manwithoutqualities

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November 27, 2011bertrand russell, metaphysics, ontology

Alexius Meinong

Died on this day Alexius Meinongbertrand russellFranz Brentanointentionalitynon-existent objects

November 26, 2011brain, brain scans, brain science, mri, qualia

MRI of Female Orgasm

Here’s a recent article from The Guardian. The brain in the clip turns from red to solid yellow during climax. brain scienceCognitive scienceKayt Sukelmriorgasmqualia

November 24, 2011Ashton T. Sperry-Taylor, Itzhak Gilboa, Johan van Benthem, Ken Binmore, Luc Bovens, Paul Weirich, Wlodek Rabinowicz, Zachary Ernst

The latest and final issue of EPISTEME is now available. As of the next issue (9) EPISTEME will be published by Cambridge University Press. Cambridge University PressEPISTEMEEpistemologyInteractive EpistemologyPhilosophysocial epistemology

November 23, 2011Amos Tversky, behavioral economics, bounded rationality, brain science, cognition, cognitive science, complexity, Daniel Kahneman, experiencing self, happiness, hayek, Herbert Simon, memory, neurophilosophy, personal identity, rationality, reflective self, remembering self, self, self-deception, self-referentiality, thinking fast and slow, well-being

Daniel Kahneman on Cognitive Traps

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…

November 22, 2011Aristotle, philanthropy, Richard Gunderman

Richard Gunderman

This past weekend at a conference on the philosophy of philanthropy held in Indianapolis, I had the deep privilege and pleasure to meet up again with Richard Gunderman. I originally met Richard at a conference in Portsmouth, NH exactly three years ago and was mesmerised by his conference talk and his attentive kindness. Knowing that…

November 21, 2011Gene Callahan, history of political ideas, oakeshott, political philosophy, rationalism in politics, rationality

Oakeshott on Rome and America

My chum Gene Callahan has just alerted me to the forthcoming publication of his book. The political system of the Roman Republic were based almost entirely on tradition, “the way of the ancestors,” rather than on a written constitution. While the founders of the American Republic looked to ancient Rome as a primary model for…

November 13, 2011ants, collaboration, collective intentionality, collective knowledge, complexity, distributed cognition, distributed knowledge, Fukuyama, hobbes, human nature, locke, rousseau, social cognition, sociobiology, sociocognition, spontaneous order, stigmergic, stigmergic cognition, stigmergy

E.O. Wilson

Here’s an article in this month’s Atlantic. Rejecting the views of classic political philosophers like Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau that primitive humankind started out as a collection of scattered, unorganized individuals, Fukuyama writes: “Human sociability is not a historical or cultural acquisition, but something hardwired into human nature.” Nowhere is Wilson, who pioneered this view,…

November 12, 2011buddhism, cognitive science, David DeMoss, enactivism, extended cognitive systems, extended mind, externalism, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, self

Extended mind and Buddhism

Here’s a recently published paper by David DeMoss.

November 10, 2011artificial intelligence, C, computation, computational intelligence, computer science, Dennis Ritchie, John McCarthy, LISP, programming, steve jobs, UNIX

Ritchie and McCarthy

With all the hipster hype accorded to Steve Jobs on his passing, there are two names that are being overlooked – Dennis Ritchie and John McCarthy. Here is their obituary from The Economist.

November 9, 2011active externalism, active perception, Alva Noë, cognitive science, consciousness, extended mind, externalism, knowing how knowing that, philosophy of mind, situated cognition

New Book by Alva Noë

Here’s a new book to be published early next year by Alva Noë entitled Varieties of Presence. If anyone cares to review it for The Journal of Mind and Behavior, an outlet that has featured some of the best essays in the situated cognition genre, drop me a line. (Offer now closed).