Psycho Ontology

by Adam Robbert

Its a bit of an awkward sounding phrase but THIS conference entitled “Psycho-Ontology: Human Nature, Human Mind” (h/t Tim Morton) sounds like its asking the right questions:

Do the operations of the human mind have something to teach us about the fundamental structure of reality? Philosophers such as Hume, Kant, James, Bergson, Husserl, Kuhn, and Goodman have, in different ways, seemed to believe this question should be answered in the affirmative. Yet as disciplines, cognitive science and metaphysics are usually conducted without reference to one another.

“Psycho-ontology” can be defined as the investigation of the relationship between human cognition and features of reality: We do psycho-ontology when we study the way perception, thought, and emotion play a role in helping constitute the world we inhabit. But psycho-ontology can also move in the opposite direction: It can involve studying the fundamental features of reality in order to gain insight into how human cognitive processes work.

Unfortunately, there do not appear to be any Whiteheadians or Object-Oriented Philosophers in the mix. Oh the horror! I suppose there is no one to blame but ourselves.