Jeff Coulter's Vist to Japan on 4 - 9 August, 1999

In August 1999 Professor Jeff Coulter from Boston University visited Tokyo and Kyoto to hold a seminar and lectures. This visit was sponsored by the Institute for Sociology and Social Work at Meiji Gakuin University. Many thanks to all the participants in the seminar and lectures. [AN]

Schedule

• Wednesday 4th to Friday 6th (at Meiji Gakuin University)
  Seminar: Mind, Brain and Conduct: The Perspective of Wittgensteinian Ethnomethodolgy
• Saturday 7th (at Wasead University)
  Lecture: Wittgenstein and Garfinkel
• Sunday 8th (at Seijo University)
  Lecture: The mind of John Searle
• Monday 9th (at Kyodai Kaikan, Kyoto)
  Lecture: Procedural Explanation, Grammar and Ethnomethodology
  

Jeff Coulter's Report on his Seminar and Lectures

• August 4th (at Meiji Gakuin): "ETHNOMETHODOLOGY AND THE 'MICRO-MACRO' PROBLEM". In this lecture, I tried to show how the analysis of the use of 'macro-'concepts in ordinary communications between people can help to resolve many of the problems raised by efforts to study so-called "macro" phenomena in a rigorous way. This approach also provides an antidote to many misconceptions about so-called 'levels' of social reality - the micro and the macro.
• August 5th (at Meiji Gakuin): "CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGY". In this lecture, I attempted to rebut the 'neurophilosophy' of the Churchlands and to show that one can disentangle metaphysical interpretations from plain neurobiological facts using conceptual analysis. Included in this lecture was a sustained re-analysis of several contemporary claims advanced in the hybrid field called 'cognitive' neuroscience.
• August 6th (at Meiji Gakuin): "NEURAL CAUSATION AND 'FREEDOM OF ACTION'> In this presnetations, I re-analysed the famous Kornhuber-Liber experiment and tried to show that the exercise of 'free will' is not eliminable by reference to neurophysiological causation of bodily behaviors. In addition, I argued that freedom of action is intelligible in various contexts and does not contravene causal explanations of such behaviors.
• August 7th (at Waseda): "WITTGENSTEIN AND GARFINKEL". In this lecture, I tried to show how many of Garfinkel's major insights are complementary to those of the later Wittgenstein, and that ethnomethodological studies should be treated as elucidations of the - logical - properties of human activities and practices.
• August 8th (at Seijo): "THE MIND OF JOHN SEARLE". In this presentation, I advanced a critique of several of John Searle's arguments, whilst endorsing his 'Chinese Room' gedankenexperiment. This work is part of a collaborative project with Professort Wes Sharrock (University of Manchester, England) and is due to be published soon.
• August 9th (at Kyoto): "PROCEDURAL EXPLANATION, GRAMMAR AND ETHNOMETHODOLOGY". Building on the lecture at Waseda, I sought to argue that ethnomethodological explanations are procedural, and that grammatical analyses are as well. From here, I tried to argue that ethnomethodological work is best construed as a contribution to the elucidation of the constitutive rules which govern the intelligibility of our lives.

Jeff Coulter's Main Publications

• Approaches to Insanity (John Wiley, 1973).
• The Social Construction of Mind: Studies in Ethnomethodology and Linguistic Philosophy (Macmillan, 1979).
• Rethinking Cognitive Theory (Macmillan, 1983).
• Mind in Action (Polity, 1989).
• Computers, Minds and Conduct (Polity, 1995, with G. Butt on, J. Lee, and W. Sharrock).
• And others