The University of Minnesota Duluth's position on James Fetzer's conspiracy theories.

James Fetzer is a UMD Philosophy Professor Emeritus and conspiracy theorist. He retired from UMD in 2006. His theories are his own and are not endorsed by the University of Minnesota Duluth or the University of Minnesota System.

As faculty emeriti, Fetzer's work is protected by the University of Minnesota Regents Policy on Academic Freedom, which protects creative expression and the ability to speak or write on matters of public interest without institutional discipline or restraint.

Curriculum Vitae (special)


Curriculum Vitae for Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Cognitive Science

James H. Fetzer

An International Journal:

Founding Editor and Editor, Minds and Machines: Journal for Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy, and Cognitive Science. First Issue Published 1991/Four Issues Per Volume/Year.

Editorial Focus: Machines and Mentality, Knowledge and Its Representation, Epistemic Aspects of Computer Programming, Connectionist Conceptions, Artificial Intelligence and Epistemology, Computer Methodology, Computational Approaches to Philosophical Issues, Philosophy of Computer Science, Simulation and Modeling, Ethical Aspects of Artificial Intelligence

Aims and Scope: Minds and Machines affords an international forum for discussion and debate of important and controversial issues concerning significant developments within its areas of editorial focus. Well-reasoned contributions from diverse theoretical perspectives are welcome and every effort will be made to ensure their prompt publication. Among the features that are intended to make this journal distinctive are these:

  • Strong stands on controversial issues are especially encouraged
  • Important articles exceeding normal joural length may appear
  • Special issues devoted to specific topics will be a regular feature
  • Review essays discussing current problem situations will appear
  • Critical responses to previously published pieces are also invited

This journal is intended to foster a tradition of criticism within the AI and philosophical communities on problems and issues of common concern. Its scope explicitly encompasses philosophical aspects of computer science. All submissions are reviewed. Special issues have appeared on defeasible reasoning, music and cognition, natural language processing and computation and are scheduled on evolutionary psychology and on concepts and explanation.

An International Society:

Founder, The Society for Machines and Mentality, First Annual Meeting Held December 1991. Current Membership: 100+.

The Society for Machines and Mentality is an international professional organization. The objective of the Society is to promote, foster, and encourage literary and educational projects that have as their purpose to advance philosophical understanding of issues at the intersection of artificial intelligence, philosophy, and cognitive science, including such issues as whether machines are able to think, whether machines could have minds, and related matters. Annual meetings are normally held in conjunction with annual meetings of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association in December. Inivited speakers at recent meetings have included William Bechtel, Donald Perlis, and Beth Preston.

An International Library:

Founding Editor and Editor, Studies in Cognitive Systems, a professional library devoted to knowledge, information, and data-processing systems of all kinds. First Volume Published 1988.

This series includes monographs and collections of studies devoted to the investigation and exploration of knowledge, information, and data-processing systems of all kinds, no matter whether human, (other) animal, or machine. It scope spans the full range of interests from classical problems in the philosophy of mind and philosophical psychology through issues in cognitive psychology and sociobiology (concerning the mental powers of other species) to ideas related to artificial intelligence and computer science. While primary emphasis is placed upon theoretical, conceptual, and epistemological aspects of these problems and domains, empirical, experimental, and methodological studies will also appear from time to time. As of January of 2000, more than twenty volumes have appeared in this series.

Computer Science

Co-Edited Book:

PROGRAM VERIFICATION. Fundamental Issues in Computer Science (co-edited with Timothy Colburn and Terry L. Rankin). Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993. (Studies in Cognitive Systems, Vol. 14) xiii + 457 pp.

Articles and Reviews:

"Program Verification: The Very Idea", Communications of the ACM (September 1988), pp. 1048-1063.

Reprinted in T. Colburn, J. Fetzer, and T. Rankin, eds., Program Verification (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993), pp. 321-358.

Reprinted in J. Fetzer, Computers and Cognition: Why Minds are Not Machines (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001), pp. 183-220.

"ACM Forum: Response from the Author", Communications of the ACM (March 1989), pp. 288-289.

"Technical Correspondence: The Author's Response", Communications of the ACM (March 1989), pp. 377-381.

"Technical Correspondence: The Author's Response", Communications of the ACM (April 1989), pp. 510-512.

"ACM Forum: Patents and Programs", Communications of the ACM (June 1989), pp. 675-676.

"ACM Forum: Another Point of View", Communications of the ACM (August 1989), pp. 920-921.

