Dartmouth Events

Susanna Schellenberg is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science at Rutgers University. She works on a range of topics in philosophy of mind, epistemology, AI, and neuroscience, including perception, mental representation, consciousness, evidence, knowledge, capacities, and imagination. She is the author of The Unity of Perception: Content, Consciousness, Evidence (Oxford University Press, 2018). Her personal website can be found here: https://susannaschellenberg.org/

Talk: "Subjective perspectives and self-representation"

Abstract: When an individual navigates her environment as a philosophy professor, her perspective is different than when she does so as a parent or a mountaineer. Her preferences are different, what evidence she pays attention to shifts, and which of her many beliefs are relevant changes. This paper explores the role of self-representation in our perspectives. I argue that how an individual represents herself is a critical part of her perspective. I argue moreover that how she represents herself can shift from moment to moment thus entailing shifts in her perspective. If this is right, then contra orthodoxy, a perspective is not a fixed point in intellectual space that changes only slowly over time. I show how including self-representation in AI systems can solve a host of open problems. 

The talk is free and open to all.