Crom Philosopher-in-Residence Mark L. Johnson

BELOIT, WIS. (Nov. 5, 2025) – Beloit College is pleased to announce that esteemed philosopher Mark Johnson will visit campus on November 10-11 as the Crom Visiting Philosopher. The highlight of his visit will be a keynote lecture, “Embodied Mind, Meaning, and Thought,” which is free and open to the public.

Event details

• Title: Embodied Mind, Meaning, and Thought
• Who: University of Oregon Professor Mark Johnson
• When: 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 11, 2025
• Where: Weissberg Auditorium, Powerhouse, Beloit College
• Admission: Free and Open to the Public
• What: Public lecture:
  • A centuries-old perspective regards mind and thought as fundamentally separate from the body. Recent cognitive science and neuroscience research, coupled with Pragmatist philosophy, has radically undermined this disembodied conception. The new view sees mind, meaning, and thought as rooted in our sensory, motor, and emotional processes. Our abstract conceptualization and reasoning emerge from our ongoing interaction with our physical, interpersonal, and cultural environments. Rather than being an obstacle to rational thinking, our embodiment is the source of everything we can mean, imagine, know, and do.

About Dr. Johnson: Mark Johnson, Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oregon, is a leading expert in embodied philosophy, cognitive science, and cognitive linguistics. He has co-authored influential works with George Lakoff, including “Metaphors We Live By,” and has published extensively on philosophers such as John Dewey, Immanuel Kant, and ethics.

“Professor Johnson’s early work in conceptual metaphor and cognitive linguistics was pivotal in launching what is now an entire branch of cognitive science and philosophy of mind, known as 4E cognition,” said Beloit College Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science Robin Zebrowski. “This work helped light an entirely new path to understanding how the mind works, and how bodies and cultures matter just as much as brains do.”

The Crom Philosopher program brings distinguished and influential philosophers to campus each year for two days of talks, classroom visits, and lectures. It is named in honor of Scott Crom, a longtime and legendary philosophy professor at Beloit College who died in 2013. The Crom Visiting Philosopher program is one of the Beloit College Residencies, which invite students to interact with world-class experts through classroom visits, influential lectures, public readings, and performances in a range of disciplines.

During his two-day visit, Johnson will meet with students and visit Philosophy, Cognitive Science, English, Political Science, and Education classes. Students, faculty, and staff participate in a 6 week reading group discussing the works of Dr. Johnson, preparing them to be engaged with his visit. “It’s just such an amazing opportunity for students to talk with Professor Johnson about his ideas after reading his works in their classes,” said Professor Zebrowski.