Workshops (current)

In 1996, David Chalmers' The Conscious Mind. In search of a fundamental theory (OUP) shook the Philosophy of Mind by presenting rigorous philosophical arguments and ingenious thought experiments against the physicalistic mainstream. Chalmers introduced the hard problem of consciousness and offered a range of non-reductive approaches to consciousness.

When Chalmers’ book appeared in 1996, the prevailing assumption was that consciousness would yield to neuroscience as soon as the science caught up. Thirty years later the science has caught up considerably, with brain imaging, large-scale adversarial collaborations, and rapidly advancing AI all reshaping the empirical landscape and raising new questions about artificial consciousness. Incidentally, the date of the conference also marks the 70th anniversary of the famous Dartmouth conference (18th June 1956) where the term artificial intelligence was coined. Yet the “hard problem” Chalmers introduced, why physical processes give rise to subjective experience at all, remains unsolved and, by some lights, unsolvable on materialist terms. 

In this workshop, we want to look back by celebrating the massive influence of The Conscious Mind and look forward to the future of the science of consciousness. We look forward to welcoming an exciting number of renowned philosophers and scientists to discuss philosophical and scientific themes from the book: Axel Cleeremans, Keith Frankish, François Kammerer, Johannes Kleiner, Christian List, Lucia Melloni, Hedda Hasssel Mørch, Liad Mudrik, Martine Nida-Rümelin, and Anil Seth.

Organization: Lucia Melloni & Tobias Schlicht
Venue: Kunstmuseum Bochum (Kortumstr. 147) in the center of Bochum.
Directions: From the Main Train Station, take subway 308 direction Schürbankstr. and get off at stop Planetarium-Bochum. From there it is a 7 min. walk.
Registration: Participation is free but seats are limited. Please register by email to Franziska.Klasen@rub.de by June 15th, 2026.
Poster Session: We ask Poster presenters to bring their posters (max. DIN A0, Portrait). During the poster session on the roof top, there will be a cash bar with alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, so we ask all participants to bring some cash.
Dinner: Due to the high number of participants, we could only make reservations at dinner for speakers, presenters, and organizers. 

Schedule

Thursday, June 18th
09.00 Welcome by Lucia Melloni & Tobias Schlicht
09.15 David J. Chalmers (NYU): The Conscious Mind at 30. Looking back and looking forward
10.30 Coffee Break
10.45 Martine Nida-Rümelin (Fribourg): Easy Problems are Rare
11.45 Keith Frankish (Sheffield): The Mystery of Chalmers and Dennett: A Tale of Two Paradigms
12.45 Lunch Break
14.00 Lucia Melloni (RUB): Testing Theories, Expanding Minds: A Roadmap for Consciousness Science
15.00 Johannes Kleiner (Bamberg): The Hard Problem in Light of Mathematical Consciousness Science
16.00 Coffee Break
16.30 Axel Cleeremans (Brussels): The Value of Consciousness
17.30 Poster Session with Early Career Researchers and VR Surprise Event with Jan Schulten (on Rooftop)
20.00 Dinner

Friday, June 19th
09.00 Tobias Schlicht (RUB): Organizational Invariance and Artificial Consciousness
10.00 Christian List (Munich): Consciousness and Objectivity
11.00 Coffee Break
11.30 Hedda Hassel Mørch (Inland Norway): An Argument based on Phenomenal Powers Against Reductive and Nonreductive Functionalism
12.30 Lunch Break
13.30 François Kammerer (Straßbourg): Putting the Paradox of Phenomenal Judgment Back onto Its Feet
14.30 Liad Mudrik (Tel Aviv): Using Prediction Maps to guide Theory-Testing in the Search for the Neural Basis of Consciousness
15.30 Coffee Break
16.00 Anil Seth (Sussex): Prospects and Pitfalls for Real Artificial Consciousness
17.00 Roundtable with David J. Chalmers
18.00 Closing Reflections and Farewell
20.00 Dinner

Poster Presentations 

Braunwarth, Julian (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen), BA
“The Fading and Dancing Qualia Argument: Does Consciousness Arise from Scale-Invariant Properties?“ 
 
Cortesi, Bruno (IUSS Pavia), Ph.D. 
“Zombie Worlds Are Inconceivable – But Physicalism Still Fails“ 

Curbera-Luis, José (University of St Andrews), M.Sc., Ph.D. candidate 
“The Given and the Self-Luminous: Sellars, Candrakīrti, and the Temptation of Phenomenal Immediacy“
 
Estevão Quirino, Eduardo (Universität Vechta), M.A., PhD candidate
“Demonic Conceivability“
 
Fuller, Timothy (independent researcher), B.A. 
“Minimal Minds and Anthropocentric Bias: Rethinking the Starting Point of Consciousness Theory“.
 
Hirschhorn, Rony (Tel Aviv University), B.Sc., M.Sc., Ph.D. candidate
“Public Intuition and the Functionalist Claims of The Conscious Mind“
 
Huan, Ting (Goethe Universität Frankfurt), M.A., Ph.D. candidate
“The Architecture of Blame: Phenomenal Valence, and the Limits of Computational Agency“
 
Immertreu, Mathis (Achim Schilling, und Patrick Krauss) (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg), Ph.D. candidate
“No Pressure, No Core: Environmental Difficulty and the Emergence of Damasio’s Core Consciousness Precursors in RL Agents“

Jylkka, Jussi (Åbo Akademi University, University of Turku), and Chis-Ciure, Robert (University of Sussex):
"The conceivability argument and the referential opacity of natural kind terms"

Kob, Lukas (Czech Academy of the Sciences), Ph.D. 
“Reconsidering neural replacement scenarios clarifies the commitments biological naturalism“
 
Largo, Johan (University of Luxembourg), M.A., Ph.D. candidate
“LLMs, unconscious thinking and conscious understanding“
 
Mihálik, Jakub (Czech Academy of the Sciences), Ph.D. 
“Russelian Monism, and the Possibility of Artificial Consciousness“
 
Müller, Daniel (University of Osnabrück), M.A., Ph.D. candidate
“Pangelonium Poetics – Illusionism Beyond the Phenomenal“
 
Negro, Niccolò (Tel Aviv University), PhD and Prof. Dr. Albert Newen (Ruhr-Universiät Bochum)
“Artificial Consciousness: Theoretical Speculation or Justified Expectation?“
 
Olsen, Alfred (Aarhus University), B.A.
“An investigation of Premise 3 in Chalmers’s Zombie Argument“
 
Schulz, Erik (Arizona State University), Undergraduate
“On the success of reverse conceivability arguments“. 
 
Srivastava, Ayush (Indian Institute of Technology Bombay), Ph.D. candidate
“Dreaming, Consciousness, and the Hard Problem: Revisiting Chalmers at 30“. 
 
Steinebrunner, Yannik (Universität Basel), M.A., Ph.D. candidate
“What does it mean to “take consciousness seriously“?“
 
Thwaite, Finn (King’s College London), M.A., Ph.D. candidate
“Consciousness, Reduction, and the Limits of Emergence“
 
Tremblay-Baillargeon, Victor (Université de Montréal/NYU), M.A., Ph.D. candidate
“The Everett Interpretation and Personal Identity“