Umeå Cognitive Science Seminar bjuder in till ett första konstituerande möte som innefattar ett föredrag av docent Peter Schulte på teamat representationer i hjärnan.
Seminariet ges på engelska. Alla intresserade är välkomna att delta.
Abstract (på engelska): The notion of “neural representation” plays a central explanatory role in cognitive neuroscience. However, recent studies have revealed that there is still a lot of disagreement and unclarity about this notion among scientists, especially when it comes to the question of what makes it the case that a brain state qualifies as a neural representation. In this talk, I will develop a proposal for sufficient conditions for neural representation and argue that these conditions should be widely acceptable. I then present a paradigm example (path integration in bees) where all these conditions seem to be met. Finally, I will briefly explore possible implications of my arguments for questions concerning the nature of representation in general, the character of representational explanations and the perennial debate between representationalism and anti-representationalism.
Peter Schulte is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Umeå University. He is the author of Mental Content (Cambridge UP, 2023) and numerous articles on the philosophy of mind and metaphysics.