Conference on the Cognitive Penetrability of Perception

Harvard University, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

Project Overview This is an interdisciplinary conference to promote an exchange of ideas with the hope of initiating collaborative efforts between young researchers in psychology and philosophy. The topic of the conference is cognitive penetration of perception; that is to say, participants will discuss whether perception is primarily input-driven, or whether cognitive states such as beliefs, moods, fears, expectations, emotions, desires, can influence the content or character of perception. Perception is widely researched in experimental psychology, widely discussed in philosophy of mind, and a constant part of our everyday experience. Intellectual Merit The primary aim of the conference is to bring together the different perspectives indicated above on theorizing about perception, and to address the implications of different theoretical positions on the topic of cognitive penetration for epistemology and theories of perception more generally. Theorizing about the epistemic impacts of cognitive penetration and related psychological phenomena has only begun to take hold in recent years, and could benefit immensely from increased interdisciplinary discussion that serves to integrate psychological research with theorizing in philosophy of mind. Broader Impacts Both the psychological and the epistemological issues related to cognitive penetration have recently taken a strong hold in philosophy, with a host of new work by graduate students and young researchers. This conference will serve to deepen discussion of the issue, and to widen the range of experiments analyzed by philosophers. It may also encourage the dissolution of the boundaries between academic disciplines, and explore the impact that this line of research and theorizing has for understanding our experience of the world. The conference is open to all, and is expected to draw attendance from across a number of academic areas, including philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and literature; it will thereby broaden thinking on fundamental questions about how the mind works.