I work on philosophical problems having to do with the mind. My interests include consciousness, aesthetic experience, responsibility, self-deception, confabulation, and the misidentification syndromes, such as Capgras syndrome. My primary technique is to apply findings from the cognitive sciences, especially neuroscience, to them.
This site is for people who are interested in learning more about my research.
My email address is my first and last name, followed by @gmail.com
Short Bio
I grew up in Norfolk, Virginia. My father Robert Hirstein was a Naval officer, and we had previously lived near other Naval bases, including in Long Beach, California, and Yokosuka, Japan. My mother Nancy Hirstein was a librarian in the Norfolk School system. Her love for words, writing, and books were a big part of why all three of her children got PhDs, including James Hirstein (in Classics) and Ann Maydosz (in Special Education). She lovingly and tirelessly corrected our grammar and word usage, and brought home books for us based on our interests. An unabridged dictionary was kept on a stand near the dinner table to settle any disputes over spelling or word definitions that might arise.
After I graduated from Granby High School in 1976, Cognitive Science hadn’t been invented yet, so I cobbled together my own cognitive science education, starting with a Psychology degree (in 1980) followed by a Master’s in Computer Science (in1982), both at nearby Old Dominion University. In my last year at ODU, I started taking philosophy classes with Prof. William Brenner, focusing on Wittgenstein and the philosophy of language.
I knew that I wanted to study more philosophy, and I was also ready to get out of Norfolk. I had been in love with the natural beauty of New Mexico since going there in my early teens and I moved there in 1983. I got my Master’s in philosophy at the University of New Mexico (in 1987), studying Wittgenstein with Prof. Russell Goodman, as well as the techniques of analytic philosophy with Prof. Fred Schueler. I received my Ph.D. (in 1994) from the University of California, Davis, with Richard Wollheim as my dissertation director. While at Davis, I took courses and undertook independent study with Wollheim and Prof. Thomas Natsoulas. I also took courses and independent study with John Searle at the University of California, Berkeley, via an intercampus course exchange program.
After finishing my Ph.D., I began a postdoctoral fellowship in 1994 at the University of California, San Diego, funded by the Krasnow Foundation. At UCSD, I began working in the lab of psychologist V. S. Ramachandran, and attending meetings of Paul and Patricia Churchland’s neurophilosophy lab group.
My first professor position was from 1997 to1999 at William Paterson University. I then moved to Elmhurst College (later Elmhurst University), near Chicago, Illinois, where I worked as a professor through 2024. I currently live in Albuquerque, New Mexico.