[PHILOS-L] PhilSciCog - Véronique Izard - Cognitive foundations of Geometry

[Nicolas Millot]

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Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the next PhilSciCog session, which will take place on March 26, 2026, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. (CET) at the IHPST (https://ihpst.pantheonsorbonne.fr/en).

Note that the session will be held in hybrid format and can therefore be followed via the following Zoom link :  https://pantheonsorbonne.zoom.us/j/95061086376?pwd=K2ZpOGRBeUdNbkJvVUM3M3BRVFdCdz09

Meeting ID: 950 6108 6376

Passcode: 535047

We are delighted to welcome Véronique Izard (Center for Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition, Paris) for a presentation entitled :

Cognitive foundations of geometry

Abstract : From the first months of life, young children can perceive numeric quantities and perform additive or multiplicative operations on quantities. These abilities support the acquisition of number concepts later in life, and have been proposed to enable humans' arithmetic cognition. What about geometry, another major branch of mathematics? In this talk, I will present two recent studies assessing the scope and the limits of human geometric intuition. The first study focused on Euclidean geometry, and found that children and adults encode a rich repertoire of geometric properties, at several levels of abstraction. The second study probed intuitions for non-Euclidean geometry and revealed the existence of a pervasive Euclidean bias in adults, identifying limits to the flexibility of human geometric intuition.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Nicolas Millot and Florian Moullard, PhD students in philosophy of science at Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne University

Héloïse Athéa, postdoctoral researcher in philosophy of science

The PhilSciCog Seminar : the seminar aims to provide a forum for discussion on key research topics in the philosophy of (neuro)cognitive science, covering issues encountered in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of biology, as well as the epistemology of cognitive (neuro)science and mathematical cognition. With a view to interdisciplinarity, the seminar welcomes both philosophers and scientists.

2025/2026 session schedule : 

- November 27, 2025: Pamela Lyon, University of Adelaide, Australia. Exceptionally via Zoom uniquely, 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. - "Autopoiesis and knowing: first principles of cognition »

- December 11, 2025: Rafael Nuñez, (UCSD, USA / ETH Zürich, Switzerland) - "On the nature and origin of numbers: When philosophy meets (or should meet) evolution and the cognitive science".

- February 12, 2026: Stéphane Charpier (Sorbonne Université, France) - "La conscience phénoménale est-elle un épiphénomène ?"

- March 26, 2026: Véronique Izard ((Centre de neurosciences intégratives et de cognition, Paris, France) - "Cognitive foundations of geometry.” 

- April 16, 2026 (4:00-6:00 p.m.) : Catherine Macri (Centre de Neuroscience de Sorbonne Université, Paris, France) - TBA

- May 14 2026 :  Marie Pelé (Anthropo Lab, Lille, France) - TBA

- June 4, 2026: Catherine Belzung (Université de Tours, France) - TBA

- June 23, 2026: Adrian Currie (University of Exeter, England) - TBA

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