29.817, Calls: Philosophy of Lang, Pragmatics, Semantics/Belgium

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-29-817. Mon Feb 19 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.817, Calls:  Philosophy of Lang, Pragmatics, Semantics/Belgium

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Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2018 18:50:06
From: Philippe De Brabanter [pdebraba at ulb.ac.be]
Subject: Transparency Workshop 2018 – The Epistemic Transparency of Mental and Linguistic Content

 
Full Title: Transparency Workshop 2018 – The Epistemic Transparency of Mental and Linguistic Content 

Date: 13-Jun-2018 - 14-Jun-2018
Location: Brussels, Belgium 
Contact Person: Gregory Bochner
Meeting Email: transparency2018 at gmail.com

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

Call Deadline: 10-Mar-2018 

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.

Keynote speakers: 

Paul Boghossian (New York University)
François Recanati (Institut Jean Nicod)
Robert Stalnaker (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Topic: The epistemic transparency of mental and linguistic content
Areas: Philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, epistemology

Organisers: 

Gregory Bochner (Université de Fribourg & Université Libre de Bruxelles),
Philippe De Brabanter (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Philippe Kreutz
(Université Libre de Bruxelles), Bruno Leclercq (Université de Liège),
Sébastien Richard (Université Libre de Bruxelles), Antonin Thuns (Université
Libre de Bruxelles). (http://refer.ulb.be/refer/Redirect_Fr_or_Eng.html).


2nd Call for papers - Transparency Workshop 2018

Dates: June 13-14, 2018.
Venue: Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB, Campus du Solbosch), Belgium.

We invite submissions of long abstracts in English of 1200 words maximum,
suitable for one-hour presentations (including 15 minutes for discussion), on
the (in)compatibility of externalism and transparency. Abstracts must be
anonymous, in PDF format, single-spaced (A4), in a font size no less than 12.
The abstracts should be sent to the contact address below, with your name,
affiliation, and contact information in the body of the email. We cannot
provide travel and/or accommodation grants. 

Deadline for submissions: March 10, 2018
Notification of acceptance: March 20, 2018
Registration: free, but required; please email us at the address below.
(http://refer.ulb.be/refer/Redirect_Fr_or_Eng.html).

Sponsor: Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS), Communauté
française de Belgique, PDR T.0184.16 (2016-2020).




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