Sponsored By: Infinity Foundation

Mind and Consciousness: Various Approaches

MiCon 2002
Mind and Consciousness: Various Approaches

Event sponsored by the Infinity Foundation, NJ, USA

MiCon 2002
Mind and Consciousness: Various Approaches

Infinity Foundation Sponsored Papers:

  • Stephen Phillips
    The Mind-Body Problem in Three Indian Philosophies, Sankara’s Advaita Vedanta, Gangesa’s Navya Nyaya, and Aurobindo’s Theistic Monism

  • Jonathan Shear, PhD
    “Can Scientific Research on Meditation Ever Really Be Significant?”

     

  • Joseph Loizzo, MD, PhD
    “Meditation and the Conscious Self-Regulation of Learning: A Multidisciplinary Model for the Scientific Uses of Meditative Self-Correction”

     

  • Rajesh Kasturirangan
    “Integrating Inner and Outer approaches to perception, cognition and consciousness through Nonduality”

     

  • C. Ram-Prasad, PhD
    “Auto-reflexivity as the defining feature of consciousness: a preliminary case for ‘self-luminosity’ from Advaita”

     

  • Sangeetha Menon, PhD
    “Binding Experiences for a First Person Approach: Looking at Indian Ways of Thinking (Darsana) and Acting (Natya) in the Context of Current Discussions on ‘Consciousness'”

     

  • Stuart Sovatsky, PhD
    “Grihasta: The Family as Womb of Consciousness In a Post Freudian Era”

  • Sanjay Chandrasekharan
    “Varieties of Supervenience”

  • Abrahim H. Khan
    “Person and Boundedness in Wittgenstein and Tagore: Positioning Artificial Intelligence “

 


 

MiCon 2002
Mind and Consciousness: Various Approaches
An International Multi-disciplinary Conference on Mind and Consciousness
January 9-11, 2002, IIT Kharagpur, India

A Golden Jubilee Event

Sponsored by The Infinity Foundation

Technical Program Outline

Organized by: Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India.

Coordinators: Dr C Chakraborti & Dr M K Mandal

Golden Jubilee Celebrations at IIT Kharagpur

In 2002 the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, the oldest IIT, completes fifty years of its existence. This conference will form part of the celebrations.

Introduction

MiCon 2002 was a major international multidisciplinary conference on the theme of Mind and Consciousness. This conference, which has been the first of it’s kind at I.I.T Kharagpur, was able to attract notable scholars and researchers from India and abroad. This conference was supported by:

  • Infinity Foundation, USA
  • Indian Institute of Advanced study, Shimla, India
  • Indian Council of Philosophical Research, India
  • Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, India
  • Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India
  • Indian Council of Medical Research, India.

Delegates

Approximately 75 outstation delegates registered for this conference out of which 22 delegates are from abroad representing 10 different countries, namely, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, Turkey, UK, and USA. The largest contingent of course is from USA. We have about 53 delegates from India including young scholars representing 13 different Universities and 7 different Institutes. In addition, there were considerable number of local participants in the audience from colleges and Universities from Kharagpur, Kolkata and the neighborhood.

Disciplines

Because of the multidisciplinary perspective that the conference has, scholars belonging to different disciplines, namely, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, psychiatry, linguistics, physics and computer science gathered to listen to each other and to uncover the missing links in consciousness studies. The department of Humanities and Social Sciences has the distinction of having expertise in many of these disciplines; and in association with our other colleagues at the Institute belonging to hard sciences, we hope to inch forward towards developing an eclectic vision on consciousness.

Talks and time duration

The conference lasted for three days and the sessions included plenary talks, invited lectures, and technical papers. Time allotted for plenary talks is 40 min, 30 min for invited lectures and 20 min for technical papers including question – answer. The plenary talks were delivered by :

  • Prof. P.N. Tandon, President, National Brain Research Centre, New Delhi, India
  • Prof. E.C.G. Sudarshan, University of Texas, USA
  • Prof. Kapila Vatsayan, India International Centre, New Delhi, India
  • Prof. P.K. Mukhopadhaya, Jadavpur University, Calcutta, India

Invited Lectures:

10 invited lectures were presented by: These were presented by:

