Jointly sponsored by:

Ival McMains
Robert D. Clark Honors College
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology
Institute of Cognitive and Decision Sciences

February 28-March 1, 2003

        At this conference we will address some fundamental questions about the nature of human concepts. In particular, we will explore a widely encountered and powerful mode of reasoning known as essentialist thinking. Essentialism is the belief that category members share important underlying properties that determine category identity and are responsible for other important characteristics of the category. Essentialist thinking affects how we view the natural world (e.g., how we categorize biological species). It also shapes the way we think about the social world (e.g., how we think about gender, race, mental illness, personality, and the self). Conference participants will discuss recent theorizing and research on essentialism. Among the questions to be addressed are the following. To what extent does an implicit belief in essences characterize people's thinking about natural and social categories? Do essentialist beliefs underlie young children's concepts or are early concepts instead formed on the basis of more primitive perceputal features? What role does language play in shaping and fostering essentialist reasoning? In what ways do essentialist beliefs about social categories such as race, ethnicity, and gender contribute to stereotypoing and prejudice? To what extent do essentialist notions underlie judgments about personality, psychopathology, and continuity in personal identity across time? And is psychological essentialism a universal characteristic of human reasoning, prevalent across quite diverse cultures?

 

Invited speakers include:

Susan Gelman (Psychology, Michigan)
Dave Hamilton (Psychology, UCSB)
Nick Haslam (Psychology, Melbourne)
Michael Strevens (Philosophy, Stanford)
Rob Wilson (Philosophy, Alberta)
Francisco Gil-White (Psychology, Penn)
Michael Chandler (Psychology, UBC)
Susan Carey (Psychology, Harvard)
Ellen Markman (Psychology, Stanford University)
Bertram Malle (Psychology, University of Oregon)

 

 

For a full program please check here. The topic is highly relevant to most of the disiciplines represented in the Institute and so the talks will likely be of great interest to many people. Everyone is cordially invited.

 

 

For further information, please contact Lou Moses (moses@darkwing.uoregon.edu)
or Dare Baldwin (baldwin@darkwing.uoregon.edu)