Pre-Submission Talk - Denying Spirits Exist: Epistemic Error Theory and The Self-Undermining Objection
Seminar
Epistemic Error Theory denies that there are epistemic reasons. This theory stands accused of being self-undermining. To accept, assert, argue for, believe, deliberate about, hold that, etc. ‘there are no epistemic reasons’ supposedly implies that there are epistemic reasons; e.g. to argue, the…
Workshop on Neural Representation and Neural Computation
Workshop
How can the firing of neurones help us keep track of the world? Are brains like computers, or is some other metaphor more appropriate? How do neural representations end up “about” something in the world? This two-day workshop, coinciding with Visiting Fellow Nicholas Shea’s residency in the School…
I Want You To Want Me - Agnes Callard (UChicago)
Seminar
Speaker: Agnes Callard Abstract: Consider the world that includes: dating, breakups, crushes and jealousy; the magnetic pull of attraction to someone who you know might not be good for you; the devastation of being rejected by them; falling in love; the distinctive experiences of “…
Consciousness and Continuity
Seminar
Consider your visual experience of a blue sky or your auditory experience of a rising pitch. Are these experiences continuous or discrete? If we appeal solely to introspection, then it may seem that we have reason to think that such experiences are continuous. I'll first clarify what it means to…
Who’s Afraid of Boltzmann Brains? - Roger White (MIT)
Seminar
Speaker: Roger White Abstract: Some apparently well-motivated cosmological models have it that the world is at some point teeming with Boltzmann Brains—randomly assembled clumps of matter floating in a void, some of which may just happen to be duplicates of my brain or yours. Indeed…
‘Relevance and Possible Lives’ - Pre-Submission Talk
Seminar
Abstract: When there are two groups of people with claims for your assistance and you can only help one of them, which group ought you to choose? The “Relevance View” offers plausible guidance on how to weigh up these competing claims. It allows weak claims to aggregate to outweigh a…
Time and the Decider - David Spurrett (University of KwaZulu-Natal)
Seminar
Speaker: David Spurrett I characterise a family of views about the implementation of action selection as ‘Central Banker’ accounts. Central Bankers are top level executives for cognitive processes of selection. Their activities are often described in economic or financial terms, as maximising…