Nancy Salay

Nancy Salay is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Queen's University, with a cross-appointment in the School of Computing. She holds affiliations as Editor of Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review and founder of ESC (Embodiment, Systems, and Complexity). Her research focuses on philosophy of cognition, language, and metaphysics, informed by embodied cognitive science. She earned her PhD in philosophy of mind from Dalhousie University, followed by a research fellowship at Brandeis and work as a computational linguist at Cycorp.

Her research explores how language expands cognitive capacities like reflective consciousness, challenging traditional computational models of cognition. Recent work critiques limitations of machine learning systems in understanding abstract representational properties. Nancy's interdisciplinary approach bridges philosophy with computational linguistics and cognitive science.

Publications span analysis of knowledge systems' failures, non-universality in computation, and philosophical critiques of neural networks' representational paradigms. Her work emphasizes organism-level engagement over neural reductionism in grounding intentionality. Collaborations include projects like the Halo Pilot evaluating knowledge representation systems.