causes: Descartes on the World of Matter." Peter Machamer, J. E. McGuire, and Justin Sytsma, Philosophica, 76: 11-44.

1.

(2005) "Neuroscienze e natura della filosofia." Peter Machamer and Justin Sytsma, Iride, 46: 495-514. (In Italian, translated by Alessandro Pagnini.)

a. Reprinted in: (2009) "Philosophy and the Brain Sciences." Peter Machamer and Justin Sytsma, Iris: European Journal of Philosophy and Public Discourse, 1(2): 65-86.

1.

Selected Presentations and Commentaries

12.

"Folk Intuitions and Theories of Actual Causation"

a. Philosophy of Science Association biennial meeting, November 2010.

b. Society for Philosophy and Psychology, 36th Annual Meeting, June 2010.

11.

"Two Types of Typicality"

a. Causality in the Biomendical and Social Sciences, October 2010

b. Society for Philosophy and Psychology, 36th Annual Meeting, June 2010.

c. MERG / NYU Experimental Philosophy Colloquium, May 2010.

10.

"Searching for Evidence of Phenomenal Consciousness in NCC Research"

Toward a Science of Consciousness 2010, April 2010.

9.

"The Proper Province of Philosophy"

a. American Philosophical Association Eastern Division 106th Annual Meeting,
Experimental Philosophy Society Group Session, December 2009.

b. 1st annual Interdisciplinary Approach to Philosophical Issues Conference,
September 2008.

8.

"Folk Psychology and Phenomenal Consciousness"

Metro Experimental Research Group, Rutgers University, September 2009.

7.

"A New Perspective Concerning Experiments on Semantic Intuitions"

a. Society for Philosophy and Psychology, 35th Annual Meeting, June 2009.

b. American Philosophical Association Pacific Division 83rd Annual Meeting,
April 2009.

c. Princeton-Rutgers Graduate Conference, March 2009.

d. Western Michigan University Second Annual Graduate Philosophy Conference,
December 2008.

e. 24th Regional Conference on the History and Philosophy of Science,
October 2008.

6.

"Dennett's Theory of the Folk Theory of Consciousness"

a. Society for Philosophy and Psychology, 35th Annual Meeting, June 2009.

b. Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology 101st Annual Meeting,
April 2009.

c. Consciousness Online: The First Cyber Consciousness Conference,
February 2009.

5.

"Phenomenological Obviousness and the New Science of Consciousness"

Philosophy of Science Association biennial meeting, November 2008.

4.

"Two Conceptions of Subjective Experience"

a. The Society for Philosophy and Psychology, 34th Annual Meeting, June 2008.

b. Toward a Science of Consciousness 2008, April 2008.

"How to study Folk Intuitions about Phenomenal Consciousness"

Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness 2007, June 2007.

2.

"Information Supply and Demand"

Cognitio, June 2007.

1.

"Knowing Causes: Descartes on the World of Matter"

a. Descartes Day II, May 2006.

b. Descartes & Pascal, Tampa/USF, January 2006.

4.

Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, March 2010

Commentary on Jen Wright, "The stability of intuitions: A matter of confidence?" Commentary given by Jonathan Livengood.

3.

12th Annual CMU/Pitt Graduate Student Philosophy Conference, March 2010

Commentary on Derek Leben, "Cognitive Neuroscience and Moral Decision-Making" and Eric Hochstein, "Folk Psychology’s Place in Science."

2.

Consciousness Online II, February 2010

Commentary on Brian Talbot, "The irrelevance of Folk Intuitions to the 'Hard Problem' of Consciousness."

1.

10th Annual CMU/PItt Graduate Student Philosophy Conference, February 2008

Commentary on Errol Lord, "On Maximal Rationality."

Teaching Experience

Fall, 2010: Philosophy of Mind , ETSU

Fall, 2010: Science & the Modern World , ETSU

Summer, 2009: Problem Solving: How Science Works, Pittsburgh

Spring, 2009: Artificial Intelligence and Philosophy of Science, Pittsburgh

Fall, 2008: Morality & Medicine, Pittsburgh

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Spring, 2007: Principles of Scientific Reasoning, Pittsburgh

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Fall, 2006: Problem Solving: How Science Works, Pittsburgh

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Fall, 2005: Science & Psuedoscience, Pittsburgh

2001-2003: Instructor (Web and Multimedia Programming), Electronic Easel Training Center, St. Paul, Minnesota

1999-2003: Instructor (Web and Multimedia Programming), Tempting Ideas , Minneapolis, Minnesota

Spring, 2006: Darwinism & its Critics, TA for Professor Mitchell, Pittsburgh

Fall, 2004: Mind & Medicine, TA for Professor Lennox, Pittsburgh

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1997-1999: TA, General College Writing Center, University of Minnesota

Service

2009 - 2012: Executive Committee, PhilSci Archive (three-year term starting August 2009), University of Pittsburgh

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2010: Referee, Philosophy of Science

2009 - 2010: Referee, Society for Philosophy and Psychology, 35th and 36th Annual Meetings

2009: Referee, Journal of Moral Philosophy

2009: Web Design/Development, Experimental Philosophy Society

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2006 - present: Web Design/Development, Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh

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2005 - 2009: Archive Manager, PhilSci Archive, University of Pittsburgh

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2007, 2008 : Mentor, Teaching Assistants and Teaching Fellows in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh

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2008: Member of Local Arrangements Committee and Liaison to History of Science Society office for the Philosophy of Science Association Biennial Meeting and History of Science Society Annual Meeting (Pittsburgh, PA)

2005 - 2006: Webmaster, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh

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2005: Assistant to the Director, Center for Philosophy of Science

Selected Honors & Awards

2009 - 2010: Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship

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2009: William James Prize, Society for Philosophy and Psychology, 35th Annual Meeting (awarded for the best contributed paper by a graduate student)

2009: Graduate Student Paper Prize, American Philosophical Association Pacific Division 83rd Annual Meeting

2008: William James Prize, Society for Philosophy and Psychology, 34th Annual Meeting (awarded for the best contributed paper by a graduate student)

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2007 - 2008: Wesley Salmon Fund Grant, University of Pittsburgh For experimental work on "The Case of the Divergent Descriptions: An Experimental Investigation of Semantics, Cross-Cultural Style"

2007 - 2008: Arts and Sciences Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh

2003 - 2004: Andrew Mellon Fellowship, University of Pittsburgh