Nicholas Shea

Representation

  1. Shea, N. (2026), ‘Realist Representational Explanations of Agency Should Require Some Unity of Purpose’, Philosophy and the Mind Sciences. [open access pdf] [link]
  2. Shea, N. (2022), ‘Can a Theory of Content Rely on Selected Effect Functions? Response to Christie, Brusse, et al.’, Australasian Philosophical Review 6(4), pp. 400-411. (Published Oct 2024) [open access pdf] [link]
  3. Shea, N. (2024), ‘Concepts’, in Michael C. Frank and Asifa Majid (eds.) Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, MIT Press (online). [preprint pdf] [link]
  4. Shea, N. (2023), ‘Organized Representations Forming a Computationally Useful Processing Structure’, Synthese. [open access pdf] [link]
  5. Shea, N. (2023), ‘Millikan’s Consistency Testers and the Cultural Evolution of Concepts’, Evolutionary Linguistic Theory. [pre-print pdf] [link]
  6. Shea, N. (2023), ‘Moving Beyond Content-Specific Computation in Artificial Neural Networks’, Mind & Language, 38, 156-177. [open access pdf] [link] 
  7. Shea, N. (2022), ‘Concepts as Plug & Play Devices’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 378, 20210353. [open access pdf] [link]
  8. Shea, N. (2022), ‘Representation in Cognitive Science by Nicholas Shea: Reply by the Author’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 92, 270-273.[pre-print pdf] [link]
  9. Sapphira R. Thorne, Jake Quilty-Dunn, Joulia Smortchkova, Nicholas Shea*, & James A. Hampton (2021), ‘Concept Appraisal’, Cognitive Science, 45, e12978. [open access pdf] [link]
  10. Shea, N. (2020) ‘Representation in Cognitive Science – Replies’, Mind & Language, 35(3), 402-412.[pre-print pdf] [link]
  11. Shea, N. (2020) ‘Functionalist Interrelations Amongst Human Psychological States Inter Se, ditto for Martians’, Smortchkova, J., Dołęga, K., Schlicht, T. (eds.) in What Are Mental Representations? (Oxford: OUP), pp. 242-253.  [pre-print pdf]
  12. Shea, N., Godfrey-Smith, P. & Cao, R. (2017) ‘Content in Simple Signalling Systems’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science  [open access pdf] [link]
  13. Shea, N. (2016), ‘Representational development need not be explicable-by-content’, in Vincent C. Muller (ed.) Fundamental Issues of Artificial Intelligence (Springer: Synthese Library), pp. 221-238 [pre-print pdf]
  14. English, S., Pen, I., Shea, N. & Uller, T. (2015), ‘The Information Value of Non-Genetic Inheritance in Plants and Animals’, PloS one. 10, 1, , e0116996 [open access pdf] [link]
  15. Shea, N. (2015), ‘Distinguishing Top-Down From Bottom-Up Effects’. Perception and Its Modalities. Biggs, S., Matthen, M. & Stokes, D. (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 73-91 [pre-print pdf] [link]
  16. Shea, N. (2014), ‘Exploitable isomorphism and structural representation’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 64(2) [pre-print pdf] [link]
  17. Shea, N. (2014), ‘Reward Prediction Error Signals are Meta-Representational’, Nous 48, 2, pp. 314-341 [open access pdf] [link]
  18. Shea, N. (2014), ‘Neural signalling of probabilistic vectors’, Philosophy of Science [pre-print pdf] [link]
  19. Shea, N. (2014), ‘Two Modes of Transgenerational Information Transmission’, in B. Calcott et al. (eds.) Cooperation and Its Evolution (MIT Press) [pre-print pdf] [link]
  20. Shea, N. (2013), ‘Naturalising representational content’, Philosophy Compass, 8(5), pp. 496-509 [open access pdf] [link]
  21. Shea, N. (2013), ‘Inherited Representations are Read in Development’, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 64(1), pp. 1-31 [open access pdf] [link]
