Workshop: Human Cognitive Evolution

Registration is open! Please register here by April 5th.

Date: April 12-13, 2024
Location: Social and Behavior Sciences Gateway (SBSG), Room 1321  (campus map)
Time: Friday 9am-5pm and Saturday 9am-4pm (breakfast both days from 8:30-9am)
Logistics: Paid parking available in Social Science Parking Structure

Description: Lately, a number of questions about how human cognition evolved have garnered renewed interest from philosophers. The influence of Darwinian evolution on philosophy has a long and complicated history, but new methodological developments and empirical findings are beginning to shed significant light on the phylogenetic origins of some of the most fundamental features of distinctively human cognition. Our understandings of moral psychology, decision making, linguistic capacity, and other departments of human thought have been articulated and enriched by recent evolutionarily-oriented work. This workshop will bring together scholars approaching this grand project from numerous angles in the hopes of improving our standing in our collective attempt to understand how we evolved to be creatures constituted as we are.

Schedule  

FRIDAY April 12th
8:30am: Breakfast
9:00am: Opening Remarks by Kyle Stanford (UCI)
9:15am: Saira Khan (Pitt)
10:15am: Armin Schulz (Kansas)
11:15am: Coffee Break
11:30am: True Gibson (UCI)

12:30pm: Catered Lunch
1:30pm: Michael Tomasello [Virtual] (Duke)
2:30pm: Edouard Machery (Pitt)

3:30pm: Coffee Break

3:45pm: Shaun Nichols (Cornell)
6:30pm: Conference Dinner (by invitation only)

 

SATURDAY April 13th
8:30am: Breakfast
9:15am: Margaret Farrell (UCI)
10:15am: Jessica Gonzalez (OCC)
11:15am: Coffee Break
11:30am: Daniel Kelly (Purdue)

12:30pm: Catered Lunch
1:30pm: Colin Allen (UCSB)

2:30pm: Coffee Break
2:45pm: Steve Downes (Utah)

3:45pm: Closing Remarks by Kyle Stanford (UCI)