Please join us for a talk by Susanna Schellenberg from Rutgers University.

Title: Perception and Self-Representation

Date/Time: Friday, October 6, 2023 at 3 PM

Location: 25 Park Place NE, 16th floor, 1618

Abstract:

When an individual navigates her environment as a philosophy professor, her perspective is different than when she does so as a parent or a mountaineer. Her preferences are different, what evidence she pays attention to shifts, and which of her many beliefs are relevant changes. This paper explores the role of self-representation in our perspectives. I argue that how an individual represent herself is a critical part of her perspective. I argue moreover that how she represents herself can shift from moment to moment thus entailing shifts in her perspective. If this is right, then contra orthodoxy, a perspective is not a fixed point in intellectual space that changes only slowly over time. I show how including self-representation in AI systems can solve a host of open problems.

Susanna Schellenberg is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science at Rutgers University. Her work focuses on a range of topics in epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language. She is particularly interested in the nature of mental content, the epistemic role of perceptual experience, mental capacities, imagination, spatial perception, and evidence. She is the author of The Unity of Perception: Content, Consciousness, Evidence (OUP 2018). In that book, she develops a unified account of the epistemological, phenomenological, and cognitive role of perception.

To learn more about Dr. Schellenberg, check out her website: https://t.gsu.edu/46ruoJi

We hope you can join us!