28 June 2013, Symposium "Culture and Mind"

The human mind grows and develops in an environment rich with material and symbolic practices and other patterns of social interaction. From the moment we are born, we begin to learn how to adapt our behaviour to this richly structured developmental environment. The cognitive capacities that emerge out of this developmental process are the joint product of human nature and nurture. How should we understand this process of enculturation? More specifically how can the patterns of social interaction, preferences, presuppositions and expectations that define a cultural practice exert a causal influence on our behaviour? This interdisciplinary workshop will draw on research from philosophy, cognitive science and the social sciences to address these and other questions. We will focus in particular on the domains of mathematical cognition, social cognition and communication.

Speakers: Tad Zawidzki (Georgetown); Richard Menary (Macquarie); Catarina Duthil Novaes (Groningen); Marc Slors (Nijmegen); Julian Kiverstein (ILLC).

To register or for more information, please contact j.d.kiverstein at uva.nl.