BIO
Konrad Werner PhD
University of Warsaw
Krakowskie Przedmieście 3
00-924 Warsaw, Poland
https://uw.academia.edu/KonradWerner
https://twitter.com/KonradTWerner
Affiliations
01.12. 2016 - present: adjunct professor, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Warsaw, Poland
01.03.2024 – 30.03.2025 visiting professorship at Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Brixen, Bressanone, Italy (sponsored by the government of the Province of South Tyrol)
01.10. 2013 - 28.02.2016: research assistant, Institute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland
Education
2013 PhD Philosophy, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland
Doctoral studies from 01.10.2008 to 30.09.2012
Doctorate obtained on 21.02.2013
Supervisors: Jerzy Perzanowski, Jozef Bremer
+ 2023 Habilitation, Philosophy, University of Warsaw, Poland
2008 MA Philosophy, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland
Supervisor: Jan Wolenski
Areas of research
philosophy of mind (enactivism/embodied cognition), social ontology & epistemology, institutionalism, meta-philosophy
Books
The Ontology of Ecological Cognition, under contract with Routlege
The Embodied Philosopher. Living in Pursuit of Boundary Questions, Palgrave Macmillan 2022
Rzeczywistość z aspektami [Reality with Aspects; in Polish] Katedra 2017
Papers:
Confined truths and cognitive ecologies. When the social pursuit of questioning becomes pathologized, to appear in Topoi
(with Cuizhu Wang & Simon Graf) An Operational Definition of Institutional Belief, to appear in A. Dyrda et al (eds.) Ethics of Institutional Beliefs. From Theoretical to Empirical, Edward Elgar (Elgar Studies in Legal Theory)
Enacted institutions, participatory sense-making and social norms, Synthese 2024 online forst: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-024-04569-0
Who asks questions and who benefits from answers. Understanding institutions in terms of epistemic dependencies, Erkenntnis online first 2023 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-023-00732-0
Enactment. A Preliminary Study in Varela and Traditional Metaphysics, Journal of Consciousness Studies 30 (11-12), 2023
The tension between embodied structures and the pursuit of change: Exploring the metaphysical underpinnings of Olga Tokarczuk’s ‘Flights’,
Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction online first 2023 https://doi.org/10.1080/00111619.2023.2213823
The Problem of Presentations: How it is that one object is perceptually given in multiple ways, Synthese, online first 2022 DOI: 10.1007/s11229-022-03486-4
Institutions as Cognitive Niches. A Dynamic of Knowledge and Ignorance. In S. Arfini. L. Magnani (eds.) Embodied, Extended, Ignorant Minds. New Studies on the Nature of Not-Knowing (Synthese Library), Springer 2022: pp. 161 – 190
Cognitive confinement: theoretical considerations on the construction of a cognitive niche, and on how it can go wrong. Synthese 198, 2021: 6297–6328 doi: 10.1007/s11229-019-02464-7
(with M. Kiełkowicz-Werner) From Shared Enaction to Intrinsic Value. How Enactivism Contributes to Environmental Ethics. Topoi 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-021-09750-5
(with M. Kiełkowicz-Werner) Prospects for internal embodied realism with respect to intrinsic value, Ethics and the Environment 26 (2), 2021: 21 – 50 doi 10.2979/ethicsenviro.26.2.02
Enactment and construction of the cognitive niche: toward an ontology of the mind-world connection, Synthese 197, 2020: 1313–1341 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-018-1756-1
Cognitive confinement, embodied sense-making, and the (de)colonization of knowledge. Philosophical Papers 49 (2) 2020: 339 – 364 doi 10.1080/05568641.2020.1779603
Structural coupling and the puzzle of surfaces: ontology of boundaries from the minimally cognitive perspective, Adaptive Behavior 29 (6), 2020: 601 – 615 doi: 10.1177/1059712320937475
Philosophical Intuition Is the Capacity to Recognize one’s Epistemic Position. An Old-Fashion Approach Based on Russell, Carnap, Wittgenstein, and Husserl. Philosophia 48, 2020: 1725–1751 doi: 110.1007/s11406-020-00195-5
The Little Word “as.” On Making Contexts and Aspects Explicit, Axiomathes 30 2020: 69 – 90, DOI 10.1007/s10516-019-09434-1
Philosophy in Poland: Varieties of Anti-Irrationalism. A Commitment to Reason without the Worship of Reason, Philosophia 48, 2020: 1–32, DOI 10.1007/s11406-019-00074-8
Pan Cogito wypełnia kwestionariusz. Filozofia eksperymentalna wobec pytania o naturę kompetencji filozoficznej. Filozofia Nauki 27, 2019: 87 – 114 [in Polish]
Coordination produces cognitive niches, not just experiences. A formal constructivist ontology based on von Foerster, Constructivist Foundations 12 (3) 2017: 301 – 308
Zarys internalizmu ekologicznego w filozofii umysłu [An outline of ecological internalism in the philosophy of mind], Filozofia Nauki 25 (1) 2017 [in Polish].
