UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE
		 COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM

			      presents

	     "Information Sensitivity, Biosemiotics and
	     the Slow Road to Contentful Representation"

		       Prof. Daniel D. Hutto
		   (Department of Philosophy,
		   University of Hertfordshire)

		     16 April 2008 (Wednesday)

		       Lecture Theatre E351
		   Hatfield, College Lane Campus
			   3 - 4 pm

	       Coffee/tea and biscuits will be available.

		    Everyone is Welcome to Attend


Abstract:

In philosophy and cognitive the notions of 'information' and
'representation' are frequently used. When used with care (and not just
as metaphorical shorthand) these labels are meant to designate kinds
of states (and processes that have content of specific kinds). Or,
put another way - arguably, if anything grounds the serious use of such
terms it is that refer to content-bearing states of some type. This is
evident from consideration of the theoretical work they are asked to
do in such fields, While there are a clear and useful notion of what
contentful (truth-evaluable) information and representations are I am
deeply sceptical that such notions have any purchase in helping us to
explain the bulk of intelligent interactions and engagements of most
organisms and agents. In this talk I explain the basis of my scepticism
and propose a non-contentful alternative.

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Hertfordshire Computer Science Research Colloquium
http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~nehaniv/colloq