Long write-up in The New Yorker Dennett does not believe that we are “mere things.” He thinks that we have souls, but he is certain that those souls can be explained by science. Andy ClarkCognitive scienceDaniel DennettDavid ChalmersdualismGilbert RyleMaterialismneural correlatesNeurophilosophyneurosciencePhilosophy of mindquineReligion
Two thinkers I greatly admire are having a dust-up — well at least, Jerry Coyne has taken Richard Gunderman to task concerning his article (I’m familiar with Richard’s work on the philosophy of philanthropy and classical sense of liberality). I trust that if this spat gets energized, that it will remain civil. brain imagingdualismjerry coyneMindPhilosophy of…
William review of Ryle’s posthumously published On Thinking. I paste in the text below image in case the free access is withdrawn. BTW, Ryle was born on this day in 1900. He was an exceptionally nice man, friendly, generous, uncondescending, unpretentious, and, for a well-known professional philosopher, startlingly free from vanity. . . . he conveyed a…
Dave Chalmers’ Amherst lecture. CognitionCognitive neuroscienceCognitive scienceconsciousnessDavid ChalmersdualismMaterialismpanpsychismphilosophical psychologyPhilosophy of mindqualia
This article from the latest issue of JMB. CognitionCognitive neuroscienceCognitive scienceconsciousnessDavid Chalmersdualismmind-bodymind-brainpanpsychismphilosophical psychologyPhilosophy of mindqualia
Here is a three part interview led by the ever reliable and precise expositor, Bryan Magee. I’m not sure that things have changed that much since this programme in 1978 in that while Heidegger is fully accepted (and suggestively reinterpreted) by those of us in cognitive science, mainstream analytical philosophy still sees him as a…
Here is an extract from the intro to Georg Christoph Lichtenberg by Steven Tester. GCL was a thoroughly modern mind in so many ways making writers such as Dennett, Grayling and the like seem rather timid (my previous Lichtenberg posts). Given Lichtenberg’s interest in self-knowledge, metempsychosis, and personal identity, it is not surprising that he often…
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
Dave Chalmers featured in Monolith Magazine. ChalmersconsciousnessDavid ChalmersdualismExtended MindExternalismMindPhilosophy of mindPhysicalism
Namit Arora in a themed issue of Philosophy Now considers the complexity of consciousness and its implications for artificial intelligence. But despite the big advances in computing, AI has fallen woefully short of its ambition and hype. Instead, we have ‘expert’ systems that process predetermined inputs in specific domains, perform pattern matching and database lookups, and…
manwithoutqualities 