NB: Programme now available. Download here.

When people engage in social interactions, they experience thought and agency as shared. Talk of shared minds gestures in the direction of the idea that, when the mental states of the agents become aligned in a dynamic and predictive manner, they achieve more than they would able to if they were acting alone. One way to describe the nature and mechanism of mental alignment in ordinary language makes salient the use of first-person plural (‘we’) concepts. Theories of the we-mode abound in the philosophical literature, yet references to ‘we-intentionality’ and ‘we- representations’ are relatively new in psychology and neuroscience. This workshop brings together philosophers and scientists to discuss how philosophical concepts of the we-mode relate to the use of the word across the mind and brain sciences, as well as how experimental practice can help us to address theoretical issues that still await clarification. We aim at addressing theoretical and methodological questions about thought and agency in the we-mode – such questions as: What would count as evidence of the we-mode in both design of experimental studies and interpretation of data? In the absence of an agreed upon definition, what factors would current empirical research suggest as ideal candidates for articulating a mechanistic theory of the we-mode? What is the we-mode?

Scientific organization: Mattia Gallotti (Mattia.Gallotti@gmail.com) 

NB: Registration required for this event. Please register here.