Dr. Ali Yousefi Heris

Bio

I am currently a research fellow in philosophy at the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM) (external Link), School of Analytic Philosophy, in Tehran. I received my Ph.D. in philosophy from the Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences at the University of Munich. Before joining the research group in Munich, I was a master student in cognitive science (M.Sc.) at the University of Leuven and philosophy student (MA) at the University of Liverpool.

Research

My research interests lie primarily in philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of neuroscience, and moral psychology. I work on questions about mindreading, in particular, the role of mirror neurons in mental state attribution, esp. the simulational model of mindreading, compared to the role mirror neurons and mirror processes might play in other cognitive functions such as empathy and imitation. More recently, I am focused on a critical assessment of embodied accounts of understanding others.

Selected Publications

• Forthcoming (Invited Paper) Yousefi Heris, A. “Theory, Simulation, and Neurological Similarity: Theory of Mind after 40 Years” Eshareh: An Iranian Journal of Philosophy
• (2017) Yousefi Heris, A. “Why Emotion Recognition Is Not Simulational”
  Philosophical Psychology

Publications Under Review

• “Simulation, Mirroring, and Neurological Similarity”
• “Mindreading: The Concept of Simulation”
• “Simulation and Pragmatic Interpretation: Rethinking High-level Mindreading”
• “Willing, Intending, Metarepresenting: Weakness of Will Psychologized”