contact: andrew.rubner@gmail.com 

About: 

I'm an assistant proffessor of philosophy at UNC-Chapel Hill. 

I work in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of cognitive science, but I also have teaching and research interests in the philosophy of biology, general philosophy of science and the philosophy of language. My current work focuses on the nature of representational notions in cognitive science (especially in perception science), and the nature of explanation in cognitive science. Like many others, my more general research program is guided by thinking about how biology, and the philosophy thereof, can help us understand the mind and the enterprise of cognitive science. 

Published Journal Articles: 

1. Mechanistic Explanations and Teleological Functions. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. Forthcoming. [link]

2. Theories of Perceptual Content and Cases of Reliable Spatial Misperception. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 2023. [link]

3. Normal-Proper Functions in the Philosophy of Mind. Philosophy Compass. 2022.  [link]

Published Commentaries and Abstracts: 

1. Peacocke on the Structure of Content and Correctness Conditions. In Empirical Reason and Sensory Experience. Ori Beck and Milo Vultic, Eds. 2024.

2. A Two-Tiered Model of the Perception of Aspect Ratio in Binocularly Viewed Surfaces. Journal of Vision. 2024.

Other papers (email me for drafts):

• A paper providing a general solution to the indeterminacy issue for input-oriented teleological theories of perceptual content.

• A paper providing an ahistorical theory of perceptual content. 

• A paper isolating the proper role of homomorophism in teleological theories of content. 

• [Redacted for blind review]

• [Redacted for blind review]

• A paper on the legitimacy and utility of function ascriptions in critiques of prisons; also provides an alternative to using function acripstions in critiquing prisons (w/ Lauren Lyons).

• A paper on the vehicles and contents of the approximate number system.

• A paper on using LLMs as analogical models of I-language (w/ Ben Genta).

Teaching:

• Mind, Matter, and Metaphysics (UNC-Chapel Hill)

• Representation (UNC-Chapel Hill) (w/ Ram Neta)^

• Philosophical Issues in Cognitive Science (NYU) (w/ Ned Block)^

• Minds and Machines (NYU)

• Consciousness (NYU)

• Meaning in the 20th Century and Beyond  (NYU)

• Introduction to Cognitive Science*, 5 semesters (Rutgers)

• Undergraduate Seminar in Cognitive Science*, 1 semester (Rutgers)

• Formal Reasoning and Decision Making, 2 semesters (Rutgers)

• Bioethics, 1 semester (Rutgers) 

*Teaching Assistant, ^Graduate Course

Public Philosophy:

You can listen to me talk about art and cognition with the philosopher Sascha Benjamin Fink on Dena Shottenkirk's public philosophy podcast talkPOPc here. You can read more about talkPOPc here.