Reflexivity: A Cross-Cultural Workshop

Reflexivity: A Cross-Cultural Workshop aims to initiate a cross-cultural dialogue between leading philosophers of mind working in Eastern and Western philosophical traditions.

The focus of the workshop will be the reflexivity of consciousness. A central question in contemporary philosophy of mind concerns what marks a mental state as conscious. One answer is that it must satisfy the transitivity principle; i.e. if a state is conscious the subject of the state must be conscious of it. Some argue that this principle can only be satisfied if the mental state is reflexive; i.e. if it is, in some sense, self-aware. Others reject this view. Whether mental states are reflexive is a question that not only engages contemporary philosophers of mind but is also the focus of heated dispute amongst Indo-Tibetan Buddhist philosophers. Buddhist approaches to this issue have recently become the focus of productive cross-cultural research, not only in humanities but also in the cognitive sciences. This workshop will draw together leading philosophers in the cross-cultural philosophy of mind and will engage this emerging field of research

Registration and Further Information

Attendees are kindly requested to RSVP (for catering purposes). To RSVP and for further details, please contact Bronwyn Finnigan: [email protected] or  Daniel Stoljar: [email protected]