  • Prof. Abraham H. Khan, Toronto, Canada
  • Prof. Novjyoti Singh, New Delhi, India
  • Prof. S.C. Malik, New Delhi, India
  • Prof. B.N. Patnaik, IIT Kanpur, India
  • Prof. A.K. Sinha, Delhi, India
  • Prof. Shobini Rao, NIMHANS Bangalore, India
  • Prof. Indrani Sanyal, Jadavpur University, Calcutta, India
  • Prof. G.C. Ray, IIT Kanpur, India

Infinity Foundation Lectures

A special session was sponsored by the Infinity Foundation, USA. The speakers were:

  • Prof. Stephen Philips, University of Texas, Austin, USA
  • Dr. Chakrabarthy Ram Prasad, Lancaster University, UK
  • Dr. Sageetha Menon, NIAS, Bangalore, India
  • Dr. Sanjay Chandrasekharan, Carlton University, Canada

In total, about 38 technical paper from various disciplines were presented. Details of the technical programme and session planning can be viewed at http://www.iitkgp.ernet.in/MiCon2002. A copy of the technical program is enclosed herewith.

The conference has been an overall success. The delegates have particularly praised the organized effort, the idea, the qualityand the planning of the conference. It is hoped that this concerted effort will yield a productive research program. Work for publishing a post-conference volume comprising selected full papers presented at the conference is already in progress under the editorship of Dr. C. Chakraborty, Dr. M.K. Mandal, and Dr. R.B.Chatterjee of Dept of H.S.S., I.I.T. Kharagpur, in collaboration with Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, India.

Programme

January 9, 2002

S. N. Bose Auditorium (F-134)

8:00 – 8:50 AM Registration

9:00 – 10:00 AM Inaugural session

10:00 – 10:20 AM Inaugural Tea

10:20 – 11:00 AM
Plenary talk I: “Mind and Consciousness: New opportunities for scientific studies”, Prof. P. N. Tandon, President, National Brain Research Society, New Delhi.

11:00 – 11:40 AM
Plenary talk II: “Science as an aspect of consciousness”, Prof. E.C.G. Sudarshan, Dept of Physics, University of Texas, Austin, USA.

11:40 – 11:45 AM Coffee break

11:45 – 1:25 pm Parallel Technical Session I: S. N. Bose Auditorium (F-134)

Chair: Prof. G.C.Ray, Dept of Electrical Engineering, IIT, Kanpur, India.

Co-chair: Prof B. Chatterjee, Dept of HSS, IIT Kharagpur

11:45 – 12:15 pm Invited lecture I:
“A Question of Consciousness”, Prof. S.C. Malik, Professor of Anthropology, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Teen Murti Bhavan, New Delhi.

12:15 – 12:45 pm Invited Lecture II:
“Language and thought: A generative linguistic perspective”, Prof. B.N Patnaik, Dept of HSS, IIT Kanpur.

12:45 – 1:25PM

1. “Cooperation and communication in humans and apes”, Drs.. I. Brinck and P. Gardenfors, Dept. of Philosophy and Cognitive Science, Lund University, Sweden.

2. “A definition of consciousness and some aspects of it as a Physics problem”, Prof. Tulsi Dass, Dept. of Physics, IIT, Kanpur.

11:45 – 1:25 pm Parallel Technical Session II: (VGSOM Seminar Room, Vinod Gupta School of Management Hall A)

Chair: Prof A H Khan, Graduate Center for the Study of Religion, Trinity College, University of Toronto, Canada.

Co-chair: Prof B.P Sandilya, Dept of HSS, IIT Kharagpur.

11:45 – 12:15: Invited lecture III
“Language, mind and the linguistic theory”, Prof (Retd.) A K Sinha, Dept of Linguistics, University of Delhi, Delhi.

12:15 – 12:45 PM: Invited lecture IV
“Recognition”, Prof. Supriya Chaudhuri, Dept of English, Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

12:45 – 1:25 PM

1. “Mind and Consciousness; Joyce’s Ulysses”, Prof. T.K. Ghosh, Dept of English, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata. .

2. “What is truth? Art and the mind”, Dr. Rimi Chatterjee, Dept of HSS, IIT Kharagpur.

1:30 – 2:25 PM Lunch (Netaji Auditorium enclosure)

2:30 – 4:25 pm Technical Session III: S. N. Bose Auditorium (F-134)

Chair: Prof Kapila Vatsyayana, President, India International Centre, New Delhi.

Co-chair: Prof Chakravarthy Ram Prasad, Director, Graduate Research, Dept of Religious Studies, Lancaster University, UK.

