manwithoutqualities

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May 1, 2010andre kukla, Colin McGinn, episteme, epistemology, Joel Walmsley, mental traps, mysticism, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, psychology, realism, science, science wars, social constructivism, social epistemology

André Kukla

Here’s an interview with André Kukla plugging his book (see above) from 2006 (which I’ve only just come across). I know Kukla through his technical philosophical work: two titles remain vivid to me. Social Constructivism and the Philosophy of Science and Studies in Scientific Realism. The former was a well-needed tough-minded antidote to the vulgar relativism…

April 28, 2010cognitive closure, Colin McGinn, consciousness, mind body, philosophy of mind, steven pinker

McGinn on Cognitive Closure

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.”…

April 27, 2010artificial limbs, biomechatronics, cyborgs, exoskeletons, hugh herr, robotics, robots

Biomechatronics

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…

April 26, 2010albert camus, liberalism, Nazism, philosophy of the absurd, raymond aron, sartre, socialism, Stalinism

Albert Camus

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…

April 22, 2010computational psychology, multi-agent modeling, network theory, networks, neurophilosophy, psychology, robert west, ron sun, social cognition, social connectionism, social epistemology, social ontology, sociology

Cambridge Handbook of Computational Psychology

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…

April 21, 2010Alan Mittleman, Berlin, hayek, Jewish Philosophy, libertarianism, liberty, mary campbell, oakeshott, Popper

Oakeshott, Libertarianism and Judaism

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…

April 20, 2010craig ferguson, jonathan dancy, journal of mind and behavior, moral particularism, moral philosophy, philosophy

Jonathan Dancy on Craig Ferguson

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.

April 18, 2010Affordances, Anthony Chemero, anti-representationalist, cognitive science, Embedded, embodiment, enactivism, extended mind, externalism, guidance theory of representation, intentionality, journal of mind and behavior, Michael Anderson, philosophy of mind, psychology, representationalism, Rick Dale, Rosenberg, situated cognition, Tom Roberts

Guidance, Selection, and Representation/Affordances and Intentionality

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…

April 15, 2010Adams & Aizawa, Andy Clark, brain science, cognition, cognitive science, cognitive systems, Cognitive Systems and the Extended Mind, consciousness, david chalmers, distributed cognition, Embedded, embodiment, extended cognitive systems, extended mind, externalism, functionalism, journal of mind and behavior, robert rupert, robert wilson, Supersizing the Mind

Rupert review of Clark

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…