Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Inter-Faculty School for Brain Sciences
My life before BGU:
I grew up in Tel Aviv and went to high school at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium there. I completed my bachelor's degree in computer science at Tel Aviv-Yafo Academic College. For my master's degree I studied in the Philosophy Department at Tel-Aviv University. My doctorate in philosophy was completed at the University of New South Wales in Australia. Afterwards, I did my first post-doc at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (at the Edelstein Center and the Israeli Institute for Advanced Studies), and my second post-doc under the auspices of the Kreitman School of Advanced Graduate Studies at BGU.
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"In my
opinion, one can't put it better than Socrates: "The unexamined life is
not worth living." You don't have to deal formally with philosophy in
order to lead such a life, but you certainly should adopt a measure of
skepticism"
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My research:
What is the nature of the mind? Is it calculating? And if so, what is computation and information processing, which apparently occurs anywhere? How do we acquire skills?
Why BGU?
The Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences is the natural place to carry out my research (as a philosopher of the cognitive sciences, who emphasizes direct interaction with non-philosopher brain and cognitive scientists). For me the Department constitutes a stage from which to educate future generations about the importance of critical philosophical thinking in all empirical research. The Department of Philosophy was a home during my post-doc and now I have the chance to enjoy this obvious link between two different worlds.
An insight from my research:
In my opinion, one can't put it better than Socrates: "The unexamined life is not worth living." You don't have to deal formally with philosophy in order to lead such a life, but you certainly should adopt a measure of skepticism.
Something that doesn't appear on my resume:
In the past I enjoyed mountain biking. Now that I have less free time, I enjoy running for short distances and learning Thai boxing.
A source of inspiration:
I'm glad to say I have more than one, but will only mention three: Rene Descartes (who needs no introduction), Alan Turing (one of the fathers of computer science and artificial intelligence, who died prematurely under tragic circumstances), and Joseph Agassi (a student of Karl Popper, and one of the greatest philosophers of science).
When I grow up:
I don't remember what I thought or said as a child, but at a certain point I remember that I wanted to work with computers (programming). After quite a few years in the world of computer programming, I understood that it wasn't challenging or interesting enough for me spend so much time on it, and so I decided to be a philosopher when I grow up. It seems to me I'm on the right track.
If I was not a researcher, I would be involved with:
programming or project management. Been there, done that, have luckily moved on.
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In brief:
Maccabi or HaPoel? Soccer or Basketball? Doesn't matter. I'm not interested in either.
IPhone or Android? iPhone without a doubt. My last model (iPhone 4) lasted for more than 6 years.
Summer or Winter? Winter, certainly in Beer-Sheva (but not only….)
Night or morning? Morning.
Tea or coffee? Undoubtedly black coffee.
Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad? Game of Thrones. It's nice to escape our fictional reality to a world where all is good (I'm being sarcastic…)
An isolated cabin in nature or a pampering hotel in the city? An isolated cabin in nature.
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