| COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES |
 |
PHILOSOPHY HOME PAGE |
|
CHAIR'S STATEMENT |
|
COLLOQUIA & CONFERENCES
Liz Stillwaggon Department of Philosophy University of South Carolina August 30, 2005 Tuesday, 12:30pm-2:00pm Humanities Bldg, Room 615 The strong continuity thesis was introduced into the artificial life literature in 1994 by Peter Godfrey-Smith but since then has not received the attention and further development it merits. In this paper, I explain why if we are to identify genuine continuity between life and mind, a shift in perspective is needed from thinking about living and minded things and processes, to thinking about life itself and mind itself. I describe both life and mind as self-preserving processes and argue that this notion accounts for their purported continuity, drawing on research in embodied cognition to make my case. I then respond to Peter Godfrey-Smith's observation that any view on which thought requires language is inconsistent with the strong continuity thesis by arguing that although such a view of thought might be rendered consistent with the thesis, a dynamic systems approach to cognition, i.e., one wherein thought is language-independent, is much more conducive to identifying genuine life-mind continuity.  |
|
Last updated 4/8/08 10:32 PM
•
burke@sc.edu
|
© 2006 University of South Carolina Board of Trustees |