Faculty Spotlights

Mark Bickhard, Henry R. Luce Professor of Cognitive Robotics and the Philosophy of Knowledge, challenges traditional metaphysical frameworks in his latest book, The Whole Person: Toward a Naturalism of Minds and Persons. Bickhard critiques the historical divide between the material world and mental phenomena, rooted in ancient Greek philosophy, and argues for a shift from substance-based metaphysics to process metaphysics. His model, called interactivism, emphasizes the evolutionary and developmental emergence of normative phenomena—such as representation, cognition, and language—through dynamic interactions, rather than static structures or substances.

Assistant Professor, Filippo Casati, examines Marin Heidegger's later work and defends an alternate interpretation of his wrestle with the notion of Being.