Keynote speaker:
Invited speakers:
Over the last two decades, cognitive sciences, as well as human sciences in general, have witnessed a considerable paradigm shift with regard to their outlook on the nature of mind, cognition, perception and action. The traditional computation-based cognitivist outlook on the nature of cognition and functioning of the central nervous system has been gradually surpassed by ‘pragmatically-oriented’ approaches to the study of cognition and action.
In their search for philosophical justification of such a paradigm shift, cognitive scientists of the new wave as well as certain philosophers of mind have turned their attention to existential phenomenology and also to classical American pragmatism (Peirce, James, Dewey, Mead). Although there are considerable differences in how Peirce, James, Dewey, and Mead understood the mind, their common ground seems to lie in the belief that mind and consciousness are to be explained in terms of action. For the pragmatists, mind and cognition are ‘servants’ of action, not the other way around.
The conference titled “Pragmatism and Embodied Cognitive Science” aims to scrutinize the outcomes of the interaction between different facets of the mind-research and the philosophy of pragmatism. More precisely, we will discuss the contributions made by the pragmatists to new understanding of phenomena like emotions, perception, action, cognition, etc. We will also address the prospects, challenges and limitations which pragmatically-oriented research in cognitive sciences might face in the future. At the conference, we will, therefore, address issues like:
To our conference, we cordially invite not only philosophers, but also other social and natural scientists, who, in their research, have benefited from the ideas stemming from the work of philosophers like Charles S. Peirce, William James, George H. Mead, or John Dewey. We will also welcome constructive critiques of the pragmatically inclined approaches to cognitive science.
Abstracts for papers relating to any of the above topics or any other facet of the theme ‘Pragmatism and Embodied Cognitive Science’ are welcomed. Abstracts should be no more than 500 words in length and prepared for blind review. On a separate sheet, please include:
- your name
- affiliation and contact details
- current status (graduate student, post-doc, professor)
- please, indicate the year when you received your PhD (several spots have been reserved for junior researchers, i.e., researchers less than 5 years after a PhD, or graduate students).
Decisions on submissions will be communicated no later than 10 February 2015.
Papers selected for presentation should be no longer than 3,500 words, and are to be presented in approximately thirty minutes with additional fifteen minutes for questions and discussion.
Abstracts should be submitted in .DOC or .PDF format only to Roman Madzia at pragmacogsci [at] gmail.com by midnight (GMT) on 1 February 2015, with the subject line ‘Abstract-pragmacogsci’. If you have any questions, send them the given address as well.