CIN Philosophy of Neuroscience (PONS) Group
Group Leader: Prof. Hong Yu Wong
The philosophy of neuroscience is an exciting discipline that sits at the boundary of cognitive neuroscience and traditional philosophy of mind. New analytic techniques have led to a cornucopia of information from the neurosciences in recent years. Philosophical work on mind and action will need to be highly sensitive both to the precise parameters of these empirical findings, as well as the concepts, distinctions, frameworks, and questions that have been established by philosophers over the years. The CIN Philosophy of Neuroscience (PONS) group aims to contribute to this rapprochement between philosophy and neuroscience.
PONS pursues three complementary strands of research on the mind and the brain: philosophical, interdisciplinary, and empirical.
The current foci of the group’s investigations are:
Self-consciousness and Evolutionary Precursors
Architectures of Natural and Artificial Intelligences
The Evolution of Subjectivity, Consciousness, Cognition, Affect, and Agency
Moral psychology
Foundations of Empirically-Informed Philosophy of Mind
Aesthetic Psychology, especially musical cognition
History and Philosophy of Music
Philosophy of Science and Technology
PONS Members and Affiliates (with current research areas):
PONS Members
Nathan Buss (PhD student, Hamburg) - the impact of development on theories of reference and meaning
Rebecca Drier (BA student) - consciousness and animal cognition
Daniel Gregory (Postdoc) - dreams, delusions, inner speech, mental action
Selina Guter (BA student) - evolution of subjectivity and consciousness
Leonard von Hollander (PhD student) - computational models of agency
Naomi Kieser (MA student) - evolution of sentience and consciousness
Roberta Locatelli (Humboldt Fellow) - philosophy of perception, especially disjunctivism
Krisztina Orban (Postdoc) - first person thought, self-representation, haptics, communication, animal cognition
Brian Ortmann (MA student) - philosophy of language and mind
Julian Saccone (PhD student) - metaphysics and evolution of consciousness, free will, and the self
Marco Schneider (MA student) - mind and phenomenology
Alison Springle (Postdoc) - relations between action and perception, subjectivity, skill
Hong Yu Wong (Head of PONS)
PONS Affiliates
Malte Hendrickx (Philosophy and Cognitive Science PhD student, Michigan, Ann Arbor) - agency, metaethics, moral psychology
Gregor Hochstetter (Fachdidaktik Postdoc) - agency and inhibition, moral psychology, philosophy of pedagogy
Vincent Plikat (Cognitive Science PhD student) - studying predictive coding by using magic tricks
Aistė Šeibokaitė (Psychiatry PhD student) - sex differences in neural correlates of moral cognition
Duangkamol Srismith (Psychosomatics PhD student) - body image modulations due to physical activity
NEWS:
New paper out in PNAS! Roth, M. J., Lindner, A., Hesse, K., Wildgruber, D., Wong, H. Y., & Buehner, M. J. (2023). Impaired perception of temporal contiguity between action and effect is associated with disorders of agency in Schizophrenia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
PONS organises a Book Symposium in 4 seminar sessions on Ruth Millikan's Beyond Concepts (Oxford 2017). Thanks to Alison Springle for making this seminar possible. We are very excited to be discussing Ruth's book with her! (February 2021).
