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A unique joint philosophy and psychology research project on consciousness and self-consciousness has just started up, and includes top academics from the universities of Warwick, Oxford, Cambridge and University College London. The seven-year project is interdisciplinary (philosophy and psychology) and inter-institutional (Warwick, UCL, Oxford). It is based at, and directed from, the Philosophy Department in Warwick, where its core members are located. The main focus of work are weekly seminars, one-day workshops and yearly conferences on specific problems, interdisciplinary work on which is essential for making progress in understanding consciousness and self consciousness. These are held in Warwick, London and Oxford, rotating on a termly basis. Topics addressed during the first year of the project, in seminars and one-day workshops include: Time, Memory and Self Consciousness; First-person Access to one’s Own States and Pathologies of Self Knowledge; Spatial and Temporal Perspective Taking and its Relation to Self Consciousness; Joint Attention and Self Awareness; Attention and Consciousness; Visual Awareness and Action.

Here, project director Naomi Eilan explains the rationale behind the project and what it sets out to achieve.