"Mathematical Proofs of Computer System Correctness: A Response", Notices of the AMS (December 1989), pp. 1353-1354.

"The Final Word on Program Verification", Notices of the AMS (May/June 1990), pp. 562-563.

"Philosophical Aspects of Program Verification", Minds and Machines (May 1991), pp. 197-216.

Reprinted in T. Colburn, J. Fetzer, and T. Rankin, eds., Program Verification (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1993), pp. 403-427.

Reprinted under the title, "Program Verification", in A. Kent and J. Williams, eds., Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology, Vol. 28 (New York, NY: Marcel Dekker, 1993), pp. 237-254.

Reprinted under the title, "Program Verification", in A. Kent and J.Williams, eds., Encyclopedia of Microprocessors, Vol. 14 (New York, NY: Marcel Dekker, 1994), pp. 47-64.

Reprinted in J. Fetzer, Computers and Cognition: Why Minds are Not Machines (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001), pp. 221-245.

"Computer Reliability and Public Policy: Limits of Knowledge of Computer-Based Systems", Social Philosophy and Policy 13 (Summer 1996), pp. 229-266.

Reprinted in E. Paul, F. Miller, and J. Paul, eds., Scientific Innovation, Philosophy, and Public Policy (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 229-266.

Reprinted in J. Fetzer, Computers and Cognition: Why Minds are Not Machines (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001), pp. 271-308.

"Computer Systems: The Uncertainty of Their Reliability", Bridges 5 (1998), pp. 197-215.

"Philosophy and Computer Science: Reflections on the Program Verification Debate", in T. Bynum and J. H. Moor, eds., The Digital Phoenix: How Computers are Changing Philosophy (Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell, 1998), pp. 253-273.

Reprinted in J. Fetzer, Computers and Cognition: Why Minds are Not Machines (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001), pp. 247-267.

"The Alan Turing Home Page", APA Newsletter on Philosophy and Computing 97 (1998), pp. 54-55.

"The Role of Models in Computer Science", The Monist 82 (1999), pp. 20-36.

 

Artificial Intelligence

Authored Book:

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Its Scope and Limits. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1990. (Studies in Cognitive Systems, Vol. 4) xviii + 338 pp.

Edited Book:

ASPECTS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. Dordrecht/Boston/Lancaster/Tokyo: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988. (Studies in Cognitive Systems, Vol. 1) xiii + 385 pp.

Co-Edited Book:

PHILOSOPHY, LANGUAGE, AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. Resources for Processing Natural Language (co-edited with Jack Kulas and Terry L. Rankin). Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988. (Studies in Cognitive Systems, Vol. 2) xii + 421 pp.

Articles and Reviews:

"The Frame Problem: Artificial Intelligence Meets David Hume", Expert Systems (1990), pp. 219-232.

Reprinted in K. Ford and P. Hayes, eds., Reasoning Agents in a Dynamic World: The Frame Problem (Greenwich, CN: JAI Press, 1991), pp. 55-69.

"Artificial Intelligence Meets David Hume: A Response to Patrick Hayes", Expert Systems (1990), pp. 239-247.

Reprinted in K. Ford and P. Hayes, eds., Reasoning Agents in a Dynamic World: The Frame Problem (Greenwich, CN: JAI Press, 1991), pp. 77-85.

"The Workshop on Defeasible Reasoning: Comments", SIGART Bulletin (January 1991), pp. 5-7, pp. 16-17, p. 21, p. 28, pp. 31-33, pp. 36-37.

"Review: Scharples et al., Computers and Thought", Philosophical Psychology 4 (1991), pp. 383-385.

"What Reviewers Should and Should Not Do: On Harold Thimbleby on AI: Its Scope and Limits", SIGART Bulletin (January 1992), pp. 6-7.

"The TTT is Not the Final Word", THINK (June 1993), pp. 34-36.

"Evidential Probabilities are Not Enough", Computational Intelligence (Feruary 1994), pp. 49-52.

"Escaping the Propositional Prison", The Monist (July 1997), pp. 378-381.

"Intelligence vs. Mentality: Important but Independent Concepts", in A. Meystel, ed., Proceedings of the 1997 International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Semiotics (Gaithersburg, MD: National Institute of Standards and Technology, 1997), pp. 493-498.

"The Philosophy of AI and Its Critique", in Luciano Floridi, ed., The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Computing and Information (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2004), pp. 119-134.

"The Frame Problem", The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd edition (New York, NY: MacMillan Reference Books, 2006).

Electronic Publications:

"Van Brakel's Position Appears to be Incoherent", PSYCOLOQUY 4 (14), frame-problem.4 (February 1993).

"Philosophy Unframed: A Response to van Brakel, Grush, and Morris", PSYCOLOQUY 4 (33), frame-problem.10 (April 1993).

 

Cognitive Science

Authored Books:

PHILOSOPHY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE. New York, NY: Paragon House Publishers, 1991. (Paragon Issues in Philosophy) xvii + 170 pp. 2nd edition (revised and expanded), 1996. xx + 191 pp.

Published in Portuguese translation under the title, FILOSOFIA E CIENCIA COGNITIVA. Bauru, SP, Brazil: EDUSC, 2000. 194 pp.

COMPUTERS AND COGNITION: Why Minds are Not Machines. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000. xix + 323 pp.

Co-Authored Book:

GLOSSARY OF COGNITIVE SCIENCE (co-authored with Charles E. M. Dunlop). New York, NY: Paragon House Publishers, 1993. (Paragon Glossaries for Research, Reading, and Writing) xii +146 pp.

Edited Book:

EPISTEMOLOGY AND COGNITION. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991. (Studies in Cognitive Systems, Vol. 6) xiii + 301 pp.

Co-Edited Book:

PHILOSOPHY, MIND, AND COGNITIVE INQUIRY. Resources for Understanding Mental Processes (co-edited with David Cole and Terry L. Rankin). Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1990. (Studies in Cognitive Systems, Vol. 3) xi -+ 449 pp.

Guest Edited Journal Issues:

Rationality and Objectivity: Philosophical and Psychological Conceptions, Part I, Synthese, Vol. 57, No. 2 (November 1983), pp. 127-266.

Rationality and Objectivity: Philosophical and Psychological Conceptions, Part II, Synthese, Vol. 57, No. 3 (December 1983), pp. 267-442.

Epistemology and Cognition, Part I, Synthese, Vol. 82, No. 2 (February 1990), pp. 175-306.

Epistemology and Cognition, Part II, Synthese, Vol. 82, No. 3 (March 1990), pp. 307-439.

Epistemology and Cognition, Part III, Synthese, Vol. 83, No. 1 (April 1990), pp. 1-177.

Articles and Reviews:

"Signs and Minds: An Introduction to the Theory of Semiotic Systems", in J. Fetzer, ed., Aspects of Artificial Intelligence (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988), pp. 133-161.

Reprinted in J. Fetzer, Computers and Cognition: Why Minds are Not Machines (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001), pp. 43-71.

"Language and Mentality: Computational, Representational, and Dispositional Conceptions", Behaviorism (Spring 1989), pp. 21-39.

Reprinted in D. Cole, J. Fetzer, and T. Rankin, eds., Philosophy, Mind, and Cognitive Inquiry (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1990), pp. 377-402.

Reprinted in J. Fetzer, Computers and Cognition: Why Minds are Not Machines (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001), pp. 73-98.

"Primitive Concepts: Habits, Conventions, and Laws", in J. Fetzer, D. Shatz, and G. Schlesinger, eds., Definitions and Definability: Philosophical Perspectives (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1991), pp. 51-68.

Reprinted in J. Fetzer, Computers and Cognition: Why Minds are Not Machines (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001), pp. 25-42.

"Connectionism and Cognition: Why Fodor and Pylyshyn are Wrong", in A. Clark and R. Lutz, eds., Connectionism in Context (Heidelberg, FRG: Springer-Verlag, 1992), pp. 37-56.

Reprinted (in Finnish) in E. Marjomaa and T. Vaden, eds., Ihmisen Tiedonkasittely, Symbolien Manipulointi ja Konnektionismi (Tampereen Yliopiston Jaljennepalvelu, 1991), pp. 1-31.

"Goldman has Not Defeated Folk Functionalism", Behavioral and Brain Sciences (March 1993), pp. 42-43.

"The Argument for Mental Models is Unsound", Behavioral and Brain Sciences (June 1993), pp. 347-348.

"Mental Algorithms: Are Minds Computational Systems?", Pragmatics and Cognition 2 (1994), pp. 1-29.

Reprinted in J. Fetzer, Computers and Cognition: Why Minds are Not Machines (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001), pp. 101-129.

"Creative Thinking Presupposes the Capacity for Thought", Behavioral and Brain Sciences (September 1994), pp. 539-540.

"What Makes Connectionism Different? Discussion Review: W. Ramsey, S. Stich, and D. Rumelhart, eds., Philosophy and Connectionist Theory", Pragmatics and Cognition 2 (1994), pp. 327-348.

