Ned Block (born 1942) (Ph.D., Harvard) is a philosopher of mind who has made important contributions to matters of consciousness and cognitive science. Block was for many years professor of philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and now teaches at New York University (NYU).

Famous for presenting an argument against the Turing Test as a test of intelligence in a paper entitled Psychologism and Behaviourism by using a thought experiment in which he suggests the creation of a computer which has come to be known as Blockhead. Block also tried to develop a counterexample to functionalism; there could exist a system which has the same functional states as a human but no consciousness.

He has been a judge at the Loebner Prize contest, to determine if a conversant is a computer or human, in the tradition of the Turing Test.

Positions

1. Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at New York University (NYU) 1996 - Current
2. Chair of the Philosophy Program At Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - ?.....- 1996
3. Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
4. Guggenheim Fellow
5. Senior Fellow of the Center for the Study of Language and Information
6. Sloan Foundation Fellow
7. Recipient of Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies
8. Recipient of Fellowship from the National Science Foundation.
9. Past President of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology
10. Past Chair of the MIT Press Cognitive Science Board of Syndics
11. Past President of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness
12. Co-editor of The Nature of Consciousness: Philosophical Debates (MIT Press, 1997).

External links

• Block's Professional page
• Discussion of Block in a wikibook about consciousness.
• Minds and Machines course by Ned Block

1942 births | Living people | 20th century philosophers | 21st century philosophers | American philosophers | Consciousness studies | New York University faculty | Philosophers of mind

Ned Block