Fall Institute: Mind-Dependent Artifact & Artifact-Dependent Mind

Artifacts are a primary object of study in the humanities. They are products and, thus, manifestations of human thought, action, and self-determination without which they cannot be understood. At the same time, human mindedness depends on artifacts, as well as other objects – a dependence that is itself manifest in the form of artifacts themselves. Our Fall 2023 Institute will consider ways in which human mindedness and the reality of artifacts are dialectically intertwined. Of special interest will be automatically or mechanically produced artifacts, as well as artificial intelligent systems that are neither mere inert causal models of human thinking nor independently minded (let alone, conscious) entities. The ontology of such products thus needs to be calibrated in light of the aforementioned mutual dependence of mindedness and artifacts.