GENERAL
INFORMATION
Interactivist
Summer Institute 2017
July 21 - 24, 2017
Ohrid, Macedonia
The Interactivist Summer Institute is dedicated to
exploring the frontiers of understanding of life, mind,
and cognition. There is a growing recognition - across
many disciplines - that phenomena of life and mind,
including cognition and representation, are emergents of
far-from-equilibrium, interactive, autonomous systems. In
such a view, mind and biology, mind and agent, are
re-united. The classical treatment of cognition and
representation within a formalist framework of encodingist
assumptions is increasingly recognized as a fruitless maze
of blind alleys. From neurobiology to robotics, from
cognitive science to philosophy of mind and language,
dynamic and interactive alternatives are being explored.
Dynamic systems approaches, enactivist and autonomous
agent research join in the effort.
The interactivist model offers a theoretical approach to
matters of life and mind, ranging from evolutionary- and
neuro-biology (including the emergence of biological
function) through representation, perception, motivation,
memory, learning and development, emotions, consciousness,
language, action theory, rationality, sociality,
personality and psychopathology, and ethics. This work has
developed interfaces with studies of central nervous
system functioning, the ontology of process, autonomous
agents, philosophy of science, and all areas of
psychology, philosophy, and cognitive science that address
the person.
The conference will involve both tutorials addressing
central parts and aspects of the interactive model, and
papers addressing current work of relevance to this
general approach. This will be our eighth Summer
Institute:
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 2001
IT University, Copenhagen, Denmark 2003
Clemson University, South Carolina 2005
The American University in Paris, Paris 2007
Simon Fraser University, Vancouver 2009
University of the Aegean, Syros, Greece 2011
University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, Fl 2013
Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey 2015
The Summer Institute is a biennial meeting where those
sharing the core interests and ideas of interactivism will
meet and discuss their work, try to reconstruct its
historical roots, put forward current research in
different fields that fits the interactivist framework,
and define research topics for prospective graduate
students. People working in philosophy of mind,
linguistics, social sciences, artificial intelligence,
cognitive robotics, theoretical biology, and other fields
related to the sciences of mind are invited to send their
paper submission or statement of interest for
participation to the organizers.
ACADEMIC
AND SCIENTIFIC CO-SPONSORS
The
American University of Paris
St. Paul
the Apostle University of Information Science and
Technology, Ohrid, Macedonia
Lehigh
University, Bethlehem, PA, USA
Institute
for Interactivist Studies
Cognitive
Science Program
CALL
FOR PARTICIPATION
Participation will be limited to no more than 40 people.
People wishing to participate but not present a paper
should submit a short curriculum vitae and a statement of
interest to Interactivist Summer Institute. Please include
E-mail address and fax number, if available. Applications
should be received by April 1, 2017 (note that the date
for abstract submissions is different than the date for
applications for participation).
Notification of acceptance for participants will be
provided by April 10, 2017.
For those who wish to submit an abstract for a proposed
paper presentation, please see the call for papers: the
deadline for submissions for abstracts is March 16, 2017.
A separate application for participation is not required
for those with paper acceptances.
The meeting will take place in Ohrid, Macedonia..
A small number of scholarships for partial financial
support will be provided by the organizers for graduate
students or postdocs.
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