Background
Andrew Clark was born on November 20, 1957, in London, United Kingdom. He is the son of James Henderson and Christine (Russell) Clark.
Stirling University
University of Glasgow
University of Sussex
Washington University, St. Louis
University of Edinburgh
(Connectionist approaches, Andy Clark argues, are driving ...)
Connectionist approaches, Andy Clark argues, are driving cognitive science toward a radical reconception of its explanatory endeavor. At the heart of this reconception lies a shift toward a new and more deeply developmental vision of the mind - a vision that has important implications for the philosophical and psychological understanding of the nature of concepts, of mental causation, and of representational change. Combining philosophical argument, empirical results, and interdisciplinary speculations, Clark charts a fundamental shift from a static, inner-code-oriented conception of the subject matter of cognitive science to a more dynamic, developmentally rich, process-oriented view. Clark argues that this shift makes itself felt in two main ways. First, structured representations are seen as the products of temporally extended cognitive activity and not as the representational bedrock (an innate symbol system or language of thought) upon which all learning is based. Second, the relation between thoughts (as described by folk psychology) and inner computational states is loosened as a result of the fragmented and distributed nature of the connectionist representation of concepts. Other issues Clark raises include the nature of innate knowledge, the conceptual commitments of folk psychology, and the use and abuse of higher-level analyses of connectionist networks. Andy Clark is Reader in Philosophy of Cognitive Sciences in the School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences at the University of Sussex, in England. He's the author of Microcognition: Philosophy, Cognitive Science, and Parallel Distributed Processing.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262032104/?tag=2022091-20
1993
(The essays in this anthology deal with the growing interc...)
The essays in this anthology deal with the growing interconnections between moral philosophy and research that draws upon neuroscience, developmental psychology and evolutionary biology. This cross-disciplinary interchange coincides, not accidentally, with the renewed interest in ethical naturalism. In order to understand the nature and limits of moral reasoning, many new ethical naturalists look to cognitive science for an account of how people actually reason. At the same time, many cognitive scientists have become increasingly interested in moral reasoning as a complex form of human cognition that challenges their theoretical models.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/026213313X/?tag=2022091-20
1996
(Brain, body, and world are united in a complex dance of c...)
Brain, body, and world are united in a complex dance of circular causation and extended computational activity. In Being There, Andy Clark weaves these several threads into a pleasing whole and goes on to address foundational questions concerning the new tools and techniques needed to make sense of the emerging sciences of the embodied mind. Clark brings together ideas and techniques from robotics, neuroscience, infant psychology, and artificial intelligence. He addresses a broad range of adaptive behaviors, from cockroach locomotion to the role of linguistic artifacts in higher-level thought.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002XQ21PQ/?tag=2022091-20
1998
(Ranging across both standard philosophical territory and ...)
Ranging across both standard philosophical territory and the landscape of cutting-edge cognitive science, Mindware: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Cognitive Science, Second Edition, is a vivid and engaging introduction to key issues, research, and opportunities in the field. Starting with the vision of mindware as software and debates between realists, instrumentalists, and eliminativists, Andy Clark takes students on a no-holds-barred journey through connectionism, dynamical systems, and real-world robotics before moving on to the frontiers of cognitive technologies, enactivism, predictive coding, and the extended mind. Throughout, he highlights challenging issues in an effort to engage students in active debate. Each chapter opens with a brief sketch of a major research tradition or perspective, followed by concise critical discussions dealing with key topics and problems.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199828156/?tag=2022091-20
2000
(From Robocop to the Terminator to Eve 8, no image better ...)
From Robocop to the Terminator to Eve 8, no image better captures our deepest fears about technology than the cyborg, the person who is both flesh and metal, brain and electronics. But philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark sees it differently. Cyborgs, he writes, are not something to be feared--we already are cyborgs. In Natural-Born Cyborgs, Clark argues that what makes humans so different from other species is our capacity to fully incorporate tools and supporting cultural practices into our existence. Technology as simple as writing on a sketchpad, as familiar as Google or a cellular phone, and as potentially revolutionary as mind-extending neural implants--all exploit our brains' astonishingly plastic nature. Our minds are primed to seek out and incorporate non-biological resources, so that we actually think and feel through our best technologies. Drawing on his expertise in cognitive science, Clark demonstrates that our sense of self and of physical presence can be expanded to a remarkable extent, placing the long-existing telephone and the emerging technology of telepresence on the same continuum. He explores ways in which we have adapted our lives to make use of technology (the measurement of time, for example, has wrought enormous changes in human existence), as well as ways in which increasingly fluid technologies can adapt to individual users during normal use. Bio-technological unions, Clark argues, are evolving with a speed never seen before in history. As we enter an age of wearable computers, sensory augmentation, wireless devices, intelligent environments, thought-controlled prosthetics, and rapid-fire information search and retrieval, the line between the user and her tools grows thinner day by day. "This double whammy of plastic brains and increasingly responsive and well-fitted tools creates an unprecedented opportunity for ever-closer kinds of human-machine merger," he writes, arguing that such a merger is entirely natural. A stunning new look at the human brain and the human self, Natural Born Cyborgs reveals how our technology is indeed inseparable from who we are and how we think.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000R3PJ74/?tag=2022091-20
2003
(When historian Charles Weiner found pages of Nobel Prize-...)
