gunde002@umn.edu

873 Heller
612-625-5316

My current research projects are primarily focused on the mind-body problem, problems of other minds, and related issues in the philosophy of artificial intelligence.

Themes I am elaborating include critiques of recent physicalist accounts of the mind, the problematic distinction between original and derived intentionality, and the relation between these issues and the (highly controversial) prospects for sapient and sentient machines.

I also have a long-standing interest in aesthetics, a field I tend to view as made up largely of subproblems in the philosophy of mind. My fascination with these has been fostered by my own writing of poetry (and more recently, libretti) and collaborative projects I have enjoyed with composers, choreographers, and directors. A monograph on problems in aesthetics and artificial intelligence is underway with a working title of The Aesthetic Robot. In the history of philosophy I have special affections for both Locke and Schopenhauer and enjoy teaching courses on them from time to time.

Selected Publications

"Leibniz's Walk-In Machine, Perception, and the Perils of Physicalism." In Science, Mind and Psychology: Essays on Grover Maxwell's World View, eds. W. Savage and M. L. Maxwell. University Press of America, 1988.

Mentality and Machines. 2nd ed. University of Minnesota Press, 1985.

"Purposes and Poetry." In Body, Mind, and Method, eds. D. F. Gustafson and B. L. Tapscott. Reidel, 1979.

A Continual Interest in the Sun and Sea; Inland Missing the Sea. Poetry. Nodin Press, 1976.

Language, Mind, and Knowledge. Editor. Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science 7. University of Minnesota Press, 1975.