Start date:
Wed, 28/06/2006 - 11:00

End date:
Wed, 28/06/2006 - 18:00

Location:
Gertrudis church- Utrecht, The Netherlands

Description:

http://www.cognitie.nl/Symposium/

Consciousness. As David Chalmers has put it: “There is nothing we know more intimately, yet, there is nothing harder to explain.� However, in recent years there has been an enormous amount of scientific work on this topic. But, has this brought us any further in unravelling the mystery of Consciousness? Or, what is more, are we even on the right track?

The Dutch national Cognition programme is organizing a symposium around these questions, on Wednesday June 28, 2006. Location is the monumental, 17th century Gertrudis church in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

The symposium is the fourth in a 5-year series of annual thematic symposia that address important issues that are of current interest in various cognitive disciplines. Each symposium has a similar set-up: four internationally renowned speakers from varying cognitive backgrounds, an equally diverse audience of about a hundred researchers, mainly Dutch, and lots of opportunities for formal and informal discussion in a pleasant environment.

Our previous symposia, "The Evolution of Language", "The Plastic Brain" and “How rational are we?� have all been a great success. This year, the topic of the symposium is “Consciousness�. The symposium will bring together the latest views and insights with regard to the puzzle of consciousness from, among others, the fields of biology, psychology, philosophy and cognitive neuroscience. What approaches are being taken? Do they provide us with any explanations? How do the various answers relate? And which questions are still wide open?
Preliminary programme

Click on the names for more information
10:00 Registration & coffee
10:30

Axel Cleeremans (Cognitive psychology, Université Libre de Bruxelles)

“Being Virtual: A graded, adaptive perspective on conciousness and self"
11:30 Coffee
12:00

Nicola S. Clayton (Animal Cognition, University of Cambridge)

“Corvid Cognition: Implications for the Evolution Of Intelligence�
13:00 Lunch
14:00

Michael E. Bratman (Philosophy, Stanford University)

"Planning Agency and Consciousness"
15:00 Tea

15.30

16:30

Daniel Wegner (Social psychology, Harvard University)

“Illusions of conscious will: How do you know that your actions are your own?�

Closing Remarks by Jaap van Heerden (Psychology, Maastricht University)
16:45 Drinks

Chairman: Fons Maes (Communication and Cognition, Tilburg University, and member of the Cognition programme committee)