PONS BA student Selina Guter awarded full funding to study at the PhD program in philosophy at MIT. Congratulations Selina! (February 2021)
PONS welcomes new postdoc Alison Springle from the University of Pittsburgh! (July 2020)
PONS MA student Malte Hendrickx awarded a special 6 year Philosophy and Cognitive Science Fellowship to study at the PhD program in philosophy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Congratulations Malte! (March 2020)
PONS Assistant Prof. Chiara Brozzo appointed to Teaching Fellowship in Philosophy at the University of Durham. Congratulations Chiara! (August 2019)
PONS Assistant Prof. Denis Buehler appointed to Assistant Professorship for Philosophy at the Ecole Normale Supérieure and Institut Jean Nicod. Congratulations Denis! (May 2019)
Wong delivers lecture in the University of Hamburg lecture series "Geist, Gehirn, Bewusstsein". Watch Wong's lecture. (May 2019)
PONS Bridging Grant fellow Daniel Gregory wins a 2 year Humboldt Fellowship. Congratulations Daniel! (November 2018)
PONS welcomes Daniel Gregory (PhD ANU) as a Postdoc through the Tübingen Elite University Bridging Grant. Welcome Daniel! (October 2018)
PONS DAAD PRIME fellow Roberta Locatelli wins two grants at once: a 2 year Humboldt Fellowship and a Postdoc through the Tübingen Elite University Bridging Grant. Congratulations Roberta! (June 2018)
PONS MA Student John Dorsch wins 3 year PPL scholarship for Edinburgh's PhD program in philosophy. Congratulations John! (February 2018)
Workshop on Wong's forthcoming monograph Embodied Agency at Boğaziçi University, Dec 1-2, 2017.
PONS welcomes Chiara Brozzo (PhD Milan) and Denis Buehler (PhD UCLA) as the new Assistant Professors of Philosophy at the Chair of Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science, Philosophisches Seminar, University of Tübingen! Chiara joins us in November 2017 whilst Denis will join us in March 2018. Welcome Chiara and Denis!
PONS welcomes Wesley Sauret (PhD UNC Chapel Hill) as a new Teach@Tübingen postdoc! (October 2017)
PONS MA Student John Dorsch wins best presentation award at the annual Tübingen conference for junior neuroscientists, NeNa2017! Congratulations John! (October 2017)
PONS MA Student John Dorsch wins the Missing Shade of Blue international essay contest for students in philosophy. Congratulations John! (September 2017)
PONS Postdoc Chiara Brozzo co-authors review on body perception in anorexia and bulimia with colleagues in the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics and Universitätsklinik Tübingen Psychosomatic Clinic. S. Mölbert, L. Klein, A. Thaler, B. Mohler, C. Brozzo, P. Martus, H. O. Karnath, S. Zipfel, & K. Giel. (2017). Depictive and Metric Body Size Estimation in Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 57, 21-31. Congratulations Chiara and colleagues!
PONS Postdoc Chiara Brozzo co-authors paper with Olle Blomberg 'Motor intentions and non-observational knowledge of action: A standard story' in Thought. Congratulations Chiara and Olle!
PONS Postdoc Chiara Brozzo's paper 'Motor Intentions: How Intentions and Motor Representations Come Together' appears in Mind and Language! Congratulations Chiara!
PONS Alumnus Ferdinand Pöhlmann's PhD Being Somewhere: Egocentric Spatial Representation as Self-Representation published by Metzler Verlag 2017. Congratulations Ferdi!
Wong's paper 'Embodied Agency' appears on PPR early view (March 25, 2017).
PONS PhD Student Gregor Hochstetter selected for highly competitive Templeton Foundation funded Philosophy and Science of Self-Control summer seminar directed Al Mele (FSU, June 5-9, 2017). Congratulations Gregor! (March 2017).
PONS MA student JP Gamboa gets fellowship for PhD at University of Pittsburg's HPS program - congratulations JP! (March 2017)
PONS MA Student John Dorsch wins Deutschelandstipendium from the University of Tübingen for 2017-2019! Congratulations John! (March 2017)
Wong delivers keynote lecture "Embodiment" at the conference on Persons, Selves, and Organism at Bilkent University, Ankara (Feb 4-5, 2017). Watch Wong's lecture on Youtube.
Wong awarded a Templeton Foundation ACT Fellowship for 2017-2020.
PONS PhD student Gregor Hochstetter's paper on 'Freedom and Attachement' accepted for MindGrad 2016. Congratulations Gregor!
