Brains: Recent Comments

Comment on First mention of 'content/vehicle' distinction?

2010-03-19T01:56:20Z

Yes, that seems right.

Comment on Updated Resources for Students (and Some New Papers)

2010-03-19T00:42:12Z

Thanks, Mark! I'll add the link you provided.

Comment on First mention of 'content/vehicle' distinction?

2010-03-19T00:41:03Z

Very interesting. So do I understand correctly that while the distinction has been there for centuries, Dennett is probably the first person to make the distinction explicit in contemporary terms?

Comment on First mention of 'content/vehicle' distinction?

2010-03-16T21:34:41Z

I'm pretty sure Cussins uses this language in "The Connectionist Construction of Concepts" in Maggie Boden's Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, which I believe dates from 1990. He might be following Peacocke or Evans, not sure.

Comment on First mention of 'content/vehicle' distinction?

2010-03-16T19:42:02Z

The distinction of vehicle and content is found in the earliest cosmological texts, where the vehicle is usually the latest "high-tech" of the day (boat, wheel, chariot) and the content is an object (usually the mind or soul of a human) in ontological transformation.

Comment on Updated Resources for Students (and Some New Papers)

2010-03-16T17:32:41Z

Thanks Gualtiero! This is a really terrific resource.

Another link for advice on philosophical writing is a nice one from Peter Lipton:

http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/research/wp.html

Comment on The Identity Theory in 2-D

2010-03-16T13:30:38Z

Thanks I'll email you....

And if anyone is interested I answered Eric and have been discussing this with Ned Block over at <a href="http://onemorebrown.wordpress.com/">Philosophy Sucks!</a>

Comment on The Identity Theory in 2-D

2010-03-16T02:37:30Z

I've actually been working some on identity theory and the more modern arguments for it; I think there is a lot more to work to be done in this area. I'd love to trade ideas with you-- but perhaps doing so over email would be a better method. Feel free to contact me at towl[at] sbcglobal [dot] net.

Comment on Challenging Neuroscience to Explain Cognition

2010-03-14T19:53:44Z

Interesting,

I met Gallistel a couple of years ago, and I could not figure out why he was making this comparison to DNA. Now it makes sense. Their (apparent) view reminds me of the memory-heredity theorists of the 19th century, and more ironically, 19th century associationists.

(Yes, Alex, hint hint)

Comment on Challenging Neuroscience to Explain Cognition

2010-03-14T17:08:53Z

That quote from Newell is just fantastic.