Caldwell 105A
A Maryland native educated at Amherst College and the University of Virginia, Michael is currently Associate Professor of Philosophy at the National University of Singapore. His main philosophical interests are in metaphysics and the philosophy of mind. In metaphysics, his central project is to rehabilitate phenomenalism, according to which physical things are “permanent possibilities of sensation,” as J.S. Mill puts it. In the philosophy of mind, Michael is working on a non-reductive form of behaviorism, according to which a being’s mental features naturally supervene on its propensities to give behavioral output in response to environmental input, regardless of what mechanisms, if any, mediate input and output. Extra-philosophically, Michael enjoys fishing, hunting, gardening, cooking, reading novels (Patrick O’Brian is a particular favorite), and listening to music (representative favorites being J.S. Bach and Jimmy Giuffre). Michael is married and has two children, one in middle school, the other in college.