
The Brains Blog
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The Brains blog is a leading forum for work in the philosophy and science of mind. Join the discussion and - if you're a cognitive scientist - pitch us ideas about how to get discussion about methods, puzzles, recent publications, and scholars that deserve more attention.
The Brains Blog
1w ago
This is the inaugural post in our series “Spotlights on Computational Neuroscience”. Spotlight posts are invited submissions from leading neuroscientists that highlight both cutting edge research and general conception issues arising within the neurosciences. We are thrilled to have A. David Redish kick off this series with a great post ..read more
The Brains Blog
1M ago
CFA: 7th Scientific Understanding and Representation (SURe) Annual Workshop Host: University of Miami (FL) Department of Philosophy May 13-14, 2025 Call for Abstracts: We invite authors to submit abstracts of up to 750-words for the upcoming 7th annual Scientific Understanding and Representation (SURe) workshop. The workshop will take place May 13-14, 2025 ..read more
The Brains Blog
2M ago
By Hanzhe Dong and Gualtiero Piccinini Introduction What are biological functions, and how should we think about them? This question has been controversial in the philosophy of biology (and technology). The Selected Effects (SE) account ties (teleological) functions to selection history, asserting that a trait’s teleofunction F is an activity ..read more
The Brains Blog
2M ago
Fabian Hundertmark, Bielefeld UniversityJakob Roloff, Justus-Liebig-University GießenFrancesca Bellazzi, University of Oslo, ERC Project Assembling Life (no.101089326) 1. Introduction In the target post, Dong and Piccinini criticize SE and propose a new goal-contribution account of functions (GCA) (also in Maley, Piccinini 2017; Piccinini, 2020). In this second post, we argue that ..read more
The Brains Blog
2M ago
Fabian Hundertmark, Bielefeld UniversityJakob Roloff, Justus-Liebig-University GießenFrancesca Bellazzi, University of Oslo, ERC Project Assembling Life (no.101089326) 1. Introduction Functions are everywhere. Coffee machines have the function of making our coffee and our hearts have the function of pumping our blood. But what are functions, and how should we think of ..read more
The Brains Blog
2M ago
Mindcraft is a series of opinion posts on current issues in cognitive science by Brains Blog founder Gualtiero Piccinini. Do you agree? Disagree? Please contribute on the discussion board below! If you’d like to write a full-length response, please contact editor Dan Burnston. Rethinking Biological Functions: A Goal-Contribution Approach and Its Systemic Implications Hanzhe ..read more
The Brains Blog
2M ago
Hi All, This week, we will have a follow-up conversation about the last Mindcraft post by Brains founder Gualtiero Piccinini and Hanzhe Dong. That post will be moved to the top of the blog today for review. Then, Tuesday and Wednesday, we’ll have some excellent commentary from Fabian Hundertmark, Jakob ..read more
The Brains Blog
2M ago
We are pleased to announce our forthcoming events: a book symposium on Nick Shea’s new book on concepts, & the lineup for the 2025 webinar series Book Symposiumjoint initiative with ISPSM (https://www.ispsmind.com/):13 December 2024, 4-7 pm CETConcepts at the Interface (OUP)Nick Shea (London)Discussants:Sara Aronowitz, Chris Hill, Eric Margolis, Gualtiero Piccinini, Michael Strevens ..read more
The Brains Blog
2M ago
Mindcraft is a series of opinion posts on current issues in cognitive science by Brains Blog founder Gualtiero Piccinini. Do you agree? Disagree? Please contribute on the discussion board below! If you’d like to write a full-length response, please contact editor Dan Burnston. Rethinking Biological Functions: A Goal-Contribution Approach and Its Systemic Implications Hanzhe ..read more
The Brains Blog
2M ago
Many thanks again to Andre Curtis-Trudel, Marcin Milkowski, Danielle Williams, and Mazviita Chirimuuta for their commentaries on our recent book The Physical Signature of Computation: A Robust Mapping Account. The medium independence of computation seems to have caused trouble for the latter three commentators, so we take this opportunity to ..read more