As a PhD student you are diving deep into a field of research that you will study to extreme detail in the upcoming years, your own little research bubble. As GOPHER we want to connect more faculties and enable PhDs to have a refreshing excursion into another field in our “Outside the bubble” series. This month's lecture will be held by Dr. Fred Keijzer from the faculty of philosophy, giving you an interesting insight into philosophy of the mind.
Thanks to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, the lecture will be held in person to enable you to engage in fun and interesting discussions (during or after the lecture) face to face (Location: tba).
Minds: immaterial, artificial, biological?
Fred Keijzer
Faculty of Philosophy
Mental processes such as thinking and perceiving were for a long time seen as aspects of an immaterial mind that remained separate from the physical world. This dualism became increasingly problematic during the 20th century, but a computational reinterpretation of mental processes provided a solution that kept the preexisting image of mind intact. Thinking and sensing remained separate from the world but now as abstract forms of information processing in a computational device – either the brain or an artificial computer. Artificial minds, with or without robotic bodies, became a clear possibility in this context. More recently the situation is changing again. Our scientific understanding of minds themselves has become a topic of research in a biological context where researchers and philosophers try to clarify the characteristics of cognitive and experiential phenomena in nonhuman minds. Godfrey-Smith’s well-known work on octopuses is a good example here. Our understanding of mind itself is here tied more closely to evolution and biology and diversifying. The talk will give a quick overview of the historical context but focus mainly on this biological turn to nonhuman minds.
Location: Heymanszaal (1111.0001), Academy Building of the RUG (opposite the University Library)
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