Philosophy of Cognitive Neuroscience
Can functional neuroimaging help adjudicate between cognitive theories? How should information about the brain affect how we think about the mind? Can direct brain intervention give us answers?
colin.klein@anu.edu.au
Curriculum Vitae (CV)
School of Philosophy
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Australia
I am a Professor in the School of
Philosophy at the Australian National University. I am a lead
investigator on The
Major Transitions in The Evolution of Cognition project
funded by TWCF. I am also a lead CI in the
Digital Trust Research Group ,
a member of the ANU
Centre for Philosophy of the Sciences, and a section editor for the The Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science.
Before ANU, I taught at Macquarie
University, and before that I spent a year as a visiting
research fellow in the Centre for
Consciousness at the ANU. My first job was at the University of Illinois
at Chicago. I did my undergraduate degree at Franklin and Marshall College
and my PhD at Princeton
University. For moderately up-to-date information on my
work and current projects, please scroll down.
A sampling of my research interests. A full CV is to the left. Click for more information and papers
Can functional neuroimaging help adjudicate between cognitive theories? How should information about the brain affect how we think about the mind? Can direct brain intervention give us answers?
Pains are imperatives: the pain of a broken ankle has a content akin to "Don't put weight on this ankle!" Imperativism solves traditional puzzles about pain while shedding light on real-world issues like chronic pain and addiction.
Insects are conscious. Certain kinds of severe brain damage spare consciousness. I and co-authors explore these issues as a means towards dissolving the hard problem of consciousness.
Traditional issues in intertheoretic reduction and realization. All of my work is concerned with the ontological commitments that our best theories do (and do not) bring.
I am interested in the transmission of information between people and how it can go wrong. I've looked at everything from online forums to Ancient Chinese philosophy
My philosophical interests are wide-ranging. Some bits are harder to categorize than others. I also write op-ed pieces, reviews, and commentaries.
This contains information about workshops past and forthcoming.
I am involved with professional societies. I help edit journals. That sort of thing.
"Transitions in Cognitive Evolution" (2023) Andrew B
Barron, Marta Halina, and Colin Klein. Proceedings of
the Royal Society B 290. Published
Version
"Explaining Neural Transitions through Resource
Constraints" (2022) Philosophy of Science 89(5):
1196 - 1202
Published Version | Final Draft
"What is the job of the job description challenge? A case study from body representation" Colin Klein and Peter Clutton. (2021) in Neural Mechanisms: New Challenges in Philosophy of Neuroscience ed Fabrizio Calzavarini & Marco Viola. Dordrecht: Springer. pp 449–465.`
"Do we represent peripersonal space?"(2021) in The World at our Fingertips: A Multi- disciplinary Exploration of Peripersonal Space ed F. de Vignemont, H.Y. Wong, A. Serino, and A. Farn ́e. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Final Draft
"A Humean challenge to predictive coding" (2020) in The Philosophy and Science of Pre- dictive Processing ed Dina Mendonca, Manuel Curado, and Steven Gouveia. Bloomsbury Press. Final Draft
"Mechanisms, resources, and background conditions" (2018) Biology and Philosophy 33:36 Published Version | Proofs
"What do Predictive Coders Want?" (2018) Synthese
95(6): 2451-2557.
Final Draft
| Published
Version
Peter Clutton, Stephen Gadsby & Colin Klein
"Taxonomising delusions: content or aetiology?" (2017) Cognitive
Neuropsychiatry 22(6): 508-527.
Published
paper | Archive Link
"Kicking the Kohler Habit," Philosophical
Psychology (2007) Vol. 20, No. 5, pp. 609-619.
Penultimate Draft
Not everything makes it to press. Here are a few things that seemed worth archiving for posterity :
"Predictive Processing: Avoiding the elephant in the room" - Response to Sun and Firestone (2020). PsyArXiv link
"Confidence Intervals on Implicit Association Test Scores
Are Really Rather Large" - an attempt to estimate 95% CIs
on IAT scores. They are larger than people think. PsyArXiv Link
"Decoding the Brain: Neural Representation and the Limits
of Multivariate Pattern Analysis in Cognitive
Neuroscience." (with J. Brendan Ritchie and David M.
Kaplan) BJPS (2019) Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 581-607.
