This is an old matter of debate in neuroscience, going back to the 1940s. The question has never been properly resolved. In my opinion, the question has never even been properly formulated.A recent study in Nature provides evidence that “in some sensory organs and invertebrate systems, neurons can also communicate …
The first ever Online Philosophy Conference (OPC 2006) has begun here. There are seven papers with commentary posted for this week, to be followed by 8-9 papers per week the next three weeks. Anyone can read the papers and post comments. It’s a great opportunity, especially for students and other …
A widespread assumption in the literature on concepts is that concepts form a unified, or singular, natural kind, as opposed to a set of different natural kinds. That is, advocates of different accounts disagree on which kind of thing constitutes concepts, but they agree that there is only one such …
I occasionally receive queries on how to get a job in the U.S. Here is my best guess on the matter. Further comments and suggestions are welcome.The U.S. probably has the largest number of academic jobs of any country in the world, or at least the largest number of desirable …
My student Ken Johnson made the following interesting comment. It is especially relevant to those philosophers who like to casually write that in principle, everything can be computationally simulated based on the laws of physics. Notice that there is no reason to expect that Moore’s law will hold up for …
Last week I had my first radio interview, thanks to a referral by Ron Munson. I was on a program (together with another guest) by Nevada Public Radio on whether robots are changing our identity and related issues, such as whether robots are likely to take over the world (as …
I’m in Tucson, AZ, at the conference Towards a Science of Consciousness 2006.There are a lot more people than I expected. It’s about as large as an APA meeting, I would say.I gave my talk yesterday, arguing that conceivability arguments like the zombie conceivability argument are unsound. The zombie conceivabity …
