Past Dissertations
These UC Davis graduates made insightful contributions to the literature in the field of philosophy.
2011 - present
2018
- Timothy J. Houk
The Nature and Ethics of Manipulation
Supervised by: David Copp - Christopher Healow
Name and Object: The Semantic Role of Plato's Forms
Supervised by: Jan Szaif - Edward Shear
Belief Revision Beyond AGM
Supervised by: Hanti Lin - W. Brandon Biggerstaff
The Need for a Bi-level Account for Reporting Beliefs
Supervised by: Robert May - Danilo Fraga Dantas
Almost Ideal: Computational Epistemology and the Limits of Rationality for Finite Reasoners
Supervised by: Bernard Molyneux - T. Scott Dixon
Grounding, Regresses, and Universals
Supervised by: Cody Gilmore - Brian Coffey
In Defense of an End-Relational Theory of Goodness
Supervised by: David Copp - Emily Barranco Earlenbaugh
Pluralities of Happiness: An Instrumentalist Argument in Support of Positive Psychology
Supervised by: Elaine Landry - Joshua Earlenbaugh
Philosophy as Virtuous Rhetoric
Supervised by: Bernard Molyneux - Johnnie Pedersen
A Defense of Evidentialism about Moral Intuitions
Supervised by: David Copp - Jun Keat (Jared) Poon
Against an Evolutionary Debunking of Morality
Supervised by: David Copp - Sarah Roe
The Salmon-Roe Approach to Mechanistic Explanation
Supervised by: Roberta Millstein - Bert Baumgaertner
Vagueness Judgments: An Information Theoretic Approach
Supervised by: Bernard Molyneux - Christopher Buckels
Plato's Theory of Sensible Particulars
Supervised by: Jan Szaif - Vadim Keyser
The Stabilization View of Measurement
Supervised by: James Griesemer - Huaping Lu-Adler
Kant's Conception of Logical Extension and Its Implications
Supervised by: Henry Allison - Greg Damico
On Definitional Unity in Aristotle
Supervised by: John Malcolm - Jonathan Dorsey
Cutting The Problem Of Consciousness Down To Size
Supervised by: Bernard Molyneux - Lucas Halpin
Meta-Philosophy: Contra-Quine
Supervised by: G. Aldo Antonelli - Nate Smith
Essentialist Heuristics in Biology
Supervised by: James Griesemer
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2001 - 2010
2010
- Gina Marie Calderone
The Indeterminacy of Meaning
Supervised by: Michael Jubien and Paul Teller - Nicholas Jeremiah Diehl
Narration in Literature and Film
Supervised by: George Wilson and James Griesemer - Michael Trestman
Goal-Directedness, Behavior and Cognition
Supervised by: James Griesemer
2009
- Dana Lynne Goswick
An Artifactual World
Supervised by: L.A. Paul and Cody Gilmore - David Ian Spencer
Time, Tense, and Mind: A Case Study in Metaphysics and Perspectival Representation
Supervised by: Paul Teller
2008
- Brooke S. Roberts
A Reactive Attitudes Account of Desert
Supervised by: Gerald Dworkin and Pekka Väyrynen
2007
- James Craig Blackmon
Computationalism and the Putnam-Searle Thesis
Supervised by: Paul Teller and Robert C. Cummins
2006
- Christian Lang Coons
The Value of Individuals and the Value of States of Affairs
Supervised by: Pekka Väyrynen and Connie S. Rosati - David James Freelove
The Axioms and Substance in Aristotle's Science of Metaphysics
Supervised by: Michael V. Wedin - Alexa Heidi Lee
A Defense of Descriptivism
Supervised by: Michael Glanzberg and Robert C. Cummins
2005
- Matthew Horace Haber
The Centrality of Phylogenetic Thinking
Supervised by: James Griesemer
2004
- Lynne O'Neil Fox
Equality in Meeting Basic Needs: Reasons for, and Challenges to, a Theory of Distributive Justice that Focuses on Basic Needs
Supervised by: Gerald Dworkin and David Copp
2003
- James David Byrd Jr.
Is a Unified Account of Concepts Possible?
