Daniel Kahneman’s recently released book Thinking, Fast and Slow aimed at a popular audience is certainly generating a great deal of press, so far as I can tell, most of it very positive. Here he is outlining his experimental work in a Ted Talk. As a behavioral economist much of what he says about rationality will have resonance for Hayek and Simon and other situated cognitive theorists. I think that much of what Kahneman says is consistent with Gunderman from the previous posting though they are of course very different thinkers.
November 23, 2011
Short URL cognitive science, personal identity, hayek, neurophilosophy, self-referentiality, rationality, cognition, complexity, memory, self-deception, brain science, Herbert Simon, self, behavioral economics, happiness, bounded rationality, Daniel Kahneman, well-being, reflective self, experiencing self, remembering self, thinking fast and slow, Amos Tversky
Here is an uncorrected proof (do not cite) of my introduction to Hayek in Mind: Hayek’s Philosophical Psychology. Further details will be made available just as soon as the publisher has updated the webpage for this book (according to Amazon the book will be made available on December 13th). A dedicated website to the volume can be found here.
November 4, 2011
Short URL Friedrich Hayek, Hayek, philosophical psychology, Philosophy, Psychology, Social Sciences active externalism, adam smith, advances in austrian econmics, brain science, Chiara Chelini, Chor-Yung Cheung, cognition, cognitive closure, cognitive science, cognitive systems, collective intentionality, collective knowledge, complex adaptive systems, complexity, connectionism, consciousness, cybernetics, distributed cognition, distributed knowledge, don ross, edward feser, Embedded, embodied cognition, embodiment, enaction, enactivism, erol basar, evolutionary psychology, extended cognitive systems, extended mind, externalism, friedrich hayek, Fuster, Giandomenica Becchio, Gloria Zúñiga y Postigo, hayek, James wible, Jan Willem Lindemans, joaquin fuster, joshua rust, neurophilosophy, phenomenology, philosophical psychology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of social science, psychology, qualia, social epistemology, spontaneous orders, the "easy" problems, the "hard" problem, the sensory order, Thierry Aimar, Troy Camplin, walter weimer
Here is the table of contents for my forthcoming (in press) edited volume focusing on The Sensory Order – this is the first salvo of shameless promotion.
CONTENTS
“SOCIALIZING” THE MIND AND “COGNITIVIZING” SOCIALITY
Leslie Marsh
“MARGINAL MEN”: WEIMER ON HAYEK
Walter Weimer
PART I: NEUROSCIENCE
HAYEK IN TODAY’S COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
Joaquín Fuster
THE NON-CARTESIAN VIEW AND THE BRAIN
Erol Başar
PART II: PHILOSOPHY OF MIND
HAYEK’S QUESTION: HOW CAN PARTS OF THE WORLD COME TO MODEL THE REST OF THE WORLD
Joshua Rust
HAYEK’S SPECULATIVE PSYCHOLOGY, THE NEUROSCIENCE OF VALUE ESTIMATION AND THE BASIS OF NORMATIVE INDIVIDUALISM
Don Ross
HAYEK, POPPER AND THE CAUSAL THEORY OF THE MIND
Edward Feser
PEIRCE AND HAYEK ON THE ABSTRACT NATURE OF COGNITION AND SENSATION
James Wible
HAYEK’S POST-POSITIVIST EMPIRICISM: EXPERIENCE BEYOND SENSATION
Jan Willem Lindemans
A NOTE ON THE INFLUENCE OF MACH’S PSYCHOLOGY IN HAYEK’S PSYCHOLOGY
Giandomenica Becchio
PART III: MIND AND SOCIALITY
THE EMERGENCE OF THE MIND: HAYEK’S ACCOUNT OF MENTAL PHENOMENA AS A PRODUCT OF SPONTANEOUS PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL ORDERS
Gloria Zúñiga y Postigo
HAYEK’S SELF-ORGANIZING MENTAL ORDER AND FOLK-PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES OF THE MIND
Chiara Chelini
BEYOND COMPLEXITY: CAN THE SENSORY ORDER DEFEND THE LIBERAL SELF?
