The Epistemology of Natural and Artificial Systems
February 23rd-26th 2006
| When Quine wrote "Epistemology Naturalized" in 1969, he started a debate regarding the nature and role of epistemology in Philosophy and other disciplines. With the rise of Cognitive Science human and animal knowledge became either an explanatory primitive or an explanatory goal for many researchers. Other researchers such as Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky as well Richard Nisbett turned their attention to human cognition and found it wanting in many respects. This conference is designed to take stock of the research that has been done in all areas of Cognitive Science over the last 36 years. Participants will discuss both the proper conception of epistemology as well as epistemic issues in human and animal cognition, artificial reasoning systems, and the interaction of humans and machines. Central questions include: What is the proper role of epistemology in contemporary Philosophy and Cognitive Science? Should epistemology continue to focus on classic questions concerning the nature, sources, and limits of human knowledge? Is all knowledge beliefs? What are important epistemic issues in machine reasoning? What role does machine reasoning play in human cognition, and what role could it play? Do animals have beliefs and knowledge? |