Date: 27 APRIL 2026 from 11:00 to 17:00
Event location: Sala Rossa, Centro Internazionale di Studi Umanistici Umberto Eco - In presence and online event
Type: K&C Philosophy and Psychiatry
Bringing together philosophy of mind, cognitive science, phenomenology, and psychiatry, the event will explore two areas of Gallagher’s work. The morning lecture, “From AI to ZI – Some Lessons from Myrmecology”, will offer a reflection on artificial intelligence within an enactivist framework, focusing on collective intelligence, embodied interaction, and alternative models of sense-making. The afternoon session, “The Self and its Disorders”, will be devoted to Gallagher’s recent book and will include a discussion with the K&C Reading Seminar Group on selfhood, psychopathology, and disorders of experience.
Programme
11:00–13:00
From AI to ZI – Some Lessons from Myrmecology
Chair: Claudio Paolucci (University of Bologna)
15:00–17:00
The Self and its Disorders
Chair: Luigi Lobaccaro (University of Bologna)
Discussant: K&C Reading Seminar Group
Shaun Gallagher is one of the most influential contemporary philosophers of mind and a leading voice in the study of embodied cognition. His work has profoundly shaped current debates across phenomenology, cognitive science, and psychiatry, especially on questions concerning the self, bodily experience, intersubjectivity, and mental disorders. He is the author of numerous landmark publications, including “The Self and its Disorders”, “The Phenomenological Mind” (with Dan Zahavi), “How the Body Shapes the Mind”, “Action and Interaction”, and “Embodied and Enactive Approaches to Cognition”. Gallagher is internationally known for his ability to connect rigorous philosophical analysis with some of the most urgent issues in contemporary thought.