Chor-yung Cheung
COGNITIVE OPENING AND CLOSING: TOWARDS AN EXPLORATION OF THE MENTAL WORLD OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Thierry Aimar
GETTING TO THE HAYEKIAN NETWORK
Troy Camplin
September 8, 2011
Short URL cognitive science, social epistemology, consciousness, social ontology, philosophy of mind, epistemology, hayek, liberalism, Fuster, embodiment, Popper, neurophilosophy, social cognition, connectionism, distributed knowledge, neuroscience, neurobiology, sociocognition, the "hard" problem, social constructivism, philosophy of social science, phenomenology, the sensory order, self-referentiality, cognitive closure, behaviorism, dualism, philosophy of science, cognition, complexity, emergence, neuroeconomics, computational intelligence, distributed cognition, collective intentionality, Troy Camplin, situated cognition, mirror neurons, cognitive systems, brain science, brain, spontaneous order, Gilbert Ryle, concept of mind, Embedded, functionalism, evolutionary psychology, enactivism, Chor-Yung Cheung, knowing how knowing that, representationalism, social connectionism, networks, constructivism, gerald edelman, joaquin fuster, folk psychology, ghost in the machine, don ross, network theory, stigmergic cognition, physicalism, francesco varela, embodied cognition, philosophy of psychology, complex adaptive systems, self-synchronizing systems, brain reading, neural correlates, reductionism, enaction, neural networks, erol basar, friedrich hayek, walter weimer, group cognition, quantum brain, individualism, the "easy" problems, collective knowledge, James wible, philosophical psychology, joshua rust, edward feser, Jan Willem Lindemans, Giandomenica Becchio, Gloria Zúñiga y Postigo, Chiara Chelini, Thierry Aimar
Having just delivered an edited volume entitled Hayek in Mind: Hayek’s Philosophical Psychology to the publisher, this is an opportune time to make widely available, for the first time, some photographs so generously sent to me by Walt Weimer (contact made through the good offices of a few of his students, some featured in the photos below). But before that, the first shameless plug for the volume which amazingly includes a contribution from Weimer himself!
Hayek’s philosophical psychology as set out in his The Sensory Order (1952) has, for the most part, been neglected. Despite being lauded by computer scientist grandee Frank Rosenblatt and by Nobel prize-winning biologist Gerald Edelman, cognitive scientists — with a few exceptions — have yet to discover Hayek’s philosophical psychology. On the other hand, social theorists, Hayek’s traditional disciplinary constituency, have only recently begun to take note and examine the importance of psychology in the complete Hayek corpus.
This volume brings together for the first time state-of-the-art contributions from neuroscientists, philosophers of mind, economists, and social theorists to critically examine many aspects of Hayek’s philosophical psychology.
Weimer was the co-convenor along with the late David Palermo of The Second Penn State Conference on Cognition and the Symbolic Processes. Weimer was so instrumental in rehabilitating (or perhaps more accurately, resuscitating) Hayek’s philosophical psychology. Here are my two previous Weimer posts. The photographs below are annoted precisely as Walt did in the hardcopy he sent me. (I have held back a couple of photos of Hayek since there is a dearth of good shots and I would like to have first dibs at using them should the occasion arise.)
Hayek, Mike Mahoney, Karl Pribnam
Denny Proffitt
H. answering a question during the discussion –
since he was “deaf to the left” I moderated the session to make sure he heard the questions correctly.
Jim Wible
At the “social” in the cabin-in-the-woods.
Bill Butos and H.
Obviously my best side.
September 1, 2011
Short URL cognitive science, consciousness, philosophy of mind, hayek, neurophilosophy, social cognition, connectionism, distributed knowledge, neuroscience, qualia, philosophy of social science, the sensory order, cognitive closure, dualism, cognition, complexity, neuroeconomics, distributed cognition, brain science, social connectionism, gerald edelman, frank rosenblatt, philosophy of psychology, spontaneous orders, walter weimer, Denny Proffitt, david palermo, william butos, James wible, karl pribnam, philosophical psychology
I know that I may well cop a lot of flack disclosing that I’m a fan of David Stove. One colleague called Stove the worst curmudgeon he’d ever come across, a writer that had the ability to rub many constituencies up the wrong way. Be that as it may, I find Stove a great writer and a worthwhile voice against the prevailing milieu in which he wrote – I like a “damn the torpedoes” attitude from time to time, Dennett being the best current practitioner. The reason I mention Stove is that I had the good fortune to meet Jim Franklin, Stove’s literary executor. I learned from Jim that a new and the last posthumous collection of Stove’s has just been published, edited by Andrew Irvine at UBC. Here is the Stove page maintained by Jim Franklin and an article by Roger Kimball (who has also written the forward to this latest work). For what it’s worth here is Stove’s Wikipedia entry. A good link is to Scott Campbell’s bio-sketch of Stove. For the more technically minded here is a reference to Stove’s The Problem of Induction.