Published Version
"Interpreting the dimensions of neural feature
representations revealed by dimensionality reduction''
Erin Goddard, Colin Klein, Samuel G Solomon, Hinze
Hogendoorn, and Thomas A Carlson. (2018) Thomas A Carlson,
Erin Goddard, David M Kaplan, Colin Klein, J. Brendan
Ritchie. Neuroimage 180(A): 88–100
"Ghosts in machine learning for cognitive neuroscience:
Moving from data to theory" Thomas Carlson, Erin Goddard,
David M. Kaplan, Colin Klein, Brendan Ritchie. (2018)
Thomas A Carlson, Erin Goddard, David M Kaplan, Colin
Klein, J. Brendan Ritchie. Neuroimage 180(A):
88–100
Published
Paper
"Brain Regions as Difference-Makers" (2017) Philosophical Psychology 30(1-2): 1-20. Published Paper | Final Draft
"What is a cognitive ontology, anyway?" (2017) Annelli Janssen, Colin Klein, and Marc Slors. Philosophical Explorations 20:2 (123-128)
"The Brain at Rest: What it's Doing and Why That Matters"
Philosophy of Science (2014) 81(5): 974-985
Published
Paper | Final
Draft
"Cognitive Ontology and Region- versus Network-oriented
Analyses" Philosophy of Science (2012) 79(5):
952-960.
Final Draft
"The Dual Track theory of Moral Decision-Making: A
Critique of the Neuroimaging Evidence" Neuroethics
(2011) Vol. 4, pp 143-162.
Published
Version | Final
Draft
“Philosophical Issues in Neuroimaging” (2010) Philosophy
Compass 5(2), pp. 186-198.
Published Version
"Images are not the Evidence of Neuroimaging" British
Journal for the Philosophy of Science (2010) Vol.
61, pp. 265-278.
Published
Version |
Penultimate Draft
Chris Mole and Colin Klein "Confirmation, Refutation and
The Evidence of fMRI" In Foundational Issues
in Human Brain Mapping (2010), pp99-112.
MIT
press
"Transduction, calibration, and the penetrability of
pain" Forthcoming in Ergo
Final Draft
Michelle Liu and Colin Klein "Pain and Spatial
Inclusion: Evidence from Mandarin" Analysis
(2020). 80(2): 262–272
Final Draft | Online
First Paper
"Pain, Care, and The Body: A Response to de
Vignemont" Australasian Journal of Philosophy 95(3):
588-593
Older Draft | Published
Paper
Manolo Martínez and Colin Klein" Pain signals are
predominantly imperative" Biology and Philosophy
31:283–298. Published
Version
|
Final Draft
"What Pain Asymbolia Really Shows" Mind (2015)
124(494): 493-516.
Published
Paper | Final
Draft
"The Penumbral Theory of Masochistic Pleasure" The
Review of Philosophy and Psychology (2014) 5(1):
41-55
Published
Paper | Final
Draft
"Imperatives, Phantom Pains, and Hallucination by
Presupposition" Philosophical Psychology (2012)
25(6): 917-928.
Published
Paper | Final
Draft
"Response to Tumulty on Pain and Imperatives" (2010) The Journal of Philosophy Vol. CVII, No. 10, pp 554-557.
"An Imperative Theory of Pain,"
The Journal of Philosophy (2007) Vol. CIV, No.
10, pp 517-532.
Penultimate Draft
"Imperativism and Pain Intensity" (with Manolo Martínez)
in The Philosophy of Pain: Unpleasantness, Emotion,
and Deviance. ed. David Bain, Michael Brady, and
Jennifer Corns, Routledge
Final
Draft
MIT
Press: Five Minutes with Colin Klein
Brains Blog
featured author: Day 1
2
3
4
New
Books in Philosophy podcast
NDPR
Review
"Evolutionary Transition Markers and the Origins of Consciousness” (2022) Marta Halina, David Harrison, and Colin Klein. Journal of Consciousness Studies 29(3-4): 62-77. Published Version
Andrew Barron and Colin Klein. "What insects can tell us
about the origins of consciousness" (2016) Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences 113(18):
4900–4908.
Personal Version | Online
Version
Colin Klein and Andrew Barron "Reply to Adamo, Key et
al., and Schilling and Cruse: Crawling around the hard
problem of consciousness" (2016)
Online
Version
Klein, Colin and Barron, Andrew B. (2016) Insects have the capacity for subjective experience. Animal Sentience 2016.100.
(click above for final online version and peer commentary)
Klein, Colin and Barron, Andrew B. (2016) Insect consciousness: Commitments, conflicts and consequences Animal Sentience 2016.153
"Consciousness in Artificial Intelligence: Insights from the Science of Consciousness" (2023) Butlin, Long, et al.
arXiv whitepaper
“Explanation in the Science of Consciousness: From the Neural Correlates of Consciousness (NCCs) to the Difference Makers of Consciousness (DMCs)” Colin Klein, Jakob Hohwy, and Tim Bayne. (2020) Philosophy and the Mind Sciences 1(II), 4. Published Version
Colin Klein and Andrew Barron "First-person interventions
and the meta-problem of consciousness" (2020) Journal
of Consciousness Studies 27:5-6 82-90. Final Draft
| Published
Version
Colin Klein and Andrew Barron "How Experimental Neuroscientists Can Fix the Hard Problem of Consciousness" (2020) Colin Klein and Andrew Barron Neuroscience of Consciousness 6(1): niaa009 Final Draft
"Consciousness, Intention, and Command Following in the
Vegetative State" (2017) The British Journal for the
Philosophy of Science 68(1): 27-54
Final Draft |
Online
Version
“Variability, convergence and dimensions of consciousness” (2015) Colin Klein and Jakob Hohwy. In Behavioral Methods In Consciousness ed. Morten Overgaard, Oxford: Oxford University Press: 249–264.
