philosophy of mind
TagThe Study of Consciousness, Accusations of Pseudoscience, and Bad Publicity
Earlier this week, a letter signed by over 100 researchers, including several philosophers, was published online, calling a popular theory of consciousness, integrated information theory (IIT), “pseudoscience.” (more…)
How to Tell Whether an AI Is Conscious (guest post)
“We can apply scientific rigor to the assessment of AI consciousness, in part because… we can identify fairly clear indicators associated with leading theories of consciousness, and show how to assess whether AI systems satisfy them.” (more…)
A Case for AI Wellbeing (guest post)
“There are good reasons to think that some AIs today have wellbeing.” (more…)
Winning Bet: Consciousness Still a Mystery
In 1998, after a day lecturing at a conference on consciousness, neuroscientist Christof Koch (Allen Institute) and philosopher David Chalmers made a bet. (more…)
Researchers Call for More Work on Consciousness
In light of the continued development and growing use of large language models (e.g., ChatGPT), other kinds of neural networks, generative agents, and the like, a group of scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, and other researchers have signed an open letter intended as a “wakeup call for the tech sector, the scientific community and society in general to take s..
GPT-4 and the Question of Intelligence
“The central claim of our work is that GPT-4 attains a form of general intelligence, indeed showing sparks of artificial general intelligence.” (more…)
Sanders Prizes in Early Modern and Philosophy of Mind Awarded
The Marc Sanders Foundation has announced the winners of its 2022 Early Modern Philosophy Prize and its 2022 Philosophy of Mind Prize. (more…)
NYU Launches Mind, Ethics, and Policy Program
New York University (NYU) has created a new program to support research and outreach on “the nature and intrinsic value of nonhuman minds, including biological and artificial minds.” (more…)
Philosophers On GPT-3 (updated with replies by GPT-3)
Nine philosophers explore the various issues and questions raised by the newly released language model, GPT-3, in this edition of Philosophers On, guest edited by Annette Zimmermann. (more…)
Mind Chunks
2018 Sanders Philosophy of Mind Prize Winner
Jonathan Simon, postdoctoral associate in the Department of Philosophy at New York University (NYU) and a research fellow at the school’s Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness, is the winner of the 2018 Sanders Prize in Philosophy of Mind. (more…)
Mental Health and Philosophy of Mind
A philosopher has recently collaborated with a mental health organization to deliver a series of philosophy of mind workshops for people with an interest in mental health (including those with lived experience, mental health advocates, and service providers). (more…)
The State of the Study of Consciousness
What’s the current state of the philosophical study of consciousness? In The New York Review of Books, Tim Parks (Associate Professor of Literature and Translation at IULM University in Milan) and Riccardo Manzotti (Associate Professor in Theoretical Philosophy, IULM University, Milan) continue their series of public philosophy and science of mind conversations in “..
Post-Election Changes To Philosophy Curriculum By Subject: Philosophy of Mind
This post continues our series soliciting suggestions for reading materials and lessons for various philosophical subfields in light of Donald Trump’s victory in the recent election. (more…)
Science, Humanities, and the Mind
Last week, Susanna Siegel and Steven Pinker (both of Harvard) participated in a debate about the role of the humanities and the sciences in the study of the mind. The debate was videotaped and can be watched here (update: link fixed). Below is Professor Siegel’s summary of the event, the topic of which raises questions about the value of the humanities more general..
One of These Is Actually Happening
– Not happening. Yet.
Transcendence is the recently released sci-fi movie the plot of which involves uploading the mind of a scientist (played by Johnny Depp) to a computer system. You can watch the trailer here, and then you can head over to OUP Blog and watch a few brief videos of Nick Bostrom (Oxford) discussing the movie and the plausibility of uploading, whole ..