Curriculum Vitae

(abbreviated)

 

Shaun Nichols

 

Department of Philosophy                                           Office Phone:  801.581.8161

University of Utah                                                       Fax: 801.585.5195

260 S. Central Campus Drive                                     Home Phone: 801.582.9804
Orson Spencer Hall, Room 341                                  Email:  snichols@philosophy.utah.edu
Salt Lake City, UT 84112                                           

 

 

 

Professional Positions:

 

            Professor                                             Department of Philosophy, University of Utah, 2004-

 

Harry Lightsey Associate                    College of Charleston, 2000-2004

Professor in Humanities         

 

Associate Professor                            Department of Philosophy, College of Charleston, 1998-2004

 

Assistant Professor                             Department of Philosophy, College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, 1992-1998.

                                               

Education:

 

Ph.D.                                                  Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

                                                            Degree conferred October, 1992.  Philosophy.

 

B.A.                                                     Stanford University, Stanford, California.

                                                            Degree conferred May, 1986.  Philosophy.

 

Publications:

 

Books:

 

Nichols, S. 2004.  Sentimental Rules: On the Natural Foundations of Moral Judgment.  New York:  Oxford University Press.

 

Nichols, S. and Stich, S. 2003.  Mindreading: An Integrated Account of Pretense, Self-awareness  and Understanding Other Minds.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press.

 

 

 

Edited volume:

 

Nichols, S. forthcoming.  The Architecture of the Imagination: New Essays on Pretense, Possibility, and Fiction.  Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

Articles:

 

Nichols, S. forthcoming. “Folk Intuitions about Free Will.”  Journal of Cognition and Culture.

 

Nichols, S. forthcoming. “Innateness and Moral Psychology.”  In The Innate Mind: Structure and Content, eds. P. Carruthers, S. Laurence, and S. Stich.  New York: Oxford University Press.  

 

Nichols, S. forthcoming. “Just the Imagination: Why Imagining Doesn’t Behave Like Believing.”  Mind & Language.

 

Nichols, S. forthcoming. “On the Psychological Diversity of Moral Insensitivity.”  In O. Vilarroya  and L. Valencia (eds.), Biology of Conflicts and Cooperation.  Barcelona: Littera Ediciones.

 

Nichols, S. forthcoming.  “Sentimentalism Naturalized.”  In W. Sinnott-Armstrong (ed.) The Psychology and Biology of Morality. 

 

Nichols, S. and Stich, S. forthcoming.  “Reading One’s Own Mind: Self-Awareness and Developmental Psychology.”  In New Essays in Philosophy of Language and Mind, a supplemental volume of the Canadian Journal of Philosophy, eds. M. Ezcurdia, R. Stainton &  C. Viger.

 

Machery, E., Mallon, R., Nichols, S., and Stich, S. 2004.  “Semantics, Cross-Cultural Style.”  Cognition, 92, B1-B12.

 

Nichols, S.  2004. “After Objectivity:  An Empirical Study of Moral Judgment.”  Philosophical Psychology, 17, 5-28.

 

Nichols, S. 2004. “Folk Concepts and Intuitions: From Philosophy to Cognitive Science.”  Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

 

Nichols, S. 2004.  “The Folk Psychology of Free Will: Fits and Starts.”  Mind & Language, 19, 473-502.

 

Nichols, S. 2004. “Imagining and Believing: The Promise of a Single Code.”  Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Special issue on Art, Mind, and Cognitive Science, 62, 129-139.

 

Nichols, S. 2004.  “Is Religion What We Want?  Motivation and the Cultural Transmission of Religious Representations.”  Journal of Cognition and Culture, 4, 347-371.

 

German, T. and Nichols, S. 2003.  “Children’s Counterfactual Inferences about Long and Short Causal Chains.”  Developmental Science, 6, 514-523.

 

Nichols, S. 2003.  “Imagination and the Puzzles of Iteration.”  Analysis, 63, 182-7.

 

Nichols, S. and Folds-Bennett, T. 2003. “Are Children Moral Objectivists? Children’s Judgments about Moral and Response-Dependent Properties.”  Cognition, 90, B23-B32.

 

Nichols, S. and Stich, S. 2003.  “How to Read Your Own Mind:  A Cognitive Theory of Self-Consciousness.”  In Consciousness: New Philosophical Essays, eds. Q. Smith and A. Jokic. Oxford University Press, 157-200.

 

Nichols, S., Stich, S., and Weinberg, J. 2003.  “Metaskepticism:  Meditations in Ethno-Epistemology.”  In The Skeptics, ed. S. Luper.  Burlington, VT:  Ashgate, 227-247.

 

Stich, S. and Nichols, S. 2003.  “Folk Psychology”.  In The Blackwell Guide to Philosophy of Mind, eds. T. Warfield and S. Stich.  Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 235-255. 

 

Nichols, S. 2002.  “Folk Psychology.”  In Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science.  London:  Nature Publishing Group, 134-140.

 

Nichols, S. 2002.  “How Psychopaths Threaten Moral Rationalism: Is It Irrational to Be Amoral?” The Monist, 85, 285-304.

