Maria Brincker
Area of Expertise
Phil. of Mind & Neuroscience, Privacy & Technology, Action theory, Free Will, Autism and Neurodevelopment, Aesthetic Experience, Philosophy of Biology
Degrees
PhD, City University of New York Graduate Center, 2010
Professional Publications & Contributions
- "Disoriented and Alone in the “Experience Machine” – On Netflix, Shared World Deceptions and the Consequences of Deepening Algorithmic Personalization" (2021) Sats - Northern European Journal of Philosophy, Volume 22, Issue 1, p. 75-97.
- (Co-authored with E. O. Pedersen) Special issue: Philosophy and Digitization: Dangers and Possibilities in the New Digital Worlds (2021) Sats - Northern European Journal of Philosophy, Volume 22, Issue 1, p. 1-11.
- "What is philosophy and why does it matter? A situated, pluralist, social, caring - and perhaps rebellious response" (2020) in E. Vintiadis (ed.) Philosophy by Women: 22 philosophers reflect on philosophy and its value.
- "The Backside of Habit: Notes on Embodied Agency and the Functional Opacity of the Medium" (2020) in I. Testa et F. Caruana (eds.), Habits. Pragmatist Approaches from Cognitive Neurosciences to Social Sciences, Cambridge University Press.
- “Privacy in Public and the contextual conditions of agency“ (2017) in Privacy in Public Space: Conceptual and Regulatory Challenges by Tjerk Timan, Bert-Jaap Koops and Bryce Newell (eds). Edward Elgar.
- "Subverting the racist lens: Frederick Douglass, humanity & the power of the photographic Image" (2017, Co-authored with B.E. Lawson) in Bernier and Lawson (eds.): Pictures & Power: Imaging and Imagining Frederick Douglass 1818-2018. Liverpool University Press.
- "Why study movement variation in autism? (2017) in Autism the movement-sensing approach by Torres & Whyatt. CRC Press - Taylor & Francis Group. (Co-authored w. Elizabeth Torres)
- "Dynamics of perceptible agency: the case of social robots" (2016) Minds & Machines, 26:4, pp. 441-466. doi:10.1007/s11023-016-9405-2
- "Neonatal diagnostics: Towards dynamic growth charts for neuro-motor control" (2016) Frontiers in Pediatrics (Co-authored, Torres et al.)
- "Beyond sensorimotor segregation: On mirror neurons and social affordance space tracking" (2015) Cognitive Systems Research. Vol. 34–35, p. 18-34.
- "Evolution beyond determinism: on Dennett's compatibilism and the too timeless free will debate" (2015) Journal of Cognition and Neuroethics, vol 3, Issue 1.
- "The Aesthetic Stance - on the conditions and consequences of becoming a beholder" (2015) in Aesthetics and the Embodied Mind: Beyond Art Theory and the Cartesian Mind-Body Dichotomy, by Alfonsina Scarinzi (ed.), New York: Springer. p 117-138.
- "Navigating beyond 'here & now' affordances - on sensorimotor maturation and false belief tests" (2014) Frontiers in Psychology. 5:1433. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01433
- "Noise from the periphery in autism" (2013) Frontiers in Integrated Neuroscience, 7:34 (Co-authored with Elizabeth B Torres)
- "Autism: the micro-movement perspective" (2013) Frontiers in Integrated Neuroscience 7:32 (Co-authored with: Elizabeth B Torres, Polina Yanovich, Kimberly Stigler, John Nurnberger, Dimitri Metaxas & Jorge Jose)
- "En Kropslig Kultur Historie - om omverdens relationen" (2012). In Mennesket. En Introduktion til Filosofisk Antropologi by E. O. Pedersen & A.-M. S. Christensen (eds.) Denmark: Systime. pp. 197-216 (Eng. Trans.: “A Bodily story of Culture - on the 'Umwelt' relation” in The Human. An Introduction to Philosophical Anthropology). p. 197-216.
- “If the motor system is no mirror..." (2012). in Payette, N. & Hardy-Vallee (Eds.) Connected Minds: Cognition and Interaction in the Social World. Newcastle, U.K.: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p.158-182
Additional Information
Maria Brincker's research pursues more adequate theoretical models of our psychological processes and the complex neurobiology and cultural worlds, which support them. A core methodological challenge lies in the tension between on the one hand the growing empirical evidence for the dynamic and contextual functioning of organisms and minds, and on the other our epistemological desires for simple, atomistic and mechanistic models. With collaborators within neuroscience she seeks to build new theories and methodologies as well as re-interpret old findings in these new frames.
Much of her research has been about sensorimotor processes and their development and role in cognition, perception and social interaction. However, she also studies how sensorimotor processes relate to applied areas such as the field of autism research and developmental psychology as well as broader questions e.g. in aesthetics and most recently in relation to our autonomy and agency. In this relation her recent focus is on technologically mediated actions, and current issues of privacy and discrimination.
Another line of inquiry has to do with more abstract questions of the role of context, temporality and interaction in theoretical biology and metaphysics.
And here a brief Blog post on recent research on agency and affordances in "smart" spaces, done while visiting the Center for Subjectivity research while Copenhagen University Fall 2020
See also:
Courses
- PHIL 344: Philosophy of Mind
- PHIL 305: Action
- PHIL 281: Special Topics: Mind, Choice & Action
- PHIL 130G: Privacy
- PHIL 108: Social and Moral Problems
- PHIL 100: Introduction to Philosophy
- HONORS 293: Honors Topic in Social & Behavioral Sciences - Contextual Minds