Daniel Kolak
Encyclopedia
Daniel Kolak is a Croatia
n-American philosopher who works primarily in philosophy of mind
, personal identity, cognitive science
, philosophy of science
, philosophy of mathematics
, philosophy of logic
, philosophy of religion
, and aesthetics
. He is professor of philosophy at the William Paterson University
of New Jersey and an Affiliate of the Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science (RuCCS). Kolak is the founder of the philosophical therapy known as cognitive dynamics.
Center for Cognitive Science (RuCCS). Kolak's numerous articles, stories, essays, books and other creative works bridge traditional philosophy with all areas of inquiry and expression, from neuroscience to quantum mechanics, from logic and mathematics to art, music and literature. Among his best known recent works are I Am You: The Metaphysical Foundations for Global Ethics, Principles of Cognitive Science, Wittgenstein's Tractatus, Wisdom Without Answers, From the Presocratics to the Present, In Search of God: The Language and Logic of Belief, The Experience of Philosophy, Self, Cosmos, God, Self and Identity, and the novel In Search of Myself: Life, Death and Personal Identity. He is editor, chief programmer and designer of the interactive electronic library The Philosophy Source on CD-ROM, and was Series Editor of the Wadsworth Philosopher Series and Philosophical Topics. As Series Editor at Longman, he is currently bringing out new editions of the complete canon of philosophy from ancient times to the present. Translated into over a dozen languages, collectively his books have sold over a million copies worldwide.
Kolak is the originator of the philosophy known as Open Individualism
, which he developed along with his view of metaphysical subjectivism and the nonlocality of consciousness, according to which there exists but one numerically identical individual subject who is everyone. In his groundbreaking I Am You: the Metaphysical Foundations for Global Ethics, he writes: "The central thesis of I Am You - that we are all the same person - is apt to strike many readers as obviously false or even absurd. How could you be me and Hitler and Gandhi and Jesus and Buddha and Greta Garbo and everybody else in the past, present and future? In this book I explain how this is possible. Moreover, I show that this is the best explanation of who we are for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it provides the metaphysical foundations for global ethics." Variations on Kolak's theme have been voiced periodically throughout the ages (the Upanishads, Averroes, Giordano Bruno, Schopenhauer
, Josiah Royce); more recently, physicists such as Erwin Schrödinger
, Fred Hoyle
, and Freeman Dyson
have espoused it.
Kolak continues to work on the logical foundations of quantum mechanics and a mathematical model of consciousness (e.g. Stone-Čech compactification) that integrates relativity and quantum mechanics using an "Ultra-Strong (Open World) Nonlocality" variation on a (spinning, with closed timelike paths) Gödel universe, and other such foundational issues in mathematics, physics and logic further refined with Jaakko Hintikka's IF (Independence-Friendly
) and epistemic logic
s. He has also made original contributions to the philosophy of religion, the history of philosophy, and the teaching of philosophy.
Kolak is the founder of the philosophical therapy known as cognitive dynamics, which has been used to create new paradigms and technologies for expanding human consciousness, increasing intelligence, and improving creativity. It is still under development. More information about this aspect of Kolak's research in cognitive science (cognitive neuroscience; self-representation; information processing; knowledge representation; mental models; the logic and mathematics of mental processes; autism, confabulation, self-deception, MPD; dreaming), philosophy of mind (personal identity, consciousness, and self; philosophical psychology; psychoanalytic theory) can be found at the Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science (RuCCS).
Kolak is also one of the world's foremost experts on dreams, particularly about how the brain synthesizes experience and creates the virtual world we call reality. His unique work on lucid dreams has recently been featured in a documentary, produced by NBC/Universal, which aired in November 2006.
As a composer and musician he has performed in concert on numerous occasions, both solo and with leading musicians such as Charlie Byrd
, Dizzy Gillespie
and Frank Zappa
. As a theatrical director and composer he has won the coveted Helen Hayes
Creativity Award for productions such as Sartre's No Exit
at the Source Theater in Washington, D.C. Among his film work is the teleplay Id-Entity, about multiple personality disorder as seen through the eyes of four patients, which Kolak wrote, directed, and produced, and the score and soundtrack for Forsaken Cries: the Case of Rwanda which he produced for PBS, by Amnesty International
and narrated by Danny Glover
. Most recently Kolak served as special advisor to Martin Scorsese
in the making of the Academy Award-winning film The Departed
.
