Welcome to my home page. My interests are mainly in philosophy of mind, and consciousness in particular. Some of the views you’ll find in my publications are:

Dualism about experiences. Your glass of wine, for example, contains various molecules, but the taste you enjoy is a nonphysical effect that those molecules cause when they are in your mouth.
Epiphenomenalism. Our mental life is a gift from our brains. Brain events are sufficient causes of our behavior. They also cause experiences that accompany our behavior. We often feel we control our thoughts, but that is an illusion.
Pleasure (and displeasure or, taken togethr, valence) is how it feels when a part of our reward system causes us to seek (or avoid) things (such as foods) or activities (such as golfing, or filling out tax forms).

I’ve explained and argued for these, and other, views in many peer-reviewed publications, the list of which is here.

Topics related to the above views include acquaintance, belief and desire attributions, cognitive phenomenolgy, Gödelian arguments, the Hard Problem, Higher order thought theories, illusionism, panpsychism, physicalism, representationalism, robot understanding, and many others.

I am open to discussion of any of these matters. Please reach me at: wsrob at iastate dot edu.

For a book and blog posts directed at a non-academic audience, please go to yourbrainandyou.com. This site also has a little personal information.

For an unpublished essay that summarizes several of my views go to Epiphenomenalism, Naturally.