29.2234, Confs: Philosophy of Language/Belgium

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-29-2234. Wed May 23 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.2234, Confs: Philosophy of Language/Belgium

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Date: Wed, 23 May 2018 12:31:54
From: Philippe De Brabanter [pdebraba at ulb.ac.be]
Subject: Brussels Transparency Workshop 2018 – “The Epistemic Transparency of Mental and Linguistic Content”

 
Brussels Transparency Workshop 2018 – “The Epistemic Transparency of Mental and Linguistic Content” 

Date: 13-Jun-2018 - 14-Jun-2018 
Location: Bruxelles, Belgium 
Contact: Philippe De Brabanter 
Contact Email: pdebraba at ulb.ac.be 
Meeting URL: https://externalismtransparency2018.wordpress.com 

Linguistic Field(s): Philosophy of Language 

Meeting Description: 

According to externalism (or anti-individualism), the contents of mental
states are individuated in part by facts about the physical and/or the social
environment in which the states are embedded. Externalism has become the
dominant view in the philosophy of mind. Putnam’s (1975) and Burge’s (1979)
thought experiments convinced most philosophers that subjects situated in
relevantly dissimilar environments could be in the same (narrow) psychological
states and yet think thoughts whose contents are true under different
conditions. However, Boghossian (1994, 2015) argued that externalism conflicts
with (comparative) transparency, the thesis that a thinker is able to know on
a priori grounds, without the benefit of further empirical investigation,
whether two of her occurrent thoughts have the same or different content(s).
If the individuation of our mental contents depends on the environment, then,
providing that we do not know a priori how our environment is, it should
follow that (in the relevant, comparative sense) we cannot know a priori what
we are thinking.

This result threatens a traditional account of self-knowledge which grants
that subjects have privileged access to the contents of their own thoughts.
One problem here, Boghossian claimed, is that externalism thereby blurs the
line, to which assessments of rationality and psychological explanations are
sensitive, between logical and factual errors (see also Kripke 1979). Given
externalism, it appears that subjects who look intuitively rational will not
be able to avoid some simple contradictions and invalid inferences without
receiving more factual information about their environment. In response to
this challenge, and among many other attempts, Stalnaker (2008) and Recanati
(2012, 2016) have recently developed different compatibilist strategies
purporting to reconcile externalism and transparency. Stalnaker’s contextual
and attributor-dependent account of content invokes tacit identity
presuppositions to rescue the rationality of the subjects in the hardest cases
(see the ensuing discussions in Boghossian 2011 and Stalnaker 2011). Recanati
concedes that contents are opaque but argues that mental files, construed as
vehicles of thoughts supposed to play some of the traditional roles of modes
of presentation, are transparent. The aim of this workshop is to continue
those ongoing debates and to seek new ways of reconciling externalism and
transparency.

The meeting description can also be accessed here:
https://externalismtransparency2018.wordpress.com/meeting-description/
 

Program:

The meeting will be held at Salle Henri Janne, ULB, Solbosch campus, Institut
de sociologie, avenue Jeanne 44, 15th floor.

June 13:

9:00-9:15: 
Registration

9:15-9:30: 
Welcome address and introductory words by Gregory Bochner

9:30-11:30: 
Paul Boghossian
“Transparency and Concepts”

11:30-11:45: Coffee break

11:45-12:45: 
Gregory Bochner
tba

12:45-14:00: Lunch

14:00-16:00: 
Robert Stalnaker
“Fragmentation and Singular Propositions”

16:00-16:15: Coffee break

16:15-17:15: 
Amir Horowicz
“One’s content are not transparent to one”

17:15-20:00: Drinks/free time

20:00: Workshop dinner

June 14:

9:30-11:30: 
François Recanati
“Slow Switching and the Transparency of Coreference”

11:30-11:45: Coffee break

11:45-12:45: 
Bruno Leclercq & Philippe De Brabanter
“What does semantic deference leave to cognitive transparency?”

12:45-14:00: Lunch

14:00-15:00: 
Elisabetta Sacchi
“A phenomenologically oriented account of compatibilism”

15:00-15:15: Coffee break

15:15-16:15: 
Michael Schmitz
“Transparency and externalism from a 1st person point of view”

16:15: 
Workshop ends





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