A network for philosophy of mind and cognitive science
Archive for June, 2011
The Turing Centenary Research Project: Mind, Mechanism And Mathematics
1 year ago
by Mark Sprevak
in Jobs
Research Fellowship and Scholar Competition
The Competition entails a comprehensive search, within the context of the Alan Turing Year, for brilliant young researchers to take up eight research prizes; Five to be awarded via the JTF Turing Centenary Research Fellowship Competition, and three under the JTF Turing Centenary Research Scholar Competition.
It is anticipated that the centenary interest in Turing-related scientific issues, such as physical computability, mechanical intelligence, the impact of incomputable and emergent phenomena in the real-world context, will provide a springboard to a highly successful and effective competition. And that the resulting awards will deliver a long-term impact upon the field.
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The prospective Turing Fellows are required to have completed a Ph.D. (or equivalent) no more than 10 years (excluding maternity leave and similar periods of interrupted research) previous to the submission deadline.
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The potential Turing Scholars must be no more than 25 years old at the time of the submission deadline, with the prizes in this category funded under the JTF ‘Gifted Youth’ scheme.
The 3-year research proposals, under each category, will be submitted under one of the Research Themes 1 – 4 listed on the website, and should address at least one Big Question.
There will be a total of 8 awards, £75,000 for the Turing Fellows, and £45,000 for the Turing Scholars. It is intended for the normal pattern to be two awards under each theme, with at least one and not more than three awards under any given theme, the exact distribution depending on the distribution and quality of the proposals received.
http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012/give-page.php?408
Submission deadline: December 16, 2011
Philosophy and Theory of Artificial Intelligence, PT-AI 2011, Thessaloniki
1 year ago
Philosophy and Theory of Artificial Intelligence, PT-AI 2011
3-4 October , 2011
Thessaloniki, Anatolia College/ACT
The theory and philosophy of artificial intelligence has come to a crucial point where the agenda for the forthcoming years is in the air – this conference will try to set that agenda and to gather many of the key players.
Invited Keynote Speakers:
- Hubert Dreyfus (Berkeley)
- James H. Moor (Dartmouth)
- Rolf Pfeifer (Zurich)
- Michael Wheeler (Stirling) TBC
Abstracts
We call for abstracts of papers on any aspect of the philosophy and theory of artificial intelligence. Publication of accepted papers in book form is currently under negotiation with several leading publishers. Abstracts and a list of speakers will be published online.
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Deadline: 08.08.2011 (author notification: 31.08.2011)
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Format: 500-1000 words (including references, anonymous). Pure text or pdf.
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Submission: Online at http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ptai2011
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Registration: Online at http://www.pt-ai.org/. Costs: 80€ full, 40€ for students (including conference dinner). Further information about travel etc. on our site.
Aims and scope
Artificial Intelligence is perhaps unique among engineering subjects in that it has raised very basic questions about the nature of computing, perception, reasoning, learning, language, action, interaction, consciousness, humankind, life etc. etc. – and at the same time it has contributed substantially to answering these questions (in fact, it is sometimes seen as a form of empirical research). There is thus a substantial tradition of work, both on AI by philosophers and of theory within AI itself. The classical theoretical debates have centered around the issues whether AI is possible at all (often put as “Can machines think?”) and whether it can solve certain problems (“Can a machine do x?”). In the meantime, technical AI systems have progressed massively and are now present in many aspects of our environment. Despite this development, there is a sense that classical AI is inherently limited, and must be replaced by (or supplanted with) other methods from cognitive science or other disciplines, especially neural networks, embodied cognitive science, statistical methods, universal algorithms, emergence, behavioral robotics, interactive systems, dynamical systems, living and evolution, insights from biology & neuroscience, hybrid neuro-computational systems, social science, ethics, etc. etc. We are now at a stage where we can take a fresh look at the many theoretical and philosophical problems of AI – and at the same time tackle philosophical problems from AI. This must be a joint effort with people from various backgrounds, but it must centrally involve AI researchers.
