Comments on: Philosophy and Neuroscience

Philosophy and Neuroscience

homunculus — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 12:05:04 -0800

The Philosophy and Neuroscience Movement (PDF). A paper by Andrew Brook and Pete Mandik on the relationship between neuroscience and philosophy. [Via MindHacks.]

ABSTRACT: A movement dedicated to applying neuroscience to traditional philosophical problems and using philosophical methods to illuminate issues in neuroscience began about twenty-five years ago. Results in neuroscience have affected how we see traditional areas of philosophical concern such as perception, belief-formation, and consciousness. There is an interesting interaction between some of the distinctive features of neuroscience and important general issues in the philosophy of science. And recent neuroscience has thrown up a few conceptual issues that philosophers are perhaps best trained to deal with. After sketching the history of the movement, we explore the relationships between neuroscience and philosophy and introduce some of the specific issues that have arisen.

By: painquale

painquale — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 12:23:16 -0800

I've only just skimmed this, but it looks good. Looking forward to reading it.

By: Monstrous Moonshine

Monstrous Moonshine — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 12:26:25 -0800

Been waiting for this.

By: cog_nate

cog_nate — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 12:37:24 -0800

Thanks for posting this. I haven't read it yet, but it brings to mind Functionalism at Forty.

By: empath

empath — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 12:57:39 -0800

Tim Crane on the Mind Body problem.

By: Miko

Miko — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 13:07:44 -0800

A recent New Yorker piece dealt with some of this through its profiles of philosophers Paul and Pat Churchland. Sorry it's not yet online, but here's the abstract.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 13:37:28 -0800

Nifty

By: mano

mano — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 13:46:27 -0800

fyi, before i read it, i flipped thru the bibliography, and it sketched me out. i don't see many luminaries of neural science listed - people that really dig in the brain and do hardcore modelling. theres a lot going on in the field that should be mentioned in this article, and it seems they focus on other things.

By: Curry

Curry — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 13:48:24 -0800

Let's all boldly access the Quantum Non-local Circuit together, in peace.

By: Curry

Curry — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 13:58:56 -0800

theres a lot going on in the field that should be mentioned in this article, and it seems they focus on other things. Yeah, I thought the review of literature was overly cursory considering the statements laid out in the abstract.

By: erikgrande

erikgrande — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:46:36 -0800

Thanks for posting this. I'm in the middle of Understanding Computers and Cognition, which comes at similar issues from the AI angle. The book is kind of old though, and I'd been thinking about trying to find more modern takes. Fascinating stuff.

By: mano

mano — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 15:03:23 -0800

elaborating... when you take an intro ai course (depends on the instructor) some find it prudent to expose you to this level of thinking about mind-brain... the dennet kind of thinking. it generally stops there, which i think is too bad, and as you get deeper and deeper into ai and these issues get out of focus. likewise in cognitive science or psych, ideas from the gibsonian lineage (represented i think by goodale in this paper) get a similar nod in the intro courses but rigorous work takes you away from this general kind of thinking. it would really be a service to see more papers with this kind of intro engage the more current ideas in machine intelligence and cognitive science (ironically both of these currents converge in the general area of applied statistics) and to relate them back to these handwavy but cool ideas that are debated in the paper.

By: Grod

Grod — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 16:23:47 -0800

Thanks!

By: krebby

krebby — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 21:19:37 -0800

What are some articles that haven't been paid sufficient notice?

By: erikgrande

erikgrande — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 08:04:11 -0800

it would really be a service to see more papers with this kind of intro engage the more current ideas in machine intelligence and cognitive science What books would you (or anybody) recommend? Amazon has Consciousness Explained and Kinds of Minds by Dennet, I haven't read anything of his yet. I'm enjoying Understanding Computers and Cognition, and got started in this subject with GED, Society of Mind, and some Pinker books.

By: mano

mano — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 14:21:00 -0800

checkout cognet, for starters.... heres a book that looks interesting have not read it yet but this is the kind of thing i am talking about, folks like brooks kind of inherited the whole ecological psychology mantle.