Source
Content
Book Overview
Philip E. Agre's 1997 work from Cambridge University Press offers a philosophical critique of artificial intelligence research. The author advocates reorienting AI from studying cognition toward investigating human activity and embodied agents.
Core Arguments
Main Thesis: Agre proposes AI should shift focus away from abstract thought processes toward "concrete undertakings in the world," emphasizing that agents are fundamentally situated and embodied rather than disembodied minds.
Key Concepts:
Critical Perspective
Agre critiques the "planning view" inherited from post-WWII technology research. Rather than activity being rigidly planned, he argues everyday life is fundamentally routine and improvised, with people continuously redeciding actions moment-to-moment.
The author advocates for "critical technical practice" -- integrating philosophical reflection into computational work rather than treating technical and theoretical concerns separately.
Methodological Innovation
The work demonstrates this alternative approach through technical projects including the "Life" programming language and "RA" architecture for agents that deliberate through running arguments about appropriate actions.
Agre emphasizes that building computational systems is itself a way of knowing that generates insights when practitioners critically examine both successes and failures.