TRENDS IN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES
This year’s conference is devoted to the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of research on cognition, but also within science in general, and invites reflections on the phenomenon of interdisciplinarity as such. Indeed, the term “interdisciplinarity” has become a buzzword and stands in serious danger of being overused, and thus of losing its explanatory power. In part, this is because it is frequently assumed that interdisciplinary research is inherently “more valuable” than traditional, purely disciplinary research; hence the term is strategically used to garner the attention of researchers, students, and grant agencies. To counter such almost reflex-like endorsement, we seek a renewed understanding of what the “added value” of interdisciplinarity might be, in particular with respect to research in the cognitive sciences, what obstacles and difficulties it faces, and how those might be overcome (both in theory and practice). Importantly, we are interested in understanding whether interdisciplinary approaches increase or decrease the current fragmentation of cognitive sciences. The questions we hope to tackle include (but are not limited to):
(1) What kind of interdisciplinarity (e.g., theoretical, methodological, or institutional) is at stake in a given domain of inquiry, and what difficulties does it face?
(2) What are the specific challenges and difficulties for developing successful explanatory practices in interdisciplinary research?
(3) Is integration (e.g., theoretical, explanatory, methodological, or institutional) a desirable goal or outcome of interdisciplinary research? To what extent should good interdisciplinary research have a disruptive or destabilizing effect on existing disciplinary boundaries and traditions?
(4) Should interdisciplinary research be pluralistic, and if so, to what extent (if any) is it different from multi- or transdisciplinary research?
(5) What is the role of participants from fields other than science (e.g., artists, industry, and corporate entities, public-private partnerships), and how do they impact the conduct of interdisciplinary research?
(6) Why are current interdisciplinary scientific practices and methods mostly fragmented?
(7) What kinds of problems does the interdisciplinary individuation (and stabilization) of objects of interest face or phenomena?
(8) What are the interdisciplinary consequences of discipline-specific data production, curation, and sharing?
(9) What kind of interdisciplinary character does current research on cognition have?
(10) To what extent are the specific problems faced by research in cognitive sciences typical of interdisciplinary research in general?
The promises and perils of interdisciplinary research have been vigorously discussed within the philosophy, history, and sociology of science. Our goal is to reignite, expand, and refine these debates, with a clear sense of how they reflect – but also have the potential to transform – the complex entanglements between science, society, and public policy-making. We encourage participants to take up these issues (as well as topics of previous editions of our conference – see) in the form of thematic panels, special symposia, individual talks, or posters.
Keywords: interdisciplinarity; multidisciplinarity; transdisciplinarity; philosophy of science; social studies of science; science policy; science communication; rhetoric of science; cognitive sciences; neuroscience; psychology; sociology; linguistics; anthropology; cognitive ecology; STS; ethics; feminist perspectives on science; science and aesthetics; theories of scientific explanation; the use of models in interdisciplinary science; research methods and practices; human-technology interaction;
Special events
“Self-Perception in Humans and Artificial Agents”
The Workshop by MLAG, October 23, 2019
More information soon.
“Feminist Theory and Science: The Inspiring and Tangled Relationship.” Special Session on Feminisms in Science
The list of suggested topics to explore includes (but is not limited to):
Feminist thought as a vehicle of interdisciplinarity in the reflection on science
Feminist approaches as an important factor in reshaping the contemporary philosophy, sociology, and the history of science
Have feminisms changed science due to their creative subversive power? How?
How particular feminist theories have transformed scientific disciplines?
The impact of feminist approaches on research priorities and methodology
Feminist perspectives in science: their specificity and consequences
Feminist thought and cognitive turns in the reflection on science
The cognitive perspective of feminist theories of science: traditions to be developed and modes to be constructively modified
“The Explanatory Power of Predictive Processing and Its Limits.” Special Session on Predictive Processing
The main goal of this session is to discuss the development and explanatory possibilities of the predictive processing framework for understanding cognition and the mind. The list of suggested topics to explore during presentations includes (but is not limited to):
Predictive processing, explanatory pluralism, and the unity of cognitive science
Predictive processing and the possibility of personal-level explanations
The representational/anti-representational approach to predictive processing
Bayesian predictive mind and its normative implications
Predictive processing and 4E cognitive science
The social dimension of predictive processing
The mechanistic implementation of predictive processing
Predictive processing and the free-energy principle
“Representationalism and psychopathology.” Special Session on Philosophy of Psychiatry
Possible topics include (but are not limited to):
What kind of psychopathologies can be explained in an antirepresentational way?
What are representational explanations of mental disorders?
Antirepresentational approaches to psychiatry within the 4E paradigm
Is representationalism compatible with phenomenological psychiatry?
Antirepresentational and representational predictive processing/predictive coding models of mental disorders
Is there an integrative (both representational and antirepresentational) explanation of psychopathologies possible?
“Laboratory of dance.” Special Session on Research on Dance
This symposium brings together researchers and practitioners pursing dance-science enquiries. We are welcoming submissions in the format of presentations, interactions, demonstration, or performances (including films). We encourage contributions from previous successful interdisciplinary initiatives between dance, science, humanities and cognition studies, in particular but not limited to:
Embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive cognition in movement practices;
Social and cultural studies on dance practice;
Interaction, intersubjectivity and shared cognition in dance and performance arts;
Neural correlates of dance;
Embodied creativity, creativity through action, co-creativity in performance arts;
Somatic practices and cognition;
Physical intelligence and the intelligent body;
Practice as research, performance as research and practice research;
Cross-disciplinary endeavours: art-science-humanities-technology collaborations.