A warm welcome to the web pages of the conference

"First Person Authority: Its Nature, Source, Limits and Use"

at the University of Duisburg-Essen.


10th to 13th September 2007

The idea that people know their own mental states in a way that is somehow privileged and displays a special authority is deeply entrenched in the modern, Cartesian model of the mind. However, especially in the 20th century this conception has been increasingly called into question. From the vantage point of psychology there were far too many indications of people being deceived or being ignorant about the contents of their own minds; and in philosophy the epistemological status of knowledge about one’s own mind has been losing more and more of its former importance. Still, the intuition of a special first person authority persists. Hence, there is good reason to review the phenomenon:

• What is actually meant by ‘first person authority’?
• What explanations are there for this authority?
• What precisely is the significance of this authority for epistemology, for rationality and for understanding others?
• Are there different degrees of authority associated with the different areas of our own minds?

These questions will be at the centre of this international conference.

Dorit Bar-On (Chapel Hill, USA) Sven Bernecker (Irvine, USA) Quassim Cassam (Cambridge, GB) Manfred Frank (Tübingen) Richard Fumerton (Iowa, USA) Thomas Grundmann (Köln) Frank Hofmann (Tübingen)

Christoph Jäger (Aberdeen, GB) Andreas Kemmerling (Heidelberg) Albert Newen (Bochum) Sydney Shoemaker (Cornell, USA) Thomas Spitzley (Duisburg-Essen) Ralf Stoecker (Potsdam) Karsten Stüber (Worcester, USA)

Katholische Akademie "Die Wolfsburg"
Falkenweg 6
45478 Mülheim an der Ruhr

The conference fee (includes coffee and cake) is €30.
You will find more information about the registration and mode of payment on the registration page.
Registration until 30th August 2007.

• Thomas Grundmann (Universität zu Köln)

• Thomas Spitzley (Universität Duisburg-Essen)

• Ralf Stoecker (Universität Potsdam)

This conference is sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung