Edward L. Mark

I’m an instructor of philosophy at Loyola Marymount University. I work primarily on issues in the fields of epistemology and philosophy of mind. I received my PhD from the University of California, Irvine where I worked under the supervision of Professor Annalisa Coliva.

My current focus is on questions concerning self-knowledge. My research investigates the knowledge we have of our own beliefs, how we come to attain it, and what makes it different from other instances of knowledge.

It is clear that a well-grounded theory of self-knowledge is of interest to epistemologists since a better understanding of self-knowledge has the potential to offer insight into key concepts in epistemology (e.g., concepts of evidence, warrant, and certainty). That we have a unique first-personal acces to our own mental states is of fundamental import to studies in philosophy of mind as well. However, the plausibility of these claims can only be established by reference to some theory of self-knowledge.

Moreover, a theory of self-knowledge would also offer a means for understanding a number of phenomena, such as self-deception and implicit bias, that are of interest to philosophers and non-philosophers alike. Thus, while the issue of self-knowledge is clearly germane to epistemology and philosophy of mind, I believe that the implications are wide-ranging.