IACS Symposium 2027 · Cluj-Napoca
International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (IACS) Babeș-Bolyai University Faculty of History and Philosophy, Babeș-Bolyai University

Call for Papers · First Symposium of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics

Minds Without Bodies?

Bridging Perception, Semiosis, and Intelligence: Humans, Animals, Machines

We are delighted to announce the First Symposium of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics (IACS), to be hosted by the Department of Philosophy at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Artificial intelligence has brought an old question back into focus: can there be minds without bodies? Large language models (LLMs) produce fluent text and seemingly intelligent behavior, yet lack a living body and direct perceptual engagement with a world. This raises fundamental questions for the embodied, enactive, biosemiotic and phenomenological traditions in the study of mind, which have long held that meaning is grounded in perception, action, affectivity and intersubjectivity, in the lived body of an organism engaged with its environment. Do such systems therefore fall short of meaning, or do they show that meaning depends on the body less than these traditions supposed? The symposium leaves the question open. Research on animal cognition complicates the picture from another direction, documenting forms of embodied meaning-making that are far from rudimentary yet still differ from those underlying human language and symbolic thought.

Cognitive semiotics, as the transdisciplinary study of meaning-making drawing on semiotics, philosophy, linguistics and cognitive science, provides a framework for approaching these questions. We invite contributions addressing the relations between perception, semiosis and intelligence in humans, other animals and machines.

Invited speakers

  • Jordan Zlatev Lund University
  • Claudio Paolucci University of Bologna
  • Filomena Diodato Sapienza University of Rome To be confirmed

Lines of inquiry

  1. What does meaning require of a body?
  2. On what evidence do we attribute minds?
  3. How should we understand animal minds?
  4. Who speaks when a machine speaks?
  5. What does language reveal about meaning-making in humans and machines?
  6. How does metaphor mediate between body, perception, and abstract meaning?
  7. How is intersubjective experience constituted, and can it be simulated?
  8. What becomes of creativity and expression?
  9. What is cognitive semiotics, and what does it commit us to in regard to machine computation?

We welcome theoretical and empirical contributions from cognitive semiotics and intersecting fields, including philosophy, linguistics, metaphor studies, psychology, biosemiotics, ethology, computer science and cultural studies.

Topics of interest

Contributions may address, among others:

  • Embodiment, enaction and the experiential grounding of meaning
  • Language, embodiment and sensorimotor experience
  • Perception, affectivity and the origins of semiosis
  • Metaphor, metonymy and figurative meaning
  • Gesture, multimodality and communication
  • Enunciation, discourse and subjectivity
  • Consciousness, intersubjectivity, emotion and social cognition
  • Creativity, expression and extended agency
  • Animal cognition, zoosemiotics and semiosis beyond the human
  • Language, understanding and simulation in artificial systems
  • Artificial agency, autonomy and decision-making
  • The evolution and development of semiotic capacities
  • The semiotic mediation of cognition
  • Methodological questions in cognitive semiotics: first-, second- and third-person perspectives

Submission guidelines

Submissions are welcome from established and early career researchers alike. If you are an early-career researcher (i.e., at the level of Master’s, doctoral, or postdoctoral), please indicate this when submitting your abstract. If you would like to be considered for a poster session, please specify this in your submission.

Abstract length
300–500 words (excluding references).
Keywords
Please include 3–5 keywords.
Biographical note
A brief bio (max. 100 words) including institutional affiliation and contact information.
Relevance
Abstracts should make clear how the proposed contribution relates to cognitive semiotics.
First authorship
Each participant may submit only one abstract as first author.

Deadline: 31 January 2027. Where to submit (portal or e-mail) will be announced soon.

Venue

Babeș-Bolyai University, Central Building
Str. Mihail Kogălniceanu 1, Cluj-Napoca 400084, Romania · Open in Google Maps ↗

Organizing committee

  • Codruța Hainic Chair Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of History and Philosophy, Center for Applied Philosophy
  • Ion Copoeru Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of History and Philosophy, Center for Applied Philosophy
  • Alin Olteanu Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University; Institute of Advanced Studies in Science and Technology – STAR-UBB Institute
  • Thea Ionescu Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences
  • Elena Faur Romanian Academy, “Sextil Pușcariu” Institute of Linguistics and Literary History, Cluj-Napoca
  • Gina Scarpete Walters University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Department of Writing & Language Studies
  • Floarea Vîrban Accademia Europea di Firenze, CEA CAPA Florence & CET Florence

Secretariat

  • Anton Crișan Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of History and Philosophy, Center for Applied Philosophy
  • Robert Beres Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of History and Philosophy