[WP4] Evidence in philosophy of mind

WP leader: Josefa Toribio (ICREA – UB)

The predominant trend in contemporary philosophy of mind is to explore the nature of mental phenomena within the framework of the natural sciences. Such a naturalistically oriented philosophy of mind relies on evidence provided by psychology and the cognitive sciences to discuss, assess, and adjudicate among different views.
This WP addresses the role of this kind of empirical evidence for philosophical conceptions of the mind. It targets key philosophical issues concerning the nature of representation — not only representations that can be true or false, but also hybrid representations, such as ethical concepts, pejoratives, and affective attitudes — and the nature of perception —with a focus on how empirical evidence in social perception and social cognition helps develop a plausible account of our representation of, and behaviour toward, members of socially relevant categories.