|
Instituto
de Filosofia, FLUP / Unidade I&D 502 FCT
GFMC
- Gabinete de Filosofia Moderna e Contemporânea
MIND, LANGUAGE & ACTION
GROUP
IR Sofia Miguens
smiguens@letras.up.pt
Homepage:
http://web.letras.up.pt/smiguens/mlag/index.html
Group
members: Among the members of the Mind, Language and Action Group
are teachers of Logic, Epistemology, Philosophy of Language and
Philosophy of Mind at Faculdade de Letras (UP) and graduate students
doing work in those fields (both in Portugal and abroad). (see
Homepage for CVs and research interests).
Research
Projects: Rationality, Belief, Desire I (RBD1) –
motivation to action from the viewpoint of the theory of mind
(2003-2005), IR Sofia Miguens; Participation in Conceptual change
in science: from ontosemantic to cognitivist approaches
(2003-2006), Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, IR Juan Vazquez;
Rationality, Belief, Desire II (RBD2) – from cognitive
science to philosophy (2005-2007) (POCTI/FIL/55555/2004), IR
Sofia Miguens.
Some
activities:
International
Conference: ENFA2 – Encontro Nacional de Filosofia Analítica
2 (October 2004, see Homepage for Book of Abstracts)
Encontros
Preparatórios do Centro de Ciência Cognitiva da UP:
E. Lepore, Rutgers – State University of New Jersey, Semantic
Minimalism and Speech Act Pluralism, March 18th 2004; Hilary
Putnam, Harvard University, Pragmatism, May 11th 2004.
RBD
1 Seminars: Concha Martinez, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela,
Filosofia da lógica: naturalismo e apriorismo, April
4th 2003; José Luís Falguera, Universidade de Santiago
de Compostela, Incomensurabilidade, percepção e
relatos observacionais, April 4th 2003; Sofia Miguens, Teorias
Filosóficas da Racionalidade, June 6th 2003; Paulo Tunhas,
Universidade Fernando Pessoa, Três Tipos de Crenças,
June 6th 2003; Luísa Couto Soares, FCSH – UNL, Crença,
Racionalidade e Prática, June 6th 2003; Juan Vazquez,
Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Percepção e
Linguagem – aproximação neurológica,
June 27th 2003, Paulo Tunhas, Universidade Fernando Pessoa, Fernando
Gil – a convicção, 4 de Julho de 2003 (…)
Filosofia
da Mente – Graduate Seminar (Curso Integrado de Estudos
Pós-Graduados em Filosofia, FLUP) (see Homepage for syllabus).
RBD2
Seminars
Dissertations
(in preparation): Carlos E. Mauro, Susana Caló, Helena
Sousa Pereira, José Pedro Maçorano, Tomás
Magalhães.
RBD
1 and RBD 2 – Basic common orientations:
Both
projects aims at an analysis of the nature of rationality, the first
focusing on agents' motivation to action, the second on
methodological issues concerning the relation between philosophy and
cognitive science (i.e. focusing on how empirical and conceptual
elements interact in the study of mind). The final result should be a
theory of rationality, which we think involves (i) a characterization
of the factors at play when cognitive agents move from certain
beliefs to others, add or eliminate beliefs from their corpus of
beliefs, or opt for a course of action from several alternatives,
based on a set of beliefs and desires, (ii) a set of hypotheses on
how we decide among rightness criteria when we talk of the
justifiedness of beliefs and actions, (iii) a set of hypotheses on
the reasons which lead us to want to know (if indeed we do) if our
beliefs are true and our reasonings and actions rational.
Sub-goals
deriving from the projects’ ultimate objective are: (1)
identifying and characterizing standard models of rationality (logic,
probability theory, theory of decision), (2) analysing objections to
the use of these standard models to capture the workings of real
cognitive agents, objections based on studies of cognition carried on
in different domains, (3) characterizing the relations between logic
and rationality (discussing differences between ‘reasoning’
and ‘argument’, discussing the idea of ‘a universal
acceptance of logic’), (4) analysing rationality from the
viewpoint of evolution, as one more adaptive feature with ‘function’
and ‘purpose’, (5) analysing relations between the
mentalistic language of rationality we use to describe cognitive
agents and the mechanisms of cognition, and, correlatively, the
status of the assumptions of rationality in the philosophy of mind
(Quine, Davidson, Dennet), (6) analysing ‘co-evolution’
of internal cognitive devices and the interpretative behaviour of
agents (folk psychology, mind-reading), (7) characterizing the
dimension of volition and desire of mental life, in its relation with
belief (both from a philosophical and a cognitive science
perspective).
Current
work: Belief-desire model (for explaining action); Nature of
intention (are intentions specific mental states?); Cognitivism and
motivation to action; Rational-choice theory, its application in
economics – a philosophical critique; What is an irrational
action?; The nature of justification; Philosophical theories of
rationality; Theories of mind; Theories of emotion; Introspection and
communication; Self-knowledge, self-beliefs; Theoretical and
practical rationality (Kant, Wittgenstein); history and philosophy of
logic.
