BLAB: Rational Animals? Conference

[Colin Allen]

RATIONAL ANIMALS?
Oxford, 3-4 October 2002

Are any non-human animals rational? Do they act for reasons? Do they employ
reasoning or are there simpler explanations for their behaviour? The focus
of this two-day meeting will be on the character and limits of rationality
in animals, in particular, apes, cetaceans, and birds. Speakers will include
leading scientists from around the world researching cognitive abilities in
animals and philosophers interested in the issues raised by their work.

Workshop website: www.cogneuro.ox.ac.uk/seminars/animalintelligence.html
Registrations now being accepted. Places on Oct. 4 will be limited to
facilitate discussions. Registration materials available at:
www.cogneuro.ox.ac.uk/autsch/

List of speakers and provisional topics:

3 Oct 2002, Department of Psychology, Oxford
(This day constitutes the final day of the McDonnell-Pew Autumn School in
Cognitive Neuroscience, but it is possible to register for only Oct. 3 and
4, and not the rest of the Autumn School; see registration materials on
website.)

FIRST SESSION:
Michael Tomasello, Max Planck Institute, Leipzig
TBA
Daniel Povinelli, Comparative Behavioral Biology, University of Southwestern
Louisiana
Theory of Mind Is not an Inevitable Byproduct of Social Evolution
Richard Byrne, Psychology, St. Andrews
Who Needs Rationality?

SECOND SESSION:
Lou Herman, Psychology, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Evidence for Rationality in Dolphins?
Alain Tschudin, Psychology, Cambridge
TBA

THIRD SESSION:
Irene Pepperberg, Media Lab, MIT
In Search of King Solomon's Ring: Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of
African Grey Parrots
Alex Kacelnik, Zoology, Oxford
Meanings of Rationality

FOURTH SESSION:
Sally Boysen, Psychology, Ohio State University
TBA
Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Biology/Language Research Center, Atlanta
Culturally Driven Adaptations in the Vocal Communication Skills of Pan
Paniscus


Brainstorming Day, 4 Oct 2002, Department of Pharmacology, Oxford
4 sessions, consisting of short talks by the following with discussion
(Open only to those who have also registered for 3 October 2002)

Colin Allen, Philosophy, Texas A & M University
Animal Inferences: Reasoning or Conditioned Association?

Jose Bermudez, Philosophy, Stirling
Three Levels of Animal Rationality

Josep Call, Max Planck Institute, Leipzig
Apes use Inferential Reasoning to Find Hidden Objects

Nicky Clayton, Psychology,, Cambridge
The Rationality of Animal Memory: Social Inference in Thieving Scrub Jays

Richard Connor, U. Mass/Ann Arbor (Shark Bay Research Foundation)
Alliance Formation in Cetaceans

Greg Currie, Philosophy, Nottingham
Tomasello's Opposition to Imitation Learning in Primates and What this Might
Say about their Simulative Capacities, if any


Tony Dickenson, Psychology, Cambridge
The Rationality of Animal Memory: Interacting Memories of Caching in Scrub
Jays


Fred Dretske, Philosophy, Duke
Action and Behavior: The Origins of Agency

Celia Heyes, Psychology, UCL
Rational Imitation in Birds?

Ruth Millikan, Philosophy, Connecticut
Styles of Rationality

David Papineau, Philosophy, Kings, London
Means-End Knowledge: Learning from Observation vs. Learning from Experience


Sara Shettleworth, Psychology, Toronto
Do Animals Know What They Know?

Kim Sterelny, Philosophy, RSSS ANU Canberra/Victoria University Wellington
Translucent Worlds and Frugal Heuristics

Herbert Terrace, Psychology, Columbia NY
Rhesus Macaques Use Rational Strategies to Solve Serial Problems

Elisabetta Visalberghi, Psychology, Rome
Socially Biased Individual Learning: What Capuchins Learn about Novel Foods
from Others

Organizers: Prof. Susan Hurley, University of Warwick
Prof. Marian Dawkins, University of Oxford

SPONSORED BY:
The McDonnell-Pew Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Oxford
All Souls College, Oxford
The British Academy
The Mind Association
Mind and Language
The British Society for the Philosophy of Science
The ESRC Research Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution (ELSE)