Curriculum Vitae
Majid D. Beni
mbeni[that familiar sign]metu[dot]edu[dot]tr
ORCID: 0000-0002-8719-0825
EMPLOYMENT
Assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy, Middle East Technical University, Ankara (2020-present)
Instructor at Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan City (2019-2020)
Assistant professor at the Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran (2013-2019)
EDUCATION
2000-2004, BA, Film Studies, Art University, Tehran
2004-2008, MA, Philosophy, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran
2008-2013, PhD philosophy of science; Philosophy of Science department, Iranian Institute of Philosophy, Tehran
Director of the thesis: Prof. Richard Creath
2012-2013 Visiting scholar at SoLS, ASU,
AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION
Philosophy of cognitive sciences, philosophy of science,
AREAS OF COMPETENCE
History of analytic philosophy, philosophy of Rudolf Carnap, philosophy of mind, philosophy of information, philosophy of mathematics,
GRANTS and AWARDs
The DAAD grant. Research Stays for University Academics and Scientists. 1.5.2022-31.7.2022. Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP)
The Science Academy- Turkey- Bilim Akademisi 2022 BAGEP Young Scientist Award
The Biosemiotic Achievement Award for 2021, in conjunction with Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen for the paper “Active Inference and Abduction” published in Biosemiotics volume 14, issue 2 (August 2021), pages 499–517
METU Academic Performance Awards 2021
PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS
Associate member of the Association for Mathematical Consciousness Science (AMCS);
Associate editor of the Brains Blog
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
Monographs
Forthcoming. Scientific Explanation, Causality, and Agency: A Free Energy Account, Routledge
2019a. Cognitive Structural Realism, Springer,
2019b. Structuring the Self, Palgrave Macmillan,
Edited volumes
Frontiers in Psychology's special issue on Distributed and Embodied Cognition in Scientific Contexts
Journal Articles
"On What Is Not There. Quine, Meinong, and the Indispensability Argument." Humana.Mente Journal of Philosophical Studies, 25, 77–94 (2013).
"Structural Realism without Metaphysics: Notes on Carnap’s Measured Pragmatic Structural Realism." Organon F, 22, 302–24 (2015a).
"On Logic, Syntax, and Silence." Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric, 42(1), 195–209 (2015b).
"Epistemic Informational Structural Realism." Minds and Machines, 26(4), 323–39 (2016a).
"Structural Realist Account of the Self." Synthese, 193(12), 3727–40 (2016b).
"The Theoretical Question of the Practical Considerations: Some Carnapian Reflections." South African Journal of Philosophy, 36(2), 206–16 (2017a).
"The Code Model of Biosemiotics and the Fate of the Structuralist Theory of Mental Representation." Biosemiotics, 10(1), 99–107 (2017b).
"On the Thinking Brains and Tinkering with the Scientific Models." Axiomathes, March, 1–15 (2017c).
"Reconstructing the upward path to structural realism." European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 7(3), 393–409 (2017d).
"The Downward Path to Epistemic Informational Structural Realism." Acta Analytica, October, 1–17 (2017e).
"Structural Realism, Metaphysical Unification, and the Ontology and Epistemology of Patterns." International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 31(3), 285–300 (2017f).
"Commentary: The Predictive Processing Paradigm Has Roots in Kant." Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 11, 98 (2018a).
"The reward of unification: A realist reading of the predictive processing theory." New Ideas in Psychology, 48, 21–26 (2018b).
"Much Ado about Nothing: Toward a structural realist theory of intentionality." Axiomathes, March, 1–16 (2018c).
"Syntactical Informational Structural Realism." Minds and Machines. Springer Netherlands, 1–21 (2018d).
"An Outline of a Unified Theory of the Relational Self: Grounding the Self in the Manifold of Interpersonal Relations." Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 1–19 (2018e).
"A Structuralist Defence of the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness." Journal of Consciousness Studies, 25(9–10), 75–89 (2018f).
"Reconstructing Probabilistic Realism: Re-Enacting Syntactical Structures." Journal for General Philosophy of Science. Springer Netherlands, 1–21 (2018g).
"New Mechanistic Philosophy and the Scientific Prospects of Code Biology." Biosemiotics, 1–15 (2019a).
"On the Origin of Mental Representations." Biosystems (2019b).
"On the Underpinning Mechanisms of (Epistemically) Reliable Processes." International Journal for the Study of Skepticism, 1–25 (2019c).
"The Benacerraf Problem as a Challenge for Ontic Structural Realism†." Philosophia Mathematica, 28(1), 35-59 (2020a).
(with Northoff, Georg). "Structures in physics and neuroscience Structural realism and the unity of science." Axiomathes, 6, 1-17 (2020b).
"An integrative explanation of action." Biosystems, 198, 104266 (2020c).
"An Algorithmic Metaphysics of Self-Patterns." Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 3419 (2020d).
"Causal Informational Structural Realism." International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 1–18 (2020e).
"Physicalism Shall Never Vanquish'd Be, until...". Mind and Matter, 2, 18, 219-237 (2021a).
"A critical analysis of Markovian monism." Synthese, 1–21 (2021b).