Metaphilosophy of Mind: How Do Minds Investigate Minds? Refutation of the Theocentric View. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science 51 (1) 2017: 120 – 140 DOI 10.1007/s12124-016-9362-6
What is it like to be the metaphysical subject? An essay on early Wittgenstein, our epistemic position, and beyond, Philosophia 44, 2016: 921 – 946 DOI: 10.1007/s11406-016-9693-z
Towards a PL-metaphysics of Perception. In Search for the Metaphysical Ground of Constructivism, Constructivist Foundations 11 (1) 2015: 148 – 157
Against Grand Illusion. Some Remarks on Constructivism Coinciding with Realism. In. Ch. Kanzian, J. Mitterer, K. Neges (eds.) Contributions of the Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society Volume XXIII, ALWS, Kirchberg am Wechsel 2015: 334 – 336
Cognitive Evolution and the Idea of a Global Observer, Constructivist Foundations 10 (2) 2015: 245 – 248
Aspectual Shape: Presentational Approach, Axiomathes 24 (4), 2014: 427 – 440
The Many Faces of Psychoontology, Axiomathes 23 (3), 2013: 525 – 542
Przedmiot badań qua-teorii [in Polish], Diametros 31, 2012: 113 – 132
Visiting appointments:
1.09.2021 - 30.06.2022: visiting scholar, University of Pittsburgh, USA (Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science; sponsored by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange).
4.05.2018 - 30.05.2018: visiting faculty, University of Groningen, the Netherlands (Dept. of Theoretical Philosophy; sponsored by the European Philosophy of Science Association Fellowship).
01.03.2016 - 28.02.2017: visiting scholar, Columbia University, New York, USA (Dept. of Philosophy; sponsored by the Polish governmental post-doc program "Mobility Plus").
12.09.2015 - 14.12.2015: visiting faculty, Indiana University Bloomington, USA (Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science; sponsored by the Jagiellonian University and IU Bloomington).
References
Colin Allen, University of Pittsburgh
Józef Bremer, Jagiellonian University and Ignatianum University in Kraków
Katarzyna Paprzycka-Hausman, University of Warsaw
Achille C. Varzi, Columbia University
Selected talks
2024.09.20 (with Łukasz Hardt) “How much it takes to establish, maintain and secure the domain of opportunity. A problematization-based theory of institutional resilience” WINIR Conference “Institutional Resilience & Recovery” Center for Governance and Markets, University of Pittsburgh
2024.08.01 “A long way from salience to values and norms” What is Life Symposium, University of Ljubljana. Available online https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOJ8MB3scT4&t=943s
2024.07.24 (with Cuizhu Wang & Simon Graf) “An Operational Definition of Institutional Belief”, Social Ontology Conference, Durham NC.
