Papers by Anco Peeters
Consciousness & Cognition, 2019
In this paper, we evaluate the pragmatic turn towards embodied, enactive thinking in cognitive sc... more In this paper, we evaluate the pragmatic turn towards embodied, enactive thinking in cognitive science, in the context of recent empirical research on the memory palace technique. The memory palace is a powerful method for remembering yet it faces two problems. First, cognitive scientists are currently unable to clarify its efficacy. Second, the technique faces significant practical challenges to its users. Virtual reality devices are sometimes presented as a way to solve these practical challenges, but currently fall short of delivering on that promise. We address both issues in this paper. First, we argue that an embodied, enactive approach to memory can better help us understand the effectiveness of the memory palace. Second, we present design recommendations for a virtual memory palace. Our theoretical proposal and design recommendations contribute to solving both problems and provide reasons for preferring an embodied, enactive account over an information-processing treatment of the memory palace.
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International Journal of Social Robotics, 2019
We propose that virtue ethics can be used to address ethical issues central to discussions about ... more We propose that virtue ethics can be used to address ethical issues central to discussions about sex robots. In particular, we argue virtue ethics is well equipped to focus on the implications of sex robots for human moral character. Our evaluation develops in four steps. First, we present virtue ethics as a suitable framework for the evaluation of human–robot relationships. Second, we show the advantages of our virtue ethical account of sex robots by comparing it to current instrumentalist approaches, showing how the former better captures the reciprocal interaction between robots and their users. Third, we examine how a virtue ethical analysis of intimate human–robot relationships could inspire the design of robots that support the cultivation of virtues. We suggest that a sex robot which is equipped with a consent-module could support the cultivation of compassion when used in supervised, therapeutic scenarios. Fourth, we discuss the ethical implications of our analysis for user autonomy and responsibility.
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Philosophy & Technology, 2019
This paper motivates the idea that social robots should be credited as moral patients, building o... more This paper motivates the idea that social robots should be credited as moral patients, building on an argumentative approach inspired by virtue ethics and social recognition theory. Our proposal answers the call for a nuanced ethical evaluation of human-robot interaction that does justice both to the robustness of the social responses solicited in the human users by their artificial companions and to the human fundamental interest in conceptualizing robots as mere instruments and artifacts, devoid of intrinsic moral dignity and special ontological status. We argue that the ethical approaches in favor of robots rights, emphasizing the fundamentally instrumental nature of social robots, fail to justify moral consideration for robots.
To explain how the interaction of human with social robots may - in certain circumstances - be as morally relevant as the interaction with other human beings, we turn to social recognition theory. The theory allows us to acknowledge how social robots, unlike other technological artifacts, are capable of establishing with their human users quasi-reciprocal relationships of pseudo-recognition. This recognition dynamics justifies seeing robots as worthy of moral consideration from a virtue ethical standpoint as it predicts the pre-reflective formation, in the human user’s character, of persistent affective and behavioral habits. Subsequently, like social interaction with other living beings, social interaction with robots offers to the human agents opportunities to cultivate both vices and virtues. We conclude by drawing attention to a potential paradox drawn forth by our analysis and by examining some practical implications of our approach.
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New theories of remembering cast it as dynamic and, sometimes, wide-reaching. They not only chall... more New theories of remembering cast it as dynamic and, sometimes, wide-reaching. They not only challenge the idea that remembering is a type of passive recollection but that it always takes place wholly and solely inside the head. Yet a common feature of many of these new theories of remembering, in line with information processing paradigm, is their conservative endorsement of the traditional assumption that interesting forms of remembering are rooted in the retrieval of some kind of remembered content. This paper reviews various contemporary theories of memory that make the content assumption and shows how they can be modified by an alternative vision that is both empirically adequate and yet avoids having to face up to the Hard Problem of Content. We demonstrate how the radically enactive account of the roots of remembering on offer can successfully handle classic cases discussed in the extended memory literature as well as explain experientially rich forms of episodic memory.
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The mainstream view in cognitive science is that computation lies at the basis of and explains co... more The mainstream view in cognitive science is that computation lies at the basis of and explains cognition. Our analysis reveals that there is no compelling evidence or argument for thinking that brains compute. It makes the case for inverting the explanatory order proposed by the computational basis of cognition thesis. We must reverse the polarity of standard thinking on this topic, and ask how it is possible that computation, natural and artificial, might be based in cognition and not the other way around.
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Current methods to study the brain are under stress. The emerging difficulties in attributing fun... more Current methods to study the brain are under stress. The emerging difficulties in attributing functions to brain regions call for a reconsideration of our cognitive ontology to rethink what goes into the theoretical toolbox that we use to understand cognition. More and less radical revisions to our cognitive ontology have been proposed (Price & Friston 2005, Klein 2012, Anderson 2014). This paper provides reasons for taking seriously the possibility that brains are basically protean: that they make use of neural structures in inventive, on-the-fly improvisations to suit circumstance and context. Hence with respect to their native ontology, we should not always and everywhere expect brains to divide into natural, functionally stable parts and pieces. We argue that to deny this possibility at the outset is to invite the real danger that we may be imposing an assumed cognitive ontology onto the brain rather than discovering it within it.
