Perspectives, Schemas, and Capacities

Susanna Schellenberg (Rutgers - New Brunswick)

We are pleased to announce our monthly online talk series on "Inferences & Capacities."

Our next speaker is:

Susanna Schellenberg (Rutgers)
"Perspectives, Schemas, and Capacities."

June 22: 11am (Buenos Aires), 10am (New York), 4pm (Berlin).

Abstract: Each of us occupies a perspective on the world through which we interpret and process available information. Despite this, we can gain knowledge about mind-independent reality. What constitutes an individual perspective? What constraints must any account of perspectives satisfy? This paper develops parameters for an account of perspectives that does justice to their roles in our lives. By defending desiderata for an account of perspectives, a framework is developed that accommodates the fact that perspectives constitute a limitation on what an individual can access, are real, complex, productive, assessable, and can be distorted.

How to participate: Please, send an email to Alfredo Vernazzani at: 

alfredo-vernazzani AT protonmail.com

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• About Inferences & Capacities:

The series brings together work on inferential capacities, rationality, normativity, and cognition — across both human and non-human animals — with the aim of fostering discussion on the nature and limits of the cognitive sphere.  

2026 line-up:  

April 27: Angelica Kaufmann (University of Milan): "Mind Blanking as Mental Imagery." 

May 18: Federico Burdman (Universidad Alberto Hurtado) "Constrained choices: addiction, attention, and reasons-responsiveness." 

June 22: Susanna Schellenberg (Rutgers): TBA 

July 20: Cameron Buckner (University of Florida): "Chains-of-Thought, Inner Speech, and Artificial Epistemic Agency."

September 7: Ulf Hlobil (Concordia University): TBA  

October 19: Eva Schmidt (TU Dortmund): TBA 

November 16: Hans-Johann Glock (University of Zürich): "Is Ascribing Inferences to Brains or Non-human Animals a Fallacy?" 

December 14: Emma Borg (SAS, University of London): "Twitches, Fidgets, Habits, Skills: The Scope of Common-Sense Psychology." 

Each talk lasts c. 40 minutes followed by 40 minutes open Q&A.  

The series is co-organized by:

Mariela Aguilera (University of Córdoba)

Matías Osta-Vélez (Universidad de la República)

Alfredo Vernazzani (TU Dortmund; Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg).

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