New Perspectives in the Philosophy of Mind - Summer Course

The purpose of the course is to give participants a view of the current landscape of analytic philosophy of mind, by introducing them to new work and emerging approaches. Because the aim of the course is to present a variety of cutting-edge work and new methodologies, it does not focus on a single topic within the philosophy of mind. However, a common thread running through most of the research to be discussed is a de-centering of historically dominant programs in analytic philosophy of mind, which tended to be narrowly focused on reductive mind-body metaphysics, and the exploration of topics and methods previously sidelined or ignored within this program.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 14 FEBRUARY

Areas of focus are:

• Analytic Phenomenology, which combines the rigor and precision of analytic philosophy with the metaphysically and epistemically neutral first-person methodology in the study of conscious experience characteristic of traditional Husserlian Phenomenology. Topics here include a defense of introspective methodology against recent widespread skepticism (Charles Siewert); “phenomenal intentionality,” which grounds both perceptual and conceptual intentionality in the qualitative character of experience (David Pitt); a defense of unconscious qualitative character (qualia) as grounding the intentional content of unconscious perceptual and conceptual states (Coleman). Siewert and Coleman will present work from book manuscripts under contract with Oxford University Press. Pitt will present work from his recently published book (Oxford 2024). 
• Historically, visual experience has been the almost exclusive focus in philosophy of perception. Clare Batty is a leading researcher on olfactory experience, which she argues presents significant challenges to generalizing from the visual case. 
• Recent years have seen a burgeoning of interest among leading philosophers of mind in the empirical work of psychologists and neuroscientists. Wayne Wu’s work on attention is a prominent example of such engagement. 
• The imagination has long been a focus of inquiry for both psychologists and philosophers. Amy Kind is one of the most important contemporary contributors to this field and will present her most recent work. 
• Another emerging approach to the philosophical study of mind brings insights and methods from feminist philosophy and queer theory to bear and is concerned to explore the nature of personhood and identity through that lens. Esa Díaz-León is a major contributor to this increasingly popular approach, and will present her most recent work on gender, sex and sexuality.
• Physicalism, the view that mind and conscious experience are, ultimately, physical phenomena is modern orthodoxy. Howard Robinson is a prominent critic of this orthodoxy and will present work from a new book project that develops accounts of freedom, thought and embodiment within a substance-dualist context.