In the United States, Kolak successfully lobbied the U.S. government on behalf of the children and retirees of the United Nations
and its sister institutions the IMF and World Bank
. As president and co-founder of the G-4 Coalition in Washington, D.C., Kolak helped write a bill, sponsored by US Senator Ted Kennedy
, allowing the children and retirees of the IMF and World Bank to become permanent U.S. residents. He testified before Congress and worked together with former World Bank President Robert S. McNamara to lobby successfully for the bill's passage. For his efforts on behalf of the international community living in the United States, he received a personal commendation from the Secretary General of the United Nations.
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n-American philosopher who works primarily in philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, consciousness and their relationship to the physical body, particularly the brain. The mind-body problem, i.e...
, personal identity, cognitive science
Cognitive science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed , represented, and transformed in behaviour, nervous system or machine...
, philosophy of science
Philosophy of science
The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, methods and implications of science. It is also concerned with the use and merit of science and sometimes overlaps metaphysics and epistemology by exploring whether scientific results are actually a study of truth...
, philosophy of mathematics
Philosophy of mathematics
The philosophy of mathematics is the branch of philosophy that studies the philosophical assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics. The aim of the philosophy of mathematics is to provide an account of the nature and methodology of mathematics and to understand the place of...
, philosophy of logic
Philosophy of logic
Following the developments in Formal logic with symbolic logic in the late nineteenth century and mathematical logic in the twentieth, topics traditionally treated by logic not being part of formal logic have tended to be termed either philosophy of logic or philosophical logic if no longer simply...
, philosophy of religion
Philosophy of religion
Philosophy of religion is a branch of philosophy concerned with questions regarding religion, including the nature and existence of God, the examination of religious experience, analysis of religious language and texts, and the relationship of religion and science...
, and aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
. He is professor of philosophy at the William Paterson University
William Paterson University
William Paterson University is a comprehensive public institution located in Wayne, New Jersey serving nearly 11,000 undergraduate and graduate students through five colleges: , , , , and ....
of New Jersey and an Affiliate of the Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science (RuCCS). Kolak is the founder of the philosophical therapy known as cognitive dynamics.
Biography
Kolak is a prolific philosopher, with over thirty-five authored books and nearly two hundred books edited. He is professor of philosophy at the William Paterson University of New Jersey (WPUNJ), where he chaired the Philosophy Department and founded and directed the WPUNJ cognitive science laboratory. He also directs research at the Brain Behavior Center and is an affiliate of Rutgers UniversityRutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
Center for Cognitive Science (RuCCS). Kolak's numerous articles, stories, essays, books and other creative works bridge traditional philosophy with all areas of inquiry and expression, from neuroscience to quantum mechanics, from logic and mathematics to art, music and literature. Among his best known recent works are I Am You: The Metaphysical Foundations for Global Ethics, Principles of Cognitive Science, Wittgenstein's Tractatus, Wisdom Without Answers, From the Presocratics to the Present, In Search of God: The Language and Logic of Belief, The Experience of Philosophy, Self, Cosmos, God, Self and Identity, and the novel In Search of Myself: Life, Death and Personal Identity. He is editor, chief programmer and designer of the interactive electronic library The Philosophy Source on CD-ROM, and was Series Editor of the Wadsworth Philosopher Series and Philosophical Topics. As Series Editor at Longman, he is currently bringing out new editions of the complete canon of philosophy from ancient times to the present. Translated into over a dozen languages, collectively his books have sold over a million copies worldwide.
Kolak is the originator of the philosophy known as Open Individualism
Open individualism
Open individualism is the view in philosophy according to which there exists only one numerically identical subject who is everyone. It is a theoretical solution for the question of personal identity....