 

Nichols, S. 2002.  “Norms with Feeling: Towards a Psychological Account of Moral Judgment.” Cognition, 84, 221-236.

 

Nichols, S. 2002. “On the Genealogy of Norms:  A Case for the Role of Emotion in Cultural Evolution.”  Philosophy of Science, 69, 234-255.

 

Nichols, S. 2001. “Mindreading and the Cognitive Architecture underlying Altruistic Motivation.”  Mind & Language, 16, 425-455.

 

Nichols, S. and Stich, S. 2001.  “Leggere la propria mente.”  Sistemi Intelligenti, XIII(1), 143-170.

 

Weinberg, J., Nichols, S. and Stich, S. 2001.  “Normativity and Epistemic Intuitions.”  Philosophical Topics, 29, 429-460.

 

Nichols, S. 2000.  The Mind’s “I” and the Theory of Mind’s “I”:  Introspection and Two Concepts of Self.”  Philosophical Topics, 28, 171-199.

 

Nichols, S. and Grantham, T. 2000.  “Adaptive Complexity and Phenomenal Consciousness.”  Philosophy of Science, 67, 648-670.

 

Nichols, S. and Stich, S. 2000.  “A Cognitive Theory of Pretense.”  Cognition, 74, 115-147.

 

Nichols, S. and Uller, C. 1999. “Explicit Factuality and Comparative Evidence.”  Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 776-777.

 

Grantham, T. and Nichols, S. 1999.  “Evolutionary Psychology: Ultimate Explanations and Panglossian Predictions.”  In Where Biology Meets Psychology : Philosophical Essays, ed. V. Hardcastle.  Cambridge, MA:  MIT Press, 47-66.

 

Nichols, S. and Stich, S. 1999.  “Pretense in Prediction: Simulation and Understanding Other Minds.”  In Consciousness and Intentionality: Models and Modalities of Attribution, ed. D. Fisette.  Dordrecht: Kluwer, 291-310.

 

Nichols, S. and Stich, S. 1998.  “Rethinking Co-Cognition.”  Mind & Language, 13, 499-512.

 

Stich, S. and Nichols, S. 1997.  “Cognitive Penetrability, Rationality, and Restricted Simulation.” Mind & Language, 12, 297-326.

 

Nichols, S., Stich, S., Leslie, A., and Klein, D. 1996.  “Varieties of Off-Line Simulation.”  In Theories of Theories of Mind, eds. P. Carruthers and P. Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 39-74.

 

Stich, S. and Nichols, S. 1996. “How Do Minds Understand Minds?  Mental Simulation vs. Tacit Theory.”  In Deconstructing the Mind, Stephen Stich.  New York:  Oxford University Press, 136-167.

 

Nichols, S., Stich, S., and Leslie, A. 1995.  “Choice Effects and the Ineffectiveness of Simulation:  Response to Kuhberger et al.” Mind & Language, 10, no. 4, 437-445.

 

Stich, S. and Nichols, S. 1995. “Second Thoughts on Simulation.”  In Mental Simulation: Evaluations and Applications, eds. M. Davies and A. Stone.  Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 87-108.

 

Nichols, S. 1993. “Developmental Evidence and Introspection.”  Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 16, no. 1, 64-65.

 

Stich, S. and Nichols, S. 1992.  “Folk Psychology:  Simulation or Tacit Theory.”  Mind & Language, 7, no. 1, 35-71.

            Reprinted in Science and Knowledge, ed. E. Villanueva.  Ridgeview, 1993.

Reprinted in Folk Psychology:  The Theory of Mind Debate, eds. M. Davies and A. Stone. Oxford:  Basil Blackwell, 1995, 123-158.

 

Book reviews:

 

Nichols, S. 2004.  Review of G. Currie and I. Ravenscroft’s Recreative Minds: Imagination in Philosophy and Psychology.  Mind, 113, 329-334.

 

Nichols, S. 1999.  Review of D. Bolton & J. Hill’s Mind, Meaning, and Mental Disorder.  Philosophical Review, 108, 559-562.

 

Stich, S. and Nichols, S. 1998.  “Theory Theory to the Max: A Critical Notice of Gopnik & Meltzoff’s Words, Thoughts, and Theories.  Mind & Language, 13, 421-449.

 

Nichols, S. 1997.  Review of W. Lyons, Approaches to Intentionality. Review of Metaphysics, 50, 672-673.

 

Nichols, S. 1993. Review of New Enquiries into Truth and Interpretation (eds. Neil Cooper and Pascal Engel).  Mind & Language, 8, no. 1, 157-161.

 

Nichols, S. 1991.  Review of J. C. Maloney's The Mundane Matter of the Mental Language.

Mind & Language, 6, no. 4, 386-389.

 

 

Conference Addresses:

 

“Compatibilism and Hot Cognition”

Delivered at the UNC/Duke workshop on Naturalized Ethics

Chapel Hill, NC, February 2005.

Pacific APA, group session for the Society for Empirical Ethics

San Francisco, March 2005.

 

“Imagination and Immortality”

Delivered at the Eastern APA, invited symposium on the imagination,

Boston, December 2004.

