{"id":827,"date":"2026-02-20T17:58:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/?page_id=827"},"modified":"2026-04-01T19:36:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T23:36:02","slug":"talks-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/?page_id=827","title":{"rendered":"Talks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Audio recordings, slides, papers, and\/or handouts are available for most of these talks. Please reach out for access to them.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Conference Presentations<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Workshop Presentations<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Peer-Reviewed Conference Presentations: Recent and Upcoming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEternity in an Hour\u201d: The Incomplete Completeness of Well-Being as Autotelic Experience<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this talk, I introduce what I call \u201cthe puzzle of autotelic experience\u201d: autotelic experience appears as both intrinsically valuable (i.e. the experience is its own reward) and as valuable only insofar as it orients the subject to a self-transcendent source of value. Drawing on Strasser\u2019s Husserl-inspired phenomenology of happiness and on Merleau-Ponty\u2019s phenomenology of time, I give a phenomenological account of autotelic experience that dissolves this puzzle. read more<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Group Flow as Spontaneous Collective Agency: A Phenomenological Account<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing on Husserlian and Merleau-Pontyian phenomenology, I give a phenomenological account of the intentional structures that jointly constitute group flow. This account explains how individual agents\u2019 sense of efficacy can be transformed by their sense of oneness with others. It also allows us to understand the phenomenology of encounters in which a transformative meeting of minds is achieved. read more<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experience For Its Own Sake: Towards a Phenomenology of Autotelic Experience and Well-being<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I argue that understanding well-being is a phenomenological problem since the inherent normativity of states of well-being can be elucidated through phenomenological description. Moreover, I provide a phenomenological account of well-being as an autotelic state… read more<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Self-Shaping Actions: A Phenomenological Account of Flow States<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing on Husserlian phenomenology of time consciousness, I provide an account of flow as self-shaping action. This account explains how the autotelic structure of flow functions as a source that motivates the development of the autotelic self over time. read more<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is Consciousness Fundamental Or Fictive? Why Realists and Illusionists About Consciousness Are Both Wrong<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I argue that the oft-neglected transcendental philosophy of Ernst Cassirer provides us with the conceptual resources we need to surpass the current deadlock between realists and illusionists by enabling us to recognize that the entire debate is misframed given that consciousness is neither a datum, nor a posit, but is instead the general condition for the intelligibility of particulars. read more<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Representation as Sensorimotor Orientation: The Role of Non-Propositional, Spatial Simulation in Scientific Representation<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I argue that the contingency of visual imagery does not rule out its constitutive role since it forms an integral part of scientists\u2019 sensorimotor coupling with the world. Furthermore, I argue that scientists\u2019 reliance on imagery and spatial simulation shows that there is a crucial non-propositional and perceptual component at work in scientific representation. read more<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Workshop Presentations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Collective Agency in Group Flow States: A Phenomenological Account<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This presentation motivated a Merleau-Ponty-inspired phenomenological account of collective agency in group flow states. read more<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can AI Be Transcendental Subjects? A Husserlian Perspective<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my talk, I defended recent arguments that current LLMs do not meet the criteria for agency identified by enactive cognitive science.  I then argued that current AI models are not the kinds of entities that could instantiate the fundamental structure of time consciousness that Husserl calls \u201cthe living present.” read more<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Audio recordings, slides, papers, and\/or handouts are available for most of these talks. Please reach out for access to them. Peer-Reviewed Conference Presentations: Recent and Upcoming \u201cEternity in an Hour\u201d: The Incomplete Completeness of Well-Being as Autotelic Experience In this talk, I introduce what I call \u201cthe puzzle of autotelic experience\u201d: autotelic experience appears as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-827","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=827"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1063,"href":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/827\/revisions\/1063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}