Since I’m very much in “cognitive closure” mode and am immersed in the work of Colin McGinn, I thought I’d post this brief chat. Having read most of McGinn’s philosophy of mind, I couldn’t characterize his work better than Steven Pinker: “McGinn is an ingenious philosopher who thinks like a laser and writes like a dream.”…
For an excellent resource on this and related matters see the What Sorts of People website. A step in the right direction Hugh Herr lost his lower legs as a teenager. He has since gone on to become a leading light in the development of artificial limbs Mar 4th 2010 | From The Economist print…
Here is a review article I came across in The Economist. Having read Camus in my youth knowing little about his life and even less about his philosophical perspective, time permitting I’m inclined to rediscover him (I was taken by Visconti’s adaptation of L’Étranger). And anyone sidelined by Sartre (a fate to befall the great…
Here’s a review by Robert West of Ron Sun’s (Ed.) book that has been very useful to me (I mean that I have already been using the book): Rob West’s review will better articulate the book’s virtues. (Reference books are notoriously difficult to review – a job admirably well done by Rob West). Abstract: Computational…
Here’s a nice rendering by Mary Campbell of a photo of Oakeshott given to me by his son Simon (the photo was taken at Caius circa 1933). Speaking of Oakeshott, the following must rate as the most bizarre invocation of Oakeshott I’ve come across (Jewish Political Studies Review 19:1-2, Spring 2007). Michael Oakeshott (1901-1990) was a…
How unusual is this? A mainstream analytical philosopher on a talk show. Dancy seems more at ease than I remember him in Reading but is still somewhat flummoxed by the inherent flippancy generated for entertainment context. A tough gig I suppose. His early work concerned epistemology but is now best known for his ethical particularism.
Here is a two-fer from The Journal of Mind and Behavior: 1. Guidance, Selection, and Representation: Response to Anderson and Rosenberg Tom Roberts 2. Affordances and Intentionality: Reply to Roberts Michael L. Anderson and Anthony Chemero Abstracts Roberts: Anderson and Rosenberg’s (2008) guidance theory of representation offers an analysis of mental content that strongly emphasises the influence…
Here’s a great pairing – Rob Rupert, one of the three most formidable critics of the extended mind thesis (the other two of course being Adams & Aizawa) – reviewing the most formidable promoter of EM. See the latest issue of The Journal of Mind and Behavior. (Also see another of Rob’s reviews of Clark…
I heard through my chum David Livingtone Smith who heard through Leiter that Anthony Flew had died a few days ago. I recall Flew to be a most generous fellow. We corresponded by snail mail to his residence in Reading (I still have the letters). I was of the mind to invite him to the…
Here are two articles brought to my attention by my collaborator, a senior member of HSI engineering at Lockheed Martin. Extended mind is making its way into what one may think is an unlikely area. It’s not. Andy Clark’s cyborg is very much part of HCI – an example being a pilot’s helmet display. The emphasis in…
manwithoutqualities 