Francis Fallon

Associate Professor

St. John's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Ph.D., Philosophy, Lancaster, UKM.Phil., Intellectual History, Cambridge, UKB.A., Philosophy and History, Trinity, Dublin

Francis Fallon works mainly in Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science, including three current collaborative interdisciplinary projects:

He is the Project Director of Change Detection During Saccades (CDDS), funded by the Templeton World Charities Foundation (TWCF), as part of their Accelerating Research on Consciousness (ARC) initiative. This work uses eye-trackers to conduct original and replication experiments, designed by its team of ‘adversarial collaborators’. The collaboration spans Lingnan University (Hong Kong), University of Wisconsin (Madison), University of Florida, CUNY Graduate Center, and St. John’s. Link: https://www.templetonworldcharity.org/projects-database/replication-and-extension-crucial-john-grimes-experiment-change-detection-during

He is also part of TWCF-ARC’s flagship project, COGITATE, another adversarial collaboration using simultaneous replication methodology, in this case employing brain imaging techniques. Here are links to several pieces about COGITATE (two in Science, one in Quanta);

https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.abj3259

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6463/293.abstract

https://www.quantamagazine.org/neuroscience-readies-for-a-showdown-over-consciousness-ideas-20190306/

For preregistrations or associated document for CDDS or COGITATE, see Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/9t3nu/

Fallon initiated the Representation: Past, Present, and Future project, based in The Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. RPPF receives funding from the TCD Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund, and is partners with The Trinity Long Room Hub. RPPF gathers experts from the sciences, intellectual history, and philosophy, to identify and organize the different usages of the term and concept of representation in research on the mind and in artificial intelligence.

For more on RPPF, see https://www.tcd.ie/Neuroscience/RPPF [page may be under construction]; an event discussing it is available here: https://fb.watch/bl5lSHYGFX/

He has published in academic journals such as PLOS One, Entropy, The Review of Philosophy and Psychology, Topoi, and The International Journal of Philosophical Studies. He has also published various book chapters, reference pieces, and popular essays. He regularly presents work at laboratories, panels, and lecture series in Europe and the United States, and serves as reviewer for journals such as BJPS, Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, and Synthese.

Other work includes two edited volumes: Agnosticism: Explorations in Philosophy and Religious Thought, edited with Gavin Hyman (Oxford UP, 2020), and Insights into Ethical Theory and Practice: Principia Eclectica (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2022). Fallon also sits on the board of the Long Island Philosophical Society.

Articles on Mind and Science

“Reckoning with intuition” in Artificial Intelligence with Consciousness? Statements, edited by Karsten Wedland (Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS)) Forthcoming in German first as Künstliche Intelligenz mit Bewusstsein? Statements

“What are we talking about? Clarifying the fuzzy concept of representation in neuroscience and beyond”, Francis Fallon, Tomás J. Ryan, Rosa Cao, David A. Haig, Yohan J. John, Celeste Kidd, Kevin J. Mitchell, Melanie Mitchell, Lorina Naci, Timothy J. O’Donnell, James R. O’Shea, Fionn O’Sullivan, Rebecca Wheeler, Daniel C. Dennett, Mark Sprevak, and John W. Krakauer. The Transmitter 1(1) 13 November 2023 https://doi.org/10.53053/PFBH5329

“An adversarial collaboration protocol for testing contrasting predictions of global neuronal workspace and integrated information theory”, Lucia Melloni, Liad Mudrik, Michael Pitts, Katarina Bentz, Oscar Ferrante, Urszula Gorska, Rony Hirschhorn, Aya Khalaf, Csaba Kozma, Alex Lepauvre, Ling Liu, David Mazumder, David Richter, Hao Zhou, Hal Blumenfeld, David J.Chalmers, Sasha Devore, Francis Fallon, Floris P. de Lange, Ole Jensen, Gabriel Kreiman, Huan Luo Stanislas Dehaene, Christof Koch, Giulio Tononi. PLOS One 18(2): e0268577. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268577

Fallon, F., & Blackmon, J. (2021) IIT’s Scientific Counter-Revolution: A Neuroscientific Theory’s Physical and Metaphysical Implications. Entropy 23(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/e23080942

Fallon, F. (2020) Good News from Neurology, but Don’t Get the Wrong Idea, in The Ultimate Guide to Philosophy of Mind. Philosophy Now Press.

