LINGUIST List 10.201

Tue Feb 9 1999

Calls: Seamless Morphology, Mind 4

Editor for this issue: Jody Huellmantel <jodylinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Poznan Lingustics Meeting, Seamless Morphology at Poznan Ling Meeting 1999
2. Tom Doris, Mind-4 "Two Sciences of Mind"

Dear Colleagues,

This is a call for papers for another workshop to be held during 
Poznan Linguistic Meeting 1999 and to be organised by Prof. Rajendra 
Singh (Montreal).

CALL FOR PAPERS

Workshop on

SEAMLESS MORPHOLOGY

(April 30, 1999)
in conjunction with PLM 1999

Can the study of morphology be reconciled with a view of grammar that
maintains that the smallest unit of grammar and lexicon is the word,
not the morpheme? Recent work suggests that in fact it can be, with
advantages on both sides. This workshop shall attempt to take the
next logical step, and examine in more detail the central thesis of
this work, that words need not and should not be represented as having
any internal structure at all, that is, that morphology is completely
'seamless'.

The following scholars have already agreed to participate:

Prof. Wolfgang U. Dressler (Vienna)
Prof. Rajendra Singh (Montreal)
Prof. Stanley Starosta (Honolulu)


One page abstracts of papers for additional slots should be 
e-mailed to

singhrere.umontreal.ca

before February 28,1999.

Extensions of the thesis in question into new domains, attempts to
resolve putative problems for it, and putative arguments for its
untenability are equally welcome.

Mind 4
 Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland,
 Aug 16-20, 1999

 Theme: "Two Sciences of Mind"


Confirmed invited speakers include:
 
Bernard Baars:
"The compassionate implications of brain imaging of
conscious pain: New vistas in applied cognitive science."
 
David Galin:
"The Experience of "Spirit" in Cognitive Terms."

Stuart Hammeroff:
"Quantum Computing and Consciousness"

Steven Nachmanovitch:
"Creativity and Consiousness"

Jacob Needleman:
"Inner and outer empiricism in consciousness research."
 
 Karl Pribram
 Kathy McGovern

 Programme Committee

 Bernard Baars
 Mark Bickhard
 Robert Campbell
 Christian de Quincey
 Stuart Hammeroff
 Paul Mc Kevitt
 Kathy McGovern
 Steven Nachmanovitch
 Jacob Needleman
 Sean O Nuallain
 Yoshi Nakamura
 Max Velmans
 Terry Winegar


Stream 1; Outer and Inner empiricism in consciousness research

This stream will feature papers that attempt to show how "inner"
states can be elucidated with reference to external phenomena "Inner
empiricism" designates experience, or qualia. They are shaped
(somehow) by brain processes or states which sense and interpret the
external phenomena. The physical nature of these processes or states
may tell us much about consciousness. Likewise, the argument that we
are conscious of only one thing at a time because of the gating action
of the nuclei reticularis thalami (Taylor, Baars, etc) is indicative
of the kind of thinking we are trying to encourage. In this vein, pain
experience and its imperfect relationship to neural activity is
similarly relevant. We particularly welcome papers that feature
empirical data, or, lacking these data, show a grasp of the range of
disciplines necessary to do justice to the topic.


Papers are also invited that

- Interpret qualia in terms of a quantum-mechanics based panpsychism
(or, in current terms, pan-protopsychism)

- Establish links with developments like Whitehead's pan-experientialism
and process thought

-Interrelate physiological processes at the neural level with current
thought in QM

- Emphasise "relational empiricism", ie second-person considerations

- Investigate the brain processes or states giving rise to qualia at
whatever level the writer considers appropriate (eg intra-cellular
cytoskeletal activities and/or quantum-level phenomena).

- Involve studies of central pain states as well as other curiosities
like allodynia, spontaneous analgesia, pain asymbolia, and hypnotic
analgesia.

Each of the invited talks will be followed by a panel discussion
discussing respectively, consciousness as explored experientially,
through scientific investigation and in the arts.


Stream 2; Foundations of Cognitive Science

Co-chairs:

Sean O Nuallain
Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland
(sonuallacompapp.dcu.ie)


Robert L. Campbell
Department of Psychology, Clemson University,
Clemson, SC USA
(campberclemson.edu)


WHAT THE STREAM IS ABOUT

Though deep and contentious questions of theory and metatheory have
always been prevalent in Cognitive Science--they arise whenever an
attempt is made to define CS as a discipline--they have frequently
been downrated by researchers, in favor of empirical work that remains
safely within the confines of established theories and methods.


Our goal to is redress the balance. We encourage participants in this
stream to raise and discuss such questions as:

* the adequacy of computationalist accounts of mind

* the adequacy of conceptions of mental representation as structures
that encode structures out in the environment

* the consequences of excluding emotions, consciousness, and the social
realm from the purview of cognitive studies

* the consequences of Newell and Simon's "scientific bet" that
developmental constraints did not have to be studied until detailed
models of adult cognition had been constructed and tested

* the relationship between cognitive science and formal logic


A wide range of theoretical perspectives is welcome, so long as the
presenters are willing to engage in serious discussion with the
proponents of perspectives that are different from their own:

* Vygotskian approaches to culture and cognition

* Dynamic Systems theories

* Piagetian constructivism

* interactivism

* neuroscience accounts such as those of Edelman and Grossberg

* accounts of emergence in general, and emergent knowledge in particular

* perception and action robotics

* functional linguistics

* genetic algorithms

* Information Procesing

* connectionism

* evolutionary epistemology




Contributors will be asked to submit short papers (3000 word limit) in
the form of ASCII text files (HTML files are also welcome, but are
optional) to Robert Campbell (for stream 2) and Sean O Nuallain
(stream 1). (e-mails campberCLEMSON.EDU,seancompapp.dcu.ie) The
deadline is March 1, 1999. We will email notification of acceptance or
rejection by April 1.

The standard prsentations during the streams will be 20-minute talks
and poster sessions.


The "MIND" conferences have normally had their proceedings published
by John Benjamins. We have already been approached by prospective
publishers for mind-4. All accepted papers and posters will be
included in a preprint.