 

“How Emotions Shape Moral Judgment”

Delivered at the World Forum of Cultures

Barcelona, July 2004

 

“What Children Think about Objectivity”

Delivered at the conference “The Psychology and Biology of Moral Beliefs and Attitudes”, Dartmouth College, May 2004.

 

“Introspection and the Attribution of Agency”

Delivered at the Pacific APA, invited symposium on introspection,

Pasadena, March 2004.

 

“Cross-cultural Semantics and the Methodology of Metaphysics”

With Edouard Machery, Ron Mallon, and Stephen Stich

Delivered at the conference “Folk Concepts: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives”, Florida State University, January 2004.

 

“Just the Imagination: Why Imagining Doesn’t Behave Like Believing”

Delivered at the American Society for Aesthetics session on Imagination and Simulation, San Francisco, October 2003.

 

“Judgments about Moral Objectivity:  Experimental Assays”

Delivered at Pacific APA group session of the Society for Empirical Ethics, San Franciso, March 2003.

 

“Imagining and Believing: The Promise of a Single Code”

Delivered at NEH Institute, Art, Mind, and Cognitive Science, July 2002.

 

“On the Genealogy of Norms: A Case for the Role of Emotion in Cultural Evolution”

Delivered at the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Nashville, April 2002.

 

            “Norms with Feeling:  The Role of Affect in Moral Judgment”

            Delivered at the Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Cincinnati, June 2001.

 

“A Cognitive Account of Moral Judgment”

            Delivered at Society for Philosophy and Psychology, New York, June 2000.

 

            “Reading One’s Own Mind:  A Cognitive Theory of Self-Awareness”

With Stephen Stich. 

Delivered at International Conference on the Nature of Consciousness, Santa Barbara, November 1998.

Delivered at the Institute for the Study of Child Development, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, March 1999.

 

“Counterfactuals and Pretense:  Possible Worlds in Cognitive Science”

Delivered at the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Lisbon, September 1998.

“Psychological Attribution by Analogy”

 

Comment on John Greenwood’s “Theoretical Modeling and the Child’s Theory of Mind”. Delivered at the Eastern APA, Philadelphia, December, 1997.

 

“Evolutionary Psychology: Ultimate Explanations and Panglossian Predictions”

With Todd Grantham.  Delivered at ISHPSSB, Seattle, WA, July 1997.

 

 “Theory-Theory Theory”

Comment on Brad Cohen’s “Simulation and Theory: Redirecting the Debate”.  Delivered at the Eastern APA, New York, December, 1995.

 

“Simulation and the Ascription of Intentional States”

With Stephen Stich.  Delivered at Conscience et Intentionnalité: modèles et modalités d’attribution, University of Quebec at Montreal, June, 1995.

 

“Varieties of Off-Line Simulation”

With Stephen Stich.  Delivered at Theories of Theories of Mind, Sheffield University, England, July, 1994.

 

“Do Content Sentences Need Content?”

Delivered at the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, New Orleans, April, 1993.

 

“Folk Psychology:  Simulation or Tacit Theory”

With Stephen Stich.  Delivered at Perspectives on Mind, Washington University, St. Louis, December, 1991.

 

 

Professional Activities:

 

Referee, Mind & Language, 1992-

Referee, Cognition, 1994-

Referee, Oxford University Press, 1998-

Referee, The Society for Philosophy and Psychology, 2001-

Referee, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2002

Referee, National Science Foundation, 2002

Referee, Psychology Press, 2002

Referee, MIT Press, 2000

Associate, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1993-

Ad hoc referee for several other journals including American Philosophical Quarterly, Animal Cognition, Behavioural and Brain Sciences, European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, European Journal of Philosophy, Journal of Consciousness Studies, Mind & Society, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Nous, Philosophical Explorations, Philosophical Psychology, Philosophy of Science, Psychological Science, Synthese, Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Program committee for the American Society for Aesthetics, 2004.

Program committee for the American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division, 2004-2006.

 

Grants and Awards:

 

Stanton Award, Society for Philosophy & Psychology

 

Harry Lightsey Chair in Humanities

 

NEH Summer Institute on “Art, Mind, and Cognitive Science”, University of Maryland

 

NIH National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Fellowship

 

Visiting Fellow Grant

Research Group on Evolution and Higher Cognition

Center for Cognitive Science

Rutgers University

 

Research Grant

Center for Cognitive Science

Rutgers University

 

Distinguished Teaching Award Nominee

College of Charleston

 

NEH/NSF Summer Institute on “Human Nature: Integrating Nature and Nurture”, Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research, Dartmouth College

 

Continuous Study Grant

            College of Charleston Research & Development

 

 

College of Charleston Research & Development Grant

 

Rutgers University Excellence Fellowship

 

Robert M. Golden Award for Honors Thesis in Philosophy

Stanford University

 

2005

 

2000-2004

 

June-August 2002

 

 

1999-2000

 

 

August 1998-July 1999

 

 

 

 

August 1998

 

 

 

1998

 

 

July-August, 1996

 

 

 

May-June, 1996

 

 

 

Summer, 1993

 

 

1987-90, 1991-92

 

1986