The Leo Apostel Center

in collaboration with the Doctoral Programme of the VUB invites
everyone to the 39th of its interdisciplinary seminars in the
Foundations series. In this series CLEA invites scholars that are
actively engaged in the research on the foundations of a particular
discipline. Their lectures will always be directed to an
interdisciplinary audience, and the discussions aim at confronting
the foundations of the different disciplines.


    L O O K I N G   B E H I N D  T H E   A P P E A R A N C E S
            (o f   L i f e   a n d   C o g n i t i o n)
    **********************************************************
        A Metaphysical Provocation for Cognitive Science
                    and Artificial Life



                by Prof. Dr. Markus Peschl
                *************************
           Dept. for Philosophy of Science and Social
                     Studies of Science
                University of Vienna, Austria


Thursday, June 24, 1999 at 5 p.m. in room  5/B 404 (building B, 5th
floor), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Campus Oefenplein


About the lecture

What are we really interested in when we are doing research in
cognitive science, (computational) neuroscience, and/or artificial
life? This talk shows that the results of investigation of the
natural sciences cover only a rather restricted fraction of a given
phenomenon, such as thinking, life, etc.; i.e., these investigations
do not so much focus on what a given phenomenon is per se, but rather
on how a given reality functions and how it can be predicted and/or
manipulated effectively. In other words, it seems that the main focus
is on the effects of a reality, rather than on the phenomenon itself
and/or its deeper causes.
This becomes especially evident when the object of investigation is
(human) thinking/cognition and the (human) process of life. It seems
that a qualitative understanding of these phenomena can only be
provided by a more philosophical approach having its roots in
metaphysics. Only the "intellectual adventure" of discovering a
philosophical principle will lead to an answer to the question of
what life or cognition are in their deeper/-st sense. By searching
for such a principle one has to look behind the (material)
appearances and by that has the possibility to discover given reality
"from the interior".

About the speaker

Since 1989 Markus Peschl has been professor at the Dept. for
Philosophy of Science, Univ. of Vienna, Austria. He did post doctoral
research at the Univ. of California, San Diego for 2 years in the
fields of cognitive science, neuroscience, and philosophy of
science/mind. His area of specialisation is the problem of
representation in cognitive systems and its
epistemological/philosophical foundations and implications for a more
adequate understanding of what the human person is.

The presentation with questions will last about an hour. Afterwards,
an hour or more is reserved for an in-depth, group discussion of the
topic.

More info at the CLEA office: phone 02-644 26 77 or via the Web-page:
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/CLEA/