Links in the below time-table activate (or will soon activate) MP3
audio recordings of the corresponding talks. Talk recordings and
supporting material are (or will soon be) also linked from talk summaries
further below.
Mike Arnautov: Can Computers (Really) Think?
Mike will draw on his experience of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
research to argue that computer analogies are relevant to philosophers
grappling with the nature of thoughts and minds, whether or not one buys
into the computational paradigm of AI. His answer to the question posed
by the talk's title is a profoundly philosophical one: definitely maybe.
Audio recording (MP3 format)
Talk text (PDF format)
Handout (PDF format)
Slides (PDF format)
James Innes: Thought in a Deterministic World
It has been claimed that thinking is a purely physical and deterministic
process. If that is the case, how do we account for subjective
awareness, or indeed, free will? James suggests an answer.
Audio recording (MP3 format)
Talk text (PDF format)
Christian Michel: Thinking Nonsense
Sentences like "Colourless blue dreams sleep furiously"
are grammatically correct but strike us as nonsensical because there is
a sort of mismatch of the involved concepts. It's not so obvious to pin
down what exactly a category mistake is: "Juliet is the sun"
also looks like a category mistake, but it is not meaningless. Christian
will discuss accounts of category mistakes and what those imply for a
more general understanding of the nature of concepts and thinking.
Audio recording (MP3 format)
Talk text (PDF format)
Slides (PDF format)
Eileen Walker: Thought and Language
Concepts have traditionally been considered components of thought. Until
the late 20C there was a tacit assumption that conceptual thought was
embedded in language. Since animals and infants had no language, they
had no concepts, hence could not think. Language was sometimes seen as a
precondition of conceptual thought, but more generally as co-extensive
with it. Eileen argues that rudimentary conceptual thought must precede
language acquisition, and that there are good philosophical arguments as
well as empirical evidence in favour of the view.
Audio recording (MP3 format)
Talk text (PDF format)
Handout (PDF format)
Bob Stone: The Myth of Rationality
We humans – especially philosophers – pride ourselves on our
unique ability to practise rational thought. But what does 'rational
thought' consist of, do we really do a significant amount of it, and,
when we do, is it the sophisticated activity we imagine? Be prepared to
have your self-image – as members of a rational community –
shattered.
Audio recording (MP3 format)
Talk text (PDF format)
Handout (PDF format)
Slides (PDF format)
Ann Long: The 'Objective-Reflective-Normative' Thinking of Only Humans
In A Natural History of Human Thinking (2014), Michael Tomasello argues
against an essentialist approach to the study of thought. The task is
not to delineate the 'essence' of thinking, and then ask which entities
– animals? humans? computers? – exhibit it. Instead it is to
recognise the particularity of differing representational capacities in
different entities, and study each in its own right. Ann's talk will
briefly present, illustrate and critique Tomasello's 'shared
intentionality' hypothesis as to the nature of specifically human
thinking.
Audio recording (MP3 format)
Talk text (PDF format)
Glossary (PDF format)
The Speakers
Mike Arnautov
comes from Prague where he studied mathematics and physics, followed by
MSc in statistics. He came to England in 1970 and four years later was
awarded PhD by Bristol University for research in Artificial
Intelligence. He then spent 30 years worked as a systems
programmer/architect in a research environment, supporting biologists,
geneticists and bioinformaticians. In his spare time he has also read a
lot of science fiction, which is how he got interested in AI in the
first place. Mike considers all of these diverse strands to be important
in shaping his views on the subject of minds.
James Innes
remembers the sixties all too clearly, when he studied Physical Sciences
at Edinburgh University. He spent most of his working life in the
computer industry before gaining an MA in Political Philosophy at the
Open University in 2005. Thus suitably qualified he now sits and thinks....
Christian Michel
is German and holds degrees in Engineering and Business Administration.
He also earned a BA in Philosophy from University of London. He was
drawn to philosophy by the OUDCE philosophy online courses and is
especially interested in issues in philosophy of language, logic, mind
and meta-ethics. Though heavily limited in time due to his professional
and family duties, he tries to write at least one philosophy paper per
year.
Eileen Walker's
first degree was in French and Spanish and in another life she taught
languages. She has been a philosophy junkie for over 30 years, her habit
fuelled by OUDCE. A recent PhD from Reading has failed to cure her of
the obsession.
Bob Stone
earned a degree in Classics many years ago, specialising in Greek
philosophy. Took up philosophy with a vengeance after retiring in 2009.
Now hooked.
Ann Long
has two London University honours degrees: one in economics (1959); one
in psychology (1972). After a brief spell in journalism, she spent the
bulk of her working life teaching psychology in both further and higher
education. Now retired, she is the author of Making God: A New
Materialist Theory of the Person (Imprint Academic, 2007). And she is
working on another book, with the working title Non-Reductive
Materialism: a Developmental Approach to the Human Sciences.
Bibliography
For Mike's talk
Daniel C Dennett, 2005, Sweet Dreams: Philosophical Obstacles to a
Science of Consciousness, MIT Press
Turner, Raymond, "The Philosophy of Computer Science", The Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy Spring 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta
(ed.), URL
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/computer-science/
For James' talk
James Gleick, 1988, Chaos: Making a New Science, Cardinal
John Searle, 1999, Mind, Language and Society: Philosophy in the Real
World, Phoenix
For Christian's talk
Ofra Magidor, 2013, Category
Mistakes, Oxford University Press
Eric Margolis, 1999, Concepts: Core Readings, Bradford Books
Margolis, Eric and Laurence, Stephen, "Concepts", The Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta
(ed.), URL
http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/concepts/
For Eileen's talk
Bermúdez J-L., 2003/2007, Thinking without Words, Oxford University
Press
Scholl B.J., 2007, 'Object Persistence in Philosophy and
Psychology'Mind & Language, Vol. 22/5: 563-591
Dummett M., 2006, Thought and Reality, OUP
For Bob's talk
Daniel Kahneman, 2011, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Macmillan
P.M.S. Hacker, 2013, The Intellectual Powers, Blackwell
