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SUMMARY:"Where Is the AI? Metaphysics\, Individuation\, and the Unity of Artificial Systems" (Special Issue\, Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy)
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DESCRIPTION:<p><strong>Call for Papers&nbsp\;</strong>&ndash\; Special Issue of:</p>\n<p><strong><em>Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy</em></strong></p>\n<p><strong><u>Where Is the AI? Metaphysics\, Individuation\, and the Unity of Artificial Systems</u></strong></p>\n<p>Submission deadline: 25th April 2026</p>\n<p>---</p>\n<p><em>Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy</em>&nbsp\;invites submissions for a Special Issue on the metaphysics and individuation of artificial systems\, edited by&nbsp\;<strong>Herman Cappelen</strong>&nbsp\;and&nbsp\;<strong>John Hawthorne</strong>.</p>\n<p><strong>Overview</strong><br>When we say &ldquo\;the AI\,&rdquo\; what entity are we referring to - if any? A trained parameter set? An abstract function? A runtime instance with a particular context window? A distributed socio-technical system spanning weights\, servers\, tools\, users\, and institutions? Questions concerning AI mind\, agency\, responsibility\, and even consciousness may be ill-posed unless we first examine the more basic metaphysical question: what is the AI\, and where are its boundaries?</p>\n<p>This Special Issue invites contributions addressing the metaphysics\, ontology\, and individuation of AI systems\, including persistence over time\, identity conditions\, part&ndash\;whole structure\, and the criteria by which we count &ldquo\;one system&rdquo\; rather than many. We particularly welcome work showing how different individuation choices reshape debates about memory\, understanding\, conversation\, awareness\, and moral or legal standing. In many practical domains - governance\, liability\, auditing\, and public discourse - the question may not simply concern discovering AI boundaries but also stipulating them\, much as we do for corporations and other institutional agents.</p>\n<p><strong>Guiding questions include (but are not limited to):</strong></p>\n<ul>\n<li>What is the referent of &ldquo\;the model&rdquo\;? An abstract mathematical object\, a concrete artifact\, a parameter file\, a deployed service\, or a socio-technical assemblage?</li>\n<li>Individuation and counting: When are there many AIs versus one AI? Are users interacting with an instance\, a product\, a family of checkpoints\, or a shared underlying model across deployments?</li>\n<li>Semantics of expressions used to refer to AI: What does Claude refer to when it uses &ldquo\;I\,&rdquo\; and what do users refer to when they address Claude using &ldquo\;you&rdquo\;? What do speakers refer to when they say &ldquo\;I love Claude&rdquo\;?</li>\n<li>Boundaries and parts: What belongs to the system - context window\, retrieval layers\, tools\, external memory\, prompt\, user\, orchestrator\, fine-tuning pipeline\, monitoring stack?</li>\n<li>Unity of cognitive predicates: Which entity (if any) could be said to understand language\, have a conversation\, share memory\, be aware\, or be conscious? Can these predicates attach to different levels (instance vs model vs organization)?</li>\n<li>Persistence and change: Identity across updates\, fine-tunes\, distillations\, merges\, and tool integrations\; when does &ldquo\;the same AI&rdquo\; cease to exist?</li>\n<li>Stipulation vs discovery: Is there a fact of the matter about system boundaries\, or do we require conventional criteria - analogous to corporate individuation - for explanatory\, ethical\, and legal purposes?</li>\n</ul>\n<p><strong>Illustrative topics include:</strong></p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ontology of models: types vs tokens\; abstracta vs concreta\; metaphysics of software objects</li>\n<li>Part&ndash\;whole and boundary questions in distributed computation\; analogies to extended or scaffolded cognition</li>\n<li>Context windows and conversations: who is the conversational participant - session\, instance\, service\, or organization?</li>\n<li>Memory and identity: retrieval\, long-term storage\, personalization\, and the metaphysics of &ldquo\;shared memory&rdquo\;</li>\n<li>Predicate attribution across levels: when (if ever) understanding\, awareness\, or consciousness apply - and to what</li>\n<li>Individuation for governance: auditing units\, accountability boundaries\, liability structures\, and model registries</li>\n<li>Corporate analogies and disanalogies: legal fictions\, operational criteria\, and political stakes of boundary decisions</li>\n<li>Cross-cultural or historical approaches to personhood\, artifact ontology\, and collective entities</li>\n</ul>\n<p><strong>Submission details</strong></p>\n<ul>\n<li>Manuscripts should be&nbsp\;<strong>around or under 10\,000 words</strong>. Submissions will be considered on a&nbsp\;<strong>rolling-review basis</strong>&nbsp\;until the final deadline of&nbsp\;<strong>25 April 2026</strong>.</li>\n<li>Please submit through the journal&rsquo\;s website:&nbsp\;https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/sinq20</li>\n<li>When uploading your manuscript\,&nbsp\;<strong>select the Special Issue title</strong>&nbsp\;from the drop-down menu on the submission form.</li>\n</ul>\n<p><strong>Queries</strong><br>For questions regarding the Special Issue\, please contact:&nbsp\;inquiryeditorial@gmail.com</p>
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