Proposals for special theme workshops under the umbrella of the conference are welcome.
The conference intends to set the foundations for an international association “PT-AI” that will further work in the field, organize events, etc.
We welcome experts in the field from philosophy and from AI as well as new and upcoming scholars who will shape the field in the decades to come.
We gratefully acknowledge support from the EUCognition network EUCogII: http://www.eucognition.org
PT-AI is academically sponsored by the International Association of Philosophy and Computing, http://www.ia-cap.org
Vincent C. Müller
Chair, PT-AI 2011
Varieties of Representation: Kazimierz Naturalist Workshop 2011
1 year ago
September 5-9th, 2011
Kazimierz Dolny, Poland
Invited key speakers:
- Francisco Calvo (Murcia)
- Edouard Machery (Pittsburgh)
- Huw Price (Sydney / Cambridge)
The notion of representation is essential for the project of naturalizing the mind and meaning. One of the key issues regarding representation concerns the possible varieties of representation: what are various ways of representing? Are mental representations propositional or image-based, connectionist, analog or digital? How can one answer these questions in the case of natural cognitive systems? What consequences does a pluralist attitude to representation have for claims that animals and even plants are capable of representing?
Call for Papers
300 word abstracts are invited no later than the extended deadline of June 30th. Accepted speakers will have 40 minutes for their presentations, including discussion time. Preference will be given to presentations directly connected to the work carried out by the key speakers. Abstracts are to be submitted via EasyChair: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=knew11
Registration and Accommodation
Applications will be accepted till June 30th, with late applications being accepted till July 31st. Early registration fee is 150 Euro (reduced rate – 75 Euro), while late registration fee is 200 Euro. Fees are payable upon acceptance of application. They cover the workshop sessions, conference materials, lunches, coffee breaks and the minibus to and from Warsaw. Accommodation is available at the hotel at which the workshop will take place and costs an additional 100 Euro (including breakfasts) for twin en suite rooms (limited single rooms available at higher price). Availability of accommodation cannot be guaranteed for late registrants.
Contact: Konrad Talmont-Kaminski (konrad@TALMONT.COM)
KNEW’11 is being organised by Marcin Milkowski (PAN, CPR) and Konrad Talmont-Kaminski (UMCS, CPR) with financial assistance from the Philosophy and Sociology Faculty of Marie Curie-Sklodowska University as well as the Centre for Philosophical Research.
Perception in social interaction workshop
1 year ago
by Yasmina Jraissati
in Events
A Center for Study of the Senses, Institute of Philosophy, University of London Workshop
Wednesday June 8/Thursday June 9th, 2011
Room ST274/275, Stewart House (2cnd floor), University of London
PROGRAM
Day 1: Wednesday June 8, 2011
2:00 – 2:15
Introduction
2:15 – 4:00
Understanding Actions from the Inside
Corrado Sinigaglia (Department of Philosophy, Universita degli Studi di Milano, Italy)
Comments
Guenther Knoblich (Department of Cognitive Science, CEU, Budapest)
4:30 – 6:15
Jointly sensing selves: interpersonal multisensory experiences and self-identity
Manos Tsakiris (Royal Holloway, UK)
Comments
Barry C Smith (Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK)
Day 2: Thursday June 9, 2011
10:00 – 10:30
Tea and coffee
10:30 – 12:00
(Title to be announced)
Elisabeth Pacherie (CNRS, Institut Jean Nicod, France)
Comments
Natalie Sebanz (Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen)
12:00 – 1:30
Joint Coordinative Structures: Nested Processes of Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Coordination
Veronica Ramenzoni (Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics, Netherlands)
Comments
Stephen Butterfill (Department of Philosophy, University of Warwick, UK)
1:30 – 2:30
Lunch
2:30 – 4:00
The role of metacognition in social interactions
Chris Frith (Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, UK)
Comments
Johannes Roessler (Department of Philosophy, University of Warwick, UK)
4:00 – 4:30
Coffee break
4:30 – 5:30
Closing discussion
Available abstracts are published on the CenSes webiste.
