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John Searle: Consciousness & the Brain

Here is Searle, still the master performer after all these years. He hasn’t dimmed an iota since I saw him in London in 1989. Artificial intelligenceChinese RoomCognitionCognitive neuroscienceCognitive sciencecomplexityconsciousnessdualismEmbodied cognitionExtended Mindneurosciencephilosophical psychologyPhilosophy of mindqualiasearle

Cultural-historical activity theory and the zone of proximal development in the study of idioculture design and implementation

Robert Lecusay, Lars Rossen, and Michael Cole’s intro: The absence of context and culture from the early history of the cognitive sciences was, according to Gardner (1987), the result of a general attempt by cognitive scientists to “factor out these elements to the maximum extent possible,” (p. 41). The traditional vision of cognition framed human…

Empathy and the Extended Mind

Here is the intro to Joel’s article: Often, I tell a joke and the people around me laugh. (Sometimes this laughter even appears to be sincere.) I usually take this reaction to mean that they find my comment amusing. I like to smile at babies whenever possible and relish the bright-eyed facial animation and gestures…

Herbert Simon

Since I missed marking the birth of Simon on the 15th, here’s a belated posting of an obituary by his student Edward A. Feigenbaum. (I’m pleased to report that my co-edited project with Roger Frantz commemorating the centenary of HS’s birth is coming together very nicely. HS’s daughter has been incredibly responsive towards the project). Herbert…

Why Music Makes Our Brain Sing

Robert Zatorre and Valorie Salimpoor on the neuroscience of music MUSIC is not tangible. You can’t eat it, drink it or mate with it. It doesn’t protect against the rain, wind or cold. It doesn’t vanquish predators or mend broken bones. And yet humans have always prized music — or well beyond prized, loved it.…

Intuition Pumping: Dennett Interview

3:AM Magazine: Dennett plugging his latest. See also Real People: Personal Identity without Thought Experiments. CognitionCognitive neuroscienceconsciousnessDaniel DennettIntuition pumpnaturalismphilosophical psychologyPhilosophyPhilosophy of mindReligionsciencethought experiments