2:30 – 3:00 PM: Invited lecture V:
“Cognition of number and the functioning of mind”, Navjyoti Singh, National Institute of Science Technology and Development Studies, New Delhi.

3:00 – 3:05 PM Tea break

3:05 – 4:05 PM : Technical session III contd.

1. “No need to have the same consciousness”, Dr. Jaap Van Brakel, Higher Institute of Philosophy. Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.

2. “How to have the cake and eat it: Reduction, yes but with autonomy”, Sven Walter, Dept of Philosophy, University of Saarland,Germany.

3. “Relativism, self-referentiality and beyond mind”, Kundan, California Insitute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, USA.

2:30 – 4:25 pm Technical Session IV: VGSOM Seminar Room ( Vinod Gupta School of Management Hall A)

Chair: Prof Amitava Mukherjee, Dept of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Kanpur.

Co-chair: Prof Anupam Basu, Dept of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Kharagpur

1. “Is it irrational to talk to the Chinese Room?”, Steffen Borge, Dept of Philosophy, Syracuse University, USA

2. “Uncertainty, intuition and knowledge representation”, Dr. Kankana Chakraborti, School of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.

3. “On the rehabilitation of the knowledge argument”, Valteri Arstilla, Dept of Philosophy, University of Turku, Finland.

4. “Modeling the evolution of spatial consciousness in children: acquisition of 2D drawing concepts”, Manu Prakash & Prof. Amitava Mukherjee, Dept of Computer Science, IIT Kanpur.

5. “A computational model for cognition and remembrance for a navigating robot”, K. Madhava Krishna, Dept of Electrical Engineering, IIT, Kanpur.

Venue: Technology Club.
7:00 pm: Magic show
7:30 pm: Dinner (hosted by Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla).

January 10, 2002

8:30 – 9:00 AM Registration

9:00 – 9:40 AM S. N. Bose Auditorium (F-134)

Plenary talk III“Alternate paradigms of knowledge”, Prof. Kapila Vatsayan, President, India International Centre.

9:45 – 10:25 AM
Plenary talk IV“Brain and Consciousness: Between causes and correlates”, Prof P K Mukhopadhyaya, Dept of Philosophy, Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

10:25 – 10:40 AM Coffee break

10:40 – 12:15 Technical Session V: S. N. Bose Auditorium (F-134)

Chair: Prof R C Tripathy, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Allahabad University.

Co-chair: Prof Susumu Harizuka, Professor of Clinical Psychology, and Director, Kyushu University, Japan.

10:40 – 11:10AM: Invited lecture VI

“Neuropsychological perspectives on consciousness”, Prof. Shobini Rao, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore.

11:10 – 12:15 PM

1. “What, if anything, is Psychiatry?”, Dr. Dominic Murphy, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology (CALTECH), USA.

2. “Autism and communication: A psycho bio-social approach”, Dr. Mallika Bannerjee, Dept of Psychology, Calcutta University, Kolkata.

3. “A comparative evaluation of the level of cognitive rigidity among brain-damage and psychiatric cases”, Ms. Sujata Das, Ms Aparna Dutt, Dr. Pritha Mukherjee, Department of Psychology, Calcutta University, Kolkata..

12:15 – 12:20 PM Tea break

Technical Session VI: S. N. Bose Auditorium (F-134)

Chair: Prof Stephen Phillips, Dept of Philosophy, University of Texas, Austin, USA.

Co-chair:Prof M B Sharan, Dept of HSS, IIT Kharagpur.

12:20 – 12:50 pm : Invited paper VII

“Consciousness considered as moral and the first person: the nature of moral consciousness from the first person perspective”, Prof. Indrani Sanyal, Dept of Philosophy, Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

12:50 – 1:30PM

1. “Jaspers’ communicative truth as a creative challenge”, Dr. Paula Arizpe, Dept of Humanities, ITESM, ITAM, Mexico.

2. “Mind as the third level of human thought and action”, Dr. James Perry, Hillsborough Community College, Florida, USA..

1:30 – 2:25 PM Lunch (Netaji Auditorium enclosure)

2:30 – 5:30 PM Infinity Foundation Session at S. N. Bose Auditorium (F-134)

Chair: Prof P K Mukhopadhaya, Dept of Philosophy, Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

Co-chair: Prof S C Malik, Professor of Anthropology, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Teen Murti Bhavan, New Delhi.

