Research team
Expertise
Giving lectures concerning research interests for a general audience.
Reconsidering Visual Experience and Pictorial Representation: An Enactive Approach.
Abstract
The proposed project will study the topic of pictorial representation as a part of the larger inquiry into the nature of visual consciousness. The main aim is to reconsider pictorial representation in the light of recent advances in our understanding of visual perception. Drawing upon the available theories, it will be examined what an adequate theory of depiction should look like. It will be argued that none of the current proposals succeed in adequately explaining depiction, and that this is mainly due to some major misunderstandings about the nature and phenomenology of visual perception quite generally. Some deeply entrenched but erroneous conceptions of both pictures and visual perception are intimately related, so it will be argued. Unravelling this relationship might be illuminating for a better understanding of the nature of pictorial representation as well as the phenomenology of perception. An alternative model of pictorial representation will be proposed, inspired by an enactive approach to visual experience.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Myin Erik
- Co-promoter: Leilich Joachim
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
The hard problem of consciousness: an epistemologic approach. An interdisciplinary inquiry into the conceptual limitations of reasoning about consciousness.
Abstract
The core of the hard problem of consciousness (Chalmers) is the question how the essentially physical processes in our nervous system can give rise to the essentially non-physical, qualitative experiences (qualia) that constitute our phenomenal consciousness. Both philosophers and scientists have tried to answer this question.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Leilich Joachim
- Fellow: De Nul Lars
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
The hard problem of consciousness: an epistemologic approach - An inquiry into the conceptual limitations of interdisciplinary reasoning about consciousness.
Abstract
The core of the hard problem of consciousness (Chalmers) is the question how the essentially physical processes in our nervous system can give rise to the essentially non-physical, qualitative experiences (qualia) that constitute our phenomenal consciousness. Both philosophers and scientists have tried to answer this question.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Leilich Joachim
- Fellow: De Nul Lars
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
The hard problem of consciousness: an epistemological approach - an inquiry into the conceptual constraints on reasoning about consciousness.
Theories of phenomenal consciousness:a search for an adequate non-reductionistic framework.
Abstract
The main objective of the project is to give a systematic overview of contemporary naturalistic theories of phenomenal consciousness (qualia). The focus is on the following problem: all contemporary reductionist theories of phenomenal consciousness are based on the assumption that cognition can be studied without the mention of consciousness. Consciousness is then characterized in causal-functional terms, independent of a phenomenal characterization. Our diagnosis is that reductionism is an untenable position, because it renders phenomenal consciousness into an epiphenomenon: there emerges an unsolvable mind-bodyproblem then, because of the unbridgeable explanatory gap between phenomenal consciousness and the causal/functional notions that are associated with consciousness. The bridging of the gap requires a reframing of the problem.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Leilich Joachim
- Co-promoter: Reynaert Peter
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Materialism and phenomenal consciousness.
Abstract
Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Leilich Joachim
- Co-promoter: Reynaert Peter
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
Rationality and religious trust
Abstract
Recent philosophy of religion can be described as marked by a tension. An ethically oriented trend reduces religion to a moral outlook or attitude. A metaphysically oriented trend runs the risk of confusing 'that God exists' with a belief 'in' God. This project tries to find a middle road between these extremes by elaborating a religuious epistemology. 'Religious knowledge' refers to knowledge of God but also to the knowledge that enables a religious modulation of life. Knowledge of God cannot be separated from a knowing-how to give God a place in one's life. Precisely this relatedness must provide the middle road mentioned.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Vanheeswijck Guy
- Co-promoter: Braeckmans Luc
- Co-promoter: Leilich Joachim
- Co-promoter: Taels Johan
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project
A century of philosophy in 40 books.
Abstract
This study looks back onto a century of philosophical life with the objective to present those books which had the greatest impact on the development of philosophy during the last 100 years. The final ambition of this project is to provide an authorised book of reference for all those who want to know their way about contemporary thought and this by means of approximately fourty books that will each be presented in approximately ten pages.Researcher(s)
- Promoter: Boey Koen
- Co-promoter: Leilich Joachim
- Co-promoter: Oger Erik
Research team(s)
Project type(s)
- Research Project