Investigating the Mind
Pain, Emotion & Affective Disorders
This workshop focuses on how we can and should investigate the mind in an
interdisciplinary approach. More specifically, we will be looking into the study of
pain, emotion, and affective disorders from both empirical and philosophical
perspectives. Our main objectives are to discuss (1) what kinds of strategies can
be employed to investigate pain, emotion, and affective disorders and (2) what
our best currently available accounts of these paradigmatic mental phenomena
are. To achieve this, we bring together international experts studying the mind
trained in different disciplines (neuroscience, philosophy, psychiatry,
psychology).
Discussing the different available research strategies for the study of pain,
emotion, and affective disorders links concrete empirical cases and debates in
the philosophy of mind with contemporary discussions in philosophy of science.
We are especially interested in how the interaction of genetic, neurobiological,
environmental, and social factors is construed in neuroscience, psychology, and
psychiatry and what methodologies are employed to study the influence of these
different factors. What can we learn from, say, the study of intuitions in
experimental philosophy, on the one hand, and the search for neurobiological
mechanisms underlying pain processing, on the other hand? While the
methodologies employed in both cases are crucially different, our best scientific
theories of the mind should accommodate for both. However, more needs to be
said on what exactly different research strategies can contribute to the scientific
and theoretical discourse. Therefore, we will discuss advantages and limitations
of various strategies found in scientific practice as well as what specific research
questions each aims to address.
Looking into the different accounts of pain, emotion, and affective disorders
recently available allows us to further develop this meta-perspective. We aim to
analyze what empirical evidence our currently best theories of these mental
phenomena are based on, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Against
the background of our methodological discussions, new perspectives on the
relation between different approaches may emerge.
Date
November 08 – 10, 2018
Venue
Ruhr-University Bochum
Scientific Organization
Sabrina Coninx
Lena Kästner
Albert Newen
Institute for Philosophy II
Ruhr-University Bochum