, which he developed along with his view of metaphysical subjectivism and the nonlocality of consciousness, according to which there exists but one numerically identical individual subject who is everyone. In his groundbreaking I Am You: the Metaphysical Foundations for Global Ethics, he writes: "The central thesis of I Am You - that we are all the same person - is apt to strike many readers as obviously false or even absurd. How could you be me and Hitler and Gandhi and Jesus and Buddha and Greta Garbo and everybody else in the past, present and future? In this book I explain how this is possible. Moreover, I show that this is the best explanation of who we are for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it provides the metaphysical foundations for global ethics." Variations on Kolak's theme have been voiced periodically throughout the ages (the Upanishads, Averroes, Giordano Bruno, Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher known for his pessimism and philosophical clarity. At age 25, he published his doctoral dissertation, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, which examined the four separate manifestations of reason in the phenomenal...
, Josiah Royce); more recently, physicists such as Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist and theoretical biologist who was one of the fathers of quantum mechanics, and is famed for a number of important contributions to physics, especially the Schrödinger equation, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933...
, Fred Hoyle
Fred Hoyle
Sir Fred Hoyle FRS was an English astronomer and mathematician noted primarily for his contribution to the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and his often controversial stance on other cosmological and scientific matters—in particular his rejection of the "Big Bang" theory, a term originally...
, and Freeman Dyson
Freeman Dyson
Freeman John Dyson FRS is a British-born American theoretical physicist and mathematician, famous for his work in quantum field theory, solid-state physics, astronomy and nuclear engineering. Dyson is a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists...
have espoused it.
Kolak continues to work on the logical foundations of quantum mechanics and a mathematical model of consciousness (e.g. Stone-Čech compactification) that integrates relativity and quantum mechanics using an "Ultra-Strong (Open World) Nonlocality" variation on a (spinning, with closed timelike paths) Gödel universe, and other such foundational issues in mathematics, physics and logic further refined with Jaakko Hintikka's IF (Independence-Friendly
Independence-friendly logic
Independence-friendly logic , proposed by Jaakko Hintikka and Gabriel Sandu, aims at being a more natural and intuitive alternative to classical first-order logic . IF logic is characterized by branching quantifiers...
) and epistemic logic
Epistemic logic
Epistemic modal logic is a subfield of modal logic that is concerned with reasoning about knowledge. While epistemology has a long philosophical tradition dating back to Ancient Greece, epistemic logic is a much more recent development with applications in many fields, including philosophy,...
s. He has also made original contributions to the philosophy of religion, the history of philosophy, and the teaching of philosophy.
Kolak is the founder of the philosophical therapy known as cognitive dynamics, which has been used to create new paradigms and technologies for expanding human consciousness, increasing intelligence, and improving creativity. It is still under development. More information about this aspect of Kolak's research in cognitive science (cognitive neuroscience; self-representation; information processing; knowledge representation; mental models; the logic and mathematics of mental processes; autism, confabulation, self-deception, MPD; dreaming), philosophy of mind (personal identity, consciousness, and self; philosophical psychology; psychoanalytic theory) can be found at the Rutgers University Center for Cognitive Science (RuCCS).
Kolak is also one of the world's foremost experts on dreams, particularly about how the brain synthesizes experience and creates the virtual world we call reality. His unique work on lucid dreams has recently been featured in a documentary, produced by NBC/Universal, which aired in November 2006.
As a composer and musician he has performed in concert on numerous occasions, both solo and with leading musicians such as Charlie Byrd
Charlie Byrd
Charlie Lee Byrd was a famous and versatile American guitarist born in Suffolk, Virginia. His earliest and strongest musical influence was Django Reinhardt, the famous gypsy guitarist. Byrd became the American guitarist who best understood and played Brazilian music, especially the Bossa Nova genre...
, Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
and Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
. As a theatrical director and composer he has won the coveted Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes Brown was an American actress whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award...
Creativity Award for productions such as Sartre's No Exit
No Exit
No Exit is a 1944 existentialist French play by Jean-Paul Sartre. The original French title is Huis Clos, the French equivalent of the legal term in camera, referring to a private discussion behind closed doors; English translations have also been performed under the titles In Camera, No Way Out...
at the Source Theater in Washington, D.C. Among his film work is the teleplay Id-Entity, about multiple personality disorder as seen through the eyes of four patients, which Kolak wrote, directed, and produced, and the score and soundtrack for Forsaken Cries: the Case of Rwanda which he produced for PBS, by Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
and narrated by Danny Glover
Danny Glover
Danny Lebern Glover is an American actor, film director, and political activist. Glover is perhaps best known for his role as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise.-Early life:...
