•  3
    A neurosymbolic cognitive architecture framework for handling novelties in open worlds
    with Shivam Goel, Panagiotis Lymperopoulos, Ravenna Thielstrom, Evan Krause, Patrick Feeney, Pierrick Lorang, Yichen Wei, Eric Kildebeck, Stephen Goss, Michael C. Hughes, Liping Liu, Jivko Sinapov, and Matthias Scheutz
    Artificial Intelligence 331 (C): 104111. 2024.
  • This chapter focuses on one historically important approach to computationalism about thought. According to "the classical computational theory of mind" (CTM), thinking involves the algorithmic manipulation of mental symbols. The chapter reviews CTM and the related language of thought (LOT) position, urging that the orthodox position, associated with the groundbreaking work of Jerry Fodor, has failed to specify a key component: the notion of a mental symbol. It clarifies the notion of a LOT symb…Read more
  •  20
    If You Upload, Will You Survive?
    In Russell Blackford & Damien Broderick (eds.), Intelligence Unbound, Wiley. 2014.
    This chapter discusses the two general kinds of uploading scenarios and given our response to Chalmers' objections, let us summarize where things stand. First, there is considerable reason to be pessimistic about instantaneous destructive uploading's ability to preserve identity or to produce continuations of the original person. Second, there is also good reason to be pessimistic about gradual destructive uploading's ability to preserve identity or produce continuations, since exactly the same …Read more
  •  1423
    In The Mind Doesn’t Work that Way, Jerry Fodor argues that mental representations have context sensitive features relevant to cognition, and that, therefore, the Classical Computational Theory of Mind (CTM) is mistaken. We call this the Globality Argument. This is an in principle argument against CTM. We argue that it is self-defeating. We consider an alternative argument constructed from materials in the discussion, which avoids the pitfalls of the official argument. We argue that it is also un…Read more
  •  54
    Being a whole person
    Educational Philosophy and Theory 39 (7). 2007.
  •  21
    Cyborg Divas and Hybrid Minds
    In Inês Hipólito, Robert William Clowes & Klaus Gärtner (eds.), The Mind-Technology Problem : Investigating Minds, Selves and 21st Century Artefacts, Springer Verlag. pp. 145-159. 2021.
    This paper examines the relationship between neural enhancement, uploading, and personal identity. Building on our earlier work, it argues that the aspects of cognitive functioning that are central to the preservation of personal identity are those surrounding consciousness. Neural enhancements that do not preserve consciousness do not preserve personal identity. Examining in particular the influential arguments of Clark, Clowes, Gärtner, and others regarding the extended mind, we argue for a pe…Read more
  •  1085
    Could You Merge With AI? Reflections on the Singularity and Radical Brain Enhancement
    In Markus Dirk Dubber, Frank Pasquale & Sunit Das (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of AI, Oxford University Press. pp. 307-325. 2020.
    This chapter focuses on AI-based cognitive and perceptual enhancements. AI-based brain enhancements are already under development, and they may become commonplace over the next 30–50 years. We raise doubts concerning whether radical AI-based enhancements transhumanists advocate will accomplish the transhumanists goals of longevity, human flourishing, and intelligence enhancement. We urge that even if the technologies are medically safe and are not used as tools by surveillance capitalism or an a…Read more
  •  21
    What Breathes Fire into the Equations?: A Response to Critics
    Journal of Consciousness Studies 24 (9-10): 112-132. 2017.
  •  137
    The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness (edited book)
    Wiley-Blackwell. 2007.
    (From the book cover in 2007) The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness is the most thorough and comprehensive survey of contemporary scientific research and philosophical thought on consciousness currently available. Its 55 newly commissioned, peer-reviewed chapters combine state-of-the-art surveys with cutting edge research. Taken as a whole, these essays by leading lights in the philosophy and science of consciousness create an engaging dialog and unparalleled source of information regarding …Read more
  •  210
    What is the significance of the intuition that laws of nature govern?
    Australasian Journal of Philosophy 85 (2): 307-324. 2007.
    Recently, proponents of Humean Supervenience have challenged the plausibility of the intuition that the laws of nature ‘govern’, or guide, the evolution of events in the universe. Certain influential thought experiments authored by John Carroll, Michael Tooley, and others, rely strongly on such intuitions. These thought experiments are generally regarded as playing a central role in the lawhood debate, suggesting that the Mill-Ramsey-Lewis view of the laws of nature, and the related doctrine of …Read more
  • Meaning and the Computational Mind: The Relation Between Intentional and Computational States in a Scientific Psychology
    Dissertation, Rutgers the State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick. 2003.
    The dissertation advances a theory of psychological explanation in Cognitive Science that is based on the conjunction of three leading, but controversial, views in philosophy of mind and language: a semantics of direct reference, the classical computational theory of the mind, and a theory of mental content that is "broad", . I argue that some psychological kinds are intentional, while others are computational, being expressions in the language of thought.In Part One, I defend the view that inte…Read more
  •  6
    Valence effects in information processing: Evaluating descriptive characteristics
    with J. M. Bunch and S. M. Kerutis
    Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 30 (6): 468. 1992.
