“Minds, Bodies, and Problems” conference, Bilkent University, June 7-8, 2012

After several weeks of processing submissions, comparing the referee reports on them, and negotiating various potential lists of speakers based on various criteria, I have put together the final list of submitted papers that I expect to be presented at the “Minds, Bodies, and Problems” conference, hosted by Bilkent University on 7-8 June, 2012.

Bilkent University

All papers have been anonymously refereed, and I would like to thank the reviewers (Murat Aydede, Sandy Berkovski, David Chalmers, Tim Crane, Hilmi Demir, Katalin Farkas, Shaun Gallagher, Kourken Michaelian, Vincent Müller, Emre Özgen, Erdinc Sayan, Simon Wigley, and Bill Wringe) for their kind help in the selection process. Their input is very much appreciated.

We have received 91 submissions, which is an impressive number, roughly the same as the number of submissions that established conferences in philosophy (with several subfields of the discipline) receive. I have tried to accommodate referees’ first choices regarding the submissions, when their positive opinion was strong enough. As a result, although many excellent submissions, including ones by several established philosophers of mind (some of whom I know personally and whose work I appreciate) did not make it to the final list, we have got, I would say, a very nice mix of topics, types of philosophical and scientific approach, and author backgrounds (the list of authors happens to contain all academic ranks: graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, assistant professors, associate professors, and full professors)

The geographical spread of the authors’ affiliations is also quite impressive:

Australia 1, Austria 2, Belarus 1, Belgium 4, Canada 5, Colombia 1, Denmark 1, Finland 3, France 3, Germany 9, Greece 2, India 4, Iran 1, Israel 2, Italy 7, Japan 2, Korea 1, Netherlands 1, Norway 1, Poland 2, Portugal 1, Romania 1, Russian Federation 1, Sweden 2, Switzerland 1, Turkey 1, United Kingdom 15, United States 20.

As a result of this success in attracting submissions, (a) we increased the number of accepted papers to 12 (initially we thought of 8 to 10 at most), and (b) I will work on organizing a similar conference every year, but with 3 days of talks and about 15 accepted submissions. Special thanks to Prof. Varol Akman for suggesting the above points, (a) and (b).

The final list is as follows:

1. Anthony Dardis (Hofstra University, USA) A structure for mental causation

2. Liz Disley (Cambridge University, UK), Blowing off steam in virtual reality, or “Extended physicality – an idealist monist approach to the mind-body problem”

3. François Kammerer (University Paris-Sorbonne, France), The use of phenomenal concepts: a case of cognitive inhibition

4. Ian O’Loughlin (University of Iowa, USA), All The World’s a Stage: Skill Memory, Declarative Memory, and the Embodied Rememberer

5. Nicoletta Orlandi (Rice University, USA), You’re so not what you say you are at all: completion in non-inferential vision.

6. Danny Pearlberg and Timothy Schroeder (Ohio State University, USA), Reason-Causation and the Extended Mind Hypothesis

7. Simon Prosser (University of St. Andrews, UK) The Content of Colour Experience

8. Dan Ryder (University of British Columbia, Canada) Teleosemantics as a theory-external constraint on reference

9. Kranti Saran (Harvard University, USA), Bodily sensation objects

10. Axel Seemann (Bentley University, USA) Against Sharing: Intersubjectivity and Cross-Creature Embodiment

11. Mog Stapleton (University of Edinburgh, UK), Internal embodiment and the case for nanofunctionalism

12. Assaf Weksler (Open University, Israel), Singular Content and the Noncognitive Aspect of Experience

The list of talks by keynote speakers is as follows:

Murat Aydede (University of British Columbia):
“Are Phenomenal Zombies Really Conceivable?”

David Chalmers (Australian National University/New York University):
“Three puzzles about spatial experience”

Tim Crane (Cambridge University):
“In defence of psychologism”

Katalin Farkas (Central European University):
“The significance of the Extended Mind hypothesis”

Shaun Gallagher (University of Memphis/University of Hertfordshire):
“I.E.M. (Immunity to error through misidentification) and the first person perspective”

For updates, check the conference website from time to time