Some Exciting Developments at Brains

I’m pleased to have a lot of good news to announce about the future of this site.

First, as I’m sure is evident already, the blog has undergone a massive redesign, and we’ve migrated all the content over to a WordPress platform that’s not only visually pleasing, but also highly functional in a bunch of terrific ways. I’m sure there will be some kinks associated with this process (among other things, I still have to reassign authorship for a lot of older posts), but so far it seems to be running smoothly enough.

But now for the more important announcements:

• Beginning next month, Brains will begin hosting three symposia each year on selected articles from Mind & Language. Under the terms of our agreement with Wiley-Blackwell and the journal’s editors, copyright-free access will be granted to the targeted article for the duration of each symposium. Each symposium will begin with a precis from the author and several written commentaries on the article, followed by open discussion on the blog. Our first such symposium, which will begin on June 6, will feature Louise Richardson’s article “Flavour, Taste and Smell”, which is forthcoming in the journal’s June issue. The commentators will be Fiona Macpherson, Mohan Matthen, Matt Nudds, and Barry C. Smith. Anyone who wishes to read Louise’s article prior to the symposium can find an advance copy here.
• In addition, I’m glad to say that during the month of July, Lisa Bortolotti (Birmingham) has agreed to be the first in what I hope will be a long and distinguished series of Featured Scholars at Brains. Lisa will write several posts discussing both her recent work on rationality and delusions, and her new AHRC-funded project on the epistemic benefits of delusional beliefs and distorted memories. I will have more to say about Lisa and her work toward the end of June, but until then, her personal website is here.

Alongside all this, Adam Shriver of the Rotman Institute at Western will soon begin posting podcasts discussing philosophically interesting cutting-edge research in cognitive science, and I hope soon to be able to announce some other new ventures, perhaps including a series of book symposia. Those who wish to keep up with all this should think of subscribing to Brains via e-mail or our RSS feed, and we’ll also be announcing new posts on Facebook and Twitter. As ever, please feel free to get in touch with me via e-mail (jlschwenkler at gmail dotcom) if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions for new content, or if you’re interested in joining our roster of contributors.

P.S. It may go without saying, but I’m very grateful to my colleagues at PEA Soup and Flickers of Freedom for inspiring these two big ideas. Thanks especially to Dave Shoemaker and Thomas Nadelhoffer for their advice, and to Sam Guttenplan for his efforts in working out the agreement with Mind & Language.