  22. Shea, N. (2013), ‘Neural mechanisms of decision-making and the personal level’, in KWM Fulford, M Davies, G Graham, J Sadler, G Stanghellini and T Thornton (eds.) Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry (OUP) [pre-print pdf] [link]
  23. Shea, N. (2013), ‘Millikan’s Isomorphism Requirement’, in D. Ryder, J. Kingsbury & K. Williford (eds.) Millikan and Her Critics (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell) [pre-print pdf] [link]
  24. Shea, N. (2012), ‘New thinking, innateness and inherited representation’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 367, pp. 2234-44 [open access pdf] [link]
  25. Shea, N. (2012), ‘Genetic representation explains the cluster of innateness-related properties’, Mind & Language, 27(4), pp. 466-493 [open access pdf] [link]
  26. Shea, N. (2011), ‘Developmental Systems Theory Formulated as a Claim About Inherited Information’,Philosophy of Science 78, pp. 60-82 [open access pdf] [link]
  27. Shea, N. (2011), ‘What’s Transmitted?  Inherited Information.’ Biology & Philosophy 26(2), pp. 183-189 [pre-print pdf] [link] [target article]
  28. Shea, N., (2009) ‘Imitation as an inheritance system’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 364, 2429-2443 [pre-print pdf] [published pdf]
  29. Shea, N., Krug, K. and Tobler, P.N., (2008) ‘Conceptual representations in goal-directed decision making’, Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 8(4), 418-428 [published pdf] [link] [journal doi]
  30. Shea, N. (2007) ‘Consumers Need Information: supplementing teleosemantics with an input condition’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 75(2), 404-435 [pre-print pdf] [link]
  31. Shea, N. (2007) ‘Content and Its Vehicles in Connectionist Systems’, Mind & Language, 22(3), 246-269 [pre-print pdf] [link]
  32. Shea, N. (2007) ‘Representation in the genome and in other inheritance systems’ Biology and Philosophy, 22, 313-331 [pre-print pdf] [link]
  33. Shea, N. (2006) ‘Millikan’s Contribution to Materialist Philosophy of Mind’ (in French translation) Matière Première, Vol. 1, Feb 2006, pp. 127-156 [pre-print pdf]
  34. Shea, N. (2013) ‘Perception vs. Action: the computations may be the same but the direction of fit differs’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 36(3), pp. 228-9 [pre-print pdf]
  35. Shea, N. (2011), ‘New concepts can be learned’, review essay on Susan Carey, The Origin of Concepts (OUP, 2009), Biology & Philosophy 26, 129-139 [pre-print pdf] [link]
  36. Shea, N. (2011), ‘Acquiring a new concept is not explicable-by-content’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 34(3), pp. 148-149 [pre-print pdf] [pdf] [link]
  37. Shea, N. (2009) ‘Varieties of Meaning by R.G. Millikan’, Philosophical Review, 118(1), pp. 127 – 130 [pre-print pdf]
  38. Shea, N. (2006) ‘The Biological Basis of Cultural Transmission’, review of Kim Sterelny, Thought in a Hostile World (Blackwell, 2003), British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 57, 259-266 [pre-print pdf] [link]
  39. Shea, N. (2005), ‘Varieties of Meaning: The 2002 Jean Nicod Lectures by Ruth Millikan’, Quarterly Review of Biology, 80(3), p. 344 [link]
  40. Shea, N. (2003), ‘Functions in Mind by Carolyn Price’, Philosophical Quarterly, 53, pp. 129-132 [link]
  41. Shea, N. (2002), ‘Getting Clear About Equivocal Concepts: Critical Review of Millikan’s on Clear and Confused Ideas‘, Disputatio 13, pp. 34-47 [unedited draft]
  42. Papineau, D. and Shea, N. (2002) ‘Ruth Millikan’s On Clear and Confused Ideas‘, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 65(2), pp. 453-466 [pre-print pdf] [link]