Who is Justin Sytsma?

I am a graduate student in the department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh.

Philosophy of Mind & Consciousness

Philosophy of Psychology, Neuroscience, & Cognitive Science

General Philosophy of Science

Early Modern Philosophy (especially Descartes, Leibniz, Berkeley)

Wittgenstein

Articulating and evaluating calls for a "science of consciousness";

Assessing the empirical prospects for finding the NCC (Neural Correlates of Consciousness);

Is there a folk concept of phenomenal consciousness? (with E. Machery)

Understanding the commonsense conception of colors, pains.

Assessing cross-cultural variation in intuitions about reference. (with M. Deutsch, J. Livengood, & E. Machery)

Large-scale investigation of the relationship between personality traits and philosophical intuitions. (with A. Feltz & J. Livengood)

December 2008
Justin was featured in the
fourth issue of the University
of Pittsburgh School of Arts & Sciences newsletter, Snapshot. The article, "Asking the Big Questions," can be found here.

December 2008
Justin will be chairing a symposium on "Experimental Philosophy of Consciousness"
at the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology 101st annual meeting (April, 2009); his contribution to the symposium is on "Folk Psychology and Phenomenal Consciousness."  

November 2008
Spring semester, 2009, Justin will be teaching an upper division course on "Artificial Intelligence and Philosophy of Science"; over the summer he will be teaching "Problem Solving: How Science Works."

October 2008
Justin will speak at the 2009 meeting of the APA Pacific Division and at the 2nd Annual WMU Graduate Student Conference in December on the topic of, "The Case of the Divergent Descriptions: An Experimental Investigation of Semantics, Cross-cultural Style."