Abductive Cognition and Machine Learning: Philosophical Implications

Dear colleagues,

It is well-known that we are living in the age of artificial intelligence. If DeepBlue was a mere astral signal, AlphaGo was a symbolic announcement of the beginning of a new era. Now, as AlphaFold 2 takes another huge step toward the goal of AGI, AI is changing all aspects of our lives. How should we understand this phenomenon and its far-reaching philosophical implications? While machine learning iss known to be the key to enhancing AI algorithms, recent advances in cognitive neuroscience have been another crucial factor. Nevertheless, much is still unknown about how these advancements in AI are possible. How are we to fathom super-intelligent machine minds in order to live well together with them in the future? Turning to abductive cognition seems to be a natural strategy to answer this question, as it has elements of both intuition and inference. Pioneered by Charles S. Peirce in the late 19th century, abduction was studied extensively in logic, philosophy of science, cognitive science, computer science, artificial intelligence, law, and semiotics during the 20th century, and several notable monographs on abduction have been published in the first two decades of the 21st century, uncovering the logical form and various patterns of abduction. Could abductive cognition be a clue to the incredible recent success of machine learning? Could we accelerate the AI revolution by implementing abductive elements into machine scientists?

Prof. Woosuk Park
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Philosophies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.