Warsaw, June 23-26, 2016

The aim of the workshop is to discuss the recent work on mechanistic explanation, with special stress on particular problems of integration of multiple mechanistic models, robustness, and unification of partial explanations, theories and fields.

There is a growing consensus that cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience explain their phenomena of interest mechanistically. Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary research field, in which methods, tools, and concepts from other disciplines are used. One can ask a fundamental question whether anything unifies the field; or whether it is not just a hodgepodge of heterogeneous research. This kind of doubt can be articulated with regard to any interdisciplinary research field. However, the existence of interdisciplinary collaboration means that there are real connections between disciplines and that their problems are related. But to really dispel the doubt against interdisciplinary research, one needs to answer the question of what makes such conglomerates as cognitive science actually unified.

Invited Keynote Speakers

William Bechtel (California, San Diego)

Carl F. Craver (Washington University in St. Louis)

David Kaplan (Macquarie)

Registration

To register, click here.

More info

The workshop is organized by Marcin Miłkowski and Mateusz Hohol, and financed from National Science Center grant under the decision DEC-2014/14/E/HS1/00803, with support from Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, and Center for Philosophical Research, Warsaw.

The post Mechanistic Integration and Unification in Cognitive Science first appeared on Centre for Philosophical Research.

1:00 pm           Bus leaves Warsaw airport

4:30 pm                      Bus arrives at workshop hotel in Kazimierz Dolny

6:30 pm           Dinner at hotel

Sunday, November 8th

8 am                Breakfast for all staying at the hotel

9:30                 Key Speaker Ellen Dissanayake, Evolution and the Arts

11:00 am         Coffee break for all workshop participants

11:30 am         Jerzy Luty – Ellen Dissanayake’s ethological approach to art and its critics

12:10 pm         John Collier – Disputes over the evolutionary origins of music and dance

12:50 pm         Piotr Podlipniak – Tonal qualia and the evolution of music

1:30 pm           Lunch for all workshop participants

2:30 pm           Eveline Seghers and Stefaan Blancke – Metacognition and the origins of art

3:10 pm           Marcin Miłkowski – Brain on Art Meets Honest Signals

3:50 pm           TBA

4:30 pm           End of sessions

Monday, November 9th

8 am                Breakfast for all staying at the hotel

9:30 am           Key Speaker Piotr Przybysz – Aesthetic Emotions: Toward a Temporal Dynamics Model of Emotional Processing of Art Stimuli

11:00 am         Coffee break for all workshop participants

11:30 am         Mateusz Migut – Need for functional psychology of music – conceptual struggles with empirical investigation of functions of music

12:10 pm         Alejandra Wah – Processes underlying the artistic experience

12:50 pm         Larissa Mendoza Straffon – The Aesthetic Experience as Social Emotion: Towards an Affective Art History

1:30 pm           Lunch for all workshop participants

2:30 pm           Guided tour of Kazimierz Dolny

4:30 pm           End of tour

Tuesday, November 10th

8 am                Breakfast for all staying at the hotel

9:30 am           Key Speaker Ellen Dissanayake – From Ritualization to Ritual and its Arts: Sources of Upper Pleistocene Ritual Practices in Ritualized and Play Behaviours in Ancestral Hominins

11:00 am         Coffee break for all workshop participants

11:30 am         Jakub Matyja – From brains to bodies: recomposing musical simulations

12:10 pm         Witold Wachowski – Contradictory acoustic affordances

12:50 pm         Mateusz Hohol – TBA

1:30 pm           Lunch for all workshop participants

2:30 pm           Piotr Kozak – Art, Formalism, and the Limits of Naturalism

3:10 pm           TBA

3:50 pm           TBA

4:30 pm           End of sessions

6:30 pm           Workshop dinner at restaurant in town (cost not covered by fees)

Wednesday, November 11th

8 am                Breakfast for all staying at the hotel

9 am                Round-table discussion of workshop theme

11:30 am         Bus leaves hotel

2:30 pm           Bus arrives at Warsaw airport

The post Preliminary schedule first appeared on Centre for Philosophical Research.

