Me, the Self, and I : Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference on the Unity of the Self

Invited speakers:

Thomas Sattig (University of Tübingen)

Elisabeth Pacherie (Institut Jean Nicod)

Scientific Committee: Hanoch Ben-Yami, Anna Berti, Paola Borroni, Clotilde Calabi, Marcello Massimini, Cristina Meini, Elisa Paganini, Corrado Sinigaglia, Alfredo Tomasetta, Giuliano Torrengo, Achille Varzi, Maurizio Tirassa

Topic areas: metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of cognitive science, psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience

Personal identity is a largely discussed topic. It raises many questions such as, e.g.: what makes a person the same over time? What sorts of changes can a person undergo to count as the same person? Answering these questions elicits the exchange of ideas between philosophy and cognitive science. It is intuitively attractive to say that a person is numerically identical to herself at different times and through time. However, things get complicated once we consider the cases of severe physical changes or distortions of the mental life. For example, a case of a split-brain patient or a complete surgical face reconstruction. Considering these cases, a significant contribution arrives from neurosciences. The fundamental characteristics of subjectivity can be illuminated through the study of the pathological distortions (e.g. internal alterations in neurological and psychiatric patients) and by external manipulation (e.g. multisensory illusions in healthy subjects).

The Graduate Conference organized by the Doctoral School in Philosophy and Human Sciences will address these issues from multiple perspectives. Submissions are welcome from philosophers, psychologists and cognitive scientists whose research is involved in the topic of personal identity broadly construed.