Positivism and Empiricism have become prevalent in the study of intelligence, thus exclusively identifying it with its logical and evolutionary traits, neglecting those connected to consciousness and shared values. Our goal is to move away from a linear thinking to a more nuanced and complex framework for intelligence. In this perspective, reflecting on philosophy and spirituality can be useful to reflect on how the different notions of intelligence are related.
Intelligence can’t be considered a unique human feature anymore, nor can it be identified with mere rationality. Emerging fields of research (such as AI or animal and plant cognition) show that intelligence is a distinctive trait of many non-human beings. It then becomes necessary to redefine intelligence and extend its scope to include organic and inorganic entities.
From an ontological standpoint:
are there any features shared by all intelligent beings?
From an epistemological standpoint:
what is the conceptual role of intelligence in research or communication?
From a methodological standpoint:
what behaviours (be they natural, human or artificial) do we usually label with the term “intelligence”?
Who is the meeting addressed to?
Experts from different fields of research and cultures, who are interested in understanding the diverse forms of intelligence.
What is the main subject of the meeting?
Analyzing and defining intelligence from an ontological, epistemological and methodological point of view. Creating a map to clarify the relation between the different notions of intelligence.
What is the purpose of the meeting?
To pose relevant questions contributing to:
• underline the results of the Diverse Intelligence initiative
• guide future lines of research
• clarify the role of spirituality in the philosophical and scientific definitions of intelligence
How is the meeting structured?
The speeches will be divided into four sessions. Each speaker will give a 20-minute presentation, followed by a 5-minute Q&A. At the end of each main session there will be space for a general 15-minute discussion.
What are the official languages of the meeting?
English and Italian.
MAY 19, 2022
Welcome
Expression of Intelligence
This first session engages a number of topics related to biological intelligence and bio-inspired robotics. We aim at investigating what feature or pattern of natural and artificial systems’ behavior researchers tend to use to define the term “intelligence”. Therefore, the session focuses on the behavioral expression of intelligence to theoretically investigate the following question: how and why can we define a given system as intelligent? To achieve this goal, biology and bio-inspired robotics will dialogue with philosophy to understand the theoretical assumptions underlying the use of the concept of intelligence. Specifically, an attempt will be made to provide an intellectually rigorous account of the differences between different intelligences; the conceptual tool of analogy will be used to shed light on this difference.
Discussant
11:30 AM coffee break
Theoretical issues on intelligence
The second session will explore the philosophical, anthropological, and epistemic assumptions of the concept of intelligence. Specifically, we will try to highlight the peculiarities of human intelligence and try to describe the difference from AI, with which the notion of human intelligence is often compared. Although the term intelligence is a substantial part of the term AI, the idea needs conceptual clarification to deepen/disentangle the differences between human and artificial systems. Through the notions of information, semantics, and syntax, the speakers will try to grasp the specificity of human intelligence, challenging the assumption that intelligence is computational. The session will also bring the focus to the notion of consciousness and mind as critical features of intelligence.
01:30 PM lunch
Conceptual tools for understanding intelligence
The third session highlights the role of the notion of embodiment in contemporary accounts of intelligence. In multiple disciplines, such as biology, robotics or cognitive science, we are witnessing a re-evaluation of the role of the body. In line with current research, we thus argue that the concept of embodiment is also useful for investigating the notion of intelligence. Starting from this assumption and from an interdisciplinary perspective, the speakers will question the relationship between embodiment and intelligence. This session points to the foundations of why/how the body is an essential feature to be able to talk about intelligence.
04:30 PM coffee break
Building a topology
The final session’s goal is to elaborate one or more “relevant questions” that might help (i) in shedding light on and making the most of already produced results in the DI project (ii) in orienting future research agendas (iii) in clarifying the role or place of spirituality in the scientific and philosophical endeavor (either at the epistemological or at the ontological level) when dealing with the notion of “intelligence,” and doing so without falling into methodological errors (e.g., empiricist, positivist, etc.) by reducing ontological questions to metodological ones.
(Project director) Full Professor of Philosophy of Science and Human Development at the Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome (Italy). Her current work focuses on complex adaptive dynamics in living systems, and on a new epistemic understanding of human–AI interactions.
Australian Research Council Future Fellow, and Deputy Head of the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University. He is a neuroethologist, which is a discipline of neuroscience studying the neural mechanisms of natural animal behaviour. Most of his research focuses on insects, especially honey bees.
Associate Director for Robotics and Director of the Bioinspired Soft Robotics Laboratory at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT). From February 2011 to March 2021 she was the Director of the IIT Center for Micro-BioRobotics (CMBR). Her research activities are in the areas of biologically-inspired robotics and soft robotics.
Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, and Philosophy of Nature, for almost 30 years. He has published more than 100 academic texts (books, chapters, articles, translations). He has been visiting professor or invited lecturer at universities in Latin America, the United Kingdom, and Europe.
Full professor at the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical University of Holy Cross (Rome). He is member of the Association Internationale des Etudes Patristiques and a full member of the Pontifical Academy of Theology. He has published mainly on Gregory of Nyssa, Trinitarian theology and the relationship between philosophy and theology.
Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics at Politecnico di Torino of which he has founded and directed for many years the Doctorate School. He was President of the ISI Foundation, awarded the 2011 Majorana Prize for field theory and the Volta medal. Currently focusing on statistical mechanics, quantum information and computation, AI and “Big Data”.
He is a Catholic priest, Philosophy doctoral student, professor of anthropological philosophy, and chaplain at Francisco de Vitoria University (Madrid). Currently studying for a Ph.D. in Philosophy of mind, trying to find answers to the mysteries of mental causation according to the Aristotelian tradition and concretely, according to contemporary neo-Aristotelian philosophers.
Michael Levin received dual B.S. degrees (computer science, biology), followed by a Ph.D. (Harvard University). He currently holds the Vannevar Bush chair, and directs the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University. Levin is interested in the mechanisms and algorithms of diverse intelligence – cognition in natural and unconventional embodiments.
Alberto Carrara, Director of the Neurobioethics Research Group (GdN) of the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum of Rome (APRA), Fellow of the UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights and Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) in which he coordinates the Project dealing with “neurosciences and neuroethics”. Doctor in Medical Biotechnology and Philosophy.