"The Social Construction of the Self," Alghero, Italy, September 28-29, 2009.

What are the connections between social cognition and individual selfhood? How do social relationships contribute to shape our inner self? Conversely, how much of our mental like is intrinsically "social", and in what sense? Is there a sharp boundary between self and other, or these categories require a more nuanced analysis? If there is an intimate connection between society and selfhood, what is the role of language in this respect? These are some of the issues to be addressed in this interdisciplinary conference, where leading scholars in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience are gathered to discuss the extent by which our inner mental life is influenced by the social context we live in. Programme: Monday 28 September 2009 09:00: Opening remarks 09:15: Cecilia Heyes (Oxford), The role of learning in the development of mirror neurons 10:15: Coffee break 10:45: Corrado Sinigaglia (Milan), Motor cognition and action understanding 11:45: Peter Hobson & Jessica Hobson (London), Self/other distinction from the perspective of autism 13:00: Lunch 14:30: Matteo Mameli (London), An evolutionary perspective on social cognition 15:30: Shaun Gallagher (Orlando/Hatfield), Social interaction in the phenomenology of agency 16:30: Coffee break 17:00: Cristiano Castelfranchi & Fabio Paglieri (Rome), Self-control as a social problem 18:00: Gregory Currie (Nottingham), Language, narrative and the spread of reputation 20:30: Social dinner Tuesday 29 September 2009 09:00: Barry Smith (London), Language, self-knowledge and consciousness 10:00: Julian Kiverstein (Edinburgh), Where am I? The extended mind and sociality 11:00: Coffee break 11:30: Till Vierkant (Edinburgh), The extended will: social and natural artefacts for self-control 12:30: Concluding remarks　 Organisers: F. Bacchini (Università di Sassari), C. Castelfranchi (ISTC-CNR Roma), F. Paglieri (ISTC-CNR Roma) The event is organized by the research project CONTACT - Consciousness inInteraction: the Role of the Natural and Social Environment in Shaping Consciousness (http://linus.media.unisi.it/cirg/contact/), which is part of the ESF-EuroCORES programme CNCC - Consciousness in Interaction (http://www.esf.org/cncc). The event is also sponsored by:Dipartimento di Scienze della Comunicazione - Università degli Studi di Siena Facoltà di Architettura, Alghero - Università degli Studi di Sassari Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione, CNR, Roma. Conference poster: http://www.media.unisi.it/cirg/fp/conf_social_self.pdf.