Prof Simon Prosser
Professor
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 of the kind 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 this book, I claim that to defend a physicalist account of consciousness we need a new notion of the first-person perspective, and that the corrrct notion derives from the fact that the perception of properties is perspectival and egocentric.
- 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. I am particularly interested in questions about what it takes for a thought or concept to be shared or retained.
- 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.
See also my pages at Philpapers
Books
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Experiencing Time. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. [Book symposium in Inquiry]
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Simon Prosser and François Recanati (eds.) Immunity to Error Through Misidentification: New Essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Articles, chapters etc.
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Shared Egocentric Thoughts. In José Luis Bermúdez, Victor Verdejo, and Matheus Valente (eds.) Sharing Thoughts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025.
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Tense and Emotion. In K. M. Jaszczolt (ed.) Understanding Human Time. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023: 11-29.[Draft]
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Commentary: Physical Time within Human Time, Frontiers in Psychology (Sec. Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology), 14 (2023). doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1096592. Commentary on R. Gruber, R. A. Block and C. Montemayor 'Physical Time within Human Time', and D. Buonomano and C. Rovelli, 'Bridging the Neuroscience and Physics of Time'.
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The Metaphysics of Mental Files. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 100 (2020): 657-676. [Draft]
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Locating the Contradiction in Our Understanding of Time. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 42 (2019). Commentary on Christoph Hoerl and Teresa McCormack, 'Thinking in and About Time: A Dual Systems Perspective on Temporal Cognition' Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 42 (2019). [Published Paper]
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Shared Modes of Presentation. Mind & Language, 34 (2019): 465-482. [Draft]
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Replies to Deng, Lee, and Skow. Inquiry, 61 (2018): 328-350. (Contribution to a book symposium on my book Experiencing Time.) [Draft]
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Rethinking the Specious Present. In Ian Phillips (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Temporal Experience. London: Routledge, 2017: 146-156. [Draft]
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Why are Indexicals Essential? Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 115 (2015): 211-233. [Draft, Podcast]
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Is There a ‘Specious Present’? Insights (E-Journal of Durham Institute of Advanced Study, ISSN 1756-2074), 6 (2013). [Published Paper]
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Experience, Thought, and the Metaphysics of Time. In K. M. Jaszczolt and L. de Saussure (eds.), Time: Language, Cognition, and Reality. Oxford Studies of Time in Language and Thought, volume 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013: 157-174. [Draft]
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The Passage of Time. In Heather Dyke and Adrian Bardon (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Time. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013: 315-327. [Draft]
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Passage and Perception. Noûs, 47 (2013): 69-84. [Draft]
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Emergent Causation. Philosophical Studies, 159 (2012): 21-39. [Draft]
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Why Does Time Seem to Pass? Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 85 (2012): 92-116. [Draft]
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Sources of Immunity to Error Through Misidentification. In S. Prosser and F. Recanati (eds.) Immunity to Error Through Misidentification: New Essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012: 158-179. [Draft]
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Affordances and Phenomenal Character in Spatial Perception. The Philosophical Review, 120.4 (2011): 475-513. [Draft]
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Zeno Objects and Supervenience. Analysis, 69 (2009): 18-26. [Draft]
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The Two-Dimensional Content of Consciousness. Philosophical Studies, 136 (2007): 319-349. [Draft]
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Could We Experience the Passage of Time? Ratio, 20.1 (2007): 75-90. Reprinted in L. Nathan Oaklander (ed.), Philosophy of Time: Critical Concepts in Philosophy. New York/London: Routledge, 2008. [Draft]
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The Eleatic Non-Stick Frying Pan. Analysis, 66 (2006): 187-194. [Draft]
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Temporal Metaphysics in Z-Land. Synthese, 149 (2006): 77-96. [Draft]
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Cognitive Dynamics and Indexicals. Mind & Language, 20 (2005): 369-391. [Draft]
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A New Problem for the A-Theory of Time. The Philosophical Quarterly, 50 (2000): 494-498. [Draft]
PhD supervision
- Haoxu Wang
- Suzuka Komatsu
Selected publications
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Open access
Commentary: physical time within human time
Prosser, S., 15 Jun 2023, In: Frontiers in Psychology. 14Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review
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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
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Open access
The metaphysics of mental files
Prosser, S., 13 May 2020, In: Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 100, 3, p. 657-676Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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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
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Open access
Shared modes of presentation
Prosser, S., Sept 2019, In: Mind & Language. 34, 4, p. 465-482Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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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
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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
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Experiencing time
Prosser, S. J., 5 May 2016, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 238 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Open access
XII - Why are indexicals essential?
Prosser, S. J., 1 Dec 2015, In: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society. 115, 3 pt 3, p. 211-233Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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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