William Lycan
William G. Lycan | |
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Born | September 26, 1945 Vere Claiborne Chappell | (age 78)
Doctoral students | Peter Alward |
Main interests | Philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, epistemology, metaphysics, linguistics |
Notable ideas | Homuncular functionalism |
William G. Lycan (
Education and career
William Lycan received his B.A. from
Lycan taught for twelve years at
He won the Class of 2001 Outstanding Faculty Award (in 2001) and a Distinguished Teaching Award for Post-Baccalaureate Instruction in 2002. In 2013, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Philosophical work
His principal interests include philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of linguistics, epistemology, and metaphysics. The author of eight books and over 150 articles (and over 20 reviews) Lycan is an advocate of the version of functionalism, known as homuncular functionalism.
Lycan is an unapologetic realist and
These (and other) common threads are prominent in Lycan's theories of mind. Mental states are type-identical to functional states instantiated in sub- or sub-sub-personal systems, where the function of any such state is determined by its natural teleology. This is Lycan's Homuncular Functionalism. The appeal to teleology dissolves problems with earlier functionalist theories, especially those concerning consciousness. A correct theory of consciousness, on Lycan's view, comprises multiple parts corresponding to the multiple phenomena to which the term ‘consciousness’ is applied. Thus, Lycan defends a higher-order, inner sense theory of awareness, according to which attention mechanisms have the function of monitoring and integrating lower level psychological processes; a pronominal theory of subjectivity, according to which the subjective or perspectival nature of conscious states is a product of the utterly unique semantic role of introspective mental concepts (e.g., ‘I’); a representational theory of qualia, according to which sensory qualities are the intentional objects of sensory representations; and more. (Consciousness 1987; Consciousness and Experience 1996.)
These same threads are prominent in Lycan's account of knowledge, including his account of belief acquisition and epistemic justification. To acquire a new belief is to acquire a new real, internal representation instantiated in one's functional architecture. And a new belief is justified if it, better than its competitors, increases the explanatory coherence of the person's entire belief set. This is Lycan's explanationist theory of justification. Canons of epistemic value used to identify degrees of explanatory coherence are themselves justified by appeal to natural teleology. (Judgement and Justification 1988.) In defense of his view, Lycan critically assesses major competitors (especially reliabilism) and other views (e.g., epistemic minimalism).
Meaning in natural language (Logical Form in Natural Language 1984), including the meaning of indicative conditionals (Real Conditionals 2001), is explained by Lycan in truth-theoretic terms. Here, too, the requisite psycho-linguistic machinery coheres with Lycan's Homuncular Functionalism and, more generally, with the above common threads.
Along with
Publications
- Logical Form in Natural Language (Bradford Books / MIT Press, 1984), xii + 348 pp.
- Knowing Who (with Steven Boër) (Bradford Books / MIT Press, 1986), xiv + 212 pp.
- Consciousness (Bradford Books / MIT Press, 1987), ix + 165 pp.
- Judgement and Justification (Cambridge University Press, 1988), xiii + 230 pp.
- Modality and Meaning (Kluwer Academic Publishing, Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy series, 1994), xxii + 335 pp.
- Consciousness and Experience (Bradford Books / MIT Press, 1996), xx + 211 pp.
- Philosophy of Language: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge Publishers, 1999., 3rd ed. 2018), xvi + 243 pp.
- Real Conditionals (Oxford University Press, 2001), vii + 223 pp.
- On Evidence in Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2018), 106 pp.