Update: I now have a copy of the book courtesy of the editor Andrew Irvine. The title essay (the only essay) comprises some 100 pages. Another 100 or so pages is devoted to Stove’s bibliography. I see that Roger Scruton is featured on the dust-jacket blurb and that Andrew (rightly) takes on Hayek in his introduction. Kimball presents a very good portrait of Stove.
June 14, 2011
Short URL andrew irvine, australian philosophy, australian realism, david stove, Dennett, hayek, hume, ideology, induction, jim franklin, political correctness, political philosophy, realism, roger kimball, roger scruton, scott campbell, the plato cult
Here is the flyer from the legendary conference convened by Walt Weimer - the other notables included Gibson, who I’m told snubbed Hayek despite so warmly receiving The Sensory Order and Eleanor Rosch later to find fame as co-author of The embodied mind: Cognitive science and human experience. It is amazing that Weimer had (still has I might add!!) such balls and foresight to see Hayek’s genius - after all – Hayek was a rank outsider. Doff of hat and raised glass to Walt Weimer! Weimer was, by the way, interviewed by Bernard Baars some years ago but there was no mention of Hayek. Many thanks to Jim Wible, a student of Walt Weimer, who so kindly dug out this flyer out. Also thanks to Walt’s other students (Bill Butos, Harry Heft, Denny Proffitt and John Johnson) who came forward with such vivid memories of this amazing character – here are some photos from that conference. Last, but by no means least, it was my late chum Rob Haskell who, when I innocently asked if he knew Weimer, got very animated (this was in mid-winter at a nondescript bar in the Maine Mall). He had much he wanted to chat about at some later date - it wasn’t to be.
June 11, 2011
Short URL Bernard Baars, Cognitive science, Embodied cognition, Friedrich Hayek, philosophical psychology bernard baars, brain science, cognitive science, connectionism, Denny Proffitt, Eleanor Rosch, Harry Heft, hayek, jj gibson, John Johnson, mind body, philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, qualia, robert haskell, spontaneous orders, the "hard" problem, the sensory order, walter weimer
Here are two of the biggest names in analytical SE discussing the area on Philosophy TV. Another opportunity to plug the journal with which they are associated – EPISTEME.
June 7, 2011
Short URL alvin goldman, collective intentionality, epistemics, epistemology, group minds, hayek, jennifer lackey, Marx, philosophy of science, social cognition, social constructivism, social epistemology, social facts, sociocognition, sociology, sokal hoax
Here are some fuzzy but nevertheless recognizable Polaroid photos taken at the now legendary conference convened by Walter Weimer. Weimer was so crucial to bringing Hayek’s The Sensory Order back to life after it had “fallen still-born from the press”. In attendance was also J.J. Gibson who, though was favorably disposed towards TSO in the early 50s, pretty much snubbed Hayek at this conference (put down to his [Gibson's] politics). Thanks to Bill Mace for this info and the conference link. Thanks to John Johnson for documenting and posting these snapshots.
Walt, by the way, was interviewed by Bernard Baars some 25 years ago in The Cognitive Revolution in Psychology but, so far as I can see, with no mention of TSO. I have been in touch with a few of Weimer’s students – in many ways his legacy is assured through their interests and respect for the man. Walt must have had the most amazing foresight to back a outsider such as Hayek.
May 25, 2011
Short URL bernard baars, brain science, cognitive science, cognitive systems, connectionism, hayek, jj gibson, mind body, philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, qualia, spontaneous order, the "hard" problem, the sensory order, walter weimer