. Most recently Kolak served as special advisor to Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
in the making of the Academy Award-winning film The Departed
The Departed
The Departed is a 2006 American crime thriller film, fashioned as a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. The film was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan...
.
In the United States, Kolak successfully lobbied the U.S. government on behalf of the children and retirees of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and its sister institutions the IMF and World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
. As president and co-founder of the G-4 Coalition in Washington, D.C., Kolak helped write a bill, sponsored by US Senator Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
, allowing the children and retirees of the IMF and World Bank to become permanent U.S. residents. He testified before Congress and worked together with former World Bank President Robert S. McNamara to lobby successfully for the bill's passage. For his efforts on behalf of the international community living in the United States, he received a personal commendation from the Secretary General of the United Nations.
Books
- The Three Pillars of Wisdom, New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007.
- Socrates on Trial, New York: Pearson/Longman, 2007.
- Philosophy of Religion, New York: Longman, 2007.
- Cognitive Science (w/ W. Hirstein, P. Mandik and J. Waskan) London: Routledge, 2006.
- The Longman Standard History of Philosophy (w/ G. Thomson), New York: Pearson/Longman, 2005.
- The Longman Standard History of 20th Century Philosophy (w/ G. Thomson), Pearson/Longman, 2005.
- The Longman Standard History of 19th Century Philosophy (w/ G. Thomson), Pearson/Longman, 2005.
- The Longman Standard History of Modern Philosophy (w/ G. Thomson), New York: Pearson/Longman, 2005.
- The Longman Standard History of Medieval Philosophy (w/ G. Thomson), New York: Pearson/Longman, 2005.
- The Longman Standard History of Ancient Philosophy (w/ G. Thomson), New York: Pearson/Longman, 2005.
- I Am You: The Metaphysical Foundations for Global Ethics, Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Synthese Library, Springer, 2004.
- Quantifiers, Questions, and Quantum Physics (with John Symons) Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2004.
- On Hintikka, Belmont: Wadsworth, 2001.
- Questioning Matters, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000.
- In Search of Myself (novel), Belmont: Wadsworth, 1999.
- Wittgenstein's Tractatus, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998.
- Mayfield Anthology of Western Philosophy, Foreword by W.V.O. Quine, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998.
- From the Presocratics to the Present: A Personal Odyssey, McGraw-Hill, 1998.
- Lovers of Wisdom, 2nd Ed., Belmont: Wadsworth, 2000; 1st Ed., 1997 (Chinese translation: Beijing University Press, 2003).
- From Plato to Wittgenstein: The Historical Foundations of Mind, Wadsworth, 1994.
- One Thousand and One Questions, Belmont: Wadsworth, 1994.
- In Search of God: The Language and Logic of Belief, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994.
- Self, Cosmos, God (w/ R. Martin), Dallas: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1993.
- Self and Identity (w/ R. Martin), New York: Macmillan, 1991.
- The Experience of Philosophy (w/ R. Martin), 6th Ed., 2005, New York: Oxford University Press, 694 pp; 5th Ed., 2001; 4th Ed., 1998, 3rd Ed., 1995; 2nd Ed., 1993; 1st Edition, 1990.
- Wisdom Without Answers (w/ Raymond Martin) 5th Ed., Belmont: Wadsworth, 2001, 162 pp; 4th Ed., 1998; 3rd Ed., 1995; 2nd Ed., 1991; 1st Ed., 1989 (Croatian translation, 2006; Korean translation, 2003, Sakyejul Publishers; Portuguese translation, 2004).
Articles and chapters
- "Who Am I?", Synthese: An International Journal for the Methodology, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science, forthcoming.
- "Identity Matters: A Response to Shoemaker, Catterson, Lombard, Martin, Schechtman, Thomson, and Zovko," Synthese: An International Journal for the Methodology, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science, forthcoming.
- "Meaning" (w/ R. Martin), in Voices of Wisdom, Gary Kessler, ed., Wadsworth, 2006.