PONS PhD Student Gregor Hochstetter's paper 'Attention in Bodily Awareness' appears in Synthese! Congratulations Gregor!
Roberta Locatelli (PhD Warwick & Paris) awarded a DAAD PRIME fellowship to join PONS from January 2017. Congratulations Roberta and welcome! (June 2016)
3 exciting Tübingen workshops in the summer: Casey O'Callaghan on Sensory Interactions (May 10-11); Wayne Wu on introspection (June 20-21); Susanna Schellenberg on perception (July 4-5). All 3 workshops will take place at the Forum Scientiarum. For registration, please email action.in.tuebingen@gmail.com
PONS Postdoc Katia Samoilova appointed to Assistant Professorship in Philosophy at California State University, Chico! Congratulations Katia! (March 2016)
PONS MA student JP Gamboa gets fellowship for PhD at Indiana University Bloomington's Philosophy and Cognitive Science Program - congratulations JP! (February 2016)
Dr. Mog Stapleton (PhD Edinburgh) joins PONS on a Teach@Tuebingen Postdoc funded by the DFG's Excellence Initiative from April 2016. Congratulations Mog and welcome!
MPI Space & Body Postdoc Chiara Brozzo awarded fellowship for 2016 Duke Summer Seminars in Neuroscience and Philosophy (SSNAP). Congratulations Chiara! (January 2016)
MPI Space & Body Postdoc Chiara Brozzo's paper 'Motor Intentions: How Intentions and Motor Representations Come Together' accepted by Mind and Language! Congratulations Chiara! (November 2015)
Wong invited to deliver keynote lecture at the Italian Society for Analytic Philosophy's (SIFA) annual conference in Pistoia in September 2016. He is to deliver the SIFA Young Lecture. (October 2015)
PONS Group Leader Hong Yu Wong recommended for tenure and will be shortly appointed to a Professorship in Philosophy at the University of Tübingen. (October 2015)
Chiara Brozzo returns to Tübingen as Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the Body Distortions Project at MPI Biological Cybernetics. Chiara will be at Betty Mohler's Space and Body Perception Minerva Group at the MPI Biological Cybernetics. Welcome back Chiara! (October 2015)
PONS Postdoc Katia Samoilova's paper 'Transparency and Introspective Unification' accepted by Synthese. Congratulations Katia! (September 2015)
Krisztina Orban (PhD Birkbeck, University of London) joins PONS as Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the VW Finding Perspective Project. Welcome Krisztina! (August 2015)
PONS Postdoc Alex Morgan appointed to Assistant Professorship in Philosophy at Rice University! Congratulations Alex! (January 2015)
PONS and colleagues win Volkswagen Stiftung European Platform for Life Sciences, Mind Sciences, and the Humanities Grant for 'Finding Perspective' Project (391,000€). PIs = Adrian Alsmith (Copenhagen), Matt Longo (Birkbeck), Christophe Lopez (CNRS Marseille), Betty Mohler (MPI Biological Cybernetics), and Wong (CIN PONS). See the news release at University of Copenhagen. (January 2015)
PONS and colleagues in Taiwan (Caleb Liang and Aleksandra Mroczko-Wasowicz) win DAAD-MOST Grant for a 2 year project on Self-Consciousness and Multisensory Integration (25000€). (November 2014)
PONS PhD student Gregor Hochstetter's paper on 'Exogenous Action' accepted for conference on Intentions at the Nanay Group, University of Antwerp in December 2014. Congratulations Gregor!
PONS and colleagues (Mohler, Zipfel, Karnath, Wong, Black) win CIN Intramural grant for a 2 year transdisciplinary project on body representation and its disorders (65,000€). This inaugurates a landmark collaboration between researchers in five disciplinary areas Mohler (MPI Biological Cybernetics), Zipfel (UKT Psychosomatic Medicine), Karnath (UKT Neuropsychology), Wong (CIN Philosophy of Neuroscience), and Black (MPI Intelligent Systems). (July 2104)
PONS Postdoc Chiara Brozzo appointed to postdoctoral fellowship in Bence Nanay's Group at the University of Antwerp. Congratulations Chiara! (June 2014)
PONS PhD student Gregor Hochstetter's paper on 'Attention and Bodily Awareness' accepted for MindGrad 2013. Congratulations Gregor!
