Evan Thompson, PhD - Context Matters: Steps to an Embodied Cognitive Science of Mindfulness.

Part 2 of 12. This opening talk by Evan Thompson, PhD, Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of British Columbia was given as part of the 2015 UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain research summit "Perspectives on Mindfulness: the Complex Role of Scientific Research" on May 21, 2015.

The playlist for the full conference is at:    • 2015 UC Davis CMB Research Summit: Perspec...  

See http://cmbmindfulnesssummit.faculty.u... for full conference program and http://mindbrain.ucdavis.edu for links to other conference talks and other information about the Center for Mind and Brain at UC Davis.

Talk abstract: Neuroscience typically conceptualizes mindfulness as inner observation of a private mental realm of thoughts, feelings, and body sensations, and models mindfulness as a process occurring in the brain, visible in part through neuroimaging tools. This approach, however, is inadequate for two reasons. First, there is likely to be no one-one mapping between neural networks and cognition; rather, the mapping is likely many-many. Second, the neurobiological conditions for mindfulness should not be equated with mindfulness itself, which, as classically described, consists in the integrated exercise of a whole host of cognitive and bodily skills in situated and ethically directed action. For these reasons, mindfulness should not be conceptualized as inner mental observation instantiated in the brain, but rather as a mode of skillful cognition for situated action. To develop this approach, I combine classical Buddhist accounts with embodied cognitive science. I also explore the implications of this approach for the Buddhism-cognitive science dialogue.


Evan Thompson, PhD, is the author of Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy; Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind; and Colour Vision: A Study in Cognitive Science and the Philosophy of Perception. Thompson is the co-author with Francisco J. Varela and Eleanor Rosch of The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience. He is also the co-editor with Philip David Zelazo and Morris Moscovitch of The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness, and with Mark Siderits and Dan Zahavi of Self, No Self? Perspectives from Analytical, Phenomenological, and Indian Traditions. In addition, he is the author of more than 70 articles, chapters, and reviews in the fields of philosophy and cognitive science. He received his B.A. in Asian Studies from Amherst College (1983) and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Toronto (1990). He held a Canada Research Chair at York University (2002-05), was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto (2005-2013), and is now Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia. In 2014, he was the Numata Invited Visiting Professor at the Center for Buddhist Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Thompson is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Organizing Committee: Clifford Saron, Ph.D., Chair; Catherine Kerr, Ph.D.; David Meyer, Ph.D.; & Evan Thompson, Ph.D. Dr. Thompson is introduced by Clifford Saron.

Videography by George Rosenfeld of Sylvan Video -http://sylvanvideo.com/