Publications
Books:
Miguens,
Sofia, 2002, Uma Teoria Fisicalista do Conteúdo e da
Consciência – D. Dennett e os debates da filosofia da
mente, Porto, Campo das Letras.
Miguens,
Sofia, 2004, Racionalidade, Porto, Campo das Letras.
Pinto,
João, Superveniência, Materialismo e Experiência,
in press (.pdf Homepage)
Miguens,
Sofia, Pinto, João A. & Mauro, Carlos, in press,
Proceedings of ENFA2.
Miguens,
Sofia, Pinto, João A. & Mauro, C., in preparation,
Filosofia da Mente - Uma Antologia.
Articles
and book chapters:
Miguens,
Sofia, 2002, Representational Theories of Consciousness: F. Dretske
versus D. Dennett, Agora, 21, nº2, 2002, Miguens, Sofia,
2003, Actividade e passividade – a identidade pessoal do ponto
de vista da filosofia da mente, in Adelino Cardoso, org., Sujeito
e Passividade, Lisboa, Colibri, 21-60; Miguens, Sofia, Agentes
racionais e irracionais: quanta racionalidade é necessária
na teoria da mente?, in J. L. Falguera, A. J. T. Zilhão C.
Martínez e J.M. Sagüillo, Palabras y pensamientos: una
mirada analítica, Santiago de Compostela, Publicacións,
2003; Miguens, Sofia, 2004, Em que devemos acreditar? Questões
epistemológicas e investigações cognitivas,
Cadernos de Filosofia, 15, 37-67.
Tunhas,
Paulo, 2003, Intention, bonheur et dissimulation, in M. Cohen-Halimi,
La rationalité pratique, Paris, PUF; Tunhas, Paulo,
2003, Akribeia, maneiras de pensar e objectos de pensamento – O
exemplo da descoberta, in Adelino Cardoso, org., Sujeito e
passividade, Colibri, Lisboa, 2003, 21-60; Tunhas, Paulo, 2004,
Três tipos de crença, in F. Gil, P. Livet e J. P. Cabral
(orgs), O processo da crença, Gradiva, Lisboa, 119-134;
Tunhas, Paulo, 2003, Kant. Le paysage du système,
Cahiers philosophiques, 94; Tunhas, Paulo, 2003, Entre o
enigma e a banalidade. Wittgenstein e a questão: «O
que é pensar?», Análise, 24, 43-94.
Edited
issues of journals:
(dedicated
to RBD 1):
Intelectu
(www.intelectu.com),
9, October 2003
Miguens,
Sofia, Em que devemos acreditar? Questões epistemológicas
e investigações cognitivas
Madeira,
Pedro, Uma objecção à teoria instrumental da
razão prática
Madeira,
Pedro, O que é o modelo crença-desejo?
Madeira,
Pedro, A objecção de Nagel ao modelo crença-desejo
(e o realismo moral)
Farmhouse
Bizarro, Sara, Robert Nozick e a natureza da racionalidade
Translations
Madeira,
Pedro, F. Ramsey, Truth and Probability (.3)
Magalhães,
Tomás, R. Samuels, S. Stich & P. Tremoulet, Repensando a
Racionalidade: de implicações pessimistas a módulos
darwinianos (from Lepore & Pylyshyn, Invitation to Cognitive
Science, Oxford, Blackwell, 1999)
Review:
Campos, Júlio, A. Damásio, Looking for Spinoza -
Joy, Sorrow and the Feeling Brain
Trólei
(www.trolei.net),
4, October 2004
Mendonça,
Dina, Experience as reason – emotions and values in the
construction of rationality
Madeira,
Pedro, Serão o cognitivismo, o internalismo motivacional e
o modelo crença-desejo conjuntamente consistentes?
Galvão,
Pedro, Teoria da decisão, racionalidade e ética
Caló,
Susana, Do corpo e das crenças – a acção
e o mundo autista
Madeira,
Pedro, O que são intenções?
Translation:
Galvão, Pedro, H.Sidgwick, Methods of Ethics (extracto
– motivação para a acção)
Links:
ESAP
– European Society of Analytic Philosophy
http://www.dif.unige.it/esap/
SPFA
– Sociedade Portuguesa de Filosofia Analítica
http://pwp.netcabo.pt/0154943702/spfaestatutos.htm
SPCC
– Sociedade Portuguesa de Ciências Cognitivas
http://spcc.no.sapo.pt/
SPF
– Sociedade Portuguesa de Filosofia www.spfil.pt
Crítica
– Portal de Filosofia (Desidério Murcho dir.)
http://www.criticanarede.com/
Contact:
mlag@letras.up.pt
|
