23.3936, Confs: Philosophy of Language, Pragmatics, Semantics/Germany

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LINGUIST List: Vol-23-3936. Sun Sep 23 2012. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 23.3936, Confs: Philosophy of Language, Pragmatics, Semantics/Germany

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Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2012 12:46:33
From: Brian Leahy [brian.leahy at uni-konstanz.de]
Subject: What If? On the Meaning, Epistemology and Scientific Relevance of Counterfactual Claims and Thought Experiments

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What If? On the Meaning, Epistemology and Scientific Relevance of Counterfactual Claims and Thought Experiments 

Date: 25-Oct-2012 - 27-Oct-2012 
Location: Konstanz, Germany 
Contact: Brian Leahy 
Contact Email: brian.leahy at uni-konstanz.de 
Meeting URL: http://cms.uni-konstanz.de/what-if/opening-conference/ 

Linguistic Field(s): Philosophy of Language; Pragmatics; Semantics 

Meeting Description: 

The newly inaugurated 'What If?' Research Unit at the Universities of 
Konstanz and Geneva and the Humboldt University in Berlin studying 
conditional sentences and thought experiments is pleased to announce its 
opening conference. 

Conditional and in particular counterfactual reasoning plays an important role 
in everyday life. It is important to know not only how things are or were, but 
also how they could have been and how they would be under certain 
circumstances. Counterfactual reasoning plays a similar role in inquiries in 
the natural sciences and humanities. Yet one might be concerned about the 
scientific standing of counterfactual reasoning. Both a satisfactory (historical) 
epistemology and a detailed linguistic analysis of the conditional claims used 
to convey counterfactual reasoning are still wanting, as is a description of the 
role of counterfactuals in more complex narrative and rhetorical structures 
such as thought experiments. 

Counterfactual reasoning and thought experiments take a wide variety of 
forms in different disciplines. Our group--and this opening conference--brings 
together history of science, linguistics, literary studies, and philosophy to 
examine counterfactuals and/or thought experiments in these domains and 
from these various perspectives. The conference focuses on four themes: 

1.    The logical and linguistic form of counterfactual and other conditionals; 

2.    The epistemology of counterfactual thinking and thought experiments; 

3.    The role of counterfactual conditionals and thought experiments in 
different sciences and humanities; 

4.    Counterfactuals in fiction and narrative. 

The opening conference will include linguists Ana Arregui and Kai von Fintel. 
More information is available at:

http://cms.uni-konstanz.de/what-if/opening-conference/ 









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