Introduction to the special issue on philosophical foundations of artificial intelligence

The web site of Taylor & Francis, the publisher of the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Arti® cial Intelligence, notes that the foundations of the company were laid in 1798 when Richard Taylor launched the Philosophical Magazine. It thus gives me a thrill to be able to write, more than two centuries later, the introduction to a JETAI special issue highlighting philosophical foundations of AI. The project basically took oŒduring the early days of 1999 when I started to invite the authors who contributed the seven thought-provoking papers to the issue you are holding in your hands. The initial call for papers solicited contributions treating one or more of the following themes :