I was saddened to learn of the death of Susan Hurley today. Here is Alexander Bird’s announcement: I am very sorry to inform you of the death last night of Professor Susan Hurley. Susan had been suffering from cancer for some time and faced her illness with remarkable dignity. She continued to work until very…
Some thoughts on Shaun Gallagher’s How the Body Shapes the Mind, Oxford University Press What’s the ugliest Part of your body? What’s the ugliest Part of your body? Some say your nose Some say your toes But I think it’s your MIND… I think it’s your mind (Frank Zappa, 1968) Shaun Gallagher marshals…
In memory of Paul Hirst (Paul was the only member in the School of Politics and Sociology that “got it”. He never allowed his own ideological predelictions to colour his approach to students’ work – he relished giving a fair and insightful account of positions he didn’t hold to, which I noticed confused students who were there…
Special Issue of Cognitive Systems Research – Perspectives on Social Cognition Some papers are now available as pre-press versions. 1. Introduction to Perspectives on Social Cognition – Leslie Marsh & Christian Onof 2. Functionalism and mental boundaries – Lawrence Shapiro 3. Consciousness and the social mind – Philip Robbins 4. Social relationships and groups: New…
I have good drafts of four papers that I’ll post as and when I’ve polished them up: 1. Social organicism in the political philosophy of Bernard Bosanquet Now available here. Abstract: This paper is an attempt to retrieve one part of Bosanquet’s political philosophy, the positive part which I term his “Social Organicism”. The most…
I have always thought that the topic of personal identity (PI) was the most fascinating topic in metaphysics and perhaps in all of philosophy. Furthermore, this view was enhanced by the consistently high quality of the PI literature attracting the likes of historical thinkers such as Locke, Butler and Hume – and recent thinkers such as Strawson (Peter), Williams,…
Ignoratio elenchi is a classic argument-based fallacy. It is a fallacy to be found in traditional logic: it’s important to note that as a fallacy it doesn’t necessarily entail an invalid argument. Ignoratio elenchi literally means “ignorance of refutation” and is sometimes known as the “fallacy of irrelevance” or the “fallacy of missing the point”.…
I was alerted by fellow swarm theorist Simon Garnier to an introduction to swarm theory in the latest issue of National Geographic Magazine. This is just the latest in the popularization of swarm theory: previous instances being Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (2000) and Surowiecki’s The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are…
Within the DEEDS literature, few if any, make reference to Gregory McCulloch’s The Life of the Mind (Routledge, 2003). The subtitle “An essay on phenomenological externalism” barely hints at McCulloch’s distinctiveness. According to Tim Crane’s forward to The Life of the Mind, it was a book that McCulloch had been working on for almost twenty years. And it shows.…
The following is an abstract for my forthcoming (2009) contibution to: The Social Science of Hayek’s ‘The Sensory Order’ William N. Butos, Volume Editor Advances in Austrian Economics Hayek: Cognitive Scientist Avant la Lettre This paper conceives of Hayek’s overall project as presenting a theory of sociocognition, explication of which has a twofold purpose: 1.…
manwithoutqualities 