Nakładem OBF, przy finansowym wsparciu Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego, ukazały się dwie pozycje książkowe:

• Krzysztof Czerniawski, Trzy wersje epistemicznej teorii prawdy: Dummett, Putnam, Wright, 2014.
• Piotr Warzoszczak, Fikcjonalizm modalny, 2014.

Obie dostępne są do pobrania, zapraszamy do lektury!

The post Dwie nowe publikacje Biblioteki OBF first appeared on Centre for Philosophical Research.

Kazimierz Dolny, Poland – November, 7th to 11th, 2015 August,  10th to 14th, 2015

Recent scientific research concerning art and music has thrown up a plethora of new aspects to be integrated into our understanding of these phenomena. Individual studies, such as attempts to explain aesthetic responses in terms of some aspect of human neurology, have at times been deemed reductionist. Quite apart from such ‘accusations’ often being wholehearted accepted by researchers, the overall picture of art that science is revealing is anything from simplistic. Instead, research coming out of a variety of disciplines is presenting philosophy with ever new challenges if it is to provide anything like an integrated understanding of art and music. Thus, among others, ecological approaches provide a novel perspective upon meaning in music, embodied approaches explore the role of the specific played by the body in experiencing music and evolutionary approaches examine the significance of human evolutionary history for art and music. Far from being simplified, the view that tended to focus upon cultural factors has been enriched by consideration of cognitive and evolutionary factors as well as novel tools and ways of thinking about the interplay between art and music and the broader cultures in which they exist. In effect, it is philosophy that is forced to extend its perspective in order to seek a synthesis that reflects the new research. In our workshop we will seek to further this process by engaging philosophers and scientists in a dialogue concerning the multifaceted place that art and music hold in nature.

Invited Key-speakers

Ian Cross (University of Cambridge)

Ellen Dissanayake (University of Washington) 

Piotr Przybysz (Adam Mickiewicz University)

Sample Questions

• To what extent recent neuroscientific findings explain the nature of our interactions with art and music?
• How can we relate empirical data from empirical musicology to evolutionary theories of music?
• What is the role of computational modelling of music cognition in our understanding of music (in evolutionary context)?
• To what degree can current neuroaesthetics explain the meaning of art and aesthetic pleasure?
• In what ways current naturalistic philosophy of science can inform recent debates on art and music?

Call for Papers

300 word abstracts are invited no later than August, 30th (extended deadline). Accepted speakers will have 40 minutes for their presentations, including discussion time. Preference will be given to presentations directly connected to the work carried out by the key speakers. Abstracts are to be submitted via EasyChair.

Registration and accommodation

Applications will be accepted till September, 10th, with late applications being accepted till October, 15th. Early registration fee is 150 Euro (reduced rate – 75 Euro), while late registration fee is 200 Euro. Fees are payable upon acceptance of application. They cover the workshop sessions, conference materials, lunches, coffee breaks and the minibus to and from Warsaw. Accommodation is available at the hotel at which the workshop will take place (or a hotel nearby) and costs an additional 100 Euro in total for the whole workshop (including breakfasts) in twin en-suite rooms (limited single rooms available at higher price). Availability of accommodation cannot be guaranteed for late registrants.

KNEW’15 is being organised by Marcin Miłkowski (PAN, CPR), Konrad Talmont-Kaminski (UF&M, CPR) and Jakub Ryszard Matyja (PAN, CPR) with the financial assistance from the Centre for Philosophical Research.

The post Placing Art and Music in Nature: KNEW 2015 first appeared on Centre for Philosophical Research.

The focus of this conference is on cognition in the context of agency, affect, and its extensions. The event includes lectures, symposia, workshops, discussions, and posters covering a broad range of topics related to the theme of the second edition of Trends in Interdisciplinary Studies.

