Talk by Robert Prentner next Tuesday

[Seminar Mind-Matter Relation 2018]

Dear participants and speakers,

We hope this email finds you well! The next talk in our seminar series takes place next Tuesday. Beware that Europe has now switched to winter time, which is why we recommend you to use the "convert to your time zone" links below. Furthermore, the next talk takes place one hour later than usual.

Robert Prentner (University of California, Irvine)
"Topologically Structured Phenomenal Spaces and the Image of Nature"
Tuesday, 20 November 2018
18:30-20:00 CET, Login from 18:00 CET. (One hour later than usual!)
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Abstract: In the first part of my talk, I will sketch a formal framework to describe phenomena of conscious experience. I draw on mereological and topological ideas to establish a "mathematized phenomenology." According to the model, experiential phenomena are described in terms of ("phenomenal") spaces, which are topologically structured. Consciousness could be understood, not in terms of a singular transition that happens between "brain" and "mind", but rather in terms of a series of transitions between structured layers of experience. This shifts attention from of an ontological puzzle (i.e. the "mind-body problem") to a problem of description, something which appears to be tractable using our current scientific methods.
While the first part of my talk is primarily epistemological in scope, the second part of my talk deals with some underlying ontological assumptions. The received ontological view, physicalist naturalism, is unable to account for experiential phenomena and in particular for consciousness in all its varieties. We therefore should embrace a new image of nature if we want to regard consciousness as natural property. I will thus propose a processual account in which experience is figuring as primitive concept.

Subsequently, we will have the following two talks before Christmas:

Johannes Kleiner (Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Hanover)
"Qualia and Symmetries"
Tuesday, 27 November 2018
17:30-19:00 CET (winter time), Login from 17:00 CET.
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Markus Müller (Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information Vienna)
"Law without law - from observer states to physics via algorithmic information theory"
Monday, 10 December 2018
17:30-19:00 CET (winter time), Login from 17:00 CET.
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We are very much looking forward to seeing many of you again!

With best wishes,
Robin & Johannes