REGISTRATION
To register please email your name with “Perception in Social 8-9 June” as the subject header to philosophy@sas.ac.uk. In the message, please state your fees category (staff and students should indicate their department and/or course). Fees will be taken at the conference venue and you will only be contacted in advance if there is a query with your registration.
FEES (includes teas): None: Current Faculty (full-time) and Students of University of London Philosophy Departments, UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Wellcome Institute and individual members of Institute of Philosophy.
£10: Other UK Philosophy Department staff and students
£30: Standard
IP Seminar: The space of action
1 year ago
by Yasmina Jraissati
in Events
Talk at the Forum for Perception, Action and Senses (CenSes),
Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London
Corrado Sinigaglia
Department of philosophy, University of Milan, Italy
Thursday June 2, 2011, 3:00pm
Room G37 (Senate House, Ground Floor) University of London
Abstract
There is a huge amount of evidence that in processing others’ actions we take advantage of the same motor resources that allow us to efficiently perform those actions, being such processing modulated by our own motor repertoire. In particular, several brain imaging studies have demonstrated that the richer is our motor repertoire the greater is our ability to make sense of others’ actions, understanding them from the inside as our own motor possibilities and not just from the outside as mere events going on in the external world (Rizzolatti and Sinigaglia 2010, Sinigaglia 2010). Despite their relevance, these studies only focused on what philosophers are used to calling «general abilities» as distinct from «specific abilities» (Mele 2002) – while the former encompass all the skills characterizing one’s own motor repertoire regardless of whether they can be effectively instantiated, the latter refer to what one is actually in the position to do, that is, to her own actual motor possibilities. (more…)
Conference: Evolution, Cooperation and Rationality 2011
27-29 June 2011
Bristol University
http://www.bris.ac.uk/evolution-cooperation/events/conferences/2011conference
The aim is to explore the philosophical foundations of recent scientific work on co-operation and social behaviour, in both human and non-human animals.
Speakers:
Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Cognitive Evolution
New Thinking: Advances in the study of human cognitive evolution
23-24 June 2011
University of Oxford
http://www.cognitiveevolution.co.uk/
Speakers:
Peter Godfrey-Smith
Kim Sterelny
Eva Jablonka
Chris Frith
Alison Gopnik
Russell Gray
Andrew Whiten
Ken Laland
Cecilia Heyes
Robin Dunbar
Louise Barrett
Robert Barton
Amsterdam Extended Cognition Workshop
2 years ago
June 27th-28th 2011
Amsterdam
To mark the end of Catarina Dutilh Novaes’ VENI-project on formal languages and the new appointment of Julian Kiverstein at the philosophy department of the University of Amsterdam, a workshop on extended cognition will take place in Amsterdam on June 27th-28th (exact location to be determined). Confirmed speakers so far are:
- Julian Kiverstein (Edinburgh/Amsterdam)
- Helen de Cruz (Leuven)
- John Protevi (LSU)
- Catarina Dutilh Novaes (Amsterdam)
There will also be some slots for contributed papers. We are looking in particular (though not exclusively) for papers in the spirit of ‘second-wave EM’ (Sutton) or ‘cognitive integration’ (Menary). Abstracts of around 500 words should be sent to cdutilhnovaes@yahoo.com no later than April 10th.
Important dates:
- Deadline for submission: April 10th 2011.
- Notification of acceptance: April 27th 2011.
