Philosophy Conferences and Calls for Papers

Interdisciplinary Conference

Co-sponsored by the UCF Cognitive Science Program, Philosophy Department, UCF Institute for Simulation and Training, and the International Association for Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences

Recent works in the cognitive sciences have championed various approaches to embodied and situated cognition, including concepts of enactive perception and extended minds. The assumption that cognition can be studied by looking exclusively at what goes on in the head or in the brain has undergone considerable criticism. A diverse and growing number of researchers now claim that an organism’s cognitive abilities are partly constituted by proprioception, action, environmental manipulation and intricate couplings that spread the causality across organisms and structures in their physical, social, and technological environments. Research in this area is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing on fields such as philosophy, cognitive science, developmental studies, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, simulation science and robotics. Much of it is inspired by or complemented by the insights of thinkers in the phenomenological tradition, such as Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, who emphasize the ways in which experience and thought are structured by bodily constraints and environmental interaction. Special focus will be on topics related to extended and augmented cognition.

Keynote presentation: Andy Clark (Philosophy, University of Edinburgh)

Abstracts and session proposals of 500 words should be submitted electronically to Shaun Gallagher (gallaghr@mail.ucf.edu) by 15 July 2007 for consideration.

A special Ethics Workshop on Neuroethics and the Ethical Implications of Augmented Cognition (sponsored by the UCF Department of Philosophy) will follow the conference on October 24th. See the Workshop webpage at www.philosophy.ucf.edu/neuroethics.html.