- "Morality and the Problem of Other Persons: From Sidgwick to Rawls and Parfit," Experience of Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2005.
- "The Man Who Mistook Himself For the World," Experience of Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2005.
- "The Results are In: The Scope and Import of Hintikka's Philosophy," Quantifiers, Questions and Quantum Physics, Springer 2004, pp. 205–268.
- "Nicholas Krebs: Coincidentia Oppositorun and the Identity of the Infinite," Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Thomas Hockey, ed., Dordrecht (Netherlands): Springer, 2006.
- "Erwin Schrödinger: Wave Mechanics and the Advent of Quantum Theory," Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Thomas Hockey, ed., Dordrecht (Netherlands): Springer, 2006.
- "Augustus De Morgan: Application of Algebraic and Numerical Analysis to Science," Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Thomas Hockey, ed., Dordrecht (Netherlands): Springer, 2006.
- "Carl Neumann: Galilean-Newtonian Theory of Mechanics," Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Thomas Hockey, ed., Dordrecht (Netherlands): Springer, 2006.
- "Alfred North Whitehead: Actuality, Possibility, and Ingression Through Subject to Object," Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Thomas Hockey, ed., Dordrecht (Netherlands): Springer, 2006.
- "Hendrik Lorentz: Local Time, the Fitzgerald Contraction and the Lorentz Transformation as the Basis for Einstein's Restricted Theory of Relativity," Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Thomas Hockey, ed., Dordrecht (Netherlands): Springer, 2006.
- "Johann Bernoulli III: Mathematical Calculus, Differential Equations and the Tautochrone Curve," Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Thomas Hockey, ed., Springer, 2006.
- "William Wollaston: Three Dimensional Geometrical Conception of Atoms and the Camera Lucida," Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Thomas Hockey, ed., Springer, 2006.
- "Johann Balmer: the Role of the Spectral Series Formula in the Advent of Quantum Mechanics," Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Thomas Hockey, ed., Dordrecht (Netherlands): Springer, 2006.
- "Victor Hess and the Discovery of Cosmic Rays," Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Thomas Hockey, ed., Dordrecht, (Netherlands): Springer, 2006.
- "Is Hintikka's Logic First Order?" (w/ Matti Eklund), Synthese: An International Journal for the Methodology, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science, 131(3): pp. 371-388, June 2002.
- "Consciousness, Self and Reality" (w/ Daniel C. Dennett), Questioning Matters, McGraw-Hill, 2000, pp. 338-348.
- "Philosophy, the Bible and God" (w/ Alvin Plantinga), Questioning Matters, McGraw-Hill, 2000, pp. 491-507.
- "Aesthetics: the State of the Art" (w/ Jerrold Levinson), Questioning Matters, McGraw-Hill, 2000, pp. 690-697.
- "Quantum Cosmology, the Anthropic Principle, and Why is There Something Rather Than Nothing?", Experience of Philosophy, 5th Ed., New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 427-459.
- "Descartes Among the Ruins," Experience of Philosophy, 5th ed. Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 96-103.
- "Grand Unification Theories (GUTs) and the End of the World," Experience of Philosophy, 3rd ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
- "Philosophy After Death," Experience of Philosophy, 3rd ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 1996, pp. 464–467.
- "The Church of Science," The Experience of Philosophy, 3rd ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 1996, pp. 317–325.
- "Finding Our Selves: Identification, Identity and Multiple Personality," Philosophical Psychology 6 (1993), pp. 363-386.
- "The Metaphysics and Metapsychology of Personal Identity: Why Thought Experiments Matter in Deciding Who We Are," American Philosophical Quarterly 30 (1993), pp. 39-50.
- "Art and Intentionality," Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 48 (1990), pp. 158-162.
- "Personal Identity and Causality: Becoming Unglued" (w/ Raymond Martin), American Philosophical Quarterly 24 (1987).
- "The Incredible Shrinking Zeno" (w/ David Goloff) in The Experience of Philosophy, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Eds. 2005, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 41-56.
- "Über Sinn un Bedeutung" (translation of Frege's "On Sense and Reference"), Mayfield Anthology of Western Philosophy, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998, pp. 990–998.
