Kevin Lande
Assistant Professor
Member, Centre for Vision Research
Core Member, Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA)
Office: Ross S443
Ext: 77594
Email: lande@yorku.ca
Primary website: Website
Secondary website: Publications
Media Requests Welcome
Accepting New Graduate Students
Kevin Lande is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at York University, where he is also a member of the Centre for Vision Research and a Core Member of the Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA) program. His research is in philosophy of mind and cognitive science, with a special focus on perception, mental representation, and intentionality.
I work in philosophy of mind and cognitive science, with connections to epistemology and philosophy of language. My research brings together two types of approaches. First, as a philosopher of science, I identify core concepts and commitments that make a productive science of the mind possible. I am often interested in seeing how concepts from one field of cognitive science, such as linguistics (especially syntax and semantics) apply to other fields such as vision science. Second, as a naturalistic philosopher of mind, I use scientific findings and models as a guide in addressing basic philosophical questions about the nature of the mind and knowledge.
One of the great challenges of modern science is to understand the immense creative powers of thought and language—our abilities to produce, understand, and communicate an infinite variety of spontaneous thoughts and plans. But impressive too is the immense receptivity of the mind to the immediate circumstances in which it finds itself. The mind is capable of perceiving endlessly different kinds of objects and events in different arrangements. The creativity of thought and language is thought to be rooted in the power of composition—roughly, the ability to represent something by combining more elementary representations. My work argues that the receptivity of perception is also rooted in compositional abilities to code stimulus features in terms of more elementary stimulus features. More generally, I examine the various schemes the mind employs to compose a perspective on the world, and the significance of these schemes for our subjective, representational, and epistemic standing.
Degrees
Ph.D., University of California, Los AngelesM.A., Brandeis University
B.A., Montana State University
Research Interests
- McPherson Eye Research Institute Visiting Scholar Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison - 2020
- SSHRC Insight Development Grant - 2020-2
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
"Forms of Mind" examines the role that sensory perception plays in our knowledge of the world, with a special focus on the form or code in which information is packaged in perception.
Description:Sensory perception delivers crucial news about the world around us. How do we use this news content to decide how to move around the world and to develop and test theories about the underlying principles of the universe? "Forms of Mind" investigates the role of perception in knowledge by drawing on contemporary research in vision science and cognitive psychology that reveals the complex and diverse forms in which information is encoded in the mind. The project consists of three objectives: (1) To identify the forms in which information is encoded in sensory perception; (2) To identify the biases, assumptions, and constraints implicit in the forms in which perceptual information is encoded; (3) To examine how these biases, assumptions, and constraints distort or facilitate our acquisition of knowledge about the world.
Start Date:
- Month: Jul Year: 2020
End Date:
- Month: Jun Year: 2022
Funders:
SSHRC
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2023 | AP/COGS4901 6.0 | A | Honours Seminar in Cognitive Science | SEMR |
Kevin Lande is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at York University, where he is also a member of the Centre for Vision Research and a Core Member of the Vision: Science to Applications (VISTA) program. His research is in philosophy of mind and cognitive science, with a special focus on perception, mental representation, and intentionality.
I work in philosophy of mind and cognitive science, with connections to epistemology and philosophy of language. My research brings together two types of approaches. First, as a philosopher of science, I identify core concepts and commitments that make a productive science of the mind possible. I am often interested in seeing how concepts from one field of cognitive science, such as linguistics (especially syntax and semantics) apply to other fields such as vision science. Second, as a naturalistic philosopher of mind, I use scientific findings and models as a guide in addressing basic philosophical questions about the nature of the mind and knowledge.
One of the great challenges of modern science is to understand the immense creative powers of thought and language—our abilities to produce, understand, and communicate an infinite variety of spontaneous thoughts and plans. But impressive too is the immense receptivity of the mind to the immediate circumstances in which it finds itself. The mind is capable of perceiving endlessly different kinds of objects and events in different arrangements. The creativity of thought and language is thought to be rooted in the power of composition—roughly, the ability to represent something by combining more elementary representations. My work argues that the receptivity of perception is also rooted in compositional abilities to code stimulus features in terms of more elementary stimulus features. More generally, I examine the various schemes the mind employs to compose a perspective on the world, and the significance of these schemes for our subjective, representational, and epistemic standing.
Degrees
Ph.D., University of California, Los AngelesM.A., Brandeis University
B.A., Montana State University
Research Interests
Awards
- McPherson Eye Research Institute Visiting Scholar Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison - 2020
- SSHRC Insight Development Grant - 2020-2
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
"Forms of Mind" examines the role that sensory perception plays in our knowledge of the world, with a special focus on the form or code in which information is packaged in perception.
Description:Sensory perception delivers crucial news about the world around us. How do we use this news content to decide how to move around the world and to develop and test theories about the underlying principles of the universe? "Forms of Mind" investigates the role of perception in knowledge by drawing on contemporary research in vision science and cognitive psychology that reveals the complex and diverse forms in which information is encoded in the mind. The project consists of three objectives: (1) To identify the forms in which information is encoded in sensory perception; (2) To identify the biases, assumptions, and constraints implicit in the forms in which perceptual information is encoded; (3) To examine how these biases, assumptions, and constraints distort or facilitate our acquisition of knowledge about the world.
Project Type: FundedRole: Principal Investigator
Start Date:
- Month: Jul Year: 2020
End Date:
- Month: Jun Year: 2022
Funders:
SSHRC
All Publications
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2023 | AP/COGS4901 6.0 | A | Honours Seminar in Cognitive Science | SEMR |
