Philosophy and Mathematics of Situated Agency brings together thinkers in cognitive science, philosophy of mind, mathematics, and robotics. The conference reaches towards understanding the meaning of being embedded and situatedness from an interdisciplinary standpoint.

  

Philosophy: The 4E approaches (embodied, embedded, enacted, or extended) to the mind refer to basic concepts like affordance and attunement. However, the conceptual and metaphysical foundations of these notions remain unclear. The meaning of the terms environment, context or situation, despite their pivotal position and inflationary use in the 4E explanatory framework, continue to be under-analyzed compared to the attention devoted to the other 4E notions. For example, how can natural settings be affording, involving and invitational? How is agency shaped by the situation and how does it contribute? How are contexts structured to separate the relevant from the irrelevant? This conference strives to address these topical questions.

  

Mathematics: Theoretical computer science and mathematical logic can be seen as foundational for classical cognitivism. What will be the mathematical foundation for Enactivism and Situated Cognition? This conference provides a platform for showcasing novel mathematical approaches to cognition within the 4E paradigm. In particular, instead of asking for cognitive explanations of mathematics, we seek mathematical models of cognition, specifically in the context of coupled agent-environment systems.

 

Robotics: Robotics broadly entails understanding the nature of the interaction between a robot and its environment. What kind of constraints does the robot-environment coupling impose in terms of information flow and relative complexities of action, sensing and task description? What are the relevant concepts and measurable quantities? Contributions from various fields of mathematics and computer science (theory of computation, dynamical systems, topology, geometry, discrete mathematics, etc.) are likely needed in the problem formulations and solutions.

  

We invite contributions that include but are not limited to the following topics:

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• Situated Cognition, Enactivism, Embodiment, and Extended Cognition

• Situated Robotics and Soft Robotics

• Phenomenological approaches to situatedness and context

• Non-representational models in AI and neuroscience.

• Ecological Psychology

• Sensorimotor Contingencies

• Affordances and their contexts

• Mathematical models of situatedness

• Virtual Reality: situated approaches

 

The focus of the conference is promoting inter- and transdisciplinary viewpoints. However, individual talks can be confined to specific research areas. We hope that the conference sparks new interest in engaging across traditional disciplinary boundaries!

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PARTICIPATION FEE:

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Participation fee: regular price 150 EUR, student (PhD/MSc) price: 100 EUR.

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SUBMISSIONS:

  

Please prepare: (i) an anonymized abstract of 250-500 words (including references) and (ii) a separate cover letter with full name, affiliation, contact information, and a short professional bio.

  

Since graduate and postgraduates are encouraged to contribute, please indicate explicitly in which format your submission can be presented (talk and/or poster).

  

Please indicate the title of your abstract in the mail’s subject.​​

  

Please send your submission to: situated.agency @ gmail.com [Remove space]

 

Deadline for submission: March 8, 2026

  

Notification of acceptance: April 15, 2023

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