Projekt

How we understand other minds remains controversial. This interdisciplinary project at the intersections of psychiatry, cognitive psychology, social neuroscience and philosophy attempts to explore a new and radically different approach to the 'problem' of other minds. The project is based on the assumption that social cognition is fundamentally different when we are actively engaged with others in online interaction, entertaining a second-person perspective, rather than merely observing them from a first- or third-person point of view. By extending the enactive account of cognition to the social domain, the project intends to provide the first comprehensive account of a second-person approach to other minds, based on a constructive engagement of the participating disciplines. The results of these conceptual and empirical investigations are likely to call into question major recent findings related to the problem of others minds and will shape future discussions in the disciplines by providing evidence for an interactive account of consciousness that emphasizes the formative role of participating in the social world.

• Dr. Leonhard Schilbach

  Max-Planck-Institut für neurologische
  Forschung
  mit Klaus-Joachim-Zülch-Laboratorien der
  Max-Planck-Gesellschaft und der medizinischen
  Fakultät der Universität zu Köln
  Köln
  

• Prof. Dr. Tobias Schlicht

  Universität Tübingen
  Centre for Integrative Neuroscience
  Tübingen
  

• Bert Timmermans, Ph. D.

  Universität zu Köln
  Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie
  und Psychotherapie
  Köln
  

• Dr. Nikolaus Steinbeis

  Universität Zürich
  Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research
  Zürich
  Schweiz