  •  17
    Ethical and political issues
    with White Plague, George J. Annas, John Leslie, and Susan Leigh Anderson
    In Susan Schneider (ed.), Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to Superintelligence, Wiley-blackwell. 2009.
  •  115
    The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness Second Edition (edited book)
    Wiley-Blackwell. 2017.
    (From the Publisher 2017) Featuring many important updates and revisions, the highly-anticipated second edition of The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness offers a collection of readings that together represent the most thorough and comprehensive survey of the nature of consciousness available today. Chapters delve deeply into the wide variety of scientific and philosophical problems that arise from the study of consciousness—as well as the philosophical, cognitive, neuroscientific, and phenome…Read more
  •  346
    The nature of symbols in the language of thought
    Mind and Language 24 (5): 523-553. 2009.
    The core of the language of thought program is the claim that thinking is the manipulation of symbols according to rules. Yet LOT has said little about symbol natures, and existing accounts are highly controversial. This is a major flaw at the heart of the LOT program: LOT requires an account of symbol natures to naturalize intentionality, to determine whether the brain even engages in symbol manipulations, and to understand how symbols relate to lower-level neurocomputational states. This paper…Read more
  •  183
    LOT, CTM, and the Elephant in the Room
    Synthese 170 (2). 2009.
    According to the language of thought (LOT) approach and the related computational theory of mind (CTM), thinking is the processing of symbols in an inner mental language that is distinct from any public language. Herein, I explore a deep problem at the heart of the LOT/CTM program—it has yet to provide a plausible conception of a mental symbol
  •  164
    A timely volume that uses science fiction as a springboard to meaningful philosophical discussions, especially at points of contact between science fiction and new scientific developments. Raises questions and examines timely themes concerning the nature of the mind, time travel, artificial intelligence, neural enhancement, free will, the nature of persons, transhumanism, virtual reality, and neuroethics Draws on a broad range of books, films and television series, including _The Matrix, Star Tr…Read more
  •  607
    Daniel Dennett on the nature of consciousness
    In Max Velmans & Susan Schneider (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, Blackwell. pp. 313--24. 2007.
    One of the most influential philosophical voices in the consciousness studies community is that of Daniel Dennett. Outside of consciousness studies, Dennett is well-known for his work on numerous topics, such as intentionality, artificial intelligence, free will, evolutionary theory, and the basis of religious experience. (Dennett, 1984, 1987, 1995c, 2005) In 1991, just as researchers and philosophers were beginning to turn more attention to the nature of consciousness, Dennett authored his Cons…Read more
  •  256
    Why property dualists must reject substance physicalism
    Philosophical Studies 157 (1): 61-76. 2012.
    I argue that property dualists cannot hold that minds are physical substances. The focus of my discussion is a property dualism that takes qualia to be sui generis features of reality
  •  169
    Suppose it is 2025 and being a technophile, you purchase brain enhancements as they become readily available. First, you add a mobile internet connection to your retina, then, you enhance your working memory by adding neural circuitry. You are now officially a cyborg. Now skip ahead to 2040. Through nanotechnological therapies and enhancements you are able to extend your lifespan, and as the years progress, you continue to accumulate more far-reaching enhancements. By 2060, after several small b…Read more
  •  34
    Metaphysics of Uploading
    Journal of Consciousness Studies 19 (7-8): 26. 2012.
  •  164
    Direct reference, psychological explanation, and Frege cases
    Mind and Language 20 (4): 423-447. 2005.
    In this essay I defend a theory of psychological explanation that is based on the joint commitment to direct reference and computationalism. I offer a new solution to the problem of Frege Cases. Frege Cases involve agents who are unaware that certain expressions corefer (e.g. that 'Cicero' and 'Tully' corefer), where such knowledge is relevant to the success of their behavior, leading to cases in which the agents fail to behave as the intentional laws predict. It is generally agreed that Frege C…Read more
  •  72
    Yes, it does: A diatribe on Jerry Fodor's the mind doesn't work that way
    PSYCHE: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Research On Consciousness. 2007.
    The Mind Doesn’t Work That Way is an expose of certain theoretical problems in cognitive science, and in particular, problems that concern the Classical Computational Theory of Mind (CTM). The problems that Fodor worries plague CTM divide into two kinds, and both purport to show that the success of cognitive science will likely be limited to the modules. The first sort of problem concerns what Fodor has called “global properties”; features that a mental sentence has which depend on how the sente…Read more
  •  286
    Non-Reductive Physicalism and the Mind Problem
    Noûs 47 (1): 135-153. 2011.
    Most answers to the mind-body problem are claims about the nature of mental properties and substances. But advocates of non-reductive physicalism have generally neglected the topic of the nature of substance, quickly nodding to the view that all substances are physical, while focusing their intellectual energy on understanding how mental properties relate to physical ones. Let us call the view that all substances are physical or are exhaustively composed of physical substances substance physical…Read more
  •  266
    Armstrong's combinatorialism, in his own words, is the following project: "My central metaphysical hypothesis is that all there is is the world of space and time. It is this world which is to supply the actual elements for the totality of combinations. So what is proposed is a Naturalistic form of a combinatorial theory."2 Armstrong calls his central hypothesis "Naturalism." He intends his well−known theory of universals to satisfy this thesis. He now attempts to give a naturalistic theory of mo…Read more