Fallon, F. (2020) Integrated Information Theory, Searle, and the Arbitrariness Question. Review of Philosophy and Psychology 11 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-018-0409-0

Fallon, F. (2020) Dennett on Consciousness: Realism Without the Hysterics. Topoi 39 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-017-9502-8

Fallon, F. (2018) One Damned Thing before Another (critical notice of Daniel Dennett’s From Bacteria to Bach and Back), The International Journal of Philosophical Studies 26(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/09672559.2018.1415692

Fallon, F. (2017) Integrated Information Theory (IIT) and Artificial Consciousness, in Advanced Research on Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architecture, (IGI Global).

Fallon, F. (2014) The Immune System as Ontological Puzzle: Pradeu’s Solution (critical notice of Thomas Pradeu’s The Limits of Self: Immunology and Biological Identity), The International Journal of Philosophical Studies 2 https://doi.org/10.1080/09672559.2014.896618

Guidebook Chapters, Reviews, and Encyclopedia Entries on Science and Mind

Fallon, F. (2018) Integrated Information Theory, in The Routledge Handbook of Consciousness, ed. by Rocco Gennaro. Routledge.

Fallon, F. & Brook, A. (2018) “Multiple Drafts Model” in The Routledge Handbook of Consciousness, ed. by Rocco Gennaro. Routledge

Fallon, F. (2016) “Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness,” The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2016). https://iep.utm.edu/int-info/

Fallon, F. (2016) The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution (a review of David Wootton’s book, of that title). International Journal of Philosophical Studies 24 (4). 10.1080/09672559.2016.1219511

Fallon, F. (2010) What Darwin Got Wrong (a review of the book by Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli‐Palmarini). International Journal of Philosophical Studies 18 (4). 10.1080/09672559.2010.513183

Books

Fallon, F. (2022) Insights into Ethical Theory and Practice: Principia Eclectica (editor, contributor). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-7605-6

Fallon, F. & Hyman, G. (2020) Agnosticism: Explorations in Philosophy and Religious Thought (editor, contributor). Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/agnosticism-9780198859123?cc=us&lang=en&

Edited Journal Issue

Sprevak, M. & Fallon, F. Special Issue (“Representation in Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence”) of Philosophy and the Mind Sciences. In progress.

Faculty Recognition Award from SJU’s St. John’s College of Liberal Arts (August 2021)

Grants Recognition Award (from the St. John’s University Office of Grants and Sponsored Research; one of two such awards made annually) (April 2021)

Faculty Recognition Award from SJU’s St. John’s College of Liberal Arts (August 2020)

Grant (CDDS): Project Director / PI, Replication and extension of crucial John Grimes experiment: Change detection during saccades. $172,576 awarded by Templeton World Charity Foundation (March 2020); extension pending

Grant (COGITATE): Collaborator, Accelerating research on consciousness: An adversarial collaboration to test contradictory predictions of Global Neuronal Workspace and Integrated Information Theory. (aka Collaboration On GNW and IIT Testing Alternative Theories of Experience) $5 million awarded by Templeton World Charity Foundation (summer 2019), various extensions

Outstanding Philosopher Award, Long Island Philosophical Society. April 2018.

Certifications

Certified as Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA)

Certified by the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA)

Certificate in Pedagogy Perspectives (St. John’s University, Center for Teaching and Learning): Teaching

English Language Learners, Classroom Management, and Student-Centered Learning

Selected Courses Taught

Epistemology

Philosophy of the Human Person

Philosophy of Mind: Independent Research Elective

Ethics (and Business Ethics)

Philosophy of Science

Logic and Critical Thinking

Modern American History

Institutions

St. John’s University (current)

State University of New York (SUNY): Purchase

Lancaster University (U.K.)

Mouseion Professors (now Macat) (consultant)

LIM College

Nyack College (Kolb Technique)

Dowling College