Conference Schedule: Imagination and the Adapted Mind

Imagination and the Adapted Mind:
The Prehistory and Future of Poetry, Fiction, and Related Arts

August 26-29, 1999
University of California, Santa Barbara

Final Schedule
(click on names for home pages and personal profiles)

Thursday, August 26

1:30 p.m. Opening remarks and announcements

Ilene H. Nagel, Executive Vice Chancellor, UCSB

Everett Zimmerman, Provost, College of Letters and Science, UCSB

Leda Cosmides, Paul Hernadi, and John Tooby, Conference Organizers

2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Session #1

Chair: Donald Symons (Anthropology, UCSB)

John Tooby (Anthropology, UCSB), "The Evolution of Decoupled Cognition"

Mark Turner (English and Cognitive Science, U of Maryland), "The Literary Mind."Abstract.

4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Session #2

Chair: Leda Cosmides (Psychology, UCSB)

Alan Leslie (Cognitive Science, Rutgers University), "Cognition and Pretense"

Paul Hernadi (English and Comparative Literature, UCSB), "Why Is Literature: Some Co-evolutionary Implications of Imaginative Worldmaking." Abstract.

5:45 p.m. - 7:15 p.m. Reception (co-sponsored by Department of Psychology, UCSB)

Friday August 27 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Session #3
Chair: Charles Bazerman (English and Education, UCSB)

Pascal Boyer (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Lyon), "Evolutionary Psychology and Proximate Cognitive Explanations of Religious Concepts."Abstract.

Ellen Spolsky (English, Bar-Ilan University), "Forbidding Art: The Problem of Transfiguration as Tool Use." Abstract.

Coffee break (15 minutes)

Frederick Turner (English, U of Texas, Dallas), "Creative Dynamical Systems in Nature, Economics, Art, and Religion: Transcending Biological and Social Reductionism." Abstract.

General Discussion

2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Session #4

Chair: Sydney Levy (French & Italian, UCSB)

Bert O. States (Drama, UCSB), "Dreaming: The Royal Road to Metaphor." Abstract.

Eve Sweetser (Linguistics, UC Berkeley), "Blended Spaces and Frames: How Similar is Meaning-'Freeloading' in Everyday Language and in Poetry?"Abstract.

4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Session # 5

Chair: Russell Revlin (Psychology, UCSB)

Eleanor Rosch (Psychology, UC Berkeley), " 'If You Depict a Bird, Give It Space to Fly': Eastern Psychologies, the Arts, and Self-Knowledge."Abstract.

Patrick Colm Hogan (English, U of Connecticut, Storrs), "Remorse and the Ambiguities of Heroism: Ethical Conflict in the Generation of Narrative from Emotion Prototypes." Abstract.

Saturday, August 28 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Session #6
Chair: Don Zimmerman (Sociology, UCSB)

Steven Pinker (Cognitive Science, MIT), "To Delight and Instruct: Fiction as an Adaptation and as a By-Product." Abstract.

Gabriele Schwab (English, UC Irvine): "Transference and the Cultural Imaginary." Abstract.

Coffee break (15 minutes)

Porter Abbott (English, UCSB), "The Bonding of Narrative and the Literature Effect." Abstract.

General Discussion

2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Session # 7 (with coffee break and discussion)
Chair: Donald Brown (Anthropology, UCSB)

Kay Young (English, UCSB) and Jeffrey Saver (Neurology, UCLA), "The Neurology of Narrative." Abstract.

Tamar Szabo Gendler (Philosophy, Syracuse University), "The Puzzle of Imaginative Resistance"

Coffee break (15 minutes)

Lisa Zunshine (English, UCSB), "A Modest Proposal and Metarepresentationality: Gauging the Truth-Value of Narrative." Abstract.

General Discussion

Sunday, August 29 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Session #8
Chair: Simon Williams (Dramatic Art & IHC, UCSB)

Ellen Dissanayake (Seattle-based author), "Becoming Homo Aestheticus: Sources of Aesthetic Imagination in Mother-infant Early Interactions." Abstract.

Francis Steen (English, UCSB), "The Learning-mode Hypothesis of the Literary Imagination." Abstract.

Coffee break (15 minutes)

Leda Cosmides (Psychology, UCSB), "Cognitive Maturation and the Evolution of Aesthetics"

General Discussion

2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Session #9

Summary panel of all presenters and general discussion

Moderator: Paul Hernadi (English & Comparative Literature, UCSB)

The Sorcerer from the Trois-Frères cave (17,000 B.P.) in Ariège, France, drawn by l'Abbé Breuil

Imagination and the Adapted Mind