UW Gazette, October 4, 1995 The 1995 Hagey Lecture is to be given next week by Dr. Patricia Churchland, a prominent figure in the exploding field of brain philosophy. The chair of the Hagey Lecture committee, Dr. Vera Golini of St. Jerome's College, says something about why Churchland is the perfect choice for this year's distinguished visitor: After months of following this subject, I can say that Churchland is a marvelous example of what can happen when a philosopher by training, by profession, and vocation, begins to think/believe that she too belongs in the scientific laboratory. There, she, and others (many) who espouse this approach, take traditional thought, and perceptions of thought and begin to view human thought and its human perception from under a microscope, or through a telescope, or place it on the dissecting table. Thus, thought together with the manner in which we traditionally formulate and perceive it, are given a new countenance, as they are looked upon as "organic" phenomena, to be understood from within the organic locus, [mind-brain], from which thought and perception originate, and the or ganic locus to which they are destined (that is, the receiver). Thus, Descartes' "Cogito, ergo sum," or, "I think, therfore I am," takes on a totally new meaning - or no meaning at all, as a result of questions such as "who - better, what - is the agent that is thinking?" "What is the character and nature of the thinking process?" "What is meant by being?" Avant-garde contemporary philosophers are aproaching these questions and searching for answers by scanning minutely the the physical mind-brain as simply physical matter existing in the human body, as if the mind- brain were an organ like the lung, or the liver, or as if the mind-brain were simply a physical universe in which, by use of a strong telescope, one view new planetary loci: concrete and real spots where consciousness, thought pro cesses, survival functions, begin and take place, and end. In this determined material and scientific approach to the mind-brain, Patricia Churchland is the certain leader, what Stephen Rose, author of The Making of Memory, calls the "doyenne of this new breed" of philosophers, and she calls their research program "neurophilosophy." Churchland, and this new group of brain researchers "are beginning to wonder seriously if an experimantal approach to the brain's own Big C of Consciousness might now be possible, while some philosophers have become sufficiently interested in what is going on to set about learning neurophysiology, or even trying their hand at lab work itself." "A spate of books and conferences has been joined by the new Journal of Consciousness Studies. Although the journal is edited in Oxford [the place of latest study and formation of Prof. Churchland] there is no doubt that the focus of debate is the West Coast of the United States," right where Churchland teaches & researches, and right from where she comes to the University of Waterloo! (Quotations are from the Globe and Mail, January 7, 1995, an article by Stephen Rose, titled "Neurophilosophers Rethinking Descartes," reprinted from The Guardian of London. The visit of Prof. Patricia Smith Churchland to UW as guest speaker for the 1995 Hagey Lectures, is a meaningful event not only for students and the University community at large, but especially for faculty and researchers in at least six departments on campus. Some very exciting work is taking place in laboratories and offices on this campus in areas of neurological science, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science. In relation to these areas, as well as philosophy, psychology, kinesiology, Professor Churchland's visit brings very new, controversial, and challenging ideas, so that her lectures should spark some rather lively questions and debates. Artificial intelligence research at Waterloo At the UW, within the faculty of mathematics, in the sector of research and graduate studies in computer sciences, the Logic Programming and Artificial Intelligence Group (LPAIG) conducts research on several areas of artificial intelligence. "In particular," states their graduate programme brochure, "the group has active interests in natural language understanding and computational linguistics, knowledge representation and automated reasoning, planning, and reasoning with uncer tainty." Their current projects address topics such as knowledge representation and reasoning, natural language processing, computational stylistics for natural language understanding and generation, machine translation, and second language instruction. Cognitive science at Waterloo The department of philosophy has made a proposal for a Cognitive Science option as a new Interdisciplinary option which is pending approval. In the description of the pro posal, "cognitive science" is termed as the "interdisciplinary study of mind and intelligence, embracing psychology, philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, neuroscience, and computer science and engineering." The prescribed list of required and elective courses for this proposed option, brings together inter disciplinary areas of study involving courses in philosophy, systems design, English, computer science, and psychology, thus linking members from five departments which have been so far involved with cognitive science at the University of Waterloo.