Supervised by: Robert C. Cummins - Martin Anthony Anderson Roth
The Role of Programs in Connectionist Explanations of Cognition
Supervised by: Robert C. Cummins
2002
- Todd Harris
The Construction and Evaluation of Data Models in Cell Biology
Supervised by: James Griesemer - William Russell Payne
On the Nature of Dispositions
Supervised by: Michael Jubien
2001
- Patrick John Findler
Moral Properties, Secondary Qualities, and Moral Motivation
Supervised by: David Copp - Robert Scofield
Skepticism and Analogical Reasoning in Law
Supervised by: David Copp - Christina Waters
Sartre on the Magical
Supervised by: William H. Bossart
1991 - 2000
2000
- Sherry Lynn Deveaux
The Essence of Spinoza's God
Supervised by: Joel I. Friedman and Don Garrett
1999
- Judith Worth Cross
The Nature of Events
Supervised by: Michael Jubien - Richard Constanz Schubert
Moral Judgments, Normative Reasons, and the Motivation of the Practically Rational
Supervised by: David Copp
1998
- Elizabeth Volk Forrester
Emergent Properties
Supervised by: Paul Teller
1997
- Scott Andrew Merlino
Are Biological Species Individuals?
Supervised by: James Griesemer - Robert Wilson Mutti
The Semantic Content of Proper Names
Supervised by: Jeffrey C. King - David Eric Nachmanoff
A Moral Justification for the Right to National Self-Determination
Supervised by: David Copp - Howard Mark Pressman
Hume on Geometry and Infinite Divisibility
Supervised by: George J. Mattey II - Leslie Elizabeth Stapp
A Revision of David Lewis's "Golden Card": The Classification of Relations Via a New Intrinsic/Extrinsic Property Relation
Supervised by: Michael Jubien
1996
- Nancy Elizabeth Shaffer
Understanding Bias in Scientific Practice
Supervised by: Paul Teller
1995
- Jordi Cat
Maxwell's Interpretation of the Electric and Magnetic Potentials: The Methods of Illustration, Analogy and Scientific Metaphor
Supervised by: Paul Teller
1994
- Leonard David Olson
Hegel and the Doctrine of the Trinity
Supervised by: William H. Bossart
1993
- Melinda Lou Campbell
The Reality of Color: The Case for Subjective Realism
Supervised by: Richard Wollheim - William Stafford Hirstein
The Problem of Self-Belief
Supervised by: Richard Wollheim - Marina Alexandra Lise Oshana
Autonomy as a Social Phenomenon
Supervised by: John Martin Fischer
1992
- David Lopez
The Question of a Sartrean Ethics
Supervised by: William H. Bossart
1991
- Tony Daniel Roy
On Possibility and Possible Worlds
Supervised by: Michael Jubien
1981 - 1990
1988
- Jay Wallis Gallagher
Staking a Claim to Knowledge in an Alien Framework: From Foucault's Critique of the Confessional to Mae West on Men
Supervised by: George J. Mattey II and Mary Anne Warren
1987
- Dirk Meier Leben (deceased)
On the Possible, the Impossible and God: The Medieval Latin Philosophical Development of New Testament Sources
1985
- Katarina Elsbeth Helene Dulckheit
Hegel on Meaning and Reference
Supervised by: George J. Mattey II
1984
- Theodore Ambrose Gracyk
Epistemological Sources of Kant's Aesthetic Theory
Supervised by: George J. Mattey II - Alistair Moles
The Metaphysical Principles of Nietzsche's Cosmology
Supervised by: Joel I. Friedman - Timothy Dean Roche
Aristotle on the Good of Man
Supervised by: Michael V. Wedin
1983
- Linda Kay Bomstad
The Corpuscular Theory and the Semantics of Natural Kind Terms in Locke's Essay
Supervised by: Ronald A. Arbini
1981
- Burke Hilden
Excluded-Opposite Arguments
Supervised by: Ronald A. Arbini - Paula Hunter Manchester
Architectonic and Critical Philosophy
Supervised by: George J. Mattey II
1971 - 1980
1979
- Jerald Lee Mosley
A Posteriori Necessity: Some Recent Views
Supervised by: Michael V. Wedin
1978
- Stephen Richard Hibbard
Particular Identity and Particular Reality in Plato's Middle Dialogues
Supervised by: John F. Malcolm
1977
- Bruce Alan Russell
Rawls and Utilitarianism: A Comparison and Critique
Supervised by: Fred R. Berger
1974
- John Michael King
Functionalist Explanations of Behavior - Judy Carol Williams
The Philosophical Significance of the Notion of Seeing-as
Supervised by: Ronald A. Arbini
1972
- Frederick Joseph O'Toole
Qualities and Powers in the Corpuscular Philosophy of Robert Boyle
Supervised by: Ronald A. Arbini
1971
- George Daniel Gale, Jr.
Leibniz: the Physicist and the Philosopher
Supervised by: Marjorie Grene