Reprinted in J. Fetzer, Computers and Cognition: Why Minds are Not Machines (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001), pp. 131-152.

"Minds and Machines: Behaviorism, Dualism, and Beyond", Stanford Humanities Review 4 (1995), pp. 251-265.

Reprinted in J. Fetzer, Computers and Cognition: Why Minds are Not Machines (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001), pp. 3-21.

"Thinking and Computing: Computers as Special Kinds of Signs", Minds and Machines 7 (August 1997), pp. 345-364.

"People are Not Computers: (Most) Thought Processes are Not Computational Procedures", Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence 10 (1998), pp. 371-391.

Reprinted in J. Fetzer, Computers and Cognition: Why Minds are Not Machines (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001), pp. 153-180.

"Deduction and Mental Models: A Discussion Review of P. N. Johnson-Laird and R. M. J. Byrne, Deduction", Minds and Machines (February 1999), pp. 105-110.

"Mental Models: Reasoning without Rules", Minds and Machines (February 1999), pp. 119-125. Errata, Minds and Machines (August 1999), p. 457.

"Computing is at Best a Special Kind of Thinking", in B. Elevitch, ed., Philosophy of Mind and Philosophy of Psychology, Proceedings of the 20th World Congress of Philosophy, Vol. 6 (2000), pp. 103-113.

"Consciousness and Cognition: Semiotic Conceptions of Bodies and Minds", in Q. Smith and A. Jokic, eds., Aspects of Consciousness (Oxford, UK: The Clarendon Press, 2003), pp. 295-322.

 

Evolution and Cognition

Authored Books:

THE EVOLUTION OF INTELLIGENCE: Are Humans the Only Animals with Minds? (Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2005), pp. xx + 272.

RENDER UNTO DARWIN: Philosophical Aspects of the Christian Right's Crusade Against Science (Chicago, IL: Open Court, 2007), pp. xx + 220.

Edited Books:

CONSCIOUSNESS EVOLVING. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishers, 2002 (Advances in Consciouness Research) xix + 251 pp.

Articles and Reviews:

"Mentality and Creativity", Journal of Social and Biological Structures (January 1988), pp. 82-85.

Reprinted in C. Findlay and C. Lumsden, eds., The Creative Mind (New York, NY: Academic Press, 1988), pp. 82-85.

"Evolution, Rationality, and Testability", Synthese (March 1990), pp. 423-439.

"Review: Merlin Donald's Origins of the Modern Mind", Philosophical Psychology 6 (1993), pp. 339-341.

"Evolution Needs a Modern Theory of the Mind", Behavioral and Brain Sciences (December 1993), pp. 759-760.

"Review: Donald Griffin's Animal Mind", Human Ethology Newsletter (September 1994), pp. 15-17.

"Review: Sheets-Johnstone's The Roots of Thinking", Philosophical Psychology 7 (1994), pp. 397-399.

"Logical Reasoning and Domain Specificity: A Critique of the Social Exchange Theory of Reasoning" (with Paul Davies and Tom Foster), Biology and Philosophy (January 1995), pp. 1-37.

"Return to Animal Mind: A Reply to Aiken's Comments on My Review", Human Ethology Bulletin (December 1995), pp. 5-6.

"Are there Animal Minds? Discussion Review: M. S. Dawkins, Through Our Eyes Only: The Search for Animal Consciousness", The Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems 19 (Spring 1996), pp. 187-192.

Reprinted in European Sociobiological Society Newsletter No. 44 (May 1997), pp. 17-24.

"Biological Adaptations and Evolutionary Epistemology: Discussion Review: Henry Plotkin, Darwin Machines and the Nature of Knowledge", Adapted Behavior 4 (1995), pp. 201-210.

"Review: Daniel Dennett, Kinds of Minds", Philosophical Psychology 10 (1997), pp. 113-115.

"Discussion Review: Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind", European Sociobiological Newsletter (September 1998), pp. 18-23.

Reprinted in The Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems 21 (1998), pp. 229-233.

"Group Selection and the Evolution of Culture", in V. Falger, P. Meyer, and J. van der Dennen, eds., Research in Biopolitics: Sociobiology and Politics (Stamford, CT: JAI Press, 1998), pp. 3-15.

"Introduction", in J. Fetzer, ed., Consciousness Evolving (Amsterdam, NL: John Benjamins, 2002), pp. xiii-xix.

"Evolving Consciousness: The Very Idea!", Evolution and Cognition 8/2 (2002), pp. 230-240.