djoslin@bbn.com (David Joslin) (09/16/89)
I finished my MS in CS with a concentration in AI a few years ago, but my interests have shifted since then. Last year I sat in on the Philosophy of Mind and Language class at Harvard, taught by Hilary Putnam, and this year I'm taking Dan Dennett's Philosophy of Mind class at Tufts. I'm looking now for a a PhD program that brings together the topics of Philosophy of Mind and theoretical AI, and that would allow me to broaden my background in both Philosophy and AI. Any information will be appreciated. I'll summarize and post if there is enough interest. David djoslin@bbn.com POBox 1592, Cambridge MA 02238 "There's nothing I like less than *bad* arguments for a view that I hold dear." -- Dan Dennett, 9/5/89
djoslin@bbn.com (David Joslin) (09/22/89)
I recently asked for information about PhD programs that combined
Philosophy and AI. The responses that I received are included below.
The schools mentioned are:
CMU
Indiana
Pittsburgh
Rochester
SUNY Binghamton
SUNY Buffalo
Stanford
Sussex
UCSD
UofI at Urbana-Champaign
Thanks again to everybody who responded.
David
djoslin@bbn.com
POBox 1592, Cambridge MA 02238
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Check out Stanford's PhD program in the Philosophy Dept. with a
specialization in symbolic systems. Maybe not the exact name, but
it's exactly what you're looking for.
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I just saw your posting about philosophically oriented AI programs.
The Dept. of Computer Science at SUNY Buffalo has an excellent PhD
program in CS. Stu Shapiro's and my research group works on issues in
knowledge representation, natural-language understanding, and cognitive
modeling that are highly philosophically relevant (my PhD is in
philosophy). Also, our Cognitive Science research group is working on a
computational theory of narrative, with researchers from a number of
departments. If you'd like more detailed info, please let me know, and
send me a usmailing address.
-Bill Rapaport
William J. Rapaport
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Interim Director, Center for Cognitive Science
Dept. of Computer Science||internet: rapaport@cs.buffalo.edu
SUNY Buffalo ||bitnet: rapaport@sunybcs.bitnet
Buffalo, NY 14260 ||uucp: {decvax,watmath,rutgers}!sunybcs!rapaport
(716) 636-3193, 3180 ||fax: (716) 636-3464
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Program in Philosophy and Computer & Systems Sciences (PACSS)
Department of Philosophy
SUNY Binghamton
Binghamton, New York 13901
(607) 777-2734
From the brochure:
"...the Philosophy Department of SUNY-Binghamton offers an innovative,
interdisciplinary program leading to the MA, and, planned for 1989, the
PhD in Philosophy that integrates philosophy with computer science and
systems science."
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You might try the following:
UCSD
Pittsburgh
Rochester
contact Henry Kyburg(?) in the Philosophy dept.
(I think they have a PhD program in Cog. Sci.)
Tufts -- Dan Dennett [Tufts does not offer a PhD in Philosophy,
and Dennett's Center for Cognitive Studies does not
award degrees. -- dj]
Indiana -- Douglas Hofstadter
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I don't know much about the program, but I have heard that
Carnegie-Mellon may have the program that you are looking for.
Check with their philosophy department.
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Somewhere in the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois
are people interested in Philosophy and theoretical AI. You should
write here and get more information. The UofI at Urbana-Champaign
is a great research university with a lot of fine programs, especially
in CS, Physics, Engineering, Chemistry, Psychology etc.
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It's my informal impression that much of the philosophy/comp sci
work occurs under the auspices of programs in cognitive science
at the various universities, e.g.,
Sussex, Stanford, UC San Diego, Indiana Univ, SUNY Binghamton,
and the emphasis on philosophy (as opposed to any other of
the Cognitive Science disciplines) varies from school to school.
So you might want to check out schools with programs in cog sci.
The program at SUNY Binghamton was written up in a relatively
recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, say
Jan or Feb 1989, if you want to look it up, I believe it was
a cog sci program that emphasized philosophy.
I have a notice re a special Ph.D. program in Philosophy &
Symbolic Systems approved by the Dept. of Philosophy at
Stanford. The notice says, "It is contingent on some
implementation issues, but wll probably go into effect as of
academic year 1989-1990."
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CMU's philosophy department is the only one in the world that uses Sun
workstations. The combination of CMU and Pitt is very good.
Stanford: Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI)
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Sorry, but I don't know of any good ones in the states. The program run by
Aaron Sloman at the University of Sussex in England is probably a good one,
though. I say that because he is a philosopher who's interests have turned to
AI, and Margaret Boden, also a philosopher interested in cognitive science, is
in the same department.
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I highly recommend Carnegie Mellon's philosophy department. There
are undergraduate programs for things like "Philosophy of Artificial
Intelligence." They should have similar graduate programs.
I was a applied mathematics/computer science undergrad at Carnegie
Mellon, and I took three "Philosophy of AI" classes. One was
"Philosophy of Mind and Machines," and that was very
"philosophical." The others were on logic and probability applied
to AI, and were like "real AI" classes, but with the highly
disciplined theoretical approach of logic-loving philosophy
professors.
Many of the philosophy professors at Carnegie Mellon were stolen
from the University of Pittsburgh, which you might consider as well.
However, their PhD program seemed geared towards heavy duty
philosophy - you have to learn Latin and other such things that did
not interest me.