Sunday, October 23, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Octophilosophy | The Scientist
"Godfrey-Smith decided to connect this biological concept with his interest in the philosophy of mind, particularly in nonhumans. In 2010, he began a project with Alexandra Schnell, a graduate student at Macquarie University in Sydney, to conduct behavioral observation studies that address whether octopus intelligence differs from that of other species. Do octopuses learn differently? Does the decentralization of neurons mean cephalopods have multiple minds or competing consciousnesses?"
Comprehensive exam questions in philosophy of mind at Tufts
Comprehensive exam questions in philosophy of mind at Tufts:
http://ase.tufts.edu/philosophy/graduate/comps.asp#mind
http://ase.tufts.edu/philosophy/graduate/comps.asp#mind
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Online visual guide to the brain
An online visual guide to the brain: Brain Function, Anatomy & Diagram | Body Maps
Drawings by Anton Van Dalen
Monday, October 3, 2011
Philosophy Bro on Zombies, Minds, and Possibility
Philosophy Bro: Mailbag Monday: Zombies, Minds, and Possibility
Excerpt:
Excerpt:
So Kripke's Modal Argument and Chalmers' Zombie Argument both rely on the notion of possible worlds that we touched on last week, and they're both arguments against physicalism, the idea that everything can be described in terms of physical properties - if it's not physical, fuck it. It's not real. That's an interesting thesis for philosophers of mind, because it sure seems like consciousness isn't just physical. Descartes famously imagined himself as nothing but a mind - if everything physical ceased to exist, he said he could definitely keep thinking.
