Consciousness and Subjectivity (2008-2011)

Principal Investigators: Gerhard Preyer (Professor, Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Germany) and Sofia Miguens (Associate Professor, University of Porto, Portugal)

This project started with a common concern about the generalization of a naturalized epistemology stance in current philosophical discussions in analytic philosophy, especially in the philosophy of mind and language. Third person approaches are dominant in the field and the proximity of much philosophical work on mind and language with cognitive science reinforces such orientation. One consequence of such a situation is a blind spot about consciousness and subjectivity. Issues concerning subjectivity are taken to be exhausted when problems regarding the place of consciousness in nature, on the one hand and language and fist-person authority on the other are addressed. That reflects on the conceptions of naturalism and realism/anti-realism developed. This Project aims at editing a book on consciousness and subjectivity which takes on the concerns above. The intention of the book is to bring together analytic, or analytically inspired, philosophers working on the continent with English-speaking philosophers to address these issues.

Topics of interest are:

• Internalism/externalism debates and problems of self-knowledge
• First-person authority and interpretation
• Mediated/unmediated knowledge of self
• Role of self in foundations of knowledge
• Nature and perspective (nature of experience)
• Realism/anti-realism
• Framework for cognitive science

Porto-Frankfurt Collaboration Project (2008-2011) (internal to the Institute of Philosophy)