When historian Charles Weiner found pages of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman's notes, he saw it as a "record" of Feynman's work. Feynman himself, however, insisted that the notes were not a record but the work itself. In Supersizing the Mind, Andy Clark argues that our thinking doesn't happen only in our heads but that "certain forms of human cognizing include inextricable tangles of feedback, feed-forward and feed-around loops: loops that promiscuously criss-cross the boundaries of brain, body and world." The pen and paper of Feynman's thought are just such feedback loops, physical machinery that shape the flow of thought and enlarge the boundaries of mind. Drawing upon recent work in psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, robotics, human-computer systems, and beyond, Supersizing the Mind offers both a tour of the emerging cognitive landscape and a sustained argument in favor of a conception of mind that is extended rather than "brain-bound." The importance of this new perspective is profound. If our minds themselves can include aspects of our social and physical environments, then the kinds of social and physical environments we create can reconfigure our minds and our capacity for thought and reason.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004MDLRQW/?tag=2022091-20
2010
(Summarizes and illuminates two decades of research Gather...)
Summarizes and illuminates two decades of research Gathering important papers by both philosophers and scientists, this collection illuminates the central themes that have arisen during the last two decades of work on the conceptual foundations of artificial intelligence and cognitive science. Each volume begins with a comprehensive introduction that places the coverage in a broader perspective and links it with material in the companion volumes. The collection is of interest in many disciplines including computer science, linguistics, biology, information science, psychology, neuroscience, iconography, and philosophy. Examines initial efforts and the latest controversies The topics covered range from the bedrock assumptions of the computational approach to understanding the mind, to the more recent debates concerning cognitive architectures, all the way to the latest developments in robotics, artificial life, and dynamical systems theory. The collection first examines the lineage of major research programs, beginning with the basic idea of machine intelligence itself, then focuses on specific aspects of thought and intelligence, highlighting the much-discussed issue of consciousness, the equally important, but less densely researched issue of emotional response, and the more traditionally philosophical topic of language and meaning. Provides a gamut of perspectives The editors have included several articles that challenge crucial elements of the familiar research program of cognitive science, as well as important writings whose previous circulation has been limited. Within each volume the papers are organized to reflect a variety of research programs and issues. The substantive introductions that accompany each volume further organize the material and provide readers with a working sense of the issues and the connection between articles.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AC2I6CU/?tag=2022091-20
2012
(How is it that thoroughly physical material beings such a...)
How is it that thoroughly physical material beings such as ourselves can think, dream, feel, create and understand ideas, theories and concepts? How does mere matter give rise to all these non-material mental states, including consciousness itself? An answer to this central question of our existence is emerging at the busy intersection of neuroscience, psychology, artificial intelligence, and robotics. In this groundbreaking work, philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark explores exciting new theories from these fields that reveal minds like ours to be prediction machines - devices that have evolved to anticipate the incoming streams of sensory stimulation before they arrive. These predictions then initiate actions that structure our worlds and alter the very things we need to engage and predict. Clark takes us on a journey in discovering the circular causal flows and the self-structuring of the environment that define "the predictive brain." What emerges is a bold, new, cutting-edge vision that reveals the brain as our driving force in the daily surf through the waves of sensory stimulation.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0190217014/?tag=2022091-20
2015
Andrew Clark was born on November 20, 1957, in London, United Kingdom. He is the son of James Henderson and Christine (Russell) Clark.
Clark received his education at Stirling University, graduating from it with a bachelor's degree in 1981 and obtaining his doctorate in 1984.
Clark started his career as a temporary lecturer in philosophy at the University of Glasgow in 1984 and one year later started teaching at the University of Sussex in Brighton. In 1993, he became a professor of philosophy and director of Philosophy/Neuroscience/Psychology Program at Washington University in St. Louis. Seven years later he returned to the University of Sussex, where he taught philosophy for two more years.
From 2002 to 2004, Clark held the position of director of the Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, and since then he works as a professor of philosophy and chair in logic and metaphysics at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
(How is it that thoroughly physical material beings such a...)
2015(Summarizes and illuminates two decades of research Gather...)
2012(Ranging across both standard philosophical territory and ...)
2000(The essays in this anthology deal with the growing interc...)
1996(From Robocop to the Terminator to Eve 8, no image better ...)
2003(When historian Charles Weiner found pages of Nobel Prize-...)
2010(Connectionist approaches, Andy Clark argues, are driving ...)
1993(Brain, body, and world are united in a complex dance of c...)
1998Clark is a member of the European Forum for Biophilosophy, European Society for Philosophy and Psychology and American Philosophical Society.
Clark was married twice. His first marriage was with Fiona McEwen and the second one with Josefa Toribio.
Now Clark lives in Edinburgh, Scotland with his partner, Alexa Morcom, a cognitive neuroscientist. He has no children.