General Theme

The Embodied Mind and Consciousness: Developmental Perspectives.

In ever widening circles of academic and professional discourse, the body is being discussed as both a physical structure and a form of lived experience. The concept of embodiment is increasingly called upon to account for the contextualization of perception, thinking, feeling, desire, and social relationships as these and other processes emerge from a body actively engaged in a world of sociocultural and physical objects.

Conceptions of the development of the embodied mind and consciousness will be explored from biological, psychological, cultural and philosophical perspectives by a panel of distinguished plenary speakers and invited symposia.

On the first day of the meeting, Gerald M. Edelman (Bright Air, Bright Fire: A Universe of Consciousness), Antonio Damasio (Descartes Error; The Feeling of What Happens), and Oliver Sacks (Awakenings; Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood) will explore embodiment and consciousness from a biological perspective.

On the following day, Mark Johnson and Lynn S. Liben treat embodiment and consciousness from cognitive perspectives.

On the final day, Thomas J. Csordas and Esther Thelen add broad cultural and developmental perspectives.

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