Faculty profile


Eric Margolis

Eric Margolis

Dept. of Philosophy
5113 Hellen C. White
(608) 263-3728

eamargolis@wisc.edu
Links: Department/Personal

Research Keywords

philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of psychology, concept, innateness, mental representation, learning

Affiliations

  • Department of Philosophy, Professor

Current Projects

  • writing a book on number concepts ("Think of a Number") with Stephen Laurence
  • co-editing a volume on artifacts ("Creations of the Mind") with Stephen Laurence

Representative Classes

  • Philos 551: Philosophy of Mind
  • Philos 951: Language & Thought (seminar)
  • Philos 951: Mindreading (seminar)

Research Statement

My research in the philosophy of mind focuses on the nature of concepts, innateness, and issues related to representation. I am currently writing a book on how human beings acquire number concepts and the question of how numerical cognition is related to language.

Selected Publications

  • The Ontology of Concepts—Abstract Objects or Mental Representations? (with Stephen Laurence). Nous, in press.
  • How to Learn the Natural Numbers (with Stephen Laurence). Cognition, in press.
  • Concepts and Conceptual Analysis (with Stephen Laurence). Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. LXVII, no. 2, pp. 253-282, 2003.
  • Radical Concept Nativism (with Stephen Laurence). Cognition, vol. 86, pp. 22-55, 2002.
  • Concepts and Cognitive Science (with Stephen Laurence). In Concepts: Core Readings, MIT Press, pp. 3-81, 1999.