\u201cVerbal Disputes and Variance\u201d<\/p>\n
By Poppy Mankowitz (St Andrews, Philosophy)<\/p>\n
Date: Friday, 1st March, 2019
\nTime: 1100-1230
\nPlace: H-232<\/p>\n
Abstract: There has been much recent interest in the idea that, when philosophers disagree over existence claims like \u2018There are numbers\u2019, \u2018Chairs exist\u2019 or \u2018There are some objective moral facts\u2019, their dispute is merely verbal: they are disagreeing about the meaning of certain words rather than about something more substantive. It is important to clearly articulate and assess this view, since it threatens to undermine the aims and conclusions of a broad range of arguments within philosophy. In this talk, I will argue that the existing analysis of verbal disputes in the philosophical literature is incompatible with the way natural language theorists analyze meaning. I will claim that the best theories of natural language support an alternative strategy for modelling the idea of a merely verbal dispute. Moreover, this strategy provides clearer criteria for recognizing when, if ever, disputes over existence claims are merely verbal.<\/p>\n
About the speaker: Poppy Mankowitz completed her doctoral studies at the University of St Andrews (Arch\u00e9 Philosophical Research Center) and her MPhil at King\u2019s College London. She works primarily on the philosophy of language, semantics and metaphysics. She is currently Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the New University of Lisbon (Nova Institute of Philosophy). Her current research centers on the way we structure information within discourse, and how attending to information structure can resolve a range of philosophical problems. Dr Mankowitz has a forthcoming article in Mind & Language, entitled \u2018Triggering Domain Restriction\u2019.<\/p>\n
Web: www.phil.bilkent.edu.tr
\nFacebook: www.facebook.com\/bilkent.philosophy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cVerbal Disputes and Variance\u201d By Poppy Mankowitz (St Andrews, Philosophy) Date: Friday, 1st March, 2019 Time: 1100-1230 Place: H-232 Abstract: There has been much recent interest in the idea that, when philosophers disagree over existence claims like \u2018There are numbers\u2019, \u2018Chairs exist\u2019 or \u2018There are some objective moral facts\u2019, their [\u2026] <\/p>\n