PONS and colleagues in Tübingen and Porto Philosophy Departments win DAAD grant (Peters, Wong, Miguens, Riccardi, "Rationalität, Selbsterkenntnis und menschliches Handeln – kognitionswissenschaftliche Herausforderungen, philosophische Perspektiven", DAAD Programm Hochschuldialog mit Südeuropa) for collaborations between philosophers and neuroscientists in Tübingen and Porto! (October 2013)
Dr. Katia Samoilova (PhD Brown) joins PONS on Sense of Agency Project (CIN 2012-17) from October 2013. Welcome Katia!
Dr. Chiara Brozzo (PhD Milan) joins PONS on a Teach@Tuebingen Postdoc funded by the DFG's Excellence Initiative from October 2013. Congratulations Chiara and welcome!
PONS Postdoc Liz Irvine appointed to Permanent Lectureship in Philosophy at Cardiff University. Congratulations Liz! (August 2013)
2 year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the Philosophy of Mind/Psychology/Neuroscience (September 15, 2013 start) available at PONS!
Alex Morgan (ABD Rutgers) joins PONS on Sense of Agency Project (CIN 2012-17) from June 15, 2013
Wong elected to the Executive Committee of the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology (March 2013).
2 year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the Philosophy of Action (Feb 2013 start) available at PONS!
PONS awarded a 2 year intramural grant (70,000€) for an interdisciplinary project on the sense of agency with Axel Lindner's Neurbiology of Decision lab (Hertie) on "Sensory Attenuation and Agency Attribution in Voluntary vs. Involuntary Actions" (awarded October 2012, Jan 2013 project start).
Irvine publishes monograph Consciousness as a Scientific Concept: a Philosophy of Science Perspective in Springer's Studies in Brain and Mind series (in print January 2013). Congratulations Liz!
PONS goes to the ESPP 2012 in London!
Wong wins the Multimodality of Perception Essay Prize at the Centre for Philosophical Psychology, University of Antwerp, with an essay on the multimodal character of body perception (July 2012).
PONS hosts workshop on Explaining Mental Phenomena, July 24.
PONS hosts 2 day workshop on First Person Methods in Cognitive Science, June 15-16.
PONS PhD student, Gregor Hochstetter, awarded PhD Fellowship from German Economic Foundation (2012-2015). Congratulations Gregor!
New master site for all CIN Philosophy and Neuroscience events!
Roessler and Wong awarded Mind Association Conference Grant for Agent's Knowledge workshop (IP London, June 7-8, 2012)
PONS moves to its new offices on the 5th floor of the FIN building at Otfried-Müller-Str. 25! (April 17, 2012)
Sebanz and Wong leading CEU Summer University course on 'Problems of the Self' (June 25-July 5, 2012)
The Visual Embodiment project begins a collaboration with Prof Hans-Otto Karnath's Neuropsychology Division at the Centre for Neurology, Tübingen, on ownership, disownership, and spatial perception (Jan 2012)
Catherine Stinson (ABD Pittsburg) joins PONS on Visual Embodiment Project (CIN 2011-16) from Jan 1, 2012
Attempto! profiles Wong and the PONS group (in German, Dec 2011)
New PONS website! (Nov 27, 2011)
PONS awarded a 2 year intramural grant (66,744€ ) for an interdisciplinary project on visual embodiment with MPI Biological Cybenetics Perception and Action in Virtual Environments Group (PIs: Linkenauger, Mohler, Wong, Buelthoff)
Dr Liz Irvine (PhD Edinburgh) joins PONS from October 15, 2011