View source for RSL-IJCS 2017 : COGNITION AND COMPUTATION

{{Event 
|Acronym=RSL-IJCS 2017 
|Title=RSL-IJCS  2017 : COGNITION AND COMPUTATION 
|Type=Conference 
|Field=computer science
|Start date=Invalid date
|End date=2017/07/28 
|City=N/A 
|Country=undefined
|Homepage=https://www.mulino.it/riviste/a/issn/2279-7777/newsitem/139
|Submission deadline=2017/07/31
}}
Call for Papers “Cognition and Computation”

Special issue of
Reti, Saperi, Linguaggi. Italian Journal of Cognitive Sciences
https://www.mulino.it/riviste/issn/2279-7777


One of the founding ideas of cognitive science is that cognition is essentially
computation. From the very start, many have denied this view, but in recent
times computationalism has increasingly come under attack from several different
fronts. From a quick glance at the current cognitive science scenario, one comes
away with the impression that several of the criticisms raised against the
computational view of mind, rather than leading to the abandonment of
computationalism altogether, have instead served to advancing it in several
respects. The aim of this call is to collect reflections regarding this
scenario. The following is a list of challenges to computationalism, by no means
exhaustive, which have spawned new research efforts within the computational
paradigm.
• Emotion and consciousness are the mental phenomena more often alleged as
defeating computational explanations. Seemingly, computations have affectless,
flavorless connotations. Yet, the challenge has been taken seriously, and today
research domains such as cognitive affective computation, and machine
consciousness, have grown remarkably.
• Embodiment and enactivism have been, and are today, the strongest alternatives
proposed to the computational view of mind. However, there are several new
research directions, within the computational paradigm, that emphasize the
embedding of computational systems within physical body structures and their
environment, like, for example, in the field of cognitive robotics.
• Predictive theories of the brain, spanning from Bayesian approaches to
free-energy principles, are finding increasingly wide audiences. Even if not
conceived as radical alternatives to computationalism, it is often argued that
these approaches imply a conceptual shift with respect to mainstream
computational modeling. However, others hold that several existing computational
modeling approaches can be given a natural probabilistic interpretation that is
compatible, and enriched, by the recent probabilistic theories of brain and
cognition.
• Mechanistic explanations are gaining traction in most special sciences,
especially biology and neuroscience. Even if in the early days computation was
often seen as the most precise way for explaining mechanisms, the new
mechanistic philosophers tend to conceptualize mechanisms in ways that do not
require computation. However, a big theoretical effort is currently underway
that relates the new notion of mechanism with computation once again.
• Computationalism has often been criticized for relying on concepts borrowed
from theoretical computer science, that lose sense when taken out of their
original context and applied to foreign realms like the mind. This criticism has
been raised, for example, in regard to computable functions, symbols,
computation complexity. Actually, recent advances within theoretical computer
science may offer new refined concepts that may greatly help cognitive science
as well. The notion of computation has itself been the center of deep
theoretical reflection. Computational complexity has significantly been
advanced, for example, with parameterized complexity theory, something that has
been recently applied in cognitive science.
The above suggestions are by no means exhaustive, and explorations of other
challenges faced by computationalism today are encouraged.

Invited Contributors
Raúl Arrabales
Mark Blokpoel, Johan Kwisthout, Iris van Rooij and Todd Wareham
Marcello Frixione
Alistair Isaac
Marcin Miłkowski
Vincent Müller
Matthias Scheutz
Roman Yampolskiy


Submissions should adhere to the following guidelines:

Articles should be submitted in blind review format. Please omit any
self–identifying information within the abstract and body of the paper. Max
length: 35.000 characters (including spaces, references and an abstract of no
more than 150 words). Please use the APA citation style for references.

Language: English

Guest Editor: Alessio Plebe
Submissions should be sent via e-mail to: aplebe[at]unime.it

Important dates:

Deadline for submissions: July 31th, 2017
Notification of acceptance: October 15th, 2017
Acronym	RSL-IJCS 2017 +
End date	July 28, 2017 +
Event type	Conference +
Has coordinates	9° 6' 7", 76° 36' 21"Latitude: 9.1019277777778 Longitude: 76.605963888889 +
Has location city	N/A +
Has location country	Category:Undefined +
Homepage	https://www.mulino.it/riviste/a/issn/2279-7777/newsitem/139 +
IsA	Event +
Submission deadline	July 31, 2017 +
Title	RSL-IJCS 2017 : COGNITION AND COMPUTATION +