Ryan Nichols
  • Research
  • Publications
  • Acknowledgments
  • About & CV

Ryan Nichols

  • Research/
  • Publications/
  • Acknowledgments/
  • About & CV/

Ryan Nichols

Full Professor | Department of Philosophy | California State University, Fullerton

Journal Articles

Ryan Nichols

  • Research/
  • Publications/
  • Acknowledgments/
  • About & CV/

Writing: Journal Articles

March 01, 2016

Early Confucianism Is a System for Social-Functional Influence and Probably Does Not Represent a Normative Ethical Theory (PDF)→

March 01, 2016/ Ryan Nichols

Nichols, R. (2015). Dao 14: 499-520. DOI: 10.1007/s11712-015-9464-8

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March 01, 2016/ Ryan Nichols/ /Source
2015, journal-articles
Confucianism, cultural transmission, social evolution, functionalism, virtue theory
March 01, 2016

Civilizing Humans with Shame: How Early Confucians Altered Inherited Evolutionary Norms through Cultural Programming to Increase Social Harmony (PDF)→

March 01, 2016/ Ryan Nichols

Nichols, R. (2015). Journal of Cognition and Culture, 15(3-4), 254–284. DOI: 10.1163/15685373-12342150

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March 01, 2016/ Ryan Nichols/ /Source
journal-articles, 2015
shame, Confucianism, evolutionary psychology, social function, cultural transmission
March 01, 2016

Thomas Reid→

March 01, 2016/ Ryan Nichols

Nichols, Ryan and Yaffe, Gideon (2015). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Summer 2015 Edition, Edward N. Zalta (ed.).

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March 01, 2016/ Ryan Nichols/ /Source
2015, journal-articles
Thomas Reid, Stanford, perception, knowledge, religion
March 01, 2016

Re-evaluating the Effects of the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake on Eighteenth-Century Minds: How Cognitive Science of Religion Improves Intellectual History with Hypothesis Testing Methods (PDF)→

March 01, 2016/ Ryan Nichols

Nichols, R. (2014). Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 82(4), 970–1009. DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfu033

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March 01, 2016/ Ryan Nichols/ /Source
journal-articles, 2014
history, cognitive science, religion, earthquake, Lisbon
March 01, 2016

Toward a Science of Science Fiction: Applying Quantitative Methods to Genre Individuation (PDF)→

March 01, 2016/ Ryan Nichols

Nichols, R., Lynn, J., & Purzycki, B.G. (2014). Scientific Study of Literature, 4(1), 25–45. DOI: 10.1075/ssol.4.1.02nic

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March 01, 2016/ Ryan Nichols/ /Source
journal-articles, 2014
science fiction, text analysis, big data, genre, postmodernism
March 01, 2016

孝道——一种自然主义的解释 (PDF)→

March 01, 2016/ Ryan Nichols

Nichols, R. (2014). Studies in Philosophy of Science and Technology 31 (5): 98-106.

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March 01, 2016/ Ryan Nichols/ /Source
journal-articles, 2014
filial piety, ethical theory, evolutionary psychology, cultural transmission, Confucius
March 01, 2016

The Social Cost of Atheism: How Perceived Religiosity Influences Moral Appraisal (PDF)→

March 01, 2016/ Ryan Nichols

Wright, J., & Nichols, R. (2014). Journal of Cognition and Culture, 14(1–2), 93–115. DOI: 10.1163/15685373-12342112

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March 01, 2016/ Ryan Nichols/ /Source
journal-articles, 2014
moral psychology, experimental philosophy, religion, morality, bias, atheism
February 29, 2016

The Origins and Effects of Filial Piety (Xiao 孝): How Culture Solves an Evolutionary Problem for Parents (PDF)→

February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols

Nichols, R. (2013). Journal of Cognition and Culture, 13(3-4), 201–230. DOI: 10.1163/15685373-12342092

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February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols/ /Source
journal-articles, 2013
filial piety, Confucianism, cultural transmission, moral psychology, evolutionary psychology
February 29, 2016

Diagnosing Bias in Philosophy of Religion (PDF)→

February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols

Draper, P., & Nichols, R. (2013). Monist, 96(3), 420–446. DOI: 10.5840/monist201396319

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February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols/ /Source
journal-articles, 2013
philosophy of religion, cognitive science of religion, experimental philosophy, metaphilosophy, method
February 29, 2016

