Harnad

Stevan Harnad (born 1949) is a Canadian-born cognitive scientist, linguist, and information scientist known for his work in cognitive science and his advocacy of open access to scholarly literature. He has held research and teaching positions at several universities and has contributed to theories of mind, language, and information sharing.

He is best known for articulating the symbol grounding problem in 1990, a foundational issue in artificial intelligence and cognitive science. The problem asks how symbols used by a cognitive system acquire their meanings if they are merely manipulated by formal rules; Harnad argued that symbols must be grounded in direct perceptual experience and sensorimotor interaction to be meaningful, rather than being connected only to other symbols. This critique has influenced debates on connectionism, embodied cognition, and the limits of purely symbolic AI.

In 1994 Harnad published the Subversive Proposal for Open Access to Research Articles, arguing that scientists should deposit preprints and postprints in online repositories to ensure free access. The proposal helped catalyze the modern open access movement and contributed to later developments in institutional repositories, open archives, and green open access mandates.

Harnad’s work spans cognitive science, linguistics, and information science, and his ideas have influenced both theoretical debates about meaning and practical discussions about scholarly communication. He remains a referenced figure in studies of symbol meaning, AI, and access to scientific knowledge.