VWGÖ - Verband Wissenschaftlicher Gesellschaften Österreichs
Contact:
Michaela Pinkawa
Phone: +431 40160 31103
E-Mail: office@vwgoe.at

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Vienna (ptp018/18.04.2014/12:30) - Prof. Mario Bunge will hold a lecture about "The Persistence Of The Mind-Body Problem" at The Austria Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Vienna at 24th April.

Prof. Mario Bunge's key thesis in his own words:

The mind-body problem has been discussed for three millennia. At least five answers to it have been proposed:
a. mind is immaterial and rules over matter
b. mental processes are brain processes
c. mind and matter have separate existences and are parallel to one another
d. mind and brain are separate but interact with one another
e. there is only one kind of entity, which is neither material nor spiritual but neutral

I submit that a. each of the above theses should be examined along with the ontological (metaphysical) system they belong to, rather than in isolation, b. each doctrine on the nature of he mental should be evaluated by its heuristic value.

I also suggest that the materialist thesis first proposed by Alcmaeon is the one inherent in cognitive neuroscience, whereas the view that the mind is a set of computer programs is a version of Platonism and moreover incapable of explaining spontaneity and creativity, as well as devoid of interest to the mental health professionals. I also claim that this thesis is not to be confused with eliminative materialism, the thesis that there are no mental processes. Finally, I argue that the contemporary science of the mind is not a chapter of biology, but a result of the fusion of several sciences: that it is psycho-neuro-immuno-endocrino-sociology.

Location: The Austria Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, OFAI
Freyung 6/6, A-1010 Wien
Tel: +43-1-5336112-17, Fax: +43-1-5336112-77, Email: sec@ofai.at
Time: Thursday, 24th April 2014, 6.30 p.m.

Please register your attendance in advance at sec@ofai.at. The attendance is free of charge.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Robert Trappl
robert.trappl@ofai.at
01-5336112-17

Lecturer:
Prof. Mario Bunge, PHD, FRSC
Professor Emeritus in Philosophy
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

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Submitter: VWGÖ - Verband Wissenschaftlicher Gesellschaften Österreichs Contact: Michaela Pinkawa Phone: +431 40160 31103 E-Mail: office@vwgoe.at Website: www.vwgoe.at