Date and time: May 28, 15:00–18:00 (CEST)  

​​​​​​​Format: Hybrid

Location: 24.202, Mercè Rodoreda building, Campus Ciutadella

And on Zoom. Please register to obtain the link.

Speakers: 

  • Marc Artiga (Universitat de València)
  • Catherine Hochman (University of Grenoble Alpes)

​​​​​​Everyone welcome. To register, email [email protected]

Program

15:00–16:10 - Marc Artiga

16:10–16:20 - break

16:20–17:30 - Catherine Hochman

17:30 - Wrap-up

Abstracts

Catherine Hochman –  The Social Origins of Explicit De Se Thought

Our self-related thoughts typically include an explicit de se constituent. Yet in principle, they need not: one could, for example, think ‘am hungry’ rather than ‘I am hungry.’ The de se constituent seems superfluous. So why do our self-related thoughts generally include an explicit de se representation nonetheless? I argue that this representation is required in social contexts to represent how we are represented by others. Implicit de se representation is insufficient in such nested representations. I discuss how nested representations similarly prompt explicit self representation in perception and navigation, suggesting that explicit self-representation solves the same representational problem across domains. Once available, explicit de se representation is deployed more broadly in thought. I relate this idea to prominent views according to which self-consciousness has social origins, and discuss empirical work that bears on it.

Marc Artiga – Non-Human Communication and Mental Representation

Many organisms engage in communication, from bacteria and plants to birds and great apes. At the same time, many organisms guide their behavior by employing internal representations. What is the connection between these two phenomena? Does successful communication require the deployment of mental representations? To what extent do their contents need to overlap? This talk will explore the complex relationships between these phenomena from a comparative perspective.

Work produced with the support of a 2025 Leonardo Grant for Scientific Research and Cultural Creation, from the  BBVA Foundation. The Foundation takes no responsibility for the opinions, statements and contents of this project, which are entirely the responsibility of its authors.