TORONTO, October 24, 1996 -- Is the human mind a scientific object? A cultural entity? Or perhaps historical?

These questions are at the heart of an upcoming conference being hosted by York University, called "The Mind as a Scientific Object: An Interdisciplinary Seminar." Academics specializing in various fields, including psychology, biology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, neurophysiology, and computer science -- all researchers in the field known as "cognitive science" -- will be attending this conference.

Speakers from universities across Canada and the United States will explore the connections between philosophy and science as they relate these disciplines to the notion of the mind at the conference. It will begin Friday, Oct. 25 and continue until Sunday, Oct. 27, with several speakers each day. The Friday presentations will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Novotel Hotel, 2nd Floor, 3 Park Home Ave., (west side of Yonge St. between Finch and Sheppard Aves.) The Saturday and Sunday sessions will be held on the York Campus in Vari Hall A beginning at 9 a.m. each day.

There are many and varying viewpoints on the nature of the human mind, said York philosophy professor David Johnson, the coordinator of the seminar. "People like the linguist Noam Chomsky say the mind is an ordinary scientific object like all the others, and this means that we eventually must identify it with the brain. Other people, including followers of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, argue that the mind is in fact a cultural object, and therefore has nothing to do with science, but instead must be understood in terms of common language and common understanding," Johnson said. "My own view is that the mind has to be viewed in a historical context because it is a product of our own specific culture, and therefore only came to exist with the first pre-Socratic Greek philosophers between 1100 and 750 B.C. -- when Western civilization was first taking shape."

Johnson says this weekend's conference is designed to follow 1993's "Reassessing the Cognitive Revolution," a similar interdisciplinary event which has resulted in the book (scheduled for publication by Oxford University Press in January 1997), called Reassessing the Cognitive Revolution: Alternative Futures.

York University, the third largest university in Canada, is nationally and internationally respected for its innovative research and teaching. With its combination of dedicated and talented faculty, bright and ambitious students, dynamic curriculum and modern campus in the heart of one of North America's most influential urban centres, York University is setting the modern standard in academic excellence.

For more information on the seminar, a list of speakers, or the individual workshop sessions, please call:

Mary Ann Horgan
Department of Media Relations
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22086

Prof. David Johnson
Department of Philosophy
(416) 736-5113, ext. 77592
or (home) (416) 766-7459
YU/050/96