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In this seminar, we will explore the relation between personhood and the ability to understand other persons.
In
the first part of the course, we will turn to the concept of a person.
What is constitutive for persons, and what distinguishes a person from a
non-person? We will take a closer look at some central characteristics
such as self-awareness, (moral) agency, and the ability to entertain a
self-narrative and to have a self-concept. Also, we will discuss the
role social groups and society in general play in establishing beings as
persons.
In the second part of the seminar, we will focus on the
question of what it means to recognize and to understand other persons
in the light of some of the previously explored person-making
characteristics. We start with an overview of the classical positions of
Theory-Theory and Simulation Theory. We then turn to more recent
approaches such as the Interaction Theory and the Person Model Theory.
In addition to theoretical overview articles we will also select some
articles discussing psychological evidence about understanding others
including low-level perceptual information as well as high-level
linguistic information from others. The aim of the seminar is to combine
the question of personhood with the question of social cognition such
that we are able to outline a unified perspective of both phenomena.
The
course will be organized as a hybrid course. Participation can also be
realized completely online. But we plan a meeting in person every two
weeks. We change the place of the seminar meeting each time and will let
the participants know when it is in Bochum and when in Dortmund. Both
universities can be reached by public transport within 40 minutes (from
mid campus to mid campus). |
