[Seminar] Goldstein: Unconscious decisions, Banburismus and the Brain

Wednesday Oct 3rd 5:00 – 7:00 pm
Main Building, Room 305
University of Hong Kong

Unconscious decisions, Banburismus and the Brain
Prof. Laurence Goldstein
University of Kent

Abstract

Banburismus is a process originally invented by Alan Turing to sort promising coding hypotheses from non-promising ones in attempting to decipher a coded message. There exists a neural counterpart to this process responsible for our unconscious decisions and which accounts for the behaviour of an individual subject of a Sorites-experiment. This paper relates that empirical finding to a philosophical solution of the general Sorites paradox.

NB: Professor Goldstein is one of the founders of the HKU BCogsc Programme, and was the Head of the HKU Philosophy Department.

Co-sponsored by:
Cognitive Science program (BCogSc)
Philosophy Department

Dr. Cook – recent activities

Forthcoming publication:

“The Septième Promenade of the Rêveries: A Peculiar Account of Rousseau’s Botany?” In J. O’Neal, ed., The Nature of Rousseau’s Reveries, special volume of Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century (early 2008).

Invited speaker:

“La traduction de Rousseau en tant que réception,” colloquium Equipe Rousseau, Université de Paris-Sorbonne, Paris, France, 24 May 2008.

Colloquium on botanical gardens and herbaria, Linnean Society, London, 15 May 2008.

“The Herbarium as an instrument of social reform,” Herbarium Workshop, Institut für Geschichte der Medizin, Naturwissenschaft und Technik, Ernst-Haeckel-Haus, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany, 11 December 2007.

“The disciple critiques the Master: Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Linnaean nomenclature,” Les mots et les choses au XVIIIe siècle: la science, “langue bien faite?” Université Lumière-Lyon 2, 22 September 2007.

Recent Conference papers

“Between Praxis and Episteme: the herbarium as boundary object,” International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, Exeter, U.K., 26 July 2007.

“Communicating science at a distance: Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s botanical correspondence,” Twelfth International Congress on the Enlightenment, Montpellier, France, 10 July 2007.

“Early-Modern European ‘linguistic imperialism’ in botany: The case of Chinese Plants,” British Society for the History of Science, University of Manchester, U.K., 28 June 2007.

Two CERG research grants for HKU Philosophy

The results for the 2007-08 Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) Competitive Earmarked Research Grant (CERG) exercise were announced over the summer. Dr. Cook and Professor Hansen each obtained a large grant. Congratulations to them!

Professor Hansen
A philosophical approach to the Daode Jing

Dr Cook
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Botany, the salutary science

Conference on Buddhism and Daoism

Emptiness and nothingness:  Conference on Buddhism and Daoism

Funded by the Louis Cha Fund for East/West Studies

Friday 5 – Sat 6, October, 2007
Dept of Philosophy
The University of Hong Kong

This conference is open only to invited participants. For more details, please contact Dr. Joe Lau

Speakers

Miri Albahari, University of Western Australia
“Clarifying the nature of witness-consciousness”

Graham Priest, University of Melbourne
“The structure of emptiness”

Chad Hansen, University of Hong Kong
“Dao as a mereological non-thing”

Jonathan Chan, Baptist University of Hong Kong
“How to understand Dao – A pragmatic approach”

Leo Cheung Kam Ching, Baptist University of Hong Kong
“Laozi’s Dao as a Structured Whole and Its Ineffability”

Chris Fraser, Chinese University of Hong Kong
“Psychological Emptiness in the Zhuangzi”

Zhihua Yao, Chinese University of Hong Kong
“Empty Subject Terms in Buddhist Logic”

Joe Lau, University of Hong Kong
“Emptiness, dispositionalism, and conceptual constructions”

2007-2008 semester

• Dr. Martin is now the Chair of the Department.
• Professor Ci will be on sabbatical in the 2007-08 academic year.

a new blog

This new blog will be used for posting news about the HKU Philosophy Department.