Wesley Buckwalter
Papers
2
Total Citations
47
H-Index
2
About
Wesley Buckwalter is a leading figure in experimental philosophy, whose work bridges the gap between cognitive science and the traditional philosophy of mind. His research centers on how ordinary people understand subjective experience, mental state attribution, and the nature of consciousness. In his most influential paper, "Function and feeling machines: a defense of the philosophical conception of subjective experience" (2012, 39 citations), Buckwalter argues that folk psychology aligns with a functionalist view of the mind—challenging the notion that non-experts are intuitive dualists. He demonstrates that people define mental states not by their raw feels, but by the causal roles they play in behavior and environment. This work has reshaped debates on the "hard problem" of consciousness, showing that philosophical theories of mind are more empirically grounded than previously assumed. Buckwalter’s contributions have been pivotal in establishing experimental philosophy as a rigorous method for testing intuitions about the mind, making him a key voice in contemporary discussions of mental state attribution and the science of subjective experience.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2Analytic Functionalism and Mental State Attribution8 citations · 2012