Derek Shiller

Published Papers

Functionalism, integrity, and digital consciousness

This paper explores some aspects of computer architecture that might cast doubt on the possibility of digital consciousness.

Chance and the dissipation of our acts effects

Australasian Journal of Philosophy 2021
This paper argues that given the possibility of non-deterministic effects, most routine actions do not radically alter the shape of the future.

Engage with animal welfare in conservation (with Nitin Sekar)

We argue that conservationist organizations should make institutional changes to better promote the welfare of individual animals.

Interactionism for the discerning mind?

This paper argues that interactionists about consciousness have difficulty explaining how minds influence neurons to produce behavior.

The unity of moral attitudes

Canadian Philosophy Review 2018
This paper argues that moral attitudes are distinguished by their functional properties in a restricted range of contexts.

In defense of artificial replacement

Bioethics 2017
This paper reflects on the significance of Savulescu's principle of procreative beneficence for the long-term future of the human species.
This paper argues for the possibility of having conscious experiences that they cannot introspect.

The problem of other attitudes

American Philosophical Quarterly 2017
This paper discusses how noncognitivists might extend their accounts of moral judgments to other kinds of moral attitudes, such as moral hopes and moral intuitions.

A Primitive Solution to the Negation Problem

This paper suggests that metaethical expressivists should be unbothered by a large number of brute norms and hence that they should be free to postulate their way out of Unwin's negation problem.


Book Reviews

Human and Animal Minds: The Consciousness Questions Laid to Rest

Philosophical Quarterly

The unexplainable

Metascience 2019


Other

Anticipation in LLMs

Implementational Considerations for Digital Consciousness

What might decorticate rats tell us about the distribution of consciousness

Fanatical EAs should support very weird projects

The Importance of Getting Digital Consciousness Right