Robot “thespians”

cognitive science, Dennett, philosophy of mind, robotics, robots, Turing, turing machine, turing test

For once the comments are quickly and pointedly onto this shallow techno-ebulliance that is so prevalent in techno-journalism. What is apparently lost on the writer is Lodge’s in-joke reference to a character from his own Thinks  . . . – Ralph Messenger (supposedly based upon Dennett), director of the Centre for Cognitive Science at the University of Gloucester (a fictional “new” university). Helen, a novelist and writer in residence at the university, is his seducee.

In it, Ralph, a married, groundbreaking cognitive scientist, meets Helen, a recently bereaved novelist, and “sparks fly” (presumably not from the robot short-circuiting).

What the rationale behind reworking of Thinks . . . is not known to me.  If I may invoke Ralph’s dictum “We can never know for certain what another person is thinking.”  The play is entitled “Secret Thoughts”.

Res cogitans extensa: A Philosophical Defense of the Extended Mind Thesis

active externalism, active perception, Adams & Aizawa, Andy Clark, Boundaries of the Mind, Bounds of Cognition, brain, brain science, Chalmers, consciousness, cyborgs, Descartes, distributed cognition, distributed knowledge, Embedded, embodied cognition, embodiment, enactivism, extended cognitive systems, extended mind, externalism, Georg Theiner, ghost in the machine, philosophy of mind, situated cognition, social cognition, sociocognition, stigmergy

Look out for Georg Theiner’s book (publisher, Peter Lang) that is about to hit the shelves. I’m reproducing the cover blurb from the preprint he so kindly sent me. Georg has already done some good work for an Extended Mind project and I’m looking forward to his contribution to the stigmergy issue.

Abstract for Res cogitans extensa: For Descartes, minds were essentially immaterial, non-extended things. Contemporary cognitive science prides itself on having exorcised the Cartesian ghost from the biological machine. However, it remains committed to the Cartesian vision of the mental as something purely inner. Against the idea that the mind resides solely in the brain, advocates of the situated and embodied nature of cognition have long stressed the importance of dynamic brain-body-environment couplings, the opportunistic exploitation of bodily morphology, the strategic performance of epistemically potent actions, the generation and use of external representations, and the cognitive scaffolding provided by artifacts and social-cultural practices. According to the extended mind thesis, a significant portion of human cognition literally extends beyond the brain into the body and its environment. This book aims to clarify the nature and the scope of this thesis, and to defend its central insight that cognition is not confined to the boundaries of the biological individual.

About Georg: Georg Theiner, born in Vienna, received his Ph.D. in Philosophy, with a Joint Ph.D. in Cognitive Science and a Minor in History and Philosophy of Science, at Indiana University, Bloomington in 2008. His research interests are in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science. During his tenure as a Killam Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Alberta, he worked on the extended mind thesis and socially distributed cognition.

Zombie Blues by NYC Consciousness Collective

brain, brain science, cognitive science, consciousness, david chalmers, neural correlates, neural networks, neurobiology, neuron, neurophilosophy, Neurophysics, neuroscience, philosophy of mind, qualia, zombies

Philosophers as you don’t normally see them (they are not going to give up the day job). The in-joke revolves around the zombie thought experiment.

On a more formal note, here is Dave Chalmers on a recent radio show.

The Man Without Qualities

burton pike, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften, L’homme sans qualité, Leonard Lopate, man without qualities, robert musil

Leonard Lopate discusses with Burton Pike, editor and translator of Robert Musil’s titanic though unfinished novel, the philosophical and aesthetic ideas circulating in pre-war Viennese society as depicted in The Man Without Qualities. Download the audio file here:

Underappreciated: Robert Musil’s The Man Without Qualities (19 mins)

Cognition and the Symbolic Processes: Hayek and Gibson

bernard baars, brain science, cognitive science, cognitive systems, connectionism, hayek, jj gibson, mind body, philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, qualia, spontaneous order, the "hard" problem, the sensory order, walter weimer

Here are some fuzzy but nevertheless recognizable Polaroid photos taken at the now legendary conference convened by Walter Weimer. Weimer was so crucial to bringing Hayek’s The Sensory Order back to life after it had “fallen still-born from the press”. In attendance was also J.J. Gibson who, though was favorably disposed towards TSO in the early 50s, pretty much snubbed Hayek at this conference (put down to his [Gibson’s] politics). Thanks to Bill Mace for this info and the conference link. Thanks to John Johnson for documenting and posting these snapshots.

Walt, by the way, was interviewed by Bernard Baars some 25 years ago in The Cognitive Revolution in Psychology but, so far as I can see, with no mention of TSO. I have been in touch with a few of Weimer’s students – in many ways his legacy is assured through their interests and respect for the man. Walt must have had the most amazing foresight to back a outsider such as Hayek.

Jonathan Gottschall’s The Rape of Troy

evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, G. E. M. de Ste. Croix, g.a. cohen, Jonathan Gottschall, the rape of troy

I had the good fortune to meet Jonathan Gottschall at a recent conference. This guy is young, brilliant and so self-effacing – but I’m hardly the only one to recognize this – see the write-up in The New York Times.

His talent for deploying an another discipline in the service of another reminds me a bit of that great Marxist scholar GEM de St. Croix who put Jerry Cohen’s immensely difficult Karl Marx’s Theory of History: A Defence to work in the service of his analysis. Gottschall is not using a Marxist lens but an evolutionary psychology lens – and he does so with such aplomb. I’m in awe of this chap’s talent.

Extended Mind: Special Section in TEOREMA

active externalism, active perception, Andy Clark, cognition, cognition in the wild, cognitive science, cognitive systems, Cognitive Systems and the Extended Mind, collective intentionality, complex adaptive systems, complexity, consciousness, david chalmers, extended cognitive systems, extended mind, Julian Kiverstein, Miko Farina, philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, situated cognition

Here is a bunch of extended mind papers in the Spring issue of Teorema.

The Morality of Freedom 25 Years On

incommensurability, liberalism, liberty, moral philosophy, philosophical jurisprudence, political philosophy, raz, The Morality of Freedom

Seeing an announcement for an upcoming conference commemorating the 25th anniversary of Joe Raz‘ The Morality of Freedom nudged me to post recordings of a similar conference held to commemorate the book’s 20th anniversary with no less than Raz himself in attendance.

Part 1: 

Part 2: 

Part 3: 

Beer and Philosophy or Drinking and Thinking

alcohol, beer, eric idle, philosophers, philosophy of mind, qualia, roger scruton, steven hales, wine

Here’s an article from the Huffington Post. Of course, we all know that booze and the philosopher are close friends. Regarding the relationship between the two, there are two schools of thought. 1. that the qualic experience (and alcohol) are part and parcel of creative thought processes. 2. Alcohol is needed to numb the philosopher’s propensity for thinking too much.

There are two books that spring to mind looking at the philosophy of wine and the philosophy of beer. One is Roger Scruton’s I Drink Therefore I Am and Steven Hales’ (ed.) Beer and Philosophy: The Unexamined Beer Isn’t Worth Drinking. And most famously of all is Eric Idle’s Bruce’s Philosophy Song: