We would like to thank all the speakers, the participants and - last not least - the organizing team for a wonderfull conference. Without you the event could have never succeeded!
Academic Aim of the Conference
In 1979, Thomas Nagel published a paper titled "Panpsychism". More than30 years later, this paper can now be considered "visionary": On the one hand, Nagel defends the thesis - and this hardly something completely unexpected - that classical substance-dualism faces too many conceptual problems to be a viable option when it comes to explaining the pairing of the physical and the mental. But on the other hand, he argues that physicalism will most probably not be able to solve this problem either. An assessment that has become widely acknowledged: In 1996, David Chalmers in "The Conscious Mind" argued for this thesis and 2005 Jaegwon Kim conceded that after all physicalism might not be true globally - it might only be true "enough".
As an alternative, Nagel explores the possibility of brute emergence of consciousness from a purely physical base. And again 30 years later, there has been a systematic revival of the theory of emergence. Nevertheless, Nagel claims that strong emergence might be "un-intelligible". He argues that in order to explain consciousness naturalistically, philosophers need to assume some form of the mental at the very basis of reality.
Today, panpsychism and emergence are two main options for explaining consciousness in a non-reductive, nevertheless naturalistic ontological framework. This symposium brings together distinguished experts on panpsychism and emergence in order to foster discussion on the following topics:
- The Case for Panpsychism and Emergence.
- The Interrelation of Panpsychism and Emergence.
- Towards an Ontological Framework for Non-reductive Naturalism.
- The Historical Background of Panpsychism
- Empirical Applications of Panpsychism
Dates
- Start: June 20th 2011 --- 4pm
- End: June 24th 2011 --- 12am
Conference Venues:
- Monday, June 20th 2011
Munich School of Philosophy
Kaulbachstraße 31
80539 Munich, Germany - Tuesday, June 21st -- Friday, June 24th 2011
Fürstenried Castle
Forst-Kasten-Allee 103
81475 Munich, Germany
Speakers and Talks
| Speaker | Talk |
| Blamauer, Michael | Schelling's Real Idealism |
| Brüntrup, Godehard | Inter-Attribute and Intra-Attribute Emergence |
| Chalmers, David | Emergence, Panpsychism and Russellian Monism |
| Coleman, Sam | Panpsychism bottom-up and top-down |
| Falkner, Gernot | The interrelation between experience and self-constitution of lower organisms as a key for investigating the mind-body problem (I) |
| Goff, Philip | The Special Phenomenal Composition Question? |
| Hampe, Michael | Why pluralists should not be panpsychists |
| Wong, Hong Yu | Emergence? |
| Jedlicka, Peter | Neuronal computations, quantum stochasticity and emergence |
| Koutroufinis, Spyridon | The interrelation between experience and self-constitution of lower organisms as a key for investigating the mind-body problem (II) |
| Manzotti, Riccardo |
Does situated consciousness entails panpsychism? The Spread Mind as a causal solution to the combination problem. |
| McLaughlin, Brian | On the Mental Life of Pancakes, or: What Itch does Panpsychism Promise to Scratch? |
| Müller, Tobias | Panpsychism and Physicalism. Why Panpsychistic Physicalism is not enough. |
| Riffert, Franz | Whitehead's Theory of Perception in the Light of Contemporary Psychological Research |
| Rosenberg, Gregg | What kind of a radical are you? |
| Schneider, Christina | Monads, Perceptions, Phenomena and Ideas -- Leibniz as Panexperientalist. |
| Seager, William | Why physicalism? |
| Skrbina, David | Collective consciousness and higher-order minds |
| Solhdju, Katrin | A 'Pragmatist' Approach to Panpsychism: From Denis Diderot to Donna Haraway |
| Stephan, Achim | On the Mental Life of Pancakes, or: What Itch does Panpsychism Promise to Scratch? |
| Strawson, Galen | Identity Metaphysics |
Time-Table
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Monday, 20th |
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Tuesday, 21st |
Wednes, 22nd |
Thursday, 23rd |
Friday, 24th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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09:00-10:00 |
SCHNEIDER |
MANZOTTI | SKRBINA | BRÜNTRUP |
| 10:00-11:00 | BLAMAUER | MÜLLER | WONG | McLAUGHLIN | ||
| 11:15-12:15 | SOLHDJU | STRAWSON | HAMPE | STEPHAN | ||
| 14:45-15:00 | Welc. Address | 14:00-15:00 | GOFF | Cultural Events | FALKNER | Departure |
| 15:00-16:15 | CHALMERS | 15:00-16:00 | ROSENBERG | KOUTROUFINIS | ||
| 16:15-17:30 | SEAGER | 16:30-17:30 | COLEMAN | RIFFERT | ||
| 17:30-18:45 | Welc. Reception | 17:30-18:30 | JEDLICKA |
Application
In order to facilitate lively discussion among participants, the number of places is limited. Early application is advised.
Please download the application form, re-name the file, fill out the pdf and send it to us.
Information for Post-Graduate Applicants:
- Apply via Email: l.jaskolla@hfph.mwn.de
- Application deadline: May 1st 2011
- The conference fee will be 120€.
-
The conference itself will take place at Fürstenried Castle which is a beautiful baroque castle just outside the gates of Munich. We have reserved a limited number of rooms at the conference center itself.
The costs for a single room and full board (including: breakfast, lunch and dinner) will be 53€ per day and person.
Information for Applying Graduate Students:
- Apply via Email: l.jaskolla@hfph.mwn.de
- Application deadline: May 1st 2011
- Please provide a letter of motivation (½ page) including you academic affiliation and how the overall topic of the conference relates to your own research or study focus.
- For students the reduced conference fee will be 60€.
-
The conference itself will take place at Fürstenried Castle which is a beautiful baroque castle just outside the gates of Munich. We have reserved a limited number of rooms at the conference center itself.
The costs for a single room and full board (including: breakfast, lunch and dinner) will be 53€ per day and person.