Reminder : Seminar Tomorrow Nicolas Bullot (MACCS), Tuesday 30th of November 2010 Macquarie University C5C498 (Palermo Room), 4:00PM until 5:30PM. Cognition and the taxonomy of tracking
Abstract: Numerous studies in cognitive science and philosophy appeal to concepts derived from the notion of tracking individual things or natural kinds. The term ‘tracking’ and its cognates, such as ‘keeping track’ or ‘monitoring’, are often used to describe aspects of our ability to individuate, identify and locate things in the world, and respond to their changes over time. Recent research has investigated (i) the perceptual and attentional tracking of animates or inanimates, (ii) the tracking of referents of terms such as indexicals or perceptual demonstratives, (iii) the ontogeny of conceptual identification, (iv) the modularity and evolution of agent identification in folk psychology, (v) the pathologies of beliefs about personal identity, (vi) the cognitive tracking deployed in scientific reasoning. Why are the references to tracking so prevalent in the sciences of cognition? Is this prevalence the accidental by-product of mere coincidences? In contrast, is it indicative of fundamental facts about human behaviour and knowledge? Drawing on published and ongoing philosophical research at the interface of the cognitive and social sciences, I outline a philosophical theory that addresses these puzzles, discusses the taxonomy of tracking, and raises unexpected research questions about the implications of disorders in tracking. Homepages: http://www.nicolas-bullot.org/ http://www.maccs.mq.edu.au/members/profile.html?memberID=521 -- Professor John Sutton Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia Email: [email protected] http://www.phil.mq.edu.au/staff/jsutton/ Phone: +61 (0)2 9850 4132 ASCS09: Proceedings of 9th conference, Australasian Society for Cognitive Science http://www.maccs.mq.edu.au/ascs09 Memory Studies (Sage journal): http://mss.sagepub.com/ _______________________________________________ SydPhil mailing list: http://sydphil.info 945 subscribers now served. To UNSUBSCRIBE, change your MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS, find ANSWERS TO COMMON PROBLEMS, or visit our ONLINE ARCHIVES, please go to the LIST INFORMATION PAGE: http://sydphil.info