- "Mysticism and the Experience of God" in The Experience of Philosophy, 3rd & 4th Ed., pp. 244-256.
- "The Glue of Belief," Experience of Philosophy, New York: Oxford University Press, 4th ed., pp. 238-330.
- "Pascal's Wager Refined," Experience of Philosophy, New York: Oxford University Press, 3rd. ed., pp. 225– 230.
- "Causality, Responsibility and the Free Will Defense," in Self, Cosmos, God, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1993, pp. 286-301.
- "Experiment II," The Experience of Philosophy, 2nd Ed., New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 330-337.
- "The Wine is in the Glass," The Experience of Philosophy, 6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st eds., New York: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 473–477 (6th ed.), reprinted in Questions for the Soul, Keith Kraseman, ed., Copley Publishing, 1998.
- "The Experiment," The Experience of Philosophy, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 232-242.
- "Unity of Consciousness" (w/ R. Martin) in Self & Identity, New York: Macmillan, 1991, pp. 3-15.
- "Personal Identity" (w/ R. Martin) in Self & Identity, New York: Macmillan, 1991, pp. 163-180.
- "Self" (w/ R. Martin) in Self & Identity, New York: Macmillan, 1991, pp. 339-353.
Papers and talks
- "Stepping Into the Same Rivers: Intelligence, Personal Identity and the Metaphysical Foundations for Global Ethics," The International Symposium: Platonism and Forms of Intelligence, The Institute of Philosophy, Zagreb, Croatia and Hvar, Croatia, October 2006.
- "Virtue, Individuality, and the Function of Higher Education," Millersville University, Millersville, PA, March 2006.
- "The College of Liberal Arts and the Arts of Liberation," address to faculty, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, April 2006.
- "The Meaning of (College) Life," invited open forum with students, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, April 2006.
- "Explaining Consciousness: Nonlocality, Subjectivity, and Stone-Cech Compactification," Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne, Indiana, February 2006.
- "The Function of Education," Address to Deans and Chairs, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, February 2006.
- "Philosophy and Jazz: Shedding Logic" (lecture and concert), Provost's Faculty Research/Creative Expression Series, William Paterson University of New Jersey, April 2005.
- "Questions, Quantifiers, and Quantum Physics: A Roundtable Symposium," American Philosophical Association, Boston, December 2004.
- "IF Logic, Nonlocality, and the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics," invited paper, American Philosophical Association, with J. Hintikka and J. Van Benthem, Chicago, March 2004.
- "Symposium: Philosophy and the Arts—the Aesthetics of Jazz; A Roundtable Dialogue Between Philosophers and the World of Jazz Musicians and Teachers," WPUNJ, March 2003.
- "Jazz and Philosophy," Music Honors Seminar Guest Lecture, WPUNJ, October 2002.
- "Generating Ideas for Research," Program of the 6th Annual Conference of the NJCS Fairleigh Dickinson University, April 2002.
- "Turning Communication Theory Inside Out," Keynote Address, 59th Annual NY State Communication Association, Monticello, NY, October 2001.
- "Pleased to Make Your Acquaintance: Wittgenstein's Ontology of Language," 59th Annual New York State Communication Association, Monticello, NY, October 2001.
- "Dennett, Sperry, and the Bifurcation of Consciousness," 59th Annual New York State Communication Association, Monticello, NY, October 2001.
- Colloquium Chair: Logic in Philosophy, "What is Modeled by Truth in All Models" and "Nominalism and Metalogic," Pacific 2000 Meeting, American Philosophical Association.
- "The Metaphysics of Identity," Research Seminar, HSS, WPUNJ November 2000.
- "I Am You," Bergen Community College, October 2000.
- "This Talk Has No Title," New Jersey Humanists, Upper Saddle River, NJ, November 2000.
- "Much Ado About Nothing," New Jersey Humanists, Upper Saddle River, NJ, November 1999.
- "A Dialogue With Alvin Plantinga," WPUNJ, December 1998.
- "Logic, Space, and Architecture: The Implications of Technology," Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, October 1997.
- "The Inward Journey," Cunard Distinguished World University Lecture, Malacca, Malaysia, March 1997.
