Long before Dennett, Dawkins, Grayling and others there was . . .

Darwin, Dennett, grayling, humanism, Ludwig Büchner, materialism, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, richard dawkins, Thomas Huxley

Ludwig Büchner. According to Wikipedia:

The extreme materialism of this work excited so much opposition that he was compelled to give up his post at Tübingen.

Recovered Wittgenstein material

philosophical logic, philosophy, philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, wittgenstein

Here is an article in The Guardian, the release coinciding with W’s birth (26 Apr.) and death (29 Apr.) dates.

Molyneux’s Problem

brain, cognitive science, locke, Molyneux's Problem, neurophilosophy, neuroscience, philosophy of mind, qualia

Here’s a write-up in the New York Times trumpeting a paper that apparently resolves Molyneux’s Problem:

Research published online April 10 in the journal Nature Neuroscience may have finally answered the question, which has vexed philosophers and scientists for more than 300 years.

Mind as Music

brain, brain scans, brain science, cognition, cognitive science, consciousness, dan lloyd, fMRI, language, music, phenomenology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, psychology

Dan Lloyd has alerted me to this article of his published just today in Frontiers in Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology. Aside from his academic work Dan, it should not be forgotten, is also a formidable novelist.

Herzog Interview

3-D, fred astaire

Here is an NPR interview with Werner talking about his latest documentary “The Cave Of Forgotten Dreams“. Interesting thoughts on filming in 3-D:

The brain is lazy and tries to avoid 3-D . . .

Less Than Human

david livingstone smith, essentialism, ethics, evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, less than human, neurophilosophy, neuroscience

My chum David Livingstone Smith’s latest book is getting some good coverage. The latest review of Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others can be found in Scientific American.

Brain-Body-Mind

brain, brain science, churchland, cognitive closure, cognitive science, Colin McGinn, complex adaptive systems, connectionism, consciousness, Descartes, distributed cognition, dualism, Edelman, embodied cognition, embodiment, erol basar, evolutionary biology, extended cognitive systems, extended mind, externalism, friedrich hayek, gerald edelman, hayek, joaquin fuster, mri, networks, neural correlates, neural networks, neurophilosophy, neuroscience, philosophy of mind, qualia, self-referentiality, situated cognition, social cognition, spontaneous order, the "hard" problem, the sensory order

Here is the recently published book by my chum Erol Başar who as it happens is also contributing to my forthcoming edited book entitled Hayek in Mind: Hayek’s Philosophical Psychology. Not surprisingly,  there is much reference to Hayek’s The Sensory Order peppered throughout Erol’s book most notably in section 2.12 (pp. 39-41). Other distinguished neuroscientists who appreciate the virtues of Hayek’s prescient insights include of course Fuster and Edelman. Erol writes:

The writing of a monograph on brain-body-mind is extremely ambitious. This is because I think that Friedrich von Hayek was correct when he stated (1952), “The mind must remain forever in a realm of its own, which we shall never be able fully to explain.”

I unfashionably argue for this view in a forthcoming paper borrowing Colin McGinn’s phrase “Cognitive Closure.”

Robert Musil

Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften, l'homme sans qualite, L’homme sans qualité, man without qualities, robert musil

Robert Musil (November 6, 1880 – April 15, 1942). A chapter from Man Without Qualities entitled: A chapter that can be skipped by anyone who has no very high opinion of thinking as an occupation. See also this forthcoming collection.

Ode to the Brain! by Symphony of Science

bill nye, brain, brain science, carl sagan, jill bolte taylor, neural correlates, neurobiology, neurophilosophy, neuroscience, oliver sacks, philosophy of mind, robert winston, symphony of science, V.S. Ramachandran

Here is the Symphony of Science‘s latest music video – “Ode to the Brain”.

“Ode to the Brain” is the ninth episode in the Symphony of Science music video series. Through the powerful words of scientists Carl Sagan, Robert Winston, Vilayanur Ramachandran, Jill Bolte Taylor, Bill Nye, and Oliver Sacks, it covers different aspects the brain including its evolution, neuron networks, folding, and more.