SUNY Oswego’s 2016 Warren Steinkraus Lecture on Human Ideals will feature Pete Mandik of William Paterson University addressing “Mind, Metaphysics and the Future” at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 6, in Marano Campus Center auditorium.
Mandik has published two books—“This is Philosophy of Mind: An Introduction” in 2013 and “Key Terms in Philosophy of Mind” in 2010—and numerous journal articles on a wide range of topics.
“My research concerns points of intersection between philosophy of mind and the cognitive sciences, especially neuroscience, psychology, and artificial intelligence,” the philosophy professor at New Jersey’s William Paterson explains on his website, http://www.petemandik.com/. “I am primarily interested in naturalistic accounts of consciousness and intentionality.”
His research has explored such areas as “neurophilosophical explanations of phenomenal consciousness, … artificial-life experiments on the evolutionary emergence of representational content, and … the role of action-oriented representations as the basis for enactive cognition and perception,” Mandik said.
Mandik is also somewhat of a Renaissance man, appearing in The New York Times with his band Quiet Karate Reflex, co-hosting a podcast called “Space Time Mind” and pursuing artistic endeavors that include his painting “Exomusicology” appearing on the book cover of a philosophy colleague.
The philosophy department’s annual free lecture series—this year’s is the 27th—has honored Warren Steinkraus since 1988. The late SUNY Oswego professor was co-founder of numerous philosophical societies. He was also an associate editor of the philosophy journal Idealistic Studies. Steinkraus, who died in 1990, consistently demonstrated genuine commitment to ideals such as equality, peace, nonviolence and aesthetic quality.
The Oswego College Foundation manages a fund supporting the lecture series, thanks to donations from many friends of Steinkraus and his family.
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