HPhil Seminar: December 18, 2025

The HPhil (History of Philosophy) Research Group of the Centre of Philosophy of the University of Lisbon announces the 2025/26 edition of its permanent seminar on the history of philosophy, devoted to the presentation of conferences by renowned specialists while also creating opportunities to emerging scholars, aiming to promote advanced studies in groundbreaking debates and the permanent training of its academic community.

In this session of the seminar, Gyula Klima (Fordham University) will present a work of his, entitled “Understanding Natural Understanding and Artificial Intelligence: Does AI have any idea of what it is doing?”. (abstract below)

The session will take place on December 18, 2025 at 5 p.m., in the Room 201.J (Room Mattos Romão, Department of Philosophy). Admission is free

Abstract

In this paper, based on an Aristotelian-Thomistic, hylomorphic understanding of human intelligence, I will argue for four essential differences between human intelligence and any possible artificial intelligence systems (AI), thereby hoping to get a better grasp on each: 1. The immateriality of human intelligence vs. the materiality of AI. 2. The difference between mere processors vs. genuine cognitive subjects of information. 3. The difference between the kind of awareness required for genuine human cognition and agency, as opposed to the non-conscious information states of AI. 4. The difference between the essentially socio-historical character of human thought vs. the artificial processing thereof by AI.