Robbins Library Notes

Good morning, readers!

There are two lectures coming up here at Harvard that you may be interested in attending:

• Brains, Computers, and Minds with Professor Daniel Dennett.  April 21, 22, & 23, 4-6pm in Yenching Auditorium, Harvard University, 2 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, MA
• Mozart’s Skull: Looking for Genius (in all the Wrong Places), by Professor Peter Kivy, Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy, Rutgers University.  Harvard Review of Philosophy 5th Annual Guest Lecture.  April 24, 2 pm, Emerson 210, Harvard University.

Good morning, readers!

Here’s an article on Artificial Intelligence and philosophy of mind from New Atlantis — “Why Minds Are Not Like Computers,” by Ari Shulman — that you might enjoy.

I’m posting this article because the abuse and misuse of the mind-as-computer metaphor have bothered me for some time.  I would argue that the mind is not a computer, nor is it like a computer, except, perhaps, in a few equivocal senses.  Here, I am following the criticisms of, e.g., Joseph Rychlak and John Searle.  At best, the metaphor of the mind as computer is inapt and imprecise; at worst, it drives research in philosophy of mind and psychology down dead-ended paths.  Yet, I continue to see philosophers and others use this metaphor as if it is fact, forgetting that it is, at best, a literary device to convey an imperfect description of the human mind.

Shulman has some fascinating things to say about the workings of the mind, Artificial Intelligence, and related topics, along with some interesting insights into Searle’s Chinese Room Argument.

I’m curious to know what you think of Shulman’s piece.  Feel free to leave your comments in the comment box.

A hat-tip to Bookforum.com for this link.

Good morning, readers!

Those interested in epistemology, neuroscience, psychology, and related fields might find this group of TED Talks to be of interest.

Speakers include Philip Zombardo, Steven Pinker, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Dan Gilbert, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and many more.

Enjoy!

Good morning, readers!

I received this announcement yesterday — those interested in cognitive science, philosophy of mind, epistemology and consciousness may find it of interest:

Here is the blurb from the e-mail:

This February we have three great talks coming up: Christof Koch will revisit his stance on consciousness and attention, tying it in with Tononi’s theory, Steve Grossberg will tackle the Mind-Body Problem, and Ted Gibson will discuss his work on language comprehension…. See http://www.neuphi.com. For updates, contact organizers@neuphi.com.

Good morning, readers!

To get us started this week, here are the latest podcasts from Philosophy Bites:

• Adrian Moore on Kant’s Metaphysics
• Barry C. Smith on Neuroscience
• Ray Monk on Philosophy and Biography
• M.M. McCabe on Socratic Method
• Aaron Ridley on Nietzsche on Art and Truth

Enjoy!