Prof Simon Prosser

Professor

Phone: +44 (0)1334 46 2473
Email: sjp7@st-andrews.ac.uk

Biography

I joined the department in 2002 after completing my PhD at the University of Warwick. I originally studied physics at the University of Birmingham then changed direction and studied philosophy at Warwick. During my doctoral studies I also spent one year at CREA, Paris (CNRS/École Polytechnique).

When I have some spare time, I'm a keen landscape photographer (pictures here). Some of my pictures can be seen on the walls in the philosophy department and on the philosophy website.

I am currently director of the Arché research centre

Research areas

My research interests are mainly in the philosophy of mind and philosophy of perception, though I also have interests in certain areas of metaphysics. The topics that I am most interested in are listed below. I am best able to supervise doctoral research in areas 1-4 (though I can also supervise work on a few related topics):

Conscious experience - I am particularly interested in work on conscious experience that connects with the philosophy of perception, including issues that are significant for the metaphysics of consciousness, as well as a variety of issues relating to specific types of experience (e.g. experience of space, time, colour, pain, etc.) I am in the late stages of writing a book on conscious experience, provisionally entitled The Perspective of Consciousness. In it, I defend the view that (i) properties are perceived perspectivally; (ii) it is the perspective, not the perceived property itself, that determines the phenomenal character of the experience; (iii) because they are perspectival, all conscious experiences are also egocentric, and (iv) the egocentricity of conscious experience explains the lack of a priori entailments from physical to phenomenal concepts, thus defeating anti-materialist arguments such as the knowledge argument and the conceivability argument. The resulting view allows a defence of 'narrow' physicalism compatible with the supervenience of the mental on internal facts about the subject, and sheds light on several other issues such as the role of conscious experience in action.
Temporal thought and experience - I am interested in all aspects of current philosophical work on temporal thought and experience, including, but not limited to, connections with the metaphysics of time.
Egocentric thought and experience - I have written about 'essential indexicals', the problem of cognitive dynamics, shared indexical/egocentric thoughts, and immunity to error through misidentification. The first-person perspective is important in much of my current work.
The nature of concepts/modes of presentation/mental files - I wrote my PhD thesis on this topic, and have recently returned to it in a few articles.
Emergent properties and 'new Zeno' phenomena - This is a minor interest that started from a light-hearted article on 'new Zeno' phenomena, but led to more serious work on emergence and downward causation.

Published Work

You can listen to a public lecture that I gave at the Institute of Advanced Study in Durham ('Does Time Really Pass?') here, and a talk that I gave to the Aristotelian Society ('Why are Indexicals Essential?") here. You can also read my recent entry in the OUP blog.

PhD supervision

Sam Heffron
Haoxu Wang
Suzuka Komatsu

Selected publications

Open access

Commentary: physical time within human time
Prosser, S., 15 Jun 2023, In: Frontiers in Psychology. 14
Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review
Tense and emotion
Prosser, S., 18 Aug 2023, Understanding human time. Jaszczolt, K. M. (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 11-29 (Oxford studies of time in language and thought).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
Open access

The metaphysics of mental files
Prosser, S., 13 May 2020, In: Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 100, 3, p. 657-676
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open access

Locating the contradiction in our understanding of time
Prosser, S. J., 12 Dec 2019, In: Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 42, e272.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review
Open access

Shared modes of presentation
Prosser, S., Sept 2019, In: Mind & Language. 34, 4, p. 465-482
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open access

Replies to Deng, Lee, and Skow
Prosser, S., 2018, In: Inquiry - An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy. 61, 3, p. 328-350 23 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Open access

Rethinking the specious present
Prosser, S. J., 10 May 2017, Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Temporal Experience. Phillips, I. (ed.). Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, (Routledge Handbooks in Philosophy).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
Experiencing time
Prosser, S. J., 5 May 2016, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 238 p.
Research output: Book/Report › Book
Open access

XII - Why are indexicals essential?
Prosser, S. J., 1 Dec 2015, In: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society. 115, 3 pt 3, p. 211-233
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Experience, Thought, and the Metaphysics of Time
Prosser, S. J., 2013, Time : Language, Cognition, and Reality. Jaszczolt, K. M. & de Saussure, L. (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 157-174 (Oxford Studies of Time in Language and Thought).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

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