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In. Federica Lucivero and Anton Vedder (eds.), "Beyond Therapy v. Enhancement? Multidisciplinary analyses of a heated debate", RoboLaw Series, Pisa University Press, pp. 117-142., 2013
Students using Ritalin in preparation for their exams is a hotly debated issue, while meditating ... more Students using Ritalin in preparation for their exams is a hotly debated issue, while meditating or drinking coffee before those same exams is deemed uncontroversial. However, taking Ritalin, meditating and drinking coffee or even education in general, can all be considered forms of cognitive enhancement. Although social acceptance might change in the future, it is interesting to examine the current reasons that are used to distinguish cases deemed problematic or unproblematic. Why are some forms of cognitive enhancement considered problematic, while others are not? In this paper, we consider cognitive enhancement as the amplification or extension of core capacities of the mind, using augmentation or improvements of our information-processing systems. We will analyse cognitive enhancement in an educational setting in order to clarify the fuzzy distinction between problematic and unproblematic forms of cognitive enhancement. We will show that the apparent distinction made by many people between problematic and unproblematic enhancement is not based on any fundamental difference between these two categories.
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Book Reviews by Anco Peeters
In Freedom Regained, Julian Baggini draws on a broad spectrum of disciplines to defend the notion... more In Freedom Regained, Julian Baggini draws on a broad spectrum of disciplines to defend the notion that, yes, we do have free will. Baggini targets recent claims from scientists who argue that (neuro)science has supposedly proven there is no such thing as free will. Such arguments depend on mistaken conflations of the self, which is taken as the nexus for free will, with, for example, the brain, the conscious mind, or the rational mind. Such amalgams are then taken to clash with a physically determined world. This opposition of freedom with determinism is the wrong way of framing the debate, according to Baggini. Instead, free will has to be understood as a plural concept, arising from a self which can endorse its own actions and which extends beyond the brain, the rational, and the conscious. These are the main ideas of Freedom Regained, which advocates a compatibilist and pluralistic concept of free will.
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Literatuurlijst by Anco Peeters
Voor mijn bachelorscriptie heb ik onderzoek gedaan naar de filosofische dimensie van Cicero's ges... more Voor mijn bachelorscriptie heb ik onderzoek gedaan naar de filosofische dimensie van Cicero's geschriften, met name door analyse van zijn "De officiis" ("Over de plichten"). Dit is de uiteindelijke literatuurlijst die ik gemaakt hebt. Wellicht kan deze iemand nog van dienst zijn.
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For my Bachelor's Thesis in Philosophy, I investigated the philosophical dimension of Cicero's works, focusing on his "De Officiis" ("On Duties"). This is the bibliography I compiled during my research. Perhaps someone may find it of use.
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Papers by Anco Peeters
To explain how the interaction of human with social robots may - in certain circumstances - be as morally relevant as the interaction with other human beings, we turn to social recognition theory. The theory allows us to acknowledge how social robots, unlike other technological artifacts, are capable of establishing with their human users quasi-reciprocal relationships of pseudo-recognition. This recognition dynamics justifies seeing robots as worthy of moral consideration from a virtue ethical standpoint as it predicts the pre-reflective formation, in the human user’s character, of persistent affective and behavioral habits. Subsequently, like social interaction with other living beings, social interaction with robots offers to the human agents opportunities to cultivate both vices and virtues. We conclude by drawing attention to a potential paradox drawn forth by our analysis and by examining some practical implications of our approach.
Book Reviews by Anco Peeters
Literatuurlijst by Anco Peeters
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For my Bachelor's Thesis in Philosophy, I investigated the philosophical dimension of Cicero's works, focusing on his "De Officiis" ("On Duties"). This is the bibliography I compiled during my research. Perhaps someone may find it of use.
To explain how the interaction of human with social robots may - in certain circumstances - be as morally relevant as the interaction with other human beings, we turn to social recognition theory. The theory allows us to acknowledge how social robots, unlike other technological artifacts, are capable of establishing with their human users quasi-reciprocal relationships of pseudo-recognition. This recognition dynamics justifies seeing robots as worthy of moral consideration from a virtue ethical standpoint as it predicts the pre-reflective formation, in the human user’s character, of persistent affective and behavioral habits. Subsequently, like social interaction with other living beings, social interaction with robots offers to the human agents opportunities to cultivate both vices and virtues. We conclude by drawing attention to a potential paradox drawn forth by our analysis and by examining some practical implications of our approach.
***
For my Bachelor's Thesis in Philosophy, I investigated the philosophical dimension of Cicero's works, focusing on his "De Officiis" ("On Duties"). This is the bibliography I compiled during my research. Perhaps someone may find it of use.