Workshop on Philosophical Issues in Neural Computation

Workshop on Philosophical Issues in Neural Computation

June 02 – 03, 2026

Ruhr-University Bochum

Abstract:

The idea that the brain performs computations is widely accepted in cognitive science and computational neuroscience. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that neural computation differs fundamentally from classical computation. Key aspects of what it means to compute in a neural context are under debate. For example, to what extent is neural computation medium-independent, or is it tied to the biological substrate of the brain? What is the status of deep learning models in computational neuroscience? What kind of models are they—engineering or scientific—and how do they explain neural phenomena? How does neural computation relate to, or differ from, analog and digital computation as understood in traditional computer science? This workshop brings together philosophers and researchers from other fields to address these questions and develop a clearer understanding of computation in neural systems.

List of Speakers:

* Johannes Brinz (University of Osnabrück)

* Adrien Doerig (FU Berlin)

* Frances Egan (Rutgers University)

* Olivia Guest (Radboud University)

* Gualtiero Piccinini (University of Missouri)

* Katja Seeliger (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg)

* Oron Shagrir (University of Jerusalem)

Submission:

We invite submissions of abstracts (max. 500 words) for presentation prepared for blind review. The deadline for submissions is March 31st, 2026. To submit, please send an email with your abstract in PDF format along with your contact information to: johannes.brinz@uos.de.

The organizing committee will notify authors of its decision by mid April 2026.

The workshop will take place in person at Ruhr-University Bochum from June 2 to June 3, 2026.

Organization:

Johannes Brinz & Nikola Kompa (University of Osnabrück)

Tobias Schlicht (Ruhr-University Bochum)