photo of Peter Epstein

Peter Epstein [home page]

E-mail: pepstein@berkeley.edu
Dissertation advisors: John Campbell, Geoffrey Lee, Tania Lombrozo, and Barry Stroud

(A.B., summa cum laude, Harvard University, 2004) Peter’s main research interests are in philosophy of mind, formal epistemology, and philosophy of science. In his dissertation, Sensible Concepts: Experience and the A Priori, he develops an account of spatial perception that situates our experience of space within a broader context of non-sensory cognitive activities. He then uses this analysis of spatial experience to shed light on three issues: the connection between Euclidean proof and our perception of physical objects; the distinction between primary and secondary qualities; and the challenge posed to the veridicality of our spatial experience by the findings of relativistic physics. The final chapter of Peter’s dissertation, titled “Shape Perception in a Relativistic Universe,” is forthcoming in Mind.

CV