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Conferences and the round table discussions

Conferences, workshops and round table discussions on the problems of consciousness, free will, moral responsibility and personal identity with the participation of leading Russian and foreign philosophers.

The conference “Problems of consciousness and free will”was held in Greenland from 12 to 19 June. It was attended by such well-known figures in contemporary philosophy of mind and cognitive science as Daniel Dennett, David Chalmers, Paul and Patricia Churchland, Derk Pereboom, Jesse Prinz, Nicholas Humphrey, Andy Clark, and Keith Frankish, as well as by teachers, students, and graduates of the Faculty of Philosophy of Lomonosov Moscow State University: Anna Kostikova, Robert Howell, Dmitry Volkov, Eugene Loginov, Maria Ananina, Angelina Dmitrieva, Andrew Mertsalov, Mikhail Terekhov, Artem Besedin, and Anton Kuznetsov.

The conference was notable not only for the unique assembly of keynote speakers, but also for its unusual format: it was held on board the sailing schooner Rembrandt van Rijn as that ship cruised along the southeastern coast of Greenland. It was a real philosophical expedition: discussion sessions were followed by landings at remote points in Greenland and by walks and Zodiac boat trips that made the participants familiar with the nature of arctic Greenland. All sessions were held in the wardroom of the ship. A distinctive feature of the conference program was that the speakers did not represent their own views, as is usually done. Instead, they made presentations about their colleagues’ ideas, in the process formulating both main points of disagreement and the arguments of critics. For example, David Chalmers represented Andy Clark and Andy Clark represented Nicholas Humphrey. After the reports, the persons whose work was reported on then took the floor, commenting and clarifying their positions and responding to criticism.

Here is a special issue of the Bulletin of Moscow State University devoted to this event.

Where am I? The Conference on the Problem of Personal Identity

The problem of personal identity is a classic philosophical puzzle. Our body, our character, our memory are changing during the whole life. But why I’m the same person despite all of these changes? The conference was held at the MSU April 16 2016.

The 20th conference “Toward a science of consciousness”. Tuscon, Arizona

The conference “Toward a science of consciousness” is traditionally held in Tucson. It is in the southwestern USA, in Arizona. This is the biggest and the most prominent conference on consciousness studies in the world. When it was held for the first time in 1994 it immediately became historical. Right there David Chalmers proposed a famous distinction among the problems of consciousness. He divided them into easy problems of consciousness and the hard problem of consciousness.

The conference “The problem of free will in European philosophy”

On April 15th 2014 a conference “The problem of free will in European philosophy” was held at the philosophy department of Moscow State University. Experts in different areas of the history of philosophy gave talks about this issue. You can listen the audio-tracks of every report.

The latest trends in analytical philosophy. The roundtable discussion

February 26 2015 at the Philosophy department of Moscow State University hosted a roundtable discussion “Latest Trends analytic philosophy”, which was attended by our colleagues from the Center of phenomenology and philosophy of mind at SPSU. The event went on for about five hours!