Sunday, May 17, 2015

Kyoto Conference 2015

In a month, we will hold a conference on the notion of "Extended Mind" in Kyoto. Here you can find English version of the program following the link below:

Kyoto Conference 2015 "Beyond the Extended Mind: Different Bodies, Dolls, Female Soul and Eastern Spirit"
  • Date: June 20-21, 2015
  • Place: Kyoto Unviersity, Yoshida-South Campus, Academic Center Bldg.
  • Keynote speaker: Tetsuya Kono, Shaun Gallagher
The main purpose of this conference is to put the notion of extended mind onto the context of postcolonial thought, and to present new concepts of mind and self. Post-colonialism has criticized colonialist, imperialist, ethnocentric, androcentric, misogynistic and even anthropocentric aspects of modern philosophy. The philosophy and the sciences of mind, which has kept a distance from post-colonialism, cannot be an exception any longer, since the modern notion of mind has implicitly modeled on the "mind" of Western, adult, male, middle class people. It is the time to deconstruct it.

We titled this conference as "Beyond the Extended Mind: Different Bodies, Dolls, Female Soul and Eastern Spiri." The papers collected for the conference will treat:
- bodies with "different abilities", not bodies with "disabilities",
- "dolls", not "robots" i.e. slave laborer machines,
- female "soul", not "mind",
- Eastern "spirit", but not separated from body.
All papers do not only criticize past conceptions, but also propose alternative models of mind and/or self.

See you in Kyoto.