2023.11.22 “Drawing Boundaries in the Lifeworld: Is there anything we can learn from applied ontology about the nature of life, sociality and cognition? What is Life Symposium, University of Ljubljana. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIFqrWPS0dM
2023.10.09 “Cognitive confinement in the suburbs: niche construction, (not much) distributed cognition, and collective problem solving” Cognitive Ecologies, Values and Disruptive Technologies, Nove University Lisbon,
2023.09.04 “Institutional know-how: how institutions scaffold social epistemic dependencies and collective actions” Group Know-How and Joint Expertise, University of Antwerp
2022.08.24 “Locative ontology of embodied institutions – a primer”, Social Ontology & Collective Intentionality 2022, University of Vienna
2021.11.30 “Confined truth and cheap beliefs in the times of filter bubbles”, The Truth Without Borders workshop, University of Waikato (online talk)
2021.11.30 “The tension between structure and change. Exploring the metaphysical underpinning of Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights” Indiana University Bloomington, Polish Studies Center, Bloomington IN, USA (online talk).
2021.10.12 “Defining institutions in terms of epistemic dependencies. A shared objective of the social and cognitive sciences”, Center for Philosophy and History of Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DhfaErHCAw&t=3973s
2021.08.23 “Embodied institutions, ignorance and opportunity” The Enacting Chance workshop, Lorentz Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands (online talk), available online: https://www.academia.edu/video/lvAaa1
2019.10.19 “The Enacted Given”, Demystifying the Given, Beijing, China
2018.08.23 "Cognitive Confinement", Social Ontology Conference, Boston MA, USA
2018.05.30 “The Bucket Theory of Mind”, University of Groningen, Dept. of Theoretical Philosophy, The Netherlands.
2017.08.19 "Experimental Metaphilosophy and the Need for Qualitative Methods", Buffalo Experimental Philosophy Conference, Buffalo NY, USA
2017.03.25 "Why there presents something rather than nothing? From experimental phenomenology to metaphysics (and backwards)" Issues In Contemporary Phenomenology, Polish Academy of the Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
2016.10.20 "Mind and Places. Ontology of location and the two kinds of enactivism", Indiana University Bloomington, Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science, USA
2016.10.19 "Varieties of Polish Anti-irrationalism", Indiana University Bloomington, Polish Studies Center, USA
2016.08.11 "Minds and Niches" Columbia University, Dept. of Philosophy, New York, USA (summer graduate seminar)
2015.12.11 "Perspective shifters" Indiana University Bloomington, Dept. of Psychological and Brain Science (Robert Goldstone's Lab), USA.
2015.08.15 "Against Grand Illusion" 38th International Wittgenstein Symposium, Kirchberg am Wechsel, Austria.
Teaching
2024/2025 Philosophie der Institutionen [Philosophy of Institutions], PTH Brixen & University of Innsbruck
2019/2020 Epistemologia [Epistemology], University of Warsaw
2019/2010 Filozoficzne problemy nauk [Philosophy of science]. University of Warsaw
2018/2019 Perception, Representation, Enaction: In Search of the Mark of the Cognitive, in English, University of Warsaw
2017/2018 Reprezentacja [Representation: An introduction], Jagiellonian University
2016/2017 Świat i jego (re)prezentacje z perspektywy filozoficznych podstaw kognitywistyki [The world and its (re)presentations from the perspective of the philosophical foundations of cognitive science], Jagiellonian University;
2016/2017 Percepcja [Perception: An Introduction], Jagiellonian University
2010/2011; 2011/2012; 2012/2013 Filozofia umysłu [Philosophy of Mind], Jagiellonian University
2011/2012 Podstawowe problemy kognitywistyki: świadomość [Fundamental problems of cognitive science: consciousness], Jagiellonian University.
Research grants:
2020 – 2023 Grant No 2019/33/B/HS1/01764 provided by National Science Centre, Poland
2016 – 2019 Grant No 2016/20/S/HS1/00046 provided by National Science Centre, Poland
Empirical research
2014 – 2015 in collaboration with the Consciousness Lab, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, I investigated the phenomenon of sensory substitution on the basis of mixed behavioral + qualitative studies with the equipment called Enactive Torch.
Awards:
2018 European Philosophy of Science Association Fellowship
2017 – 2019 Scholarship of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education for young scholars