Thursday, March 22, 2012

SSPP Begins today

First time I have not been in probably more than a decade.  Sigh.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Congrats to Larry Shapiro: Kellett Mid-Career Award at Wisconsin

I had heard about this a while back, but there is a new press release today.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

CONFERENCE – Wittgenstein, Enactivism & Animal Minds

This looks pretty interesting.

Saturday 7- Sunday 8 July 2012 at the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield.  The actual conference venue will be Beales Hotel, Hatfield (a 5-minute walk from UH).
Conference organizers: Danièle Moyal-Sharrock & Dan D. Hutto
Confirmed speakers:
Registration Fee (includes lunch & refreshments on both days): £75 / student: £50
Conference package: includes registration fee, lunch & refreshments on both days, conference dinner (3-course meal, including wine, tea/coffee), bed/breakfast at Beales Hotel (4*) on Saturday night (single occupancy): £190.00 / student £150.00.
For other options and to register, please go to BWS Conference Registration.

Visiting Position at Franklin and Marshall

Colleagues,

Please pass this announcement on to anyone who might be interested in a visiting assistant professor position in Cognitive Science.  It is also worth noting that, although the position is officially in the Psychology Department, we are open to hiring someone with a PhD in Philosophy.

Feel free to ask me any questions.

cheers, tony



Title: Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology

The Department of Psychology at Franklin & Marshall College is hiring a visitor at the Assistant Professor level to cover courses in Psychology and the Scientific and Philosophical Studies of Mind program. The appointment is for academic year 2012-2013, with possibility for a second year renewal upon administrative approval. Teaching load is 3/2. The candidate will be required to teach Introduction to Cognitive Science as well as a laboratory section of either Introductory Psychology or Design and Statistics. Further coverage needs may include the following areas: Introductory Psychology, History and Philosophy of Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Philosophy of Natural Science, and Developmental Psychology.

Application deadline is March 19, 2012. Candidates should hold the Ph.D. and should submit a letter of application, curriculum vitae, graduate transcript, three letters of recommendation, a statement of teaching, a statement of research, and teaching evaluation forms electronically via https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/1465. In your letter of application, please indicate which of the above courses and/or related cognitive science courses you could help cover. Inquiries may be directed to Dr. Krista Casler (krista.casler@fandm.edu).

Franklin and Marshall College is a highly selective liberal arts college with a demonstrated commitment to cultural pluralism. Franklin & Marshall College is committed to having an inclusive campus community where all members are treated with dignity and respect. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, the College does not discriminate in its hiring or employment practices on the basis of gender, race or ethnicity, color, national origin, religion, age, disability, family or marital status, or sexual orientation.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
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Tony Chemero, http://edisk.fandm.edu/tony.chemero/
Scientific and Philosophical Studies of Mind
Franklin and Marshall College
Lancaster, PA USA 17604-3003

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Philosophical Psychology: "Contingent transcranialism and deep functional cognitive integration"

A new article by Jennifer Greenwood forthcoming here.

Abstract

Contingent transcranialists claim that the physical mechanisms of mind are not exclusively intracranial and that genuine cognitive systems can extend into cognizers' physical and socio-cultural environments. They further claim that extended cognitive systems must include the deep functional integration of external environmental resources with internal neural resources. They have found it difficult, however, to explicate the precise nature of such deep functional integration and provide compelling examples of it. Contingent intracranialists deny that extracranial resources can be components of genuine extended cognitive systems. They claim that transcranialists fallaciously conflate coupling with constitution and construe cognition as extending always from brains into world rather than world into brains. By using insights from recent research in developmental psychology and by explicating the nature of one form that deep functional integration can take, I argue that (i) transcranialists do not fallaciously conflate coupling wth constitution, and (ii) human emotional ontogenesis is a world-to-brain transcranial achievement.

I don't have the article yet, but I'm going to speculate that by "contingent intracranialists" Greenwood includes Adams and Aizawa.  But, if so, we do not deny that extracranial resources can be components of genuine extended cognitive systems.  We think that extracranial resources can be component of genuine extended cognitive systems, it's just that they are not.  Here is the abstract to Adams and Aizawa, 2001:
Recent work in cognitive science has suggested that there are actual cases in which cognitive processes extend in the physical world beyond the bounds of the brain and the body. We argue that, while transcranial cognition may be both a logical and a nomological possibility, no case has been made for its current existence. In other words, we defend a form of contingent intracranialism
about the cognitive.