1. “The mind-body problem in three Indian philosophies”, Prof. Stephen Phillips, Dept of Philosophy, University of Texas, Austin, USA.

2. “Autoreflexivity as the defining feature of consciousness”, Dr. Chakravarthy Ram Prasad, Director, Graduate Research, Dept. of Religious Studies, Lancaster University, UK.

3. “Spiritual depths of admiration in family therapy”, Dr. Stuart Sovatsky, Infinity Foundation, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.

4. “Binding experiences for a first-person approach: Looking at Indian ways of thinking (DARSANA) and acting (NATYA) in the context of current discussions of ‘Consciousness'”, Dr. Sangeetha Menon,. Associate Fellow, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore.

5. “Varieties of supervenience”, Sanjay Chandrasekharan, Cognitive Science Program, Carlton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

4:00 – 4:10 PM Coffee break

Cultural Program: Venue: Netaji Auditorium
6:00 pm A Flute recital
6:30 pm Rhythms of the Soil, Dance Program by Sarabhuj.

From 8:00 PM: Dinner Venue: Technology Club.

January 11, 2002

S. N. Bose Auditorium (F-134)

9:00 – 9:30 AM : Invited lecture VIII:
“An Experimental approach to conscious-intelligence”, Prof. G.C.Ray, Dept of Electrical Engineering, IIT, Kanpur.

9:30 – 10:00 AM: Invited lecture IX:
“Person and Boundedness in Wittgenstein and Tagore: Positioning Artificial Intelligence”, Prof. Abrahim H. Khan, Graduate Center for the Study of Religion, Trinity College, University of Toronto, Canada.

10:00 – 10:10 AM Coffee break

10:10 – 1:00 PM Parallel technical sessions VII and VIII

Technical session VII: S. N. Bose Auditorium (F-134)

Chair: Dr Stuart Sovatsky, Infinity Foundation.

Co-chair: Prof H R Tewari, Dept of HSS, IIT Kharagpur.

10:10 – 10:40 am Invited lecture X:

“The Ecological Mind: Some evidence from cross-cultural studies” , Prof R C Mishra, Dept. of Psychology, Benaras Hindu University, Varanasi.

10:40 – 11:10 AM Invited lecture XI:

Prof R C Tripathy, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Allahabad University.

1. “EEG correlates of meditative state: nonlinear analysis”. Dr. N. Passynkova, Daniletz A.V., Vatnik D.M., Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia.

2. “A neuro-thermodynamic framework for explaining mind and consciousness”, Manoj Srivastava, Dept of HSS, IIT Kanpur.

3. “Beyond scientific objectivity”, Dr. W. Korab-Karpowicz, Dept. of International Relations, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.

4. “A neuro-psychology of consciousness”, Braj Bhushan, Krishnamurti Foundation India, Varanasi.

5. “Well-guarded mind”, Lalan Jha, Dept of Buddhist Studies, University of Delhi.

10:10 – 1:00 PM Technical session VIII: Vinod Gupta School of Management Hall A)

Chair: Prof Indrani Sanyal, Dept of Philosophy, Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

Co-chair: Prof Partha Basu, Dept of HSS, IIT Kharagpur.

6. “The human in the ontological space of the present time”, Dr.Tamara Gourtoueva, Dept of Foreign Languages, Fatih University, Istanbul, Turkey.

7. “The fuzzyworld in Raja Rao’s The cat and Shakespeare”, Dr. Krishna Barua., Dept of HSS, IIT Guwahati.

8. “The theory of mind in early Buddhist Philosophy”, Rana P.K. Singh Dept of Buddhist Studies, University of Delhi.

9. “A Rose is a rose is a rose”, Vijay Chandrasekharan, Covansys India Ltd., Chennai.

10. “The Conditioned and the unconditioned mind”, Prof. Veda Parayana, Dept of Philosophy, S.V. University, Tirupati.

1:05 – 2:00 PM Lunch (Netaji Auditorium enclosure)

2:05 – 3:00 PM Valedictory Session S.N. Bose Auditorium (F-134)

For More Information:

MiCon 2002, Department of Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian
Institute of Technology, Kharagpur,
West Bengal 721 302, India.
micon02@hijli.iitkgp.ernet.in
Fax: +91-3222-82270/55303
Tel: +91 3222 82269 / 83602 / 83634
Please visit MiCon2002 website at: http://www.iitkgp.ernet.in/MiCon2002/