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UPEI hosts second biennial Julian Jaynes Conference on Consciousness in August
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The second biennial Julian Jaynes Conference on Consciousness, featuring world-renowned experts in the field of consciousness, will take place at the University of Prince Edward Island from August 7 to 9.
Presented by UPEI and organized by Dr. Scott Greer, of the Psychology Department, the conference will involve scholars from the Netherlands, the United States and Canada.
The keynote speaker is Dr. Stevan Harnad, Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Science at the University of Quebec in Montreal. Harnad is one of the world's leading authorities on the evolution of language and speech. Other featured speakers include cognitive neuroscience pioneer Dr. Karl Pribram of Georgetown University, Washington DC and noted historian Dr. Eelco Runia of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
In addition to the keynote and invited speakers, 15 other presenters will give papers on a variety of topics, including Dual Brains and Bicameral Minds: New Evidence for Jaynes’s Neurological Model, The Future of Consciousness: Instincts, Free Will and the Borg, and Hallucinations as Adaptive Behaviour. Thomy Nilsson, Professor Emeritus at UPEI, will give a presentation called The Octopus and the Dinosaur: Bottlenecks on the Road to Consciousness. And Greer will speak to the group about Presence … Jaynes’s ‘Undiscovered Country’?
From 2002 to 2005, UPEI hosted an annual one-day symposium on consciousness in honour of the late Princeton professor, author, and long-time Prince Edward Island resident Dr. Julian Jaynes. The symposia were so popular that the event became a two-day conference in 2006.
In 1977 Jaynes put forth a new theory of the origin of consciousness and a previous mentality known as the bicameral mind in his controversial but critically acclaimed book, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. He claimed that consciousness is a relatively recent development in human evolution, and is primarily a learned process based on language and language use. More information about Jaynes and his theories on consciousness is available on the Julian Jaynes Society website at http://www.julianjaynes.org/.
In keeping with the inter- and trans-disciplinary spirit of Jaynes, this conference is interdisciplinary. It is open to anyone interested in the topic of consciousness at an academic level. Special low rates for students are available. A complete list of papers and details about registration are available at http://www.upei.ca/~sgreer/jaynesconference08.html.
Inquiries may also be directed to the conference coordinator, Dr. Scott Greer, at sgreer@upei.ca.
Presented by UPEI and organized by Dr. Scott Greer, of the Psychology Department, the conference will involve scholars from the Netherlands, the United States and Canada.
The keynote speaker is Dr. Stevan Harnad, Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Science at the University of Quebec in Montreal. Harnad is one of the world's leading authorities on the evolution of language and speech. Other featured speakers include cognitive neuroscience pioneer Dr. Karl Pribram of Georgetown University, Washington DC and noted historian Dr. Eelco Runia of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
In addition to the keynote and invited speakers, 15 other presenters will give papers on a variety of topics, including Dual Brains and Bicameral Minds: New Evidence for Jaynes’s Neurological Model, The Future of Consciousness: Instincts, Free Will and the Borg, and Hallucinations as Adaptive Behaviour. Thomy Nilsson, Professor Emeritus at UPEI, will give a presentation called The Octopus and the Dinosaur: Bottlenecks on the Road to Consciousness. And Greer will speak to the group about Presence … Jaynes’s ‘Undiscovered Country’?
From 2002 to 2005, UPEI hosted an annual one-day symposium on consciousness in honour of the late Princeton professor, author, and long-time Prince Edward Island resident Dr. Julian Jaynes. The symposia were so popular that the event became a two-day conference in 2006.
In 1977 Jaynes put forth a new theory of the origin of consciousness and a previous mentality known as the bicameral mind in his controversial but critically acclaimed book, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. He claimed that consciousness is a relatively recent development in human evolution, and is primarily a learned process based on language and language use. More information about Jaynes and his theories on consciousness is available on the Julian Jaynes Society website at http://www.julianjaynes.org/.
In keeping with the inter- and trans-disciplinary spirit of Jaynes, this conference is interdisciplinary. It is open to anyone interested in the topic of consciousness at an academic level. Special low rates for students are available. A complete list of papers and details about registration are available at http://www.upei.ca/~sgreer/jaynesconference08.html.
Inquiries may also be directed to the conference coordinator, Dr. Scott Greer, at sgreer@upei.ca.
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