The problem of how the brain produces consciousness, subjectivity and "something it is like to be" remains one of the greatest challenges to a complete science of the natural world. While various scientists and philosophers approach the problem from their own unique perspectives and in the terms of their own respective fields, Biophysics of Consciousness: A Foundational Approach attempts a consilience across disparate disciplines to explain how it is possible that an objective brain produces subjective experience. This volume unites the (...) cr me de la cr me of physicists, neuroscientists, and psychiatrists in the attempt to understand consciousness through a foundational approach encompassing ontological, evolutionary, neurobiological, and Freudian interpretations with the focus on conscious phenomena occurring in the brain. By integrating the perspectives of these diverse disciplines with the latest research and theories on the biophysics of the brain, the book tries to explain how what John Searle calls a "conscious field" can be an adaptive and causal element in the natural world. (shrink)

The article reviews the book Odkrywanie aksjologicznego wymiaru nauki [Discovering the Axiological Dimension of Science], by Agnieszka Lekka-Kowalik.

Książka ukazała się jako drugi tom w nowo utworzonej serii Contemporary Debates in Philosophy, której patronuje wydawnictwo Blackwell Publishing Ltd, dobrze znane na rynku wydawnictw naukowych o charakterze przeglądowym czy quasi-encyklopedycznym. Ideą przewodnią serii jest udostepnienie studentom oraz wykładowcom forum filozoficznego, które dałoby im możliwość w pewien sposób włączyć się w dyskusje żywo podejmowane we współczesnej zachodniej filozofii. Jednakże autorzy są świadomi pewnej specyficznej trudności, jaką niesie dzisiaj filozofia, szczególnie, gdy chce się ją zaprezentować studentom. Chodzi tutaj o mniej lub (...) bardziej uzasadnione wrażenie, że każdy filozof rozumie terminy i problemy filozoficzne na swój sposób. To pociąga za sobą sytuacje, w których debaty wydają się tylko pozorne, 'gdyż jedni filozofowie atakują pozycje, których nikt nie broni, a drudzy bronią pozycji, których nikt nie atakuje'. Aby zapobiec takim paralelnym monologom i bezpośrednio zderzyć kontrastujące pozycje w ich całej mocy, autorzy przyjęli szczególną metodę. (shrink)

The notion of continuity of dynamic representations serves as a beacon for an integrative neuroscience to emerge.

Both our understanding of the term “science”, and that which it is employed to refer to, have undergone significant changes over the centuries. The 20th century, in particular, has seen important transformations within science and, in consequence, heated debate. One important transformation, rarely noticed by philosophers of science, has been the emergence of large-scale research projects of the sort often referred to as “big science”. Such projects require science to be organized, and function, in quite new ways. Their influence upon (...) science, construed as an activity and an institution, has been very great indeed - as has been their impact on our understanding of what it is that such activities ultimately produce. The aim of this article is to identify and spell out the philosophical aspects of this scenario as it pertains to science. I begin with an outline of the historical development of big science. Then, with reference to other scholars, I try to establish a definition of it. I briefly point to some developments in 20th century philosophy of science, and argue for the need to construct a distinctive philosophy of big science itself. The latter, I claim, should construe the philosophy of science in terms broad enough to be adequate for the analysis of a number of issues emerging in the context of the most developed branches of the natural sciences. I review a selection of these issues in the last part of my article. (shrink)

The article reviews the book Odkrywanie aksjologicznego wymiaru nauki [Discovering the Axiological Dimension of Science], by Agnieszka Lekka-Kowalik.

If the physical mind is located in quantized space of the brain then how does the physical mind become the self? This remains an unresolved problem. It can be restated as how mental representations or mental states get their informational contents, and of doing so in terms of the natural functions brain states have? We call these natural brain functions not teleosemantic functions, but rather teleological functions. This is because teleosemantics portrays mental representations which must have informational contents that track (...) “operational explanations of cognitive capacities” while teleological functions do not as they are hidden in quantized space, suggesting that mind is physical. Specifically teleonomic capacities have been built into us by natural selection, which naturally leads to a teleogical notion of function. Our claim is that teleofunctionality as unification of mental states has natural functions that carry intrinsic dispositions that may be broadly defined as ‘subjectivity’ or intrinsic information content of mental states. Mental states have intrinsic dispositions to change their functions, producing correspondences to the world that includes further layers of subtlety hidden in quantized space. How does intrinsic information self-replicate content in cases of mental misrepresentation? The putative special virtue of teleosemantics and its ability to give a theory of error through ‘uncertainty’ is discussed based on a teleological functionalist epistemology. (shrink)

„Filozofia w Instytucie Filozofii Akademii Ignatianum w Krakowie”.

Zapraszamy do lektury najnowszego, tym razem głównie filozoficznego, numeru półrocznika Wydziału Filozoficznego Akademii Ignatianum w Krakowie. Jest on w znacznej części poświęcony myśli ks. prof. dr. hab. Stanisława Ziemiańskiego SJ, ważnej i barwnej postaci krakowskiego ośrodka filozoficznego jezuitów. Był on uczniem o. prof. Mieczysława Alberta Krąpca OP, promotora jego pracy doktorskiej obronionej na Katolickim Uniwersytecie Lubelskim w 1978 r. Od 1962 do 2006 r. ojciec.