*Workshop on Philosophy of Embodiment, Self and Agency*
*March 1 - 2, 2012*
This workshop will use the work of Shaun Gallagher, especially from his
2005 book *How the Body Shapes the Mind* as a jumping off point to discuss
important themes in contemporary philosophy, namely questions around
embodiment, self and agency.
Gallagher will give two talks at the workshop as follows:
*11.00 to 12.30, March 1st*: *Embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended
mindreading*
*Abstract: *In this presentation I'll review some ongoing interdisciplinary
debates in social cognition, offer some critiques of the standard and
dominant Theory of Mind approaches, and outline an alternative theory
framed in terms of recent work on embodied and enactive cognition. The
alternative account explains the earliest forms of interaction in infancy
and offers a narrative (rather than a folk psychology or simulationist)
model of mature social understanding.
*10.30 to 12.00, March 2nd: **Misidentifying the self in experimental and
pathological situations *
*Abstract: *In this presentation I'll review a number of pathological and
experimental situations in which either the sense of agency or the sense of
ownership is disrupted. I'll defend the view that immunity to error
through misidentification (IEM) is nonetheless sustained in all of these
cases to the extent that the first-person perspective is sustained. I'll
discuss at least one case, however, in which the first-person perspective
in experience seems to be problematic and IEM seems to be clearly
challenged.
The way workshop is structured is that Gallagher will give a talk each
morning and then researchers from the IFL´s Cognitive Foundations of the
Self project will use Gallagher´s ideas, especially from his 2005 book *How
the Body Shapes the Mind,* as a jumping off point for further exploration
of the themes of the conference. *João Fonseca, Alexander Gerner, Robert
Clowes, Jorge Gonçalves and Dina Mendonça *will all present their ongoing
work around the main conference themes. For more detail on papers and
abstracts see:
workshop timetable allows plenty of time for extended discussion.
Participation at this workshop is open to other researchers although will
be limited to around 20 participants. The session on the first morning
however is a public lecture. Those who would like to participate at the
workshop are invited to send email to Robert Clowes to register their
interest. The conference language is English.
*Location:* Faculty of Social and Human
Sciences<http://www.fcsh.unl.
University of Lisbon), I&D Building - *Room Multiusos 3, 4th Floor*
Entrance to the workshop is free but to register please send email to
This workshop is part of the Portuguese Government funded project on the
Cognitive Foundations of the Self:
