Workshop: Culture and Kinds of Mind
The workshop will focus on the cross-cultural diversity (or recurrence) of mind conception agency perception and the role of cultural models and religious notions in perceiving/conceiving minds and agents.
Info about event
Time
Location
Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, building 1630-1632
The workshop will focus on the cross-cultural diversity (or recurrence) of mind conception agency perception and the role of cultural models and religious notions in perceiving/conceiving minds and agents. We will seek to critically reassess the English-based notion of “mind” and the dominant Theory of Mind approach. Specifically, the talks will explore culture's (and/or religion’s) role in conceptualizing the mental and its role in mindreading or social cognition in general. That is, anything that addresses the interplay between culture (however it is understood) and folk notions of “agency” and/or “mind” (whatever that is in different languages). The goal is to emphasize the importance of culturally derived notions in better understanding folk theories of mind and social cognition.
Location: The workshop will take place at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (Aarhus University), Høegh-Guldbergs Gade 6B, 8000 Aarhus
Time: April 25 (Thursday), 2024
Format: Each presenter will have one hour—30 to 40 minutes of presentation, 20 to 30 minutes of round-table discussions, and questions from the audience.
Workshop schedule
| 09.00 – 09.30 | Registration, coffee, and welcoming |
| 09.30 – 10.30 | Renatas Berniūnas (Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University) “Setgel: Mongolian cultural model of the mind” |
| 10.30 – 10.45 | Short coffee break |
| 10.45 – 11.45 | Benjamin Grant Purzycki (Department of the Study of Religion, Aarhus University) “The Minds of Gods, Cultural Variation, and the Maintenance of Society” |
| 11.45 – 12.00 | Short coffee break |
| 12.00 – 13.00 | Michiel van Elk (Cognitive Psychology, Leiden University, Netherlands) “Agency detection, mentalizing and dualism: Evidence from empirical and cross-cultural studies” |
| 13.00 – 14.00 | LUNCH |
| 14.00 – 15.00 | J. Suilin Lavelle (School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh) “Social cognition and perspectival pluralism: interlacing cross-cultural perspectives on mindreading” |
| 15.00 – 15.15 | Short coffee break |
| 15.15 – 16.15 | Jesper Sørensen (Department of the Study of Religion, Aarhus University) “Modes of minds? The ‘self’ as cognitive immunization” |
| 16.15 – 16.45 | Coffee break |
| 16.45 – 18.00 | Ethnographic film “Minding spirits in the city” (44 min.) by Renatas Berniūnas |
| 18.00 – 19.00 | Break |
| 19.00 | Dinner (location to be announced) |
Registration link: Please register here. The number of seats is limited, so registration is first come, first served. The registration deadline is 23 April at 12:00 (noon).
This workshop was supported by MSCA European Postdoctoral Fellowship grant [Project Number 101060281].