CFP: Phenomenal Mindreading: Attributing Conscious Experiences to Onself and Others

Conscious experiences occupy a central position in our mental lives. Imagine how  our lives would be impoverished if we cannot see colors, smell odors, experience emotions, etc. Analogously, third-person phenomenal mindreading, i.e., the ability to attribute conscious experiences to other individuals, plays a fundamental role in understanding others. Indeed, the ability to recognize whether someone is feeling pain, or is experiencing disgust is arguably as important as the ability to attribute beliefs and desires. Importantly, human beings are also able to attribute conscious experiences to themselves. For example, when an adult human being experiences sadness, she is also typically able to determine that she is having such an experience. In a nutshell, human beings also perform first-person phenomenal mindreading. The aim of this conference is to investigate first-person and  third-person phenomenal mindreading from an interdisciplinary point of view that combines philosophy, psychology and neuroscience. In doing so, we intend to address some of the most puzzling and open questions and problems in this area.  

We invite submissions from philosophy and empirical science for papers (25+10 min) and posters related to the topics of the conference.

Please submit an extended abstract of 1000 words to [email protected]

Exemplary topics:
- Introspection of phenomenal states
- Cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying phenomenal mindreading - Relation between attributing phenomenal states and intentional states 
- Reliability of phenomenal mindreading
- Emotion attribution and empathy
- Ascription of pain and bodily sensations - Disorders of phenomenal mindreading
- Attribution of conscious experience to robots, humans and non-human animals
- Phenomenal concepts and the language of phenomenal mindreading

CONTACT: [email protected]