Workshop overview

This will be a small seminar style workshop. To enhance the value of the discussion numbers are limited to 30 so registration is essential. To register email M.L.Stapleton@sms.ed.ac.uk with "Heidegger Workshop" in the subject line. Participants will be expected to be involved in the discussions and to have prepared by reading the reccommended papers suggested in advance by the invited speakers.

Interested parties in the Edinburgh area are also welcome to attend the Philosophy and Phenomenology Reading Group in the Edinburgh Philosophy Department.

The workshop is kindly supported by a grant from the Mind Association.

Invited speakers

• Professor Michael Wheeler (Stirling)
• Professor Matthew Ratcliffe (Durham)
• Dr Julian Kiverstein (Edinburgh)

Graduate speakers

• Andrew Blitzer (Georgetown University)
  • "Heidegger on (Cognitive) Science"
• Massimiliano Cappuccio (Bentley University)
  • "Cognition in the Hands; Heidegger, Symbolic Thought and Human Gestures"
• Arlette Frederik (Durham University)
  • "Human Intelligence in a Machine: A Developmental Approach"

Rationale

Phenomenological philosophy is experiencing a resurgence in use among contemporary philosophers of mind, particularly those interested in the intersection of cognition and embodiment. We can account for some of the increased popularity with recent neurological research that describes isomorphisms and dissociations that were previously postulated by the phenomenological tradition. It seems likely that other interesting empirical work can benefit both from phenomenological interpretation and conceptual schemas. The work of a key figure of the phenomenological tradition, Martin Heidegger, has played a role in the history of cognitive science, but we contend that there are further depths to be plumbed that can yield new and valuable insights for modern philosophers working in this field.

Michael Wheeler has argued that not only is a shift towards a more Heideggerian approach warranted among the cognitive sciences, but that current empirical work is already shifting in that direction – and philosophers have to catch up. Criticizing this approach, Matthew Ratcliffe, rejects the idea that Heidegger’s ideas can be naturalized to the extent for it to be useful to the natural sciences. The work of both philosophers will be published in a collected volume edited by Michael Wheeler and Julian Kiverstein, forthcoming later this year. We have secured the support of the aforementioned philosophers in participating in the workshop.

The workshop seeks to introduce key Heideggerian ideas to the participants in a conceptually clear manner - hoping to scrupulously avoid the obscurism sometimes attributed to continental thinkers – and link them to contemporary empirical research and philosophical debate. Emphasis will be placed on the ramifications pro and con for adopting a Heideggerian stance towards philosophy of mind and cognitive science.

The target group of the workshop is UK graduate students and faculty interested in philosophy of mind, and cognitive science. As this workshop will not involve detailed critique of either Heidegger, or phenomenology, we do not seek to target those interested in textual analysis of work done in the phenomenological tradition.

Provisional programme

9am: Arrival and coffee

9.30-10.15: Andy Blitzer (Georgetown)
"Heidegger on (Cognitive) Science"

10.15-10.20: comfort break and change over

10.20-11.05: Arlette Frederick (Durham)
"Human Intelligence in a Machine: A Developmental Approach"

11.05-11.15: comfort break and change over

11.15-12.00: Massimiliano Cappucio (Bentley)
"Cognition in the Hands; Heidegger, Symbolic Thought and Human Gestures"

12-13.00 - Sandwich lunch Provided outside the Reception Room

13.00-14.45: Mike Wheeler (Stirling)
"Science Friction: in Defense of a Heideggerian Cognitive Science"

14.45-15.00: comfort break and change over

15.00-16.45: Matthew Ratcliffe (Durham)
"There can be no Cognitive Science of Dasein"

16.45-17.15: coffee

17.15-19.00: Julian Kiverstein (Edinburgh)
"Subjectivity without Subjects and Objects?"

19.00: Adjourn to 56 North for a well-deserved beer...

Organisers

• Andrew Buskell
• Mog Stapleton

Sponsors

Useful links

• Travelling to Edinburgh
• University of Edinburgh Campus Maps
• Accommodation in Edinburgh (Tourist Board)
• Accommodation in Edinburgh (Casamundo)

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