Symbolic Systems Forum - Jeff Shrager, Carnegie Institution and CSLI

Jeff Shrager, Carnegie Institution Department of Plant Biology and Institute for the Study of Learning and Expertise, CSLI, "On Beyond

Ontology; Aspects of the Philosophy, Psychology, and Computationality of

Modern Biology"

ABSTRACT:

In the first part of this talk I'll try to answer the question, often put to me by students: "What's a molecular biologist doing teaching a cognitive science course (SSP145)?" Or, in more chronologically accurate terms: "How did a cognitive scientist come to find himself in molecular biology, and what does he do there?" In the second part of the talk, I'll tell you what I do there. I'll give several examples of cognitive/ computational issues in molecular biology, esp. how biologist think about biological objects and functions, and how computational biologists try to represent and reason about these things.