Perception-based Mindreading

Doctoral Program in Philosophy, Epistemology, and Human Sciences

University of Cagliari, Department of Education, Psychology, and Philosophy

Course title: “Perception-Based Mindreading”

Number of hours: 2

Teachers: Filippo Contesi (Cagliari), filippo.contesi@unica.it, Joulia Smortchkova (Grenoble), Visiting Professor/Scientist UniCA 2026/27

Brief bio/bibliography: Joulia Smortchkova holds a “Chaire de Professeur Junior” at the Université Grenoble Alpes. She has a PhD in Philosophy from the Jean Nicod Institute (CNRS, ENS, EHESS) in Paris as well as an “Agrégation” in Philosophy. She studied both philosophy and cognitive science at Master’s level (MA and MSc) and she is an alumna of the “Sélection Internationale” of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and of the Collegio Superiore of the University of Bologna. Before her current position, Joulia worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ruhr-Universität in Bochum and then as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Junior Research Fellow at Somerville College and Oxford University.

Delivery method: In-person and online

Meeting schedule: February 17, 2026, 3-5 PM

Classroom and/or Link: Loi (Saint Duchess, Central Building), Smortchkova Doctoral Student Seminar | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams

Language: English

Preliminary knowledge required: none

Short description of the course: the seminar focuses on a set of under-explored phenomena, at the crossroads between philosophy of mind and aesthetics, that often straddle the perception/cognition divide: these include appearances, looks, seemings, mirages, illusions and impressions. Such phenomena have a real impact on many aspects of our lives and deserve much more philosophical scrutiny than they have received. Even though (Western) philosophy has traditionally opposed appearance to reality, the project aims to show that the phenomena in question are best studied not as a negative counterpart of reality, but as aspects of reality in their own right.

Internal structure of the seminar meetings:

Bibliographic references:

Final evaluation: no.

Other useful information: of potential interest to philosophers, psychologists and pedagogists, given the interdisciplinary nature of teachers’ work.