Discussions regarding the limits and the nature of that what we call cognition have been going on for a long time. These discussions include, among others, debates over the role of the body, the bounds of the mind, the contribution of the environment (from the physical and biological level to the social and cultural level), the collective nature of cognition and minds, including linguistic coordination, but also the role of affects and our agency in cognitive processes. In these contexts, there also appears the problem of relations between cognitive science and action science, psychology of emotions, linguistics, and social sciences, as well as philosophy, especially epistemology.

During our conference, we would like to tackle the following issues:
(a) main theoretical challenges regarding the concept of embodied cognition;
(b) bodily representations: whether and in what way they exist, and how they can be studied;
(c) the possibilities of researching the products of our agency as evidence of human cognitive abilities;
(d) the role of affective processes in cognition, or even conceptualizing these processes as cognitive ones;
(e) the connections between action and perception;
(f) cognitive research on language and gesture;
(g) framing cognitive systems as social systems; the issue of the existence of group / collective minds;
(h) the role of broadly understood environment and artifacts in cognitive processes;
(i) as well as the most basic questions regarding the nature of cognition, and the role of the categories of cognition and behavior in cognitive explanations.

Forms of participation in the conference:
1) lecture
2) paper related to one of the conference symposia
3) poster
4) participation in workshops and discussions

The conference symposia will be focused on the selected topics related to that of the main theme.

The following symposia are planned:
* Perception-action coupling
* Troubles with embodied cognition theories
* Situatedness and models of mechanisms
* Affected cognition
* Social cognition

Key speakers

Kenneth Aizawa (Rutgers University)
Mark H. Bickhard (Lehigh University)
Giovanna Colombetti (University of Exeter)
Shaun Gallagher (University of Memphis)
Marcin Miłkowski (Polish Academy of Sciences)
Frederique de Vignemont (Institut Jean-Nicod)
Andrew Wilson & Sabrina Golonka (Leeds Beckett University)
and others

Important dates

Abstract submission: August, 15th, 2015
Acceptance notification: August, 18th, 2015
Conference: October 15-18th, 2015, Warsaw, Poland

For more information, see the event website.

The post Situating Cognition: Agency, Affect, and Extension first appeared on Centre for Philosophical Research.

One of the most common questions in today’s cognitive studies is the one regarding embodied cognition. The answer to this question draws our attention to many factors, including bodily actions, which also work to embody cognition. With this in mind, enactivism is included in discussions of embodiment. Some authors are comparing cognition to a handshake and dancing. Enactivism equates cognition with action, focusing on its very performance.
The present issue consists mainly of ten articles that are ten standpoints on enactivism: not only from the point of view of the critics (K. Aizawa, P. Steiner, F. Cummins, K. Bielecka) and the proponents (S. Gallagher & M. Brower, R. Ellis, Q. Li & I. Winchester), but also spokespeople for the moderate approach (D. Reid, R. Briscoe, J.L. Petit). The abovementioned papers are significantly complemented by two interviews: one with S. Gallagher, and the other with R. Rupert, as well as by two book reviews by P. Grosse and Ch. Drain; they are able to direct the attention towards more broadly conceived issues connected with situating cognitive processes.

“Enactivism: Arguments & Applications”. AVANT, Volume V, Issue 2/2014. ISSN: 2082-6710. Editors of the Issue: Tomasz Komendziński, Przemysław Nowakowski, Witold Wachowski.

The post Avant 2 / 2014 first appeared on Centre for Philosophical Research.

Yuichi Amitani – Species without definitions: Applying psychology to resolve the species problem

John Collier – The strange case of female hormone replacement therapy and cognitive salience

Corinne L. Bloch-Mullins – Concepts as tools of discovery

Miles MacLeod and Nancy Nersessian – Cognitive constraints, complexity and model-building

Matteo Colombo and Rogier De Langhe – Bayesian cognitive science, inference to the best explanatory framework, and the value of specialization

Mark Addis, Fernand Gobet, Peter C. R. Lane and Peter Sozou – Computational scientific discovery and cognitive science theories

Paul Thagard – How scientific creativity results from three brain mechanisms

Piotr Giza – Automated discovery systems and the inductivist controversy

Witold Hensel – On Thagard’s argument for the approximate truth of deepened scientific theories

