Advanced Seminar Studies Mind and Knowledge
The 2003 Advanced Seminar in Objectivist Studies was held June 25-27 at Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts. The theme of the seminar, thanks to the congruence of the papers that were submitted, was mind and knowledge.
The Advanced Seminar centers on the discussion of scholarly papers that are prepared and circulated to the participants in advance of the event. It aims to help the authors improve their papers ahead of publication, and to be a meeting place and source of ideas for Objectivist scholars.
The opening event of the seminar this year was a discussion led by TOC executive director David Kelley, in which the participants shared various ideas and perspectives on advancing Objectivism in academia.
Philosophy of mind was the topic on Thursday, June 26. University of Colorado graduate student Diana Hsieh offered "Analytics on the Mind: A Survey of Analytic Philosophy of Mind." Hsieh's paper highlighted problems with academic metaphysical concepts such as "materialism" and "dualism." One student at the seminar remarked, "It's one of the best papers I've ever seen presented at an Objectivist event." Michael Young, a graduate student in philosophy at Brown University, commented on the paper, suggesting an alternative way of conceiving of materialist theories of mental causation.
The paper that followed was entitled "Mind and Will as Objective Phenomena: The Ontological Status of Introspective Data," and was written by Roger Bissell, an independent scholar. Diana Hsieh's paper had set up a challenge for Objectivist theories of mind, so it was natural for Hsieh to comment on Bissell's paper. The ensuing discussion explored the meanings of "objectivity," Bissell's strong advocacy of mind-body unity, and his hypothesis that the things we experience as mental are really just the actions of the brain as we perceive them through introspection.
The seminarians next turned to two papers on the Objectivist theory of knowledge. The first was: "Object-Oriented Programming and Objectivist Epistemology" by Adam Reed, who is an associate professor of information systems at California State University, Los Angeles. Reed's paper sketched parallels between concepts in object-oriented programming (OOP) and key ideas in Ayn Rand's epistemology. Reed also presented his research into the historical question of whether Rand had influenced the founders of OOP in the 1960s (his answer: apparently not). In his comment, computer scientist Eyal Mozes criticized several of the comparisons Reed had drawn in the paper. This set off a lively discussion which revealed that scholars of Objectivism are often quite familiar with computer programming as well. Reed's paper is forthcoming in The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies.
On Friday, June 27, Stephen Boydstun presented another paper shortly to be published in that journal. This was "Universals and Measurement," a study of the metaphysical implications of Ayn Rand's theory of concept formation. In his argument, Boydstun tests Rand's "measurement omission" theory of abstraction against some difficult cases. Boydstun is an independent scholar who was the editor and publisher of the 1990s journal Objectivity. The commentator for this paper was David Kelley, who has written on the theory of abstraction. Kelley outlined difficulties in Boydstun's analysis of certain examples. He also did the seminar participants a service by clarifying the complexities of this dense and challenging paper. The discussion offered the participants an opportunity to try to come to grips with the theory of measurement omission by applying it to specific cases besides those commonly used to illustrate the theory.
The final discussion of the seminar centered on a paper by Fred Seddon, a philosopher who teaches at Duquesne University and Penn State, among other places. The topic was Immanuel Kant's theory of knowledge and the proper Objectivist assessment of it. Seddon's paper, entitled "Kant on Faith," focused on a narrow passage in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason—namely, the statement that appears in one translation as "I have therefore found it necessary to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith." The correct translation of Kant's meaning depends on Kant's full theory of knowledge. So seminar moderator William Thomas assigned two additional papers, putting Kant's broader theory in perspective: "Ayn Rand and the Metaphysics of Kant," by the late George Walsh, and a reply to it by philosopher Kevin Hill, "Reply to George Walsh: Rethinking Rand and Kant" (both previously published in The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies). Seddon offered a lively, impassioned defense of Kant, arguing that Kant was truly an advocate of Enlightenment ideals in the cultural context of Germany in his time; independent scholar Michelle Fram-Cohen defended Rand's critique of Kant against Seddon in her comment on his paper. In the ensuing discussion, several participants offered vigorous counterarguments.
The papers constituted the backbone of the Advanced Seminar, but it was the participants who made every discussion a thought-provoking and learning experience. This was particularly true at this, the fifth annual Advanced Seminar, which was noted for the high level and consistency of the discussions. "The seminar is filled with intelligent, intellectual people, dedicated to reasoning about philosophy," commented Michael Huemer, a philosophy professor at the University of Colorado, who was in attendance.
All told, there were thirty participants at the 2003 seminar. "I was excited this year to see how our community of scholars is growing," noted seminar coordinator Thomas. "I think it's growing in both the number of scholars and in the quality of their work. I can't wait to see where they and the seminar are headed in the future."
Those interested in presenting their ideas at future Advanced Seminars should take note that the call for papers for the 2004 Advanced Seminar will be posted on The Objectivist Center's Web site in September. Presentation proposals, which should include a draft of the paper to be presented, will be due in January of 2004.