The International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP) is a professional, philosophical

association Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

emerging from a history of conferences that began in 1986. Adopting its mission from these conferences, the IACAP exists in order to promote scholarly dialogue on all aspects of the computational/informational turn and the use of computers in the service of

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

. The role of the IACAP is to help facilitate a global communications network for those interested in computing and philosophy as defined by these themes. To this end, it sponsors a series of international conferences and this developing website. The IACAP maintains a friendship with the

American Philosophical Association The American Philosophical Association (APA) is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. Founded in 1900, its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas among philosophers, to encourage creative and scholarly ...

through the liaison of the APA's Committee on Philosophy and Computers. It is currently based at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, The United States of America (United States).

Awards

IACAP hands out two awards at their yearly meetings: The Covey Award and The Herbert A. Simon Award.

The Covey Award

* 2022:

Shannon Vallor Shannon Vallor is a philosopher of technology. She is the Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence at the Edinburgh Futures Institute. She was at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California where she was the ...

(University of Edinburgh) * 2021:

Helen Nissenbaum Helen Nissenbaum is professor of information science at Cornell Tech. She is best known for the concept of " contextual integrity" and her work on privacy, privacy law, trust, and security in the online world. Specifically, contextual integrity ...

(Cornell Tech) * 2020: No award * 2019:

John Weckert John Weckert (BA – University of Adelaide, Graduate Diploma in Computer Science – La Trobe University, Master of Arts – La Trobe University, Doctor of Philosophy – University of Melbourne) is an Australian philosopher who has been an inf ...

(Charles Sturt University) * 2018: Deborah G. Johnson (University of Virginia) * 2017: Raymond Turner (University of Essex) * 2016:

Jack Copeland Brian John Copeland (born 1950) is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, and author of books on the computing pioneer Alan Turing. Education Copeland was educated at the University of Oxford, obta ...

(University of Canterbury, New Zealand) * 2015:

William J. Rapaport William Joseph Rapaport is an North American philosopher. He is Associate Professor Emeritus at the University at Buffalo. Philosophical work Rapaport has done research and written extensively on intentionality and artificial intelligence. He ...

(University at Buffalo, The State University of New York) * 2014:

Selmer Bringsjord Selmer Bringsjord (born November 24, 1958) is the chair of the Department of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a professor of Computer Science and Cognitive Science. He also holds an appointment in the Lally School of Man ...

(Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) * 2013:

Margaret Boden Margaret Ann Boden (born 26 November 1936) is a Research Professor of Cognitive Science in the Department of Informatics at the University of Sussex, where her work embraces the fields of artificial intelligence, psychology, philosophy, and c ...

(University of Sussex) * 2012:

Luciano Floridi Luciano Floridi (; born 16 November 1964) is an Italian people, Italian and British people, British philosopher. He holds a double appointment as professor of philosophy and ethics of information at the University of Oxford, Oxford Internet In ...

(University of Hertfordshire) * 2011: Terrell Bynum (Southern Connecticut State University) * 2010:

John R. Searle John Rogers Searle (; born July 31, 1932) is an American philosopher widely noted for contributions to the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, and social philosophy. He began teaching at UC Berkeley in 1959, and was Willis S. and Mari ...

(University of California, Berkeley) * 2009:

Edward N. Zalta Edward Nouri Zalta (; born March 16, 1952) is an American philosopher who is a senior research scholar at the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University. He received his BA at Rice University in 1975 and his PhD fro ...

(Stanford University)

The Herbert A. Simon Award

* 2022: Björn Lundgren (Utrecht University) * 2021: Carissa Véliz (University of Oxford) * 2020: No award * 2019: Juan M. Durán (Delft University of Technology) * 2018: Thomas C. King (Oxford Internet Institute) * 2017: Andrea Scarantino (Georgia State University) * 2016: Marcin Milkowski (The Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences) * 2015: Michael Rescorla (University of California-Santa Barbara) * 2014: Gualterio Piccinini (U Missouri- St. Louis) * 2013: Judith Simon (University of Vienna) * 2012: Patrick Allo (Vrije Universiteit Brussels) * 2011: John Sullins (Sonoma State) * 2010:

Mariarosaria Taddeo Mariarosaria Taddeo is a senior research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, part of the University of Oxford, and deputy director of the Digital Ethics Lab. Taddeo is also an associate scholar at Said Business School, University of Oxford. Ed ...

(University of Hertfordshire; University of Oxford)

Presidents

* Steven T McKinlay 2022 - * Don Berkich 2016-2022 * Mariarosaria Taddeo 2013-2016 * Anthony Beavers 2011-2013 *

2006-2011 * Jon Dorbolo 2003-2006 * Robert Cavalier, founder

Research and teaching areas

IACAP research and teaching areas include: *

Artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

/ cognitive science *

Artificial life Artificial life (often abbreviated ALife or A-Life) is a field of study wherein researchers examine systems related to natural life, its processes, and its evolution, through the use of simulations with computer models, robotics, and biochemistry ...

/ computer modeling in biology *

Computer ethics Computer ethics is a part of practical philosophy concerned with how computing professionals should make decisions regarding professional and social conduct. Margaret Anne Pierce, a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computers at Ge ...

information ethics Information ethics has been defined as "the branch of ethics that focuses on the relationship between the creation, organization, dissemination, and use of information, and the ethical standards and moral codes governing human conduct in society". I ...

Computer-mediated communication Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is defined as any human communication that occurs through the use of two or more electronic devices. While the term has traditionally referred to those communications that occur via computer-mediated formats ...

*Culture and society *

Digital physics Digital physics is a speculative idea that the universe can be conceived of as a vast, digital computation device, or as the output of a deterministic or probabilistic computer program. The hypothesis that the universe is a digital computer was ...

Distance education Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...

and electronic pedagogy *

Electronic publishing Electronic publishing (also referred to as publishing, digital publishing, or online publishing) includes the digital publication of e-books, Online magazine, digital magazines, and the development of digital library, digital libraries and catalo ...

Logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

and logic software *

Metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

(

distributed processing A distributed system is a system whose components are located on different networked computers, which communicate and coordinate their actions by passing messages to one another from any system. Distributed computing is a field of computer sci ...

emergent properties In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviors that emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole. Emergence ...

formal ontology In philosophy, the term formal ontology is used to refer to an ontology defined by axioms in a formal language with the goal to provide an unbiased (domain- and application-independent) view on reality, which can help the modeler of domain- or ap ...

, network structures, etc.) *Online resources for philosophy *

Philosophy of information The philosophy of information (PI) is a branch of philosophy that studies topics relevant to information processing, representational system and consciousness, cognitive science, computer science, information science and information technology. ...

Philosophy of technology The philosophy of technology is a sub-field of philosophy that studies the nature of technology and its social effects. Philosophical discussion of questions relating to technology (or its Greek ancestor ''techne'') dates back to the very dawn of ...

Robotics Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrat ...

Virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...

References

External links

Official WebsiteCovey AwardGoldberg Award
International professional associations Information technology organizations Philosophical societies {{philo-org-stub