The Brains Blog — Mindcraft

A Couple of Venues

Gualtiero Piccinini January 6, 2020 November 25, 2022 Mindcraft / Uncategorized

Just a quick reminder about two venues for good work in the philosophy of neuroscience: Synthese used to publish a yearly Special Issue in the philosophy of neuroscience. The format has changed slightly, in that the papers are now published as they are accepted, but they are collected together online …

The New X-phi Blog

Joe Ulatowski, Dan Weijers, and Justin Sytsma have recently revived the x-phi blog under the auspices of the Australasian Experimental Philosophy Group: xphiblog.com. Edouard Machery has recently put up a post on the Geography of Philosophy project. More content is coming soon.

Dear Colleague Letter: Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Society – Supported Jointly with the Partnership on AI

Gualtiero Piccinini November 20, 2018 November 25, 2022 Academia / CFPs / Mindcraft

This is an NSF grant opportunity that might be of interest to some of you.

Neurocognitive Mechanisms: Explaining Biological Cognition

Gualtiero Piccinini June 9, 2018 November 25, 2022 Mindcraft / Uncategorized

I just completed a fairly polished draft of a new book, entitled Neurocognitive Mechanisms: Explaining Biological Cognition. It gives a comprehensive defense of a computational theory of cognition updated for the era of cognitive neuroscience, including ontological foundations, with surprises for both supporters and critics of traditional computational theories of …

A Note on Constitutive Relevance in Mechanisms

Gualtiero Piccinini October 14, 2017 November 25, 2022 Explanation / Mindcraft / Philosophy of Mind / Philosophy of Science

Carl Craver (Explaining the Brain, 2007) argues that what it is for an object doing X (micro variable) to be a working component of a mechanism doing Y (macro variable) is (i) for the former to be a part of the latter and (ii) for the two of them to …

USA versus Trump

Gualtiero Piccinini February 13, 2017 November 25, 2022 Mindcraft / Uncategorized

I’ve rarely posted about politics on this blog. In an old, rare exception, I defended the modern Italian right from the accusation of being fascist or inclined towards fascism while simultaneously accusing Italian political institutions of lacking proper checks and balances (in part as a heritage from the fascist regime). I left …

CFP Special Issue of Minds and Machines on Computation and Representation in Cognitive Neuroscience

Gualtiero Piccinini August 30, 2016 November 25, 2022 CFPs / Cognition / computation AI / Intentionality / Mindcraft / Neuroscience / Psychology / representation / Uncategorized

GUEST EDITOR Gualtiero Piccinini, University of Missouri – St. Louis INTRODUCTION Cognitive neuroscientists routinely explain cognition in terms of neural computations over neural representations. Yet some critics argue that cognitive neuroscience does not need the notions of neural computation and representations or, worse, that these notions are untenable. Whether or …