- "Aloneness," Cunard Distinguished World University Lecture, Phuket, Thailand, March 1997.
- "Relationship," Cunard Distinguished World University Lecture, Bombay, India, March 1997.
- "Freedom," Cunard Distinguished World University Lecture, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 1997.
- "The Wholeness of Life," Cunard Distinguished World University Lecture, Muscat, Oman, March 1997.
- "Living With Insight," Cunard Distinguished World University Lecture, Mombasa, Kenya, March 1997.
- "Is the Universe a Computer Program?", College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio, October 1997.
- "Nonstandard Set Theory, Zeno's Paradox and Rationality: What Does Mathematics Encode?" University of Maryland, October 1995.
- "Quantum Cosmology and the Origin of the Cosmos," Cunard Distinguished World University Lecture, Barcelona, Spain, September 1995.
- "Mind and Nature," Cunard Distinguished World University Lecture, Sorrento, Italy, September 1995.
- "The Greek Origins of Philosophy, Science and Mathematics," Cunard Distinguished World University Lecture, Athens, Greece, September 1995.
- "Global Ethics," Cunard Distinguished World Univ. Lecture, Istanbul, Turkey, September 1995.
- "Cloning, Ethics and the Law: a Response to Melinda Roberts," New Jersey Regional Philosophy Association, April 1995.
- "The Church vs. Galileo," Felician College, April 1994.
- "What Is a Philosophy Program?", Pace University, February 1994.
- "A Free Lunch in a Clean, Well-Lighted Place: Quantum Genesis, The Anthropic Principle, and "Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?" WPUNJ, October 1994.
- "Identification, Identity and Multiple Personality Disorder," WPUNJ, October 1992.
- "What is Philosophy?" Union City Jr. High School, Union City, NJ, July 1992.
- "The Mind in the Brain in the Vat," Trenton State College, Trenton, NJ, February 1992.
- "Why Do We Exist?" and "The Meaning of Life," Cunard Distinguished World University Lecture, Southampton, England, June 1991.
- "Logic, Reality and Wittgenstein," Trenton State College, Trenton, NJ, May 1991.
- "Descartes, Knowledge and Reality: Implications of Cognitive Science," Warren Wilson College, N.C., May 1991.
- "Personal Identity Matters," East Tennessee State University, January 1991.
- "Against Values," University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, October 1990.
- "Art and Identity: the Cosmos as Art," WPUNJ, October 1990.
- "Cognitive Dissociation and the Boundaries of Self," University of Connecticut, Storrs, January 1990.
- "Borders of Identity," California State University, Long Beach, February 1990.
- "I Am You: Toward a New Theory of Personal Identity," City College of CUNY, March 1990.
- "Borderline Selves," Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, March 1990.
- "Art and Intentionality," Rutgers University, November 1989.
The Lovers of Wisdom website
Kolak's Lovers of Wisdom website was designed by former William Paterson University philosophy students. It contains further resources on numerous philosophers.Selected books
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- I Am You: The Metaphysical Foundations for Global Ethics, Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Synthese Library, Springer, 2004 ISBN 1402029993, Link
- In Search of Myself: Life, Death and Personal Identity, Wadsworth, 1999 ISBN 0534239285
- Wittgenstein's Tractatus, McGraw-Hill, 1998 ISBN 155934993X
- On Jaakko HintikkaJaakko HintikkaKaarlo Jaakko Juhani Hintikka is a Finnish philosopher and logician.Hintikka was born in Vantaa. After teaching for a number of years at Florida State University, Stanford, University of Helsinki, and the Academy of Finland, he is currently Professor of Philosophy at Boston University...
, Wadsworth, 2001 ISBN 053458389X - Cognitive Science, Routledge, 2006, ISBN 9780415221016
- From the Presocratics to the Present: A Personal Odyssey, McGraw-Hill, 1998, ISBN 1559349751
- Quantifiers, Questions and Quantum Physics, (with John Symons) Springer, 2004, ISBN 1402032102
- Self and Identity, Macmillan, 1991, ISBN 0023657103
- In Search of God: The Language and Logic of Belief, Wadsworth, 1994, ISBN 0534195369