Schedule

Conference Information

The conference will take place Thursday, January 16 - Friday, January 17, 2025 in Robertson Hall on the Princeton University campus. Sessions will be held in Robertson 016. The panels are in-person only, but the keynote lecture will also be broadcast as a webinar

Open to the public, but registration is required (deadline January 9) and space is limited. Breakfast and lunch on Thursday and Friday and dinner on Friday are provided for registered participants. 

8:00 am8:30 am
8:30 am9:00 am
9:00 am10:30 am
10:30 am11:00 am
11:00 am12:30 pm
Session 1: Agency
Can a fully causal account of intentional mental action be incorporated into cognitive science?

Anna Ciaunica, Center for Philosophy of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (CFCUL)
Christian Coseru, College of Charleston
Monima Chadha, Monash University
Nadav Amir, Princeton University

Facilitator: Molly Crockett

12:30 pm2:00 pm
2:00 pm3:30 pm
Session 2: Consciousness
What is it and does it require a self?

Robert Sharf, University of California, Berkeley
Michael Graziano, Princeton University
Sonam Kachru, Yale University
Bryce Huebner, Georgetown University

Facilitator: Jed Forman

3:30 pm4:00 pm
4:00 pm5:30 pm
Session 3: Emotion
How can Buddhist and cognitive science perspectives on affective states such as craving, aversion and desire inform one another?

Hedy Kober, University of California, Berkeley
Emily McRae, University of New Mexico
Bronwyn Finnigan, Australian National University
Marieke van Vugt, University of Groningen

Facilitator: Jonathan Gold

8:00 am8:30 am
8:30 am9:00 am
9:00 am10:30 am
Session 4: The Primacy of Experience
Can an experience-based science of mind be developed, and what would it look like?

Laurie Paul, Yale University 
Jay Garfield, Smith College & Harvard Divinity School
Thomas Doctor, Rangjung Yeshe Institute
Liza Solomonova, McGill University

Facilitator: Eviatar Shulman

10:30 am11:00 am
11:00 am12:30 pm
Session 5: Concepts and Cognition
Is cognition primarily conceptual? How are concepts formed and how do they shape experience?

Catherine Prueitt, The University of British Columbia
Yarrow Dunham, Yale University
John Dunne,  University of Wisconsin-Madison
Georges Dreyfus, Williams College
Molly Crockett, Princeton University

Facilitator: Nadav Amir

12:30 pm2:00 pm
2:00 pm3:30 pm
Session 6: Contemplative science and meditative states
Can notions such as jhāna/nirodha/pure awareness be articulated and examined within current cognitive science frameworks?

Rupert Gethin, University of Bristol
Aviva Berksovich-Ohana, Haifa University
Sarah Shaw, University of Oxford
Matthew Sacchet, Harvard University
Ruben Laukkonen, Southern Cross University

Facilitator: Eyal Aviv

3:30 pm4:30 pm
4:30 pm6:15 pm
Reflexivity, Luminosity, and Cessative Sidetracks
Keynote Lecture

2024 Yin-Cheng Distinguished Lecture in Buddhism by John Dunne,  University of Wisconsin–Madison

Respondents: 
Bronwyn Finnigan,  Australian National University
Thomas Metzinger, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

Speakers
John D. Dunne
Keynote Lecturer
Distinguished Professor of Contemplative Humanities, University of Wisconsin - Madison
6:30 pm8:00 pm