- Workshop: June 27th-28th
For further inquiries, contact Catarina Dutilh Novaes at cdutilhnovaes@yahoo.com
The Metaphysics of Mind – Graduate Conference
2 years ago
Metaphysics of Mind – 2011 Centre for Perceptual Experience Graduate Conference
June 24th – 25th 2011
Glasgow
Our keynote speakers will be:
- Professor E. J. Lowe (Durham) and
- Professor Martine Nida-Rümelin (Fribourg)
A further 8 papers will be given by graduate speakers. These papers will cover a range of topics within the area and our contributing speakers represent an international spread of institutions.
By drawing together contemporary developments in metaphysics, the philosophy of mind and with reference to developments in psychology and neuroscience, the conference aims to promote philosophical and inter-disciplinary dialogue around the central philosophical questions of mental causation and laws, mental events, perceptual experience and action.
Website: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/philosophy/cspe/ (see Events)
To register: Please email Umut Baysan on e.baysan.1@research.gla.ac.uk
The conference is supported by: The Aristotelian Society, Scots Philosophical Association, Mind Association, and the University of Glasgow College of Arts.
Church’s Thesis: Logic, Mind and Nature
2 years ago
by Mark Sprevak
in Events
June 3-5, 2011
Krakow, Poland
http://StudiaLogica.org/TrendsIX
In 1935, Alonzo Church formulated a thesis called, after Kleene, the Church’s Thesis (CT). The acceptance of the CT led to a negative answer to Hilbert’s Entscheindungsproblem. Since then, many important logicians and philosophers have ventured to solve the numerous problems connected to the CT. The problems include attempts at a proof of the CT, analysis of its status and its logical value, etc. These various lines of research have shown that the CT has many incarnations and constitutes an interdisciplinary problem. The research concerning the CT, as well as an analogical thesis developed by Alan Turing, has resulted in important insights regarding the concept of computability. Georg Kreisel formulated three versions of the CT, pertaining to machine, human, and physical computability. With respect to this, the conference’s focus will be on three areas connected to the CT: logic, mind and nature.
The main goals of the conference include the discussion over the major results concerning the CT, as well as the presentation of contemporary approaches to problems connected with the CT.
Call for papers: We invite contributions pertaining to issues which lie in the fields for which the CT is an important problem. Especially, but not exclusively, we invite contributions related to:
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Perspectives on Church’s Thesis: history of the Church’s Thesis; Church’s Thesis and Turing’s Thesis; pro and contra: arguments in the discussions concerning the CT;
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Church’s thesis and logic: definitions of the concept of algorithm, attempts at formalizing the CT, CT in constructivism, CT in epistemic mathematics, modal logics and the CT, functional programming and the CT, logical theory of concepts;
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Church’s Thesis and the mind: cognitivist approaches to the mind; theories of concepts; mind and computability;
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Church’s Thesis and nature: analog computations, computations by physical systems.
Invited speakers:
- Jack Copeland (University of Canterbury),
- Marie Duzi (VSB-Technical University of Ostrava),
- Yuri Gurevich (University of Michigan),
- Petr Hajek (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic),
- Pavel Materna (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic),
- David McCarty (Indiana University),
- Wilfried Sieg (Carnegie Mellon University),
- Oron Shagrir (Hebrew University of Jerusalem),
- Stewart Shapiro (Ohio State University),
- Jan Wolenski (Jagiellonian University),
- Ryszard Wojcicki (Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences)
- Konrad Zdanowski (Paris Diderot University).
Some of the invited speakers have not confirmed their participation yet.
Organizing Committee: Adam Olszewski (Chairman), Bartosz Brozek, Jacek Malinowski, Piotr Urbanczyk, Malgorzata Drozdz.
Program Committee: Jacek Malinowski (Chairman), Heinrich Wansing, Hannes Leitgeb, Leon Horsten, Adam Olszewski.
Organizers: Studia Logica, Copernicus Center for Interdyscyplinary Studies, Pontifical University of John Paul II in Cracow.
Deadline: Please send an abstract not exceeding 2 pages to atolszad@cyf-kr.edu.pl not later than March 15. The authors will be notified about the acceptance of their papers within 4 weeks after submission.
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