"Agency, Causation, and Empiricism." Theoria (Stockholm), 1-23 (2021c).
(With Pietarinen, A). "Active Inference and Abduction." Biosemiotics, 1-19 (2021d).
"A free energy reconstruction of arguments for panpsychism." Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 1–18 (2021e).
(With Pietarinen, A). "Aligning the free-energy principle with Peirce’s logic of science and economy of research." European Journal for Philosophy of Science 2021 11:3, 11(3), 1–21 (2021f).
"Inflating the social aspects of cognitive structural realism." European Journal for Philosophy of Science 2021 11:3, 11(3), 1–18 (2021g).
"Cognitive Penetration and Cognitive Realism." Episteme, 1–16 (2021h).
"A tale of two architectures: free energy, its models, and modularity." Consciousness and Cognition, 98, 103257 (2022a).
"Dosis Sola Facit Venenum: Reconceptualising biological realism." Biology & Philosophy, 37:6, 11-22 (2022b).
"The Curious Incident of Indistinguishable Selves: A reply to Nešić." International Studies in the Philosophy of Science (2022c).
(With Pietarinen, A). "Reinvigorating the Nineteenth Century Scientific Method." Perspectives on Science, 31(5), 684–715 (2023a).
(with Pietarinen, A.-V., & Farina, M). "Editorial to the Research Topic Distributed Cognition in Scientific Contexts." Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 2149 (2023b).
"The intentional structure of generative models." Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 1–12 (2023c).
"Casting inference to the best explanation’s lot with active inference." Theoria (2023d).
"Structural Realism About the Free Energy Principle, the Best of Both Worlds." Journal for General Philosophy of Science. (2024a)
"Constraining the Compression: Thermodynamic Depth and Composition", The Philosophical Quarterly, 0(0), (2024b).
Book chapters
2019. "Conjuring Cognitive Structures: Towards a Unified Model of Cognition". In A. Nepomuceno-Fernández, L. Magnani, F. Salguero-Lamillar, C. Barés-Gómez, & M. Fontaine (Eds.), Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology. (pp. 153–172).
Book reviews
2021, "Review of MATERIALISM by Robin Gordon Brown and James Ladyman", in British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (Review of Books),
TALKS
Talks as Invited or Keynote Speaker:
Scientific Metaphysics and the Problem of Scientific Progress. (2022, September). Presented at the Scientific Metaphysics and the Problem of Scientific Progress, Universität Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
Cognitive Realism about Scientific Models. (2022, May). Presented at the 8th International Symposium on Brain and Cognitive Science, Koç University.
The Informational Constitution of the Self. (2021, February). Presented at Turkey EuroCC; Winter School for High-Performance Computing, ODTU, Ankara, Turkey.
Talks as Speaker:
NAI: Can AI get naturalized?. (2009, September). Presented at Kazimierz Naturalism Workshop.
On the Ontology of Linguistic Frameworks: Toward a Comprehensive Version of Empiricism. (2011, July). Presented at the 14th Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science (14th CLMPS), Nancy.
Wittgenstein’s Prison. You can Checkout any time you like, but you can never leave. (2012). Presented at the 35th International Wittgenstein Symposium.
An Extension of the Neurocomputational Account of Science: The Social Aspects. (2014). Presented at A Workshop on Mechanism Design and Computational Modeling of Social Systems, IPM, Tehran.
Notes on Carnap's Measured Pragmatist Structural Realism. (2015). Presented at the 4th South African Philosophy of Science Colloquium, Pretoria.
Structural Realism without Metaphysics. (2015, July). Presented at the 15th Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science (15th CLMPS), Finland.
The Indications of the Model-Theoretic Approach to Scientific Theories for the Philosophy of Mind. (2015, April). Presented at the 6th International Conference of Cognitive Science, Tehran.
Representationalism Revised: The Impact of Code Biology. (2018, June). Presented at the Fifth International Conference in Code Biology, Granada, Spain.
Fleshing Out Social Aspects of Cognitive Structural Realism. (2020, November). Presented at the International Workshop on Theory (Re)Construction in the Empirical Social and Behavioral Sciences (TRC2020), Istanbul.
Cognitive-Social Basis of Scientific Practice. (2021, August). Presented at Social Ontology, University of California, San Diego, Online Conference.
Causal Mathematical Explanations. (2021, September). Presented at Between Formal and Informal Methods in Philosophy, Warsaw University.
Neither a Qualia Realist nor an Illusionist Be!. (2021, September). Presented at Models of Consciousness 2, the Association for Mathematical Consciousness Science (AMCS).
Dennetting Panpsychism. (2022, April). Presented at The Science of Consciousness Conference in Tucson, Arizona.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Have been a referee for the following journals:
Axiomathes, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Biosemiotics, European Journal of Philosophy of Science, Erkenntnis, Foundations of Science, International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Journal of Consciousness Studies, Mind & Language, Minds and Machines, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Philosophers' Imprint
TEACHING
These are some of the topics that I am teaching on a regular basis;
Philosophy of science; Philosophy of mind; Philosophy of cognitive science; Philosophy of life sciences
SUPERVISION
I have supervised dissertations that fit in with my expertise, and I continue to do so.