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Distributed knowledge and cognition

Once again a superb posting by Vitorino Ramos on his blog. Heretofore I’d not been aware of the existence of hobo signs or the gum election, both of which nicely illustrate the various conceptual lenses associated with distributed cognition/knowledge. I’ll definitely be invoking these ideas.  Good stuff! I also notice another posting about Brian Arthur’s El Farol Bar…

Computer Simulations in Social Epistemology

I don’t often plug workshops or conferences but here is one that appeals to my interest in social epistemology and computational intelligence. ************************** Workshop on Computer Simulations in Social Epistemology, Leuven, October 30-31 Centre for Logic and Analytical Philosophy The Workshop will be held in Seminar Room 2.41, Van Der Heuvelinstituut, 2nd floor (just to…

The Social Epistemology of Blogging

Alvin Goldman, the doyen of analytic social epistemology, has a draft paper posted on his website entitled “The Social Epistemology of Blogging.” What’s gratifying to me is that via Richard Posner (whom Goldman cites), Hayek, who I have argued is the social epistemologist par excellence, makes an appearance. I have recently argued that if Hayek was centrally…

Top of the Cognitive Systems Research Pops

This is sad, I know – it reminds me of when the “Top of the Pops” actually meant something to us 70s kids! Anyway, I was pleased to learn that 11 of the 13 articles from the themed double issue of Cognitive Systems Research (“Perspectives on Social Cognition“) have appeared in the top 25 most downloaded…

Social Indentity

As usual, Dan Little has posted some thoughtful reflections on the multifarious tributaries that feed into the complex that is social identity. It brings to mind a recent correspondence I had with someone who was adamant that I call them by their “new” name (legally changed by deed poll), someone who I happened to know under their birth…

Neuroeconomics

While I too am sceptical about the techno-ebullience associated with MRI scans what is interesting about the self-defeating claim in a cheekily entitled Economist article “Do economists need brains?” is this quote: neuroscience could not transform economics because what goes on inside the brain is irrelevant to the discipline. What matters are the decisions people take—in…

The Contemporary Relevance of The Sensory Order

I’m pleased to discover that there’s a discussion going on at the blog The Austrian Economists relating to a posting by Steve Horwitz. Other luminaries such as Roger Koppl have chimed in. For the past year I’ve been working on a paper on the contemporary relevance of The Sensory Order – hence my keen interest. 

Social Identity

In today’s Guardian there is an article entitled Who do you think I am? with the tag line “It’s all too easy to categorise people but it isn’t inevitable. We can still consider the alternatives.” The writer is quite correct so say that: Identity is a contemporary buzzword and goes onto list instances of its…