Invitation to submit to:

8th AISB Symposium on Computing and Philosophy

  at the

2015 Annual Convention of the Society for the Study of
Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (SSAISB)

   Dates & Location of the Convention:
   20-22nd April 2015, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom

   Website for the Convention:
   http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/events/2015/AISB2015/index.html

   Website for our Symposium:
   http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~gargetad/AISB-CP-2015.html

   (The Symposium will occupy up to two days at some point within the
    three days of the Convention)

We invite proposals from potential presenters to take part in this
Symposium. Details about submissions are at the end of the description.


SYMPOSIUM TITLE:

   The Significance of Metaphor and Other Figurative Modes
   of Expression and Thought


DESCRIPTION:

Communication and expression in language, pictures, diagrams, gesture,
music etc. is rich with figurative aspects, such as metaphor, metonymy,
hyperbole and irony. People engage in such communication and expression
in a variety of contexts and with a range of effects.  Modelling
figurative patterns of communication/expression is a key aim of academic
disciplines such as linguistics, philosophy, discourse studies, and
psycholinguistics, and automatically understanding such phenomena is a
long-standing and now expanding endeavour within Artificial
Intelligence. A particularly interesting current area of research is
work on automatically generating as well as understanding metaphor --
both understanding and generation are emerging as important sites for
addressing long-standing problems in linguistics, artificial
intelligence, philosophy, and cognitive science more generally. In
addition, some researchers have suggested that metaphor can be an
intrinsic part of thought, not just of external
communication/expression.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

1. How philosophical thinking on figurative expression and thought
   can/should be exploited/heeded by relevant AI researchers

2. How computational attempts to model figurative expression can aid
   philosophical thinking about it

3. How the production of figurative expression reflects speakers'
   conceptualisations, goals and commitments

4. How to model/analyse/understand the emotional and evaluative content
   of figurative expression

5. The intersection of issues of figurative expression and issues
   of embodiment, enactivism, cognitive simulation, etc.

6. Whether thought, as opposed to external expression, can be
   metaphorical, ironic, etc., and if so what this amounts to
   (philosophically, computationally, psychologically, ...)

7. How figurative and especially metaphorical thinking might be involved
   in introspection, and therefore be bound up with the nature of
   consciousness

8. Links between figurative thought/expression and the nature of
   creativity

9. Figurative aspects of philosophical theorizing (about any topic),
   especially as uncovered by detailed technical analysis of figuration

10. Figurative aspects of notions of computation ... and even: could
    the notion of computation be irreducibly metaphorical?



Submissions should be 8 page full papers or extended abstracts received
by 5th January 2015 via our EasyChair pages.  Information about this,
and all other aspects of the symposium and conference can be found on
our website: http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~gargetad/AISB-CP-2015.html

NOTE: While submission is by full paper or extended abstract, we
encourage speculative thought, provisional proposals, and provocative
question-raising based on careful analysis of issues.

Important Dates:

* Deadline for full paper submission for Symposium: 5th January 2015
* Notification of acceptance: 24th January 2015
* AISB Convention 2015: 20--22nd April 2015


Symposium Organizers
 
Chair: Professor John Barnden (University of Birmingham)

Chair: Dr. Andrew Gargett (University of Birmingham)

Dr. Yasemin J. Erden (St Mary's University)

Professor Mark Bishop (University of London)