Being With: Intersubjectivity and its Commitments

Being with: Intersubjectivity and its Commitments 

A premise underlying almost all scientific psychology is that people are distinct; autonomous individuals. Developments within embodied, enactive, and phenomenological approaches in the broader field of cognitive science have thrown this fundamental tenet into doubt.

This is more than a  technical dispute within psychology or cognitive science. Commitments to the independence and autonomy of the person are implicit in many of the basic institutions of society, integral to systems of education, law, health, and civil order. 

As we develop more radical, embodied accounts of mind and behaviour, what are the challenges and conflicts that might arise between the science and the society in which it is carried out? How do the emerging insights of radically non-Cartesian approaches deal with the necessity of interacting with institutions, with social and professional practices, built upon individualist foundations? In what ways will our professional practice as scientists be forced to engage with the political order within which it embedded? What are the consequences for the contested borders between somatic and mental health, where the former is clearly committed to a strongly individualist perspective, while the latter must also address webs of social relations? Can we learn from such precursors as the debate, in education, between Piagetian framing of the individual as self-contained, and the Vygotskian insistence on the social context in which a person comes into being?  

These questions will form the central focus of an informal one-day workshop to be held in University College Dublin on Monday, March 13th. It is intended to open up discussion that can motivate young researchers as they position their work in an unstable and evolving social context.

The workshop will consist of short talks, poster presentations, and a final panel discussion. Abstracts of max 500 words are solicited on any topic relevant to these challenges, with the strong encouragement that any talk or poster should serve to stimulate debate during and after the workshop. 

No registration fee will be charged, but potential attendees are requested to register by email to [email protected] before March 1st.  

Workshop Organisers:      

Fred Cummins, University College Dublin      

Marek McGann, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick      

Anthony Chemero, University of Cincinnati      

Anya Daly, University College Dublin      

Abeba Birhane, University College Dublin