Krystyna Bielecka – Ludwik Fleck’s account of science and the cognitive science of science

Hugo Mercier – The argumentative theory of reasoning and scientific progress

Renne Pesonen – Intuitive rationality and cognitive expertise

Maarten Boudry and Stefaan Blancke – The epidemiology of pseudoscience

Konrad Talmont-Kaminski – Epistemic vigilance in scientific and religious cognition

Lucas Afeltowicz and Radosław Sojek– Machines, duels and a beauty contest: Cognitive synergy of ‘Aristocratic’ and ‘Craftsmanship’ styles

Adam Toon – Reason, relativism and situated cognition

Additionally, in The Reasoner 8 (10), you can find a report from the workshop.

The post Talks from KNEW 2014 first appeared on Centre for Philosophical Research.

W najnowszym numerze Przeglądu Filozoficznego-Literackiego (2 (39) /2014) Marcin Miłkowski polemizuje z Krzysztofem Posłajką na temat jego książki opublikowanej przez Bibliotekę OBF. Autor nie pozostaje dłużny i odpowiada na krytyczne uwagi.

The post Polemika wokół książki Krzysztofa Posłajki first appeared on Centre for Philosophical Research.

1. Warunkiem aktywnego uczestnictwa w konferencjach organizowanych przez Ośrodek Badań Filozoficznych z siedzibą w Warszawie, ul. Stawki 3/20, 00-193 Warszawa jest uiszczenie opłaty konferencyjnej w terminie wskazanym w ogłoszeniu konferencji. Referaty są akceptowane przez organizatorów zgodnie z zasadami rzetelności naukowej.

2. Odpowiedzialność za reklamacje i zwroty bierze Ośrodek Badań Filozoficznych. Adres kontaktowy OBF, numer konta, NIP, REGON i nr KRS dostępne są tutaj.

3. Zwrot wpłaconej opłaty możliwy jest w 100% tylko do 14 dni przed terminem konferencji. Od 13 do 7 dni przed terminem konferencji zwracane jest tylko 50% kosztów, po tym terminie żaden zwrot nie jest możliwy. Zwrot następuje na pisemną prośbę uczestnika konferencji, przekazaną za pomocą poczty elektronicznej (lub formularz na stronie internetowej) na adres kontaktowy organizatorów konferencji. Adresy kontaktowe dostępne są na tej stronie.

4. Reklamacje można składać pisemnie za pomocą poczty elektronicznej (lub formularz na stronie internetowej) na adres kontaktowy organizatorów konferencji. Adresy kontaktowe dostępne są na tej stronie.

5. Rozliczenia transakcji kartą kredytową i e-przelewem przeprowadzane są za pośrednictwem Centrum Rozliczeniowego Dotpay.

The post Regulamin sprzedaży (udziału w konferencjach) first appeared on Centre for Philosophical Research.

Trzon najnowszego „Avantu” (pod red. P. Nowakowskiego i W. Wachowskiego) stanowią przekłady czterech prac z zakresu kognitywistyki – dotyczą one: teorii poznania ucieleśnionego (A.D. Wilson i S. Golonka), enaktywizmu (F. de Vignemont), teorii poznania rozproszonego (D. Kirsh) i zastosowań Gibsonowskiej teorii afordancji w projektowaniu robotów (T.E. Horton, A. Chakraborty i R. St. Amant). W numerze znajdziemy również artykuł M. Dombrowskiego poświęcony Witkacowskiej metafizyce cielesności, analizę instalacji Wielka szyba Duchampa (artykuł M. Włudzik) oraz komentarz Ł. Jędrzejczaka do eseju T. Metzingera na temat relacji między duchowością, religią i uczciwością intelektualną. Ponadto – recenzje dwóch książek: Radicalizing Enactivism Daniela Hutto i Erika Myina oraz Mindvaults Radu Bogdana.

The post Avant 1/2014 first appeared on Centre for Philosophical Research.