naturalism – manwithoutqualities

Browse by:

May 16, 2012david livingstone smith, essentialism, evolution, evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, less than human, natural kinds, naturalism

What Does It Mean to Be Human?

My chum David Livingstone Smith has this piece in Psychology Today. David LivingstoneHumanPsychology TodaySocial science

February 28, 2012Anil Seth, barry smith, behaviorism, brain science, chris frith, cognition, cognitive closure, cognitive science, consciousness, david chalmers, mri, naturalism, neural correlates, neurobiology, neurophilosophy, Neurophysics, neuroscience, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, physicalism, qualia, the "easy" problems, the "hard" problem, zombies

Can science ever explain consciousness?

Anil Seth, Chris Frith and Barry Smith (of Birkbeck, not Buffalo!) outline the topography in a podcast. Anil SethBarry SmithChris FrithCognitionCognitive neuroscienceCognitive sciencecomplexityconsciousnessEmbodied cognitionMagnetic resonance imagingneurosciencePhilosophy of mindqualia

February 26, 2012connectionism, intentionality, joshua rust, naturalism, science, Searle

Hayek, Connectionism, and Scientific Naturalism

Here is an excellent paper by Joshua Rust. Barry Smith (1997, p. 18) observes that ‘‘Hayek is at one with the connectionist tendency within contemporary cognitive science.’’ And at one level of description, Smith is correct. Friedrich Hayek’s question is, in part, a procedural one: by what mechanism does the mental order come to replicate…

September 17, 2011alex rosenberg, atheism, naturalism, religion, science, science wars

Why Alex Rosenberg is a Naturalist

Alex Rosenberg in the NYT.

May 1, 2011cognition, cognitive closure, cognitive science, consciousness, Daniel Dennett, david chalmers, frank Jackson, Keith Frankish, materialism, metaphysics, naturalism, neuron, neurophilosophy, neuroscience, ontology, phenomenology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, qualia, reductionism, richard brown, zombies

Qualia on Philosophy TV

Richard Brown (ebullient blogger at Philosophy Sucks!) and Keith Frankish discuss qualia on Philosophy TV. Richard’s dog Frankie chimes in as well.

September 8, 2010epistemology, helsinki metaphysical club, naturalism, philosophy of mind

Belief in Naturalism: An Epistemologist’s Philosophy of Mind

Here’s a paper from Susan Haack to be delivered at the Helsinki Metaphysical Club. In philosophy, George Santayana famously observed, “partisanship is treason.” I agree. Like good-faith inquirers in any field, philosophers have an obligation to seek true and illuminating answers to the questions that concern them; and it would obviously be a serious breach…