A Genealogy of Early Confucian Moral Psychology (PDF)→

February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols

Nichols, R. (2011). Philosophy East and West, 61(4), 609–629. DOI: 10.1353/pew.2011.0057

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February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols/ /Source
2011, journal-articles
filial piety, Confucianism, cultural transmission, moral psychology, evolutionary psychology
February 29, 2016

Thomas Reid on Reidian Religious Belief Forming Faculties (PDF)→

February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols

Nichols, R. and Callergård, R. (2011). The Modern Schoolman, 88(3/4), Theological Themes in Modern Philosophy, 317–335. DOI: 10.5840/schoolman2011883/418

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February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols/ /Source
journal-articles, 2011
bias, cognitive science of religion, knowledge, religion, Thomas Reid, epistemology
February 29, 2016

Natural Philosophy and Its Limits in the Scottish Enlightenment (PDF)→

February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols

Nichols, R (2007). The Monist, 90: 233–250. DOI: 10.5840/monist200790215

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February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols/ /Source
journal-articles, 2007
Scottish Enlightenment, Thomas Reid, bias, science, method, religion
February 29, 2016

Why Is the History of Philosophy Worth Our Study? (PDF)→

February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols

Nichols, R. (2006). Metaphilosophy, 37(1), 34–52. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9973.2006.00411.x

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February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols/ /Source
journal-articles, 2006
enlightenment, metaphilosophy, method, history of philosophy
February 29, 2016

Reid’s Inheritance From Locke, and How He Overcomes It (PDF)→

February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols

Nichols, R. (2003). Journal of the History of Philosophy, 41(4), 471–491. DOI: 10.1353/hph.2003.0062

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February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols/ /Source
journal-articles, 2003
Locke, Reid, qualities, primary, distinction
February 29, 2016

Reid on Fictional Objects and the Way of Ideas (PDF)→

February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols

Nichols, R. (2002). The Philosophical Quarterly, 52(209), 582–601. DOI: 10.1111/1467-9213.00287

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February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols/ /Source
journal-articles, 2002
Meinong, Reid, method, Van Cleve, Way of Ideas
February 29, 2016

Actions, Their Effects and Preventable Evil (PDF)→

February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols

Nichols, R. (1999). International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 46, 127–145. DOI: 10.1023/A:1003886616457

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February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols/ /Source
journal-articles, 1999
problem of evil, actions, religion, individuation, effects
February 29, 2016

Space, Individuation and the Identity of Indiscernibles: Leibniz's Triumph Over Strawson (PDF)→

February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols

Nichols, R. (1999). Studia Leibnitiana, 31(2), 181–195.

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February 29, 2016/ Ryan Nichols/ /Source
journal-articles, 1999
Leibniz, indiscernibles, Strawson, thought experiment, logic
  • Research/
  • Publications/
  • Acknowledgments/
  • About & CV/

Ryan Nichols

Featured Articles

Modeling the Contested Relationship between Analects, Mencius, and Xunzi (PDF)

Topic models of a five-million-character corpus of early and medieval Chinese texts confirmed many close-reading judgments and called for a reappraisal of what the Xunzi shares with the Analects. The Journal of Asian Studies, 2018.

Rethinking Human Development and the Shared Intentionality Hypothesis (PDF)

Infants already take a second-personal stance toward others, we argue, which revises Tomasello’s account of when shared intentionality develops. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 2021.

Cultural Evolution: A Review of Theoretical Challenges

Most of the problems that members of the Cultural Evolution Society identify in their field are conceptual at root, from slippery key terms to an unclear relation with biological evolution. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 2024.

The Presumption of Compatibilism

Experiments in the United States, India, and South Korea found that people’s untutored intuitions treat divine foreknowledge as compatible with free will. Religious Studies, 2025.

The Status of Women in Neolithic & Pre-Imperial China

DNA, burial sex ratios, and evidence of diet and dental health indicate that women in pre-Imperial China were treated less well than women in other early societies. World Archaeology, 2021.

Cross-Cultural Variation in Cognitive Style

Cognitive style varies across cultures in categorization, attention, judgments of change and causation, and reasoning; the review weighs the evidence in each, including reasoning studies whose replications failed. Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science, 2025.

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