What does thinking mean in the age of Artificial Intelligence? How is big-scale computation transforming the way our brains function? This collection discusses these pressing questions by looking beyond instrumental rationality. Exploring recent developments as well as examples from the history of cybernetics, the book uncovers the positive role played by errors and traumas in the construction of our contemporary technological minds. With texts by Benjamin Bratton, Orit Halpern, Adrian Lahoud, Jon Lindblom, Catherine Malabou, Reza Negarestani, Luciana Parisi, Matteo Pasquinelli, Ana Teixeira Pinto, Michael Wheeler, Charles Wolfe, and Ben Woodard.

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Embodied cognition represents one of most important research programs in contemporary cognitive science. Although there is a diversity of opinion concerning the nature of embodiment, the core idea is that cognitive processes are influenced by body morphology, emotions, and sensorimotor systems. This idea is supported by an ever increasing collection of empirical studies that fall into two broad classes: one consisting of experiments that implicate action, emotion, and perception systems in seemingly abstract cognitive tasks and the other consisting of experiments that demonstrate the contribution of bodily interaction with the external environment to the performance of such tasks. Now that the research program of embodied cognition is well established, the time seems right for assessing its further promise and potential limitations. This research topic aims to create an interdisciplinary forum for discussing where we go from here. Given that we have good reason to think that the body influences cognition in surprisingly robust ways, the central question is no longer whether or not any cognitive processes are embodied. Instead, other questions have come to the fore: To what extent are cognitive processes in general embodied? Are there disembodied processes? Among those that are embodied, how are they embodied? Is there more than one kind of embodiment? Is embodiment a matter of degree? There are a number of specific issues that could be addressed by submissions to this research topic. Some supporters of embodied cognition eschew representations. Should anti-representationalism be a core part of an embodied approach? What role should dynamical models play? Research in embodied cognition has tended to focus on the importance of sensorimotor areas for cognition. What are the functions of multimodal or amodal brain areas? Abstract concepts have proved to be a challenge for embodied cognition. How should they be handled? Should researchers allow for some form of weak embodiment? Currently, there is a split between those who offer a simulation-based approach to embodiment and those who offer an enactive approach. Who is right? Should there be a rapprochement between these two groups? Some experimental and robotics researchers have recently shown a great deal of interest in the idea that external resources such as language can serve as form of cognitive scaffolding. What are the implications of this idea for embodied cognition? This research topic aims to bring together empirical and theoretical work from a diversity of perspectives. Submissions are sought from any of the major disciplines associated with cognitive science, including but not necessarily limited to anthropology, cognitive psychology, computational modeling, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, robotics, and social psychology. Researchers are encouraged to submit papers discussing experiments, methods, models, or theories that speak to the issue of the future of embodied cognition.

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This Special Issue addresses philosophical questions regarding various non-classical religious beliefs. The contemporary philosophy of religion includes an active and venerable tradition of arguments concerning religious beliefs. While some new approaches address different questions, the vast majority address the belief in and nature of God. Frequently, ‘God’ is defined as a perfect being: a supernatural being with the greatest powers and qualities (omniscience, omnibenevolence, necessity, omnipresence, etc.) who created the universe. This concept of God is often labeled as ‘classical theism.’ While defining ‘God’ as a perfect being is fairly common in Abrahamic religious traditions, it is far less prevalent in non-Western traditions. In Indian religions, Gods are bound by karma and therefore not omnipotent. In Afro-American traditions, vodoun or loa are sometimes regarded as localized and therefore not omni-present. Many adherents of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism also hold beliefs on ‘intermediary’ supernatural beings that lack perfection, such as angels, demons, and Jinn. This Special Issue contains publications that discuss various topics pertaining to non-classical religious beliefs, including the epistemic features of belief in spirits or demons, belief in angels, belief in animism, process theism, Indian beliefs and practices, Chinese philosophy of religion, Afro-Brazilian practices, and neo-pagan spirituality.

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