Inaugural lecture Annemarie Kalis: The mind as kaleidoscope

How do we understand ourselves? In the philosophy of mind, this is ultimately the central question. And understanding ourselves is something we all desire. On Monday 11 May, Annemarie Kalis, Professor of Philosophy of Mind and Cognition at the Faculty of Humanities, will deliver her inaugural lecture. The title is ‘The Mind as Kaleidoscope’.

Questions about the mind

Nowadays, discussions about the human mind quickly turn to the biology of genes and the brain, or to spiritual questions. In her inaugural lecture, Kalis argues for taking a step back and looking at non-technical, everyday questions about the mind – the kind of questions people have always asked, everywhere in the world.

Can we reasonably expect one another to make sensible choices, for instance? What leads us to consider certain thoughts and feelings ‘normal’, and others not? And can intelligence reside in our bodies as well, as it does in the octopus, which does much of its ‘thinking’ through its arms?

Not a biological given

Kalis argues that the mind is not a biological given, but above all a social phenomenon. In other words, our mind is not so much a product of our brain as it is shaped by the people and society around us.

The most compelling argument for this, Kalis contends, is the kaleidoscopic variation found in human minds. People think, feel, and experience themselves and their relationship to the world in vastly different ways. Not only across cultures, but across the centuries.

This variation is so great that, according to Kalis, ‘mind’ is something quite different from biological phenomena that exist independently of human thought, such as gravity or cell division. She argues that ‘mind’ more closely resembles concepts such as money or gender, ideas that humans have devised because they help us understand ourselves and the ways in which we live together.

This inaugural lecture will be given in Dutch.