CALL FOR PAPERS
KINAESTHESIA AND MOTION
The University of Tampere, Finland
October 2- 4, 2008
The infant, minutes after birth, is capable of imitating the gesture
that it sees on the face of another person. The new born baby actively
watches moving objects rather than stationary objects. Movement seems to
be primacy to our perception from the very beginning. The importance of
embodiment for understanding cognition has already been made in numerous
ways but the meaning and relevance of movement has been largely
unexplored. Aristotle says in Physics that nature has been defined as
a principle of motion and change. The task is to understand what
Aristotle means by this, and more generally: to investigate the role of
movement in the constitution of reality and existence. How do we
perceive and experience movement? What kind of role movement has in our
everyday life? The conference takes seriously Aristotle’s argument and
focuses on the different aspects of sensations of movement i.e.
kinaesthesia.
The conference does not want to limit discussion on kinaesthesia in
proprioception or the perception of muscular tensions. This
philosophy-driven interdisciplinary conference encourages to discuss
kinaesthesia whether sensations of motion are internal or exterior to
the body, visual or tactic, real or virtual. In what ways are seeing and
visual sense based on movement? Does speed dominate the development of
current technology? What kind of role movement has when we identify
objects in the environment? Why do we want to feel as if we were moving
in playing computer games sitting still on a chair? Researchers working
in the fields of Philosophy, Cognitive Sciences, Sport and Physical
Education, Art and Cultural Studies, Social Sciences, History,
Education, Psychology Psychiatry and Computer Sciences are encouraged to
submit abstracts. Topics of interest include, although are not limited
to, the following (in alphabetic order):
· Emotion and motion
· Expression, communication and movement
· Gender and kinaesthesia
· Intelligence and kinaesthesia
· Kinaesthetic illusions and imagination
· Kinaesthetic memory
· Learning by moving
· Motion of animals
· Movement and change
· Movement and arts
· Sense modalities and kinaesthesia
· Spatiality and motility
· Technology and kinaesthesia
· Voluntary and involuntary actions
Authors are invited to submit abstracts written in English for oral
presentation. Abstract submission deadline is on 31 May 2008 and the
authors will be notified of the outcome before 1 July 2008. You can
submit abstracts and register for the conference via the congress
website:
www.kinaesthesia.fi
In the website you can also find information of travelling and accommodation.
The website of the conference will be continuously updated.
The keynote speakers of the conference are Dr. Maxine Sheets-Johnstone
and Professor Shaun Gallagher. Dr Maxine Sheets-Johnstone is an
independent and interdisciplinary scholar affiliated with the Department
of Philosophy, University of Oregon. Her most recent research interests
include kinesthetic memory, an evolutionary semantics, death and human
morality, and Paleolithic cave art. Professor Shaun Gallagher is Chair
of Philosophy and Cognitive Science at The University of Central
Florida. His research interests include phenomenology and the philosophy
of mind, embodiment, neuropsychology, hermeneutics, and the philosophy
of time. The members of the organizing committee are Jaana Parviainen,
Leila Haaparanta ja Sara Heinämaa.