Professor Gerard O'Brien

Research Interests

 

• Theoretical foundations of cognitive science
• Neurocomputational models of cognition
• Consciousness
• Mental representation
• Naturalised theories of ethics and values

Publications

EDITED COLLECTIONS

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J., eds. (2002) Language and Thought: Philosophical Perspectives. A special issue of Language and Communication 22: 209-390

O'Brien, G. & Diprose, R., eds. (1996) Exploring the Interface Between Philosophy of Mind and Philosophy of the Body: An Annotated Bibliography, University of New South Wales

JOURNAL ARTICLES

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (2009) The role of representation in computation. Cognitive Processing 10 (1): 53-62.

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (2006) How do connectionist networks compute? Cognitive Processing 7(1): 30-41.

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (2004) Vehicle, process, and hybrid theories of consciousness. Authors' response to continuing commentary. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 27: 303-5

O'Brien, G. & Jureidini, J. (2002) Dispensing with the dynamic unconscious. Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology 9(2):141-53

O'Brien, G. & Jureidini, J. (2002) The last rites of the dynamic unconscious. Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology 9(2):161-6

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (2002) Radical connectionism: Thinking with (not in) language. Language and Communication 22: 313-29

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (2001) Connectionist vehicles, structural resemblance, and the phenomenal mind.  Communication and Cognition 34: 13-38

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (2000) Disunity defended: A reply to Bayne. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 78: 255-63

O'Brien, G. (1999) Connectionism, analogicity and mental content. Acta Analytica 22: 111-31

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (1999) A connectionist theory of phenomenal experience. Target Article in Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22: 127-48

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (1999) Putting content into a vehicle theory of consciousness. Authors' Response in Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22: 175-96

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (1999) A defense of cartesian materialism. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 59: 939-63

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (1998) The disunity of consciousness. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 76: 378-395

Clapin, H. & O'Brien, G. (1998) A conversation about superposition and distributed representation. Noetica: Open Forum 3(10) http://www2.psy.uq.edu.au/CogPsych/Noetica/OpenForumIssue10/

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (1997) Cognitive science and phenomenal consciousness: A dilemma, and how to avoid it. Philosophical Psychology 10: 269-86

O'Brien, G. (1991) Is connectionism common sense? Philosophical Psychology 4: 165-78

O'Brien, G. (1987) Eliminative materialism and our psychological self-knowledge. Philosophical Studies 52: 49-70

BOOK CHAPTERS

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (2010) Representation in analog computation. In A. Newen, A.Bartels, & E.Jung (eds.) Knowledge and Representation, CSLI Publications.

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (2009) Vehicles of consciousness. In T.Bayne,  A.Cleeremans & P.Wilken (eds.) The Oxford Companion to Consciousness, Oxford University Press.

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (2004) Notes towards a structuralist theory of mental representation. In H.Clapin, P.Staines & P.Slezak (eds.) Representation in Mind: New Approaches to Mental Representation, Elsevier

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (2003) The multiplicity of consciousness and the emergence of the self. In A.S.David & T.Kircher (eds.) The Self in Neuroscience and Psychiatry, Cambridge University Press.

O'Brien, G. (1993) The connectionist vindication of folk psychology. In Scott Christensen and Dale Turner (eds.) Folk Psychology and the Philosophy of Mind,  Lawrence Erlbaum

O'Brien, G. (1993) A conflation of folk psychologies. In K.Neander & I.Ravenscroft (eds.) Prospects for Intentionality Working Papers in Philosophy, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University

COMMENTARIES

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (2002) Internalizing communication. Commentary on Carruthers' "The cognitive functions of language". Behavioral and Brain Sciences 25(6): 694-5

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (2002) The computational baby, the classical bathwater, and the middle way. Commentary on Perruchet and Vinter's "The self-organizing consciousness". Behavioral and Brain Sciences 25(3): 348-9

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (2001) Sins of omission and commission. Commentary on O'Regan and Noe's "A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness". Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24: 997-8

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (2001) Functional resemblance and the internalization of rules. Commentary on Kubovy & Epstein's "Internalization: A metaphor we can live without". Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24: 695-6

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (1999) Finding a place for experience in the physical-relational structure of the brain. Commentary on Stephen Palmer's "Color, Consciousness, and the Isomorphism Constraint". Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22(6): 966-7

O'Brien, G. & Opie, J. (1999) What's really doing the work here: Knowledge representation or the HOT theory? Commentary on Dienes and Perner's "A theory of implicit and explicit knowledge". Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22(5): 778-9

O'Brien, G. (1998) Digital computers versus dynamical systems: A conflation of distinctions. Commentary on Tim van Gelder's "The dynamical hypothesis in cognitive science". Behavioral and Brain Sciences 21: 648-9

O'Brien, G. (1998) The mind: Embodied, embedded, but not extended. Commentary on Andy Clark's "Being There: Putting Brain, Body, and World Together Again". Metascience 7: 78-83

O'Brien, G. (1998) The role of implementation in connectionist explanation. Psycoloquy 9(06) (1998) http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/psyc-bin/newpsy?9.06

Mortensen, C. & O'Brien, G. (1993) Representation and causal asymmetry. Psycoloquy 4(19) http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/cgi/psyc/newpsy?4.19

Mortensen, C., O'Brien, G. & Paterson, B. (1993) Distinctions: Subpersonal and subconscious. Psycoloquy 4(62) http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/cgi/psyc/newpsy?4.62

BOOK REVIEWS

O'Brien, G. (1997) Review of David Chalmers' "The Conscious Mind". Australasian Journal of Philosophy 75: 413-15

O'Brien, G. (1994) From mind as text to mind as process. Review of Andy Clark's "Associative Engines: Connectionism, Concepts, and Representational Change". Metascience 6:123-26

Files

• The_role_of_representation_in_computation.pdf [296.8K] (application/pdf)
• Notes_toward_a_structuralist_theory_of_mental_representation.pdf [257.5K] (application/pdf)
• OBrien_&_Opie__How_do_connectionist_networks_compute_2006.pdf [445.8K] (application/pdf)
• Dispensing_with_the_dynamic_unconscious_2002.pdf [83.5K] (application/pdf)
• The_last_rites_of_the_dynamic_unconscious.pdf [73.5K] (application/pdf)
• A_connectionist_theory_of_consciousness.pdf [482.4K] (application/pdf)
• Connectionism,_analogicity_and_mental_content.pdf [363.9K] (application/pdf)
• Radical_connectionism-thinking_with_not_in_language.pdf [176.2K] (application/pdf)
• Disunity_defended-a_reply_to_Bayne.pdf [623.2K] (application/pdf)
• The_disunity_of_consciousness.pdf [1.0MB] (application/pdf)
• A_defense_of_cartesian_materialism.pdf [508.8K] (application/pdf)
• The_Multiplicity_of_Consciousness.pdf [209.6K] (application/pdf)
• Connectionist_vehicles,_structural_resemblance_and_the_phenomenal_mind.pdf [292.8K] (application/pdf)

Expertise for Media Contact

Categories	Psychology and psychiatry
Expertise	Cognitive science; intelligence; philosophy; computers and the mind; cognition; consciousness; human nature (nurture/nature controversies); basis for moral behaviour; nature vs nurture; meaning (how meaning arises in the natural world); ethics and human nature
Notes	Alt phone: (08) 8303 5247

Entry last updated: Sunday, 5 Feb 2012