fragments of consciousness

Two articles on panpsychism

Hot off the presses: two new articles on panpsychism.

"Panpsychism and Panprotopsychism" formulates what I call the Hegelian argument for panpsychism: arguing for it as a synthesis resulting from the thesis of materialism (especially the causal argument for materialism) and the antithesis of dualism (especially the conceivability argument for dualism).  It also distinguishes numerous varieties of panpsychism, contrasts panpsychism and panprotopsychism, and examines problems for both.  This article (when finalized) will be published as the Amherst Lecture in Philosophy and also probably in a volume on Russellian monism edited by Torin Alter and Yujin Nagasawa.

"The Combination Problem for Panpsychism" is an attempt at a systematic treatment of the combination problem: how does panpsychist microexperience add up to the macroexperience we know and love?  I articulate a number of different subproblems here, try to turn them into arguments against panpsychism and panprotopsychism, and examine various proposals for answering them.  This article will probably eventually appear in a collection on panpsychism edited by Godehard Bruntrup and Ludwig Jaskolla.

Together these articles are my best attempts to articulate the case for and against pan(proto)psychism.  They're extremely drafty for now and any feedback would be welcome.

Upcoming conferences

There are two upcoming workshops in Germany on Constructing the World and related topics.  On May 24-26 in Bonn (organized by philosophers from the University of Cologne and held at the Poppelsdorfer Schloss in Bonn), there will be a workshop directly on the book.  Just before that, on May 21-23 at the University of Bochum, I am giving the Carnap lectures on some themes from the book ("Structuralism, Space, and Skepticism") and there will be some associated talks.  Both events have issued a call for submissions.  The Bochum workshop is asking for abstracts of up to 1000 words from graduate students and post-docs, for 20-minute talks.  The Bonn workshop is asking for 2-page abstracts from anyone, for 45-minute talks (they're also having some invited papers).  The deadlines for both are at the end of this month: March 31.  The two conferences are near each other so it should be quite possible to go to both.

There will also be an authors-meets-critics session on the book at the APA conference in San Francisco in two weeks (the critics are Ram Neta, Laura Schroeter, and Jason Stanley), which will be turning into a symposium in Analysis (there'a also a symposium in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research in the works).  Lots to look forward to, for me at least.

Some other upcoming conferences I'll be involved include Concepts and Modal Epistemology in Lyon May 13-14, Perception and Concepts in Riga May 16-18, and Reference and Frege's Puzzle in Umea May 31 and June 1 (I'm also giving lectures there May 28-30).  Further down the line there will be two workshops on Panpsychism and on Narrow Content in Oslo on August 23-24 and August 25 respectively, a workshop on Modal Epistemology in Lisbon on August 29-31, a workshop on Mind and Attention in Indian and Contemporary Western Philosophy at Harvard on September 21-22, and other goodies to be announced.

Finally, advance notice of two big consciousness conferences for next year.  The Tucson conference will be holding its 20th anniversary conference on April 21-26 next year (2014), and many of the major names in the field have already agreed to speak, giving their perspective on the shape of the field 20 years later.  (So far all that's online is this Sgt. Pepper-themed impromptu promo video.)  The Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness will be having its first-ever conference in Australia, in Brisbane on July 16-19 next year (I'm giving the presidential address).  Coming up sooner, this year's ASSC conference will be held in San Diego on July 12-15.

Four symposia

This blog has fallen behind.  Too much to do, too little time, and other outlets take up the space that the blog used to.  Still, there has been plenty going on, and I hope to make a few posts here in the next little while.

Since finishing Constructing the World about a year ago, I've been writing a number of articles, including reply pieces for four different symposia.  These include two symposia on The Character of Consciousness, a symposium on my old article on computation, and a symposium on my article on the singularity.  All of these symposia have turned out to be worthwhile, at least from my perspective.  Details follow.

"The Contents of Consciousness: Reply to Hellie, Peacocke, and Siegel" is a reply to three commentaries in a symposium on The Character of Consciousness in Analysis.  The commentaries by Benj Hellie and Susanna Siegel are freely available online, while Chris Peacocke's commentary is available at the Analysis website.  This symposium focuses on issues about the contents of consciousness from the second half of the book.  The topics include acquaintance, attention, and transparency (Hellie), spatial experience and externalism (Peacocke), and perceptual Frege cases and perceptual belief (Siegel).

"Modality and the Mind-Body Problem: Reply to Goff and Papineau, Lee, and Levine" is a (draft) reply to three commentaries in a symposium on The Character of Consciousness in Philosophical Studies.  The commentaries by Philip Goff and David Papineau and by Geoff Lee are available online, while Joe Levine's contribution isn't yet online as far as I know.  This symposium focuses on issues about the metaphysics of consciousness from the first half of the book, and especially on the two-dimensional argument against materialism and strong necessities.

"The Varieties of Computation: A Reply" is a reply to 12 commentators on my previously unpublished 1990s article "A Computational Foundation for the Study of Cognition".  The Journal of Cognitive Science has been generous enough to make the whole symposium available for free online.  You can find the commentaries (by Curtis Brown, Frances Egan, Stevan Harnad, Colin Klein, Marcin Milkowski, Gerard O'Brien, Michael Rescorla, Brendan Ritchie, Matthis Scheutz, Oron Shagrir, Mark Sprevak, and Brandon Towl) here, here, and here.

"The Singularity: A Reply to Commentators" is a reply to 26 commentators on my article "The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis".  The whole symposium was published over two issues (here and here) of the Journal of Consciousness Studies.  Those issues are behind a paywall, but many of the commentaries are available freely online: Barry Dainton, Sue Blackmore, Selmer Bringsjord, Damien Broderick, Richard Brown, Joe Corabi and Susan Schneider, Ben Goertzel, Robin Hanson, Francis Heylighen, Marcus Hutter, Pamela McCorduck,  Drew McDermott, Jesse Prinz, Jurgen Schmidhuber, Carl Shulman and Nick Bostrom, Eric Steinhart, Frank Tipler, Roman Yampolskiy.  Those by Dan Dennett, Susan Greenfield, Ray Kurzweil, and a few others don't seem to be freely available.