Self and the Social

Organizers:  

Dr. Jorge Gonçalves  

Dr. Alexander Gerner 

(Members of the Research Project: Cognitive Foundation of the Self)

“Fundamentos Cognitivos do Si”

Site: http://foundationsoftheself.squarespace.com/

Funding: PTDC/FIL-FCI/110978/2009

Entrance to the workshop is free but please register via email.  Any additional question please contact: [email protected], [email protected]

A fundamental aspect in the study of the self is the relationship between self and others. Several issues have emerged: does the sense of self depend on the relationship with the other? Or can one think the self logically, without reference to others? Is the social feeling towards the other innate, and how does the social self evolve? Is there a constitutional embodied otherness/ strangeness (Waldenfels) for instance in relation to double concept of the the living body/ lived body or the body schema/ body image (Gallagher) or bodies in technology (Ihde)? What is the relationship of self/other in between existential incorporated feelings (Ratcliffe) of „otherness“ and external other bodies? Are our brains, social relational organs (Fuchs)? Are mental disorders social? What is the role of social interaction in diseases such as autism, schizophrenia etc.? What is the relationship between empathy and body language in social interaction? What is the relationship between sub-personal, interpersonal and personal in the social self? In sum: Do we become human/ a self by embodied social interaction? What is the role of the other in the concept of self?

Linking the state of art and novel approaches of the social self in intersubjectivity/ intercorporality studies, this Workshop aims to raise questions, inviting new theoretical and methodological approaches in the studies of self and its social constitutional context. This Workshop attempts to assess a framework to the contemporary research theories in the fields of phenomenology, developmental psychology, evolutionary psychology, psychoanalysis, neuroscience, psychiatry, cognitive psychology as well as in visual/ interactive and performing arts, cinema philosophy and philosophy of technology linked to the self and the social.