Is the “True Self,” a psychological concept distinct from the self ?

Some recent work in experimental philosophy and in social psychology addresses central issues in cognition and culture in an original way. How can this work contribute to a perspective that really integrates the contribution of the cognitive and social sciences? This question is well exemplified by an article by Nina Strohminger, George Newman, and Joshua Knobe entitled “The True Self: A psychological concept distinct from the self” forthcoming in Perspectives on Psychological Science. (The article is available here.) We thought discussing both the substance of this article and the place of this kind of work in furthering our understanding of cognition and culture would be worth a webinar at CognitionAndCulture.net. We will post successively a precis of the article prepared by the authors, six commentaries, and the reply of the authors. The discussion of the precis and of the commentaries is open to all.

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