CFP: 9th Descartes Lectures: Large Language Models & Philosophy of Mind

CFP: Large Language Models & Philosophy of Mind

The 9th Descartes Lectures

Tilburg University (The Netherlands)

29-31 July 2024

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Every other year, a distinguished philosopher visits Tilburg Universityand the Tilburg Center for Moral Philosophy, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science (TiLPS) to deliver the René Descartes Lectures.

We are happy to announce that the 2024 Descartes Lectures will be delivered by Prof. David Chalmers (NYU) on the topic of ‘Large Language Models and the Philosophy of Mind’. Each of Prof. Chalmers’ lectures will be followed by an invited commentary from our panel of respondents: Prof. Vincent C. Müller (FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg), Dr. Emily Sullivan (Utrecht), and Prof. Pär Sundström (Umeå).

Parallel to the lectures & invited commentaries, Tilburg University will host a workshop on the topic of LLMs & The Philosophy of Mind.

To that end, we invite submissions in the form of extended abstracts (up to 500 words excluding notes and references) concerning relevant issues to be submitted by 15 April 2024.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

·         Could LLMs or some nearby extensions be said to be conscious?

·         Can LLMs be said to ‘understand’?

·         Does the lack of sensory grounding impact whether LLMS genuinely think?

·         How does the use of LLMs relate to the extended mind thesis?

·         Do LLMs genuinely refer to the real world when producing language?

·         LLMs and representationalist philosophy of mind

·         The notion of general intelligence and how it might be manifested

·         Are LLMs just “Blockheads” (Block 1981)?

Abstracts prepared for blind review, together with a separate cover sheet including author name(s) & contact/affiliation information, should be submitted via email to [email protected]. Please mention 'Descartes Lectures Submission' in the subject line.

Successful submissions will be notified by 10 May 2024.

Note that, unfortunately, we are unable to fund the accommodation or travel costs of those selected to present at the workshop.

For more information about the Lectures and workshop, please see the conference webpage: https://descarteslectures2024.wordpress.com/And if you have any further questions, please contact the organizers via email at [email protected]