The Brains Blog — Since 2005, a leading forum for work in the philosophy and science of mind

2. The Global Workspace

Peter Carruthers January 14, 2020 January 14, 2020 Consciousness / Peter Carruthers: Human and Animal Minds

The best theory of phenomenal consciousness is one that equates it with the contents of the so-called global workspace (a.k.a. working memory)—or rather, with a subset thereof. Why a subset? Because although conceptual information can be bound into the contents of perceptual and imagistic states, and made available in the …

1. Consciousness Problems

Peter Carruthers January 13, 2020 January 13, 2020 Consciousness / Peter Carruthers: Human and Animal Minds

A number of factors make the problem of consciousness seem harder than it is. I will say something briefly about two of them here. One is that people the world over are tacit dualists about the mental, making them much more receptive towards non-physical qualia than they otherwise would be. …

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John Schwenkler January 12, 2020 January 21, 2020 books

We are pleased to have Peter Carruthers (University of Maryland) blogging this week on Human and Animal Minds: The Consciousness Questions Laid to Rest (Oxford, 2019). To view all of Peter’s posts on a single page, please click here.

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 …

Manolo Martinez’s “Information Theory is a Formal Theory of Representation”

Nick Byrd January 6, 2020 January 2, 2020 Neural Mechanisms Online / NM Webinar

We are excited about the next Neural Mechanisms webinar this Friday (10th). As always, it is free. You can find information about how and when to join the webinar below or at the Neural Mechanisms website—where you can also join sign up for the mailing list that notifies people about …

Carlotta Pavese on The Psychological Reality of Practical Representation

Nick Byrd December 16, 2019 December 10, 2019 Neural Mechanisms Online / NM Webinar

We are excited about the next Neural Mechanisms webinar this Friday (20th). As always, it is free. You can find information about how and when to join the webinar below or at the Neural Mechanisms website—where you can also join sign up for the mailing list that notifies people about …

CFP: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Locating Representations in the Brain, Synthese Topical Collection

Sarah Robins December 11, 2019 January 6, 2020 CFPs

We’re pleased to announce a call for papers for a Synthese Topical Collection* on Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Locating Representations in the Brain Guest Editors: Sarah Robins (University of Kansas) and Jessey Wright (Stanford University). The concept of ‘representation’ has become ubiquitous in neuroscience, especially in light of recent advances in …