Catherine Stinson

Education

• BSc, University of Toronto
• MSc, University of Toronto
• PhD, University of Pittsburgh

Specializations / Research Interests 

Philosophy of Science, Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Neuroscience and Psychiatry

Personal Website

Email

c dot stinson at queensu.ca

About

I received my PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in History & Philosophy of Science, and a MSc in Computer Science from the University of Toronto. I have published in philosophy of neuroscience (attention, mechanistic explanation), philosophy of psychiatry (anorexia, classification of disorders), philosophy of artificial intelligence (explanation in artificial neural networks, neo-phrenology), and tech policy (data governance, terms of service agreements, AI ethics education). My current research interests include algorithmic bias in recommendation and search, regulation of social media platforms, how diversity affects research, the metaphysics of scientific models, the medicalization of gender, and data science for anti-racist advocacy.

Recent Journal Articles

• Stinson, C. (2020) From Implausible Artificial Neurons to Idealized Cognitive Models: Rebooting Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence. Philosophy of Science. 87(4), 590–611.
• Stinson, C. (2019) The Absent Body in Psychiatric Diagnosis, Treatment, and Research. Synthese. 196(6), 2153-2176.
• Stinson, C. (2016) Mechanisms in Psychology: Ripping Nature at its Seams. Synthese. 193(5), 1585- 1614. 
• Piryankova, I.V., Wong, H.Y., Linkenauger, S., Stinson, C., Longo, M., Bülthoff, H.H., Mohler, B.J. (2014) Owning an Overweight or Underweight Body: Distinguishing the Physical, Experienced and Virtual Body. PLOS One 9(8): e103428.
• Stinson, C. (2009) Searching for The Source of Executive Attention. PSYCHE 15(1): 137-154.

Policy Papers

• Agency and Ethics in a Complex World. Future EDge, Issue 2. New South Wales Department of Education (September 2020)
• Healthy Data: Policy Solutions for Big Data and AI Innovation in Health. The Mowat Centre. (December 2018)

Chapters in Books

• Stinson, C. (2018). Explanation and Connectionist Models. In The Routledge Handbook of the Computational Mind, Eds. M. Colombo and M. Sprevak. 120–133.
• Stinson, C. and Sullivan, J. (2017). Mechanistic Explanation in Neuroscience. In The Routledge Handbook of Mechanisms and Mechanical Philosophy, Eds. S. Glennan and P. Illari. 375–388.
• Stinson, C. (2017). Back to the Cradle: Mechanism Schemata from Piaget to DNA. In Eppur si muove: Doing History and Philosophy of Science with Peter Machamer, Eds. M. Abrams, Z. Biener, U. Feest, J. Sullivan. Springer. 183–194.

Selected Public Philosophy and Op-Eds

• Algorithms associating appearance and criminality have a dark past. Aeon (May 2020).
• Is my Fungus Going Viral?: Data Privacy in Healthcare. The Globe and Mail (July 6, 2018).
• Deep Learning: Why it’s Time for AI to get Philosophical. The Globe and Mail (March 25, 2018).

Recent Interviews

• Sept 2020 interview on CBC Radio, Ontario Morning about GPT-3 and the threat of general AI.
• June 2020 interview on ABC Radio, Counterpoint about facial recognition and phrenology.
• June 2020 interview in El Pais, Retina about facial recognition and surveillance.
• June 2019 interview on CBC Radio, Spark about AI ethics education.