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Research suggests that cognition plays a large role in the perception of a stimulus. More specifically, threatening stimuli such as an artificial spider are perceived as closer than neutral stimuli such as a cup (Cole, Balcetis, & Dunning, 2013; Stamps, 2012). This study hypothesized that a threatening stimulus will be perceived as closer to the observer than a neutral stimulus. Thirty undergra...

Many astronomers seem to believe that we have discovered that Pluto is not a planet. But this is not so. Recent discoveries of trans-Neptunian Pluto-sized objects do not militate for Pluto’s expulsion from the planets unless we have prior reason for not simply counting these newly-discovered objects among the planets. I argue that this classificatory controversy — which I compare to the controv...

From 1990 on, the London psychologist Max Velmans developed a novel approach to (phenomenal) consciousness according to which an experience of an object is phenomenologically identical to an object as experienced. On the face of it I agree; but unlike Velmans I argue that the latter should be understood as comparable, not to a Kantian, but rather to a noematic ‘phenomenon’ in the Husserlian sen...

Ontological pluralism is the view that there are different ways of being. Historically, being aligned with ontological categories. This paper about to investigate why such a connection, and how it should be understood. suffers from an objection, according which collapses into monism, i.e., only one way be. Admitting categories can save this objection if ground

The argument from internal relatedness was one of the major nineteenth century neo-Hegelian arguments for monism. This argument has been misunderstood, and may even be sound. The argument, as I reconstruct it, proceeds in two stages: first, it is argued that all things are internally related in ways that render them interdependent; second, the substantial unity of the whole universe is inferred...

Leibniz argues against Descartes’s conception of material substance based on considerations unity. I examine a key premise Leibniz’s argument, what call the Plurality Thesis—the claim that matter (i.e., extension alone) is plurality parts. More specifically, engage an objection to Thesis stemming from Material Monism—the physical world single substance. argue can productively this his view disc...