"Computing in the Nick of Time" (2022) J Brendan Ritchie
and Colin Klein. Ratio Online
First
"The Ethical Gravity Thesis: Marrian Levels and the Persistence of Bias in Automated Decision-making Systems" (2021) Atoosa Kasirzadeh & Colin Klein Proceedings of the 2021 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society (AIES '21) Final draft
"Polychrony and the process view of computation" (2020) Philosophy of Science 87(5): 1140–1149.
Computation, consciousness, and 'Computation and consciousness'" (2019) In Routledge Handbook of the Computational Mind, ed. Mark Sprevak and Matteo Colombo, 297–309.
"Olympia and Other O-Machines" Philosophia (2015) 43(4):
925-931
Final Draft | Published
Version
"Two Paradigms for Individuating Implementation"
The Journal of Cognitive Science (2012) 13(2):
167-179.
Final
Draft
"Dispositional Implementation Solves the Superfluous
Structure Problem" Synthese (2008) Vol. 165, No.
2, pp. 141-153
Penultimate Draft | Published
Version
"Psychological Explanation, Ontological Commitment, and
the Semantic view of Theories " New Waves in
Philosophy of Mind (2014) ed. Mark Sprevak and
Jesper Kallestrup. New York, Palgrave Macmillan: 208-225.
Publisher
Website | Final
Draft
"Multiple Realizability and the Semantic View of
Theories" Philosophical Studies. (2013) 163(3):
683-695.
Published
paper |
Penultimate Draft
"Reduction without Reductionism: A Defence of Nagel on
Connectability" Philosophical Quarterly (2009)
Vol. 59, No. 234, pp. 39-53.
Published
version
"An Ideal Solution to Disputes about Multiply Realized
Kinds," Philosophical Studies
(2008) Vol. 140, No. 2, pp. 161-177.
Penultimate
Draft
"Polarization and trust in the evolution of vaccine
discourse on Twitter during COVID- 19” Ignacio Ojea
Quintana, Ritsaart Reimann. Marc Cheong, Mark Alfano,
Colin Klein. (2022) PLOS ONE Published
Version
"The affiliative use of emoji and hashtags in the Black
Lives Matter movement." Mark Alfano, Ritsaart
Reimann, Ignacio Quintana, Marc Cheong & Colin Klein.
Forthcoming in Social Science Computer Review Current
Draft
“Attention and counter-framing in the Black Lives Matter movement on Twitter” Colin Klein, Ritsaart Reimann, Ignacio Ojea Quintana, Marc Cheong, Marinus Ferreira, and Mark Alfano. (2022) Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 9:367 Published paper
“Technologically scaffolded atypical cognition: The case of YouTube’s recommender system” Mark Alfano, Amir Ebrahimi Fard, J Adam Carter, Peter Clutton, Colin Klein. Synthese 199, pp835–858 Published Version
"Pathways to conspiracy: The social and linguistic precursors of involvement in Reddit's conspiracy theory forum." (2019) Colin Klein, Peter Clutton, and Adam Dunn. PLOS ONE 14(11): e0225098. Published Version
Mark Alfano and Colin Klein (2019) ”Trust in a Social and Digital World.” Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective 8 (10): 1-8. https://wp.me/p1Bfg0-4tk.
"Topic modeling reveals distinct posting patterns within an online conspiracy forum." Colin Klein, Peter Clutton, Vince Polito (2018) Frontiers in Psychology 9: 189.
My work on online social epistemology is the focus of the
ARC Discovery Project DP190101507 "Trust in a Social and
Digital World" with Mark Alfano
Social Virtue Epistemology (2022) ed Mark Alfano, Colin Klein, and Jeroen De Ridder. New York: Routledge. Purchase book
“A Tragic Coalition of the Rational and Irrational: A threat to collective responses to COVID-19” (2022) Marinus Ferreira, Marc Cheong, Colin Klein, and Mark Alfano. Philosophical Psychology Online First
" The Coordination Dilemma For Epidemiological
Modelers" Ignacio Ojea Quintana, Sarita Rosenstock, and
Colin Klein. (2021) Biology and Philosophy.36:54 Published
Version | Preprint
"Putting the ‘social’ back in social psychology"
forthcoming in Current Controversies in Philosophy of
Cognitive Science (provisional title), ed ed. Simon
Cullen, Sarah-Jane Leslie, and Adam Lerner. Routledge.
