Modern philosophers such as Rene Descartes, William Amo, and Patricia Churchland, have all sought to unravel the mind-body dilemma in many ways. What is immediately noticeable is the fact that the salient perspectives of modern African philosophers like Kwasi Wiredu, Kwame Gyekye and Jonathan Chimakonam – are rarely engaged. Furthermore, the 21^st century has seen the rise in the development of artificial intelligence systems and their effects on several aspects of human life. Again, the salient contributions of African scholars have not fully made their foray into philosophical questions concerning the epistemology and ethics of AI.

To bridge these gaps, we invite full paper submissions for an edited collection titled: Conversations on African Philosophy of Mind, Consciousness and AI. This project is in keeping with the ongoing efforts to build the African philosophy literature in different areas not only for research but for classroom discussions. Contributions from scholars outside the African philosophical tradition which engages or unveils the African perspective to the associated issues of mind, consciousness and AI are also welcome.

Topics of relevance include (but are not limited to):

1.       Panpsychism and vitalism as theories of theory of mind

2.       African approaches to the mind-body debate.

3.       African ethics of AI.

4.       Western models of the mind vs African models of the mind.

5.       Robots and personhood.

6.       African approaches to the hard problem of consciousness.

7.       Epistemology, rationality and mind.

8.       Is Africa ready for the fourth industrial revolution?

9.       Transhumanism, singularity and the meaning of life.

10.   Being human in a techno-laden world.

11.   Robots and African communalism.

12.   African conceptions of the self and personal identity.

Please submit an abstract (200 words max) along with a short bio to (aribiahdavidattoe@gmail.com) on or before the 30^th of March 2020. We are looking to publish this book with Springer Nature Publishers.

Important dates:

Submission of bio/abstracts: 30 March 2020

Notification of accepted abstracts: 30 April 2020

Submission of full papers: 15 October 2020

Editors:

Aribiah D. Attoe csp, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Segun T. Samuel csp, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Victor Nweke csp, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany

John-Bosco Umezurike csp, Nigeria Maritime University, Nigeria