11 January 2012 , 18:30 - 20:00

Distinguished Lecture Series: J. Kevin O’Regan (Paris)

“How to make a robot that feels”

Organized in collaboration with Collegium for Advanced Study of Picture Act and Embodiment, Institute of Philosophie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Abstract: Usually ”feel” or, as philosophers often call it, “phenomenal consciousness” or “qualia”, is considered a “hard problem” in consciousness research. There seems to be an “explanatory gap” preventing us from giving a scientific account of feel. I show how the “sensorimotor” approach, by redefining feel as a way of interacting with the world, overcomes this problem. From then on it becomes clear that there is no obstacle to making a robot that feels. J. Kevin O’Regan, Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception - CNRS, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France
Website: http://nivea.psycho.univ-paris5.fr/