Symposium “The Social Nature of the Self”
25.11.2025 – 27.11.2025 Evangelische Akademie Tutzing, Bavaria, Germany
The symposium focuses on the social and cultural nature of the self, exploring how these dimensions intersect with and enrich our understanding of the minimal self. To spark ideas, the event emphasizes discussion and opportunities to develop future collaborations. Besides the keynotes described below, there will be opportunities for attendees to give short talks and present posters to exchange ideas, as well as participate in two plenary discussions.
Keynote Talks:
Keynote 1: Bernhard Hommel, Faculty of Psychology, Shandong Normal University,
China
Operationalizing the Self in the Cognitive Sciences: A Case Study of a Scientific
Construct
Cognitive science has a persistent interest in understanding the self. Despite intensive
research, there seems to be little agreement on what constitutes and what is described
by the concept of a self. Here, we present a taxonomy of four different notions based
on an inventory of how scientists empirically engaged with the concept of a self in the
DFG priority program ‘The active self’. Although we do not claim these are exhaustive,
we present their key tenets, their impact on the field, and highlight shortcomings and
inner contradictions. We propose that these notions are not empirically testable
against each other and seem to reflect different epistemological views. Rather than
offering an integrative philosophical analysis of the self itself, we conclude with
recommendations for future research on the self: research needs to take care to avoid
the danger of reification, should focus on particular functions rather than concepts,
and investigate mechanisms. This approach is promising to lead us to a better
understanding of the self and to more integrative and interdisciplinary approaches to
the explanation of self-related behavior.
Keynote 2: Audrey-Ann Deneault, Université de Montréal, Canada
Becoming a Self Through Our Relationships with Others: The Attachment Foundations
of the Self
The self is often conceptualized as arising from the perception, action, and narratives
we construct about who we are. Yet, before we can represent or narrate the self, we
first develop the self within relationships of care. Attachment theory provides a
developmental account of how this pre-reflective sense of self is socially scaffolded.
Early interactions with caregivers not only regulate physiological and emotional states
but also establish internal working models, which are procedural templates that
implicitly encode expectations about the self and others. Through cycles of need
expression and responses, the infant comes to experience the self as worthy of love
and help. In this sense, attachment is not merely a strong relational bond but a system
for constructing the self through embodied and affective interaction. In this talk, I will
discuss how attachment processes contribute to the development of the self and how
disruptions in these early dynamics can illuminate the social, moral, and
developmental origins of the self.
Keynote 3: Tony Prescott, University of Sheffield, UK
A layered Architecture and Cognitive Neurorobotics Perspective on the Emergence of
the Sense of Self
We can differentiate the self into two central aspects, one an embodied spatial
perspectivity, the other a sense of transtemporal unity of experience. In this talk I will
argue that in each of these domains, core capabilities are supported by sub-cortical
systems available from birth, these then “scaffold” the acquisition of their cortical
counterparts that radically enhance their capabilities. I term this a “layered
architecture” view of self. I will illustrate this proposal by (i) describing a recent
neurorobotic model of the emergence of the visual self-other distinction in infancy, and
(ii) by exploring the emergence of the sense of self as persisting in time. The self can
also be considered to be both singular and relational. We each begin life as part of a
combined entity (a foetus within a mother), from which we gradually differentiate
ourselves. We later reconstruct the self as part of rich relational networks,
understanding ourselves in the context of others and the social worlds we jointly
define. In the final part of this talk, I will consider how our experience of the social
other develops alongside that of our individual embodied selfhood.
Keynote 4: Jeremy Carpendale, Simon Fraser University, Canada
The Development of the Self in Relations
Views of the nature and development of the self are based on sets of philosophical
assumptions or worldviews. Thus, an important step in understanding how the self
develops is the critical evaluation of the worldviews on which theories and research
are based. I examine two worldviews and their differing implications for
conceptualizing the self and its development. One view is that we start with individual
cognition in order to explain relations with others. That is, individuals start with a mind
and have to figure out other people. From this perspective, understanding our self can
be based on introspection. I review criticism of this perspective, including the point
that it assumes but does not explain its starting point. As an alternative, I discuss the
contrasting view that instead we begin with action and relations with others, in which
communication and cognition emerge. Introspection as a way to come to know the self
becomes possible through a social process. From this perspective, having a self and
coming to know the self occurs in relations through language and is embedded in
cultures.
Keynote 5: Marcel Brass, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany, and Department of
Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium
The Group and the Self
In my talk, I will explore the dynamic relationship between the individual and the
group. We and others have demonstrated that group membership dissolves the
boundary between self and the group, directly influencing core cognitive processes
such as agency, spatial cognition, and even perception. Through a series of studies,
we have employed a virtual group paradigm to systematically investigate how the
group reshapes individual cognition.
Keynote 6: Linda Onnasch, TU Berlin, Germany
Facets of Anthropomorphism in Robotic Design – Activating Social Perceptions and
Scripts for HRI
It is widely assumed that anthropomorphic design features of robots automatically
activate social perceptions and scripts from human interaction. Perceiving robots as
team partners rather than tools is believed to foster more intuitive and seamless
interaction, even at first encounter. But do human-like design features really elicit
mind perception, and does this, in turn, translate into social evaluations, for example,
in terms of empathy and trust, and ultimately improved coordination?
In my talk, I will explore these questions with a nuanced perspective on
anthropomorphism as a design strategy across various contexts. Eventually, I will raise
the question of how the social perception of robots affects self-attribution and the
sense of agency in human-robot interaction.
DFG SPP "The Active Self" 