Seminaret i vitenskapsteori: "Figuring the self: Can we learn anything from philosophy?"

Foredraget er del av en seminarrekke i regi av Seminaret i vitenskapsteori. Som alle foredrag i serien er også dette åpent for alle interesserte. Foredraget vil bli holdt på engelsk og varer fra 14.15 til 15.00. I pausen blir det servert kaffe og fra 15.15-16.00 åpnes det opp for spørsmål, kommentarer og diskusjon.

Sammendrag: In both ancient and modern times, the existence of self has been called into question. Frequently, the claim of the self-skeptics has been that the self, if it exists, must be some kind of unchanging and ontologically independent entity. Given that no such entity exists, there is no self. In my talk, I will argue that this philosophical definition of self contrasts rather markedly with how the self is approached, understood, and explored in a variety of empirical disciplines, including developmental psychology, social psychology, neuroscience and psychiatry. I will consider two cases in particular, namely research in autism and the study of facial self-recognition. On the basis of these examples, I will discuss how one ought to conceive of the relationship between philosophical analysis and empirical investigation when it comes to the study of self.

Bio: Dan Zahavi is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for Subjectivity Research at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He obtained his Ph.D. from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1994 and his Dr.phil. (Habilitation) from University of Copenhagen in 1999. Zahavi has served as president of the Nordic Society for Phenomenology in the years 2001-2007, and is currently co-editor in chief of the journal Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. In his systematic work, Zahavi has mainly been investigating the nature of selfhood, self-consciousness and intersubjectivity. He has authored and edited more than 20 books and written more than 150 articles. His most important publications include Husserl und die transzendentale Intersubjektivität (Kluwer 1996), Self-awareness and Alterity (Northwestern University Press 1999), Husserl’s Phenomenology (Stanford University Press 2003), Subjectivity and Selfhood (MIT Press 2005), and together with Shaun Gallagher The Phenomenological Mind (Routledge 2008). His most recent book publication is the co-edited volume Self, no self? Perspectives from Analytical, Phenomenological, and Indian Traditions (Oxford University Press 2011).