But there’s a scenario where things get more interesting with emergence. Let’s consider here the possibility that in some (or possibly many) cases regions do not carry out well defined functions. Instead, two or more regions working together instantiate the …
Emergence in the brain, Part I
If emergence of this type does happen in the brain, it will be very difficult to figure out how processes depend on functional circuits. In reality, of course there is no oracle, so what can be done? Empirically, neuroscience can …
Home village hopes ‘greatest Welsh thinker’ finally receives his dues
He continued: “It tells us a lot about our own psychology, our struggles with our own history, and how we regard ourselves as a people that he is so little celebrated. This may be partly about who we are conditioned …
Entangled Brains
The property of complexity is a reminder that systems behave in ways that are substantially more varied and nuanced than at first entertained. Small changes of input or perturbations to their state can lead to qualitatively different behaviors and outcomes. …
Announcement: Finalists of the 9th Annual National Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics and Final Presentation
Undergraduate: Tanae Rao (Oxford): Why the Responsibility Gap is Not a Compelling Objection to Lethal Autonomous Weapons Leah O’Grady (Oxford): What is wrong with stating slurs? Thomas Long (University of Manchester): The Ambiguous Ethicality of Applause: Ethnography’s Uncomfortable Challenge to …
Who Gets to Be a Person?
Defining thick concepts is particularly tricky. Those definitions are not just judged for their descriptive plausibility but whether they imply acceptable moral practices. In the debate on personhood, philosophers have repeatedly drawn boundaries on the descriptive level that lead to …
Going through a hard time: Professor Lin, Cheng Hung and the development of analytic philosophy in Taiwan
Several years later, Professor Lin felt that he should pursue an overseas Ph.D. degree to catch up the recent development of the analytic philosophy and to improve his professional ability. He went to the US to study logic and philosophy …
Demoralizing Ethics
Another reason to avoid moral terminology in philosophical ethics is that morality functions through the emotions, especially that of anger, of which the primary moral species is blame. The emotions, though they may have some cognitive content, are passions, and …
Cognitive Science of Philosophy Symposium: Network Modeling
As Wu argues, however, it gives novel evidence for a claim that has often been difficult to underwrite: that marginalized groups might be epistemically superior in certain respects (the “inversion thesis”). Wu’s paper provides a clear proof-of-possibility of this claim. …
CFP on Philosophical and Sociological Perspectives on Machine Learning and Society:
Guest editors: Mirko Farina (Innopolis) & Witold Pedrycz (Alberta) This topical collection sets out to explore the broad applications of ML in Society. The objective of this collection is therefore to take our readers on a fascinating voyage of recent …