Nombre ponente
Urban Kordeš
Adscripción
University of Ljubljana, Center for cognitive science; Laboratory for empirical phenomenology
Miércoles 13 de noviembre 2024, 12:20 - 14:20
The illusion of ‘experiential landscape’
Resumen
Natural, or everyday, attitude can be understood as a network of commonsensical beliefs about the independent existence of the world. This attitude drives our ceaseless focus on things, objects, and content while simultaneously leading us to overlook the process by which this colourful menagerie manifests in our consciousness. By emphasizing what experience is seemingly about, the natural attitude obscures the way in which it actually appears to us. Phenomenology teaches us that to become aware of the fundamental nature of experience, we must "bracket" the natural attitude—shifting our focus from "what" we are experiencing to ‘how’.
However, even when we succeed in noticing subjective experience, we are not necessarily free from the grip of the natural attitude. Experiential reports often resemble descriptions of a physical landscape, reflecting the belief that consciousness is a space filled with experiential "things" (e.g., "there is a sensation X" "there is a visual aspect of"). Much like the illusion that we can continuously grasp the entirety of our visual field, these reports can lead to the mistaken belief that we are in constant contact with all the "things" populating our experiential Landscape. This talk will address this issue, arguing that to deepen our understanding of experience, we need to learn how to notice the attentional dynamics behind ‘choosing’ what and how is being experienced. Additionally, the possibility of identifying the experiential source of these dynamics—or its absence—will be explored.
Semblanza
Urban Kordeš is professor of cognitive science at the University of Ljubljana, where he is currently heading the Center for Cognitive Science, the Laboratory for Empirical Phenomenology (http://observatory.pef.uni-lj.si) and the graduate cognitive science program. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematical physics, and a doctorate in philosophy and cognitive science. His research interests include designing an epistemological-methodological framework for empirical research on subjectivity, in-depth empirical phenomenological research with emphasis on identifying the deep components of human consciousness, and ecologically valid research on cognition in natural environments. Urban believes that training in the skill of reflection and subsequent first-person reporting should become one of the essential cognitive-science research techniques.