Jessica Isserow and Colin Klein (2017) "Hypocrisy and
Moral Authority" Journal of Ethics and Social
Philosophy 12(2): 191-222.
Esther Klein and Colin Klein “Wang Chong’s epistemology of
testimony” (2016) Asia Major Third
Series, 29(2): 115–147.
Link
to website
wisdom-of-crowds: A Python package for social-epistemological network profiling. Paper forthcoming in Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Complex Networks | Github repo
"Automated clustering of COVID-19 anti-vaccine discourse on Twitter" Quintana et al. arXiv link
“Mapping Topics in 100,000 Real-life Moral Dilemmas”
(2022) Tuan Dung Nguyen, Georgiana Lyall, Alasdair Tran,
Minjeong Shin, Nicholas Carroll, Colin Klein, and Lexing
Xie. F Proceedings of the International AAAI
Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2022)
16(1), 699-710.
Published Version
Esther Klein and Colin Klein "Did the Chinese Have a
Change of Heart?" (2012) Cognitive Science 36(2):
179-82.
Published
Version
Anthony Chemero, Colin Klein, and Will Cordeiro.
"Events as Changes in the Layout of Affordances." (2003) Ecological
Psychology. 15(1), 19-28.
Published
Version
"Don’t (just) blame echo chambers. Conspiracy
theorists actively seek out their online communities"
"The ‘painless woman’ helps us see how anxiety and fear fit in the big picture of pain"
The Conversation; Translated to Indonesian
"Why we need more than just data to create ethical driverless cars"
"Online conspiracy theorists are more diverse (and
ordinary) than most assume"
The
Conversation
"Gay-identifying AI tells us more about stereotypes
than the origins of sexuality"
The
Conversation
"What it is like to be a bee: insects can teach us
about the origins of consciousness"
Review of The Complex Reality of Pain by
Jennifer Corns.
Forthcoming in Mind Online
First
Review of The Emotional Mind: A Control Theory of Affective States by Tom Cochrane Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (October 2020)
Review of Philosophy and Computing: Essays in Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind, Logic, and Ethics ed. Thomas Power. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (May 2018)
"Precaution, proportionality and proper commitments.", commentary on Johnathan Birch's " Animal sentience and the precautionary principle".
Review of Tense Bees and Shell-Shocked Crabs: Are Animals Conscious? by Michael Tye. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (April 2017).
Review of Reliability in Cognitive Neuroscience: A
Meta-Meta-Analysis by William Uttal. (2015) Philosophical
Psychology 28(4): 606-609
Published
Version
Review of Engineering the Next Revolution in
Neuroscience: The New Science of Experiment Planning by
Alcino J. Silva, Anthony Landreth, and John Bickle. (2014)
Philosophy of Science 81(3): 486-489.
Published
Version
Review of Brain Imaging: What it Can (and Cannot)
Tell us About Consciousness by Robert G. Shulman. Notre
Dame Philosophical Reviews (June 2013)
Published
Version
Review of Explaining the Brain by Carl F. Craver
Mind 121 (481): 165-169. (2012)
Published
Version
"Critical Notice: Cognitive Systems and the Extended
Mind by Robert Rupert" (2010) The Journal of
Mind and Behavior Vol 34 No 3&4.
Published
Version | Penultimate
Draft
"Redeployed Functions Versus Spreading Activation: A
Potential Confound" (2010) Commentary on "Neural reuse: A
fundamental organizational principle of the brain" by
Michael L. Anderson. Behavioral and Brain Sciences Vol.
33, pp. 280-281
Final
Draft
The Australasian Society for Philosophy and Psychology (ASPP). December 2023, Australian National University
"Foundations of Computation" 20-21 July 2023, The Australian National University,
"Neural Representation and Neural Computation" 5-6 September, The Australian National University.
The First Annual Meeting of the Australasian Society for Philosophy and Psychology (ASPP). 5-7 December 2018, Macquarie Unviersity, Sydney.
"Animal Sentience: Pushing the Boundaries" 17 August 2018, The Australian National University (sponsored by the Centre for Philosophy of the Sciences)
"Conspiracy theories, delusions and other 'troublesome' beliefs" 10-11 August 2017, Macquarie University
"Reshaping the mind: New work on cognitive ontology" 9-10 June 2016, Macquarie University
"The Feeling of
Suffering" 18-19 February 2016
Macquarie University
(Jointly sponsored and run by the John Templeton Foundation via the Value of Suffering Project and the Centre for Agency, Values, and Ethics (CAVE) at Macquarie University)
"Predictive
Coding, Delusions, and Agency" 15 May 2015,
Macquarie University (Sponsored by the Research Centre for
Agency, Values and Ethics (CAVE) at Macquarie University)
I helped found, and am currently the secretary of, The Australasian Society for Philosophy and Psychology.
I am a section editor for the Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science