Archive

Issues in experimental philosophy: experimental philosophy of language (2022/2023)

The seminar examines issues studied in experimental philosophy of language.

Convenors: Adrian Ziółkowski, Katarzyna Kuś

Course code: 3800-PFE22-S. Language of instruction: Polish. Course description in USOS.

The first semester introduces experimental philosophy and its main findings in philosophy of language, including natural kind terms, semantic contextualism, ordinary conceptions of truth, intuitions about modal concepts and faultless disagreement involving predicates of personal taste. Discussion of selected readings provides a methodological foundation for research in experimental philosophy of language. In the second semester, participants design and conduct their own research projects.

Detailed programme: first semester and part of the second semester

BLOCK 1. Natural kind terms

  1. Jylkkä, J., H. Railo, and J. Haukioja (2009). “Psychological Essentialism and Semantic Externalism: Evidence for Externalism in Lay Speakers’ Language Use. Philosophical Psychology 22(1), 37–60. + jako kontekst: Braisby, N., B. Franks, and J. Hampton (1996). “Essentialism, Word Use, and Concepts.”Cognition 59(3), 247–274
  2. Genone, J., and T. Lombrozo (2012). Concept Possession, Experimental Semantics, and Hybrid Theories of Reference.Philosophical Psychology 25(5), 717–742.
  3. Nichols, S., Pinillos, N. Á., & Mallon, R. (2016). Ambiguous reference. Mind, 125(497), 145-175.
  4. Tobia, Kevin P. ; E. Newman, George & Knobe, Joshua (2020). Water is and is not H 2 O. Mind and Language 35 (2):183-208.
  5. Haukioja, Jussi ; Nyquist, Mons & Jylkkä, Jussi (2021). Reports from Twin Earth: Both deep structure and appearance determine the reference of natural kind terms. Mind and Language 36 (3): 377-403.

BLOCK 2. Epistemic contextualism

  1. Pinillos, Á. (2012) Knowledge, Experiments, and Practical Interests. In Jessica Brown & Mikkel Gerken (eds.), Knowledge Ascriptions. Oxford University Press. pp. 192.
  2. Sripada C. S. & Stanley J. (2012) Empirical tests of interest-relative invariantism, Episteme 9 (1), pp. 3-26.
  3. Buckwalter W. & Schaffer J. (2015) Knowledge, Stakes, and Mistakes, Noûs 49 (2), pp. 201–234.
  4. Francis K., Beaman P. & Hansen N. (2019) Stakes, Scales, and Skepticism. Ergo 6 (16), pp. 427-487.
  5. Rose D., Machery E., et al. (2019) Nothing at Stake in Knowledge, Noûs 53, pp. 224-247.

BLOCK 3. Contextualism about colour adjectives

  1. Hansen N. & Chemla E. (2013) Experimenting on contextualism, Mind and Language 28 (3), pp. 286-321.
  2. Hansen, Nat & Chemla, Emmanuel (2017). Color Adjectives, Standards, and Thresholds: An Experimental Investigation. Linguistics and Philosophy 40 (3):1–40.
  3. Ziółkowski, Adrian (2021). The Context-Sensitivity of Color Adjectives and Folk Intuitions. Filozofia Nauki 29 (2): 157-188.

BLOCK 4. Predicates of personal taste

  1. Liao S., Meskin A. (2017), Aesthetic Adjectives: Experimental Semantics and Context-Sensitivity, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 94 (2): 371−398.
  2. Cova F., Olivola Ch.Y., Marchery E. et al. (2018), De Pulchritudine non est Disputandum? A Cross-Cultural Investigation of the Alleged Intersubjective Validity of Aesthetic Judgment, Mind & Language 34 (3): 317−338.
  3. Dinges, Alexander & Zakkou, Julia (2020). A direction effect on taste predicates. Philosophers’ Imprint 20 (27):1-22.
  4. Kneer, Markus (2022). Contextualism vs. Relativism: More empirical data. In Jeremy Wyatt, Julia Zakkou & Dan Zeman (eds.), Perspectives on Taste. Routledge.

BLOCK 5. Modal terms

  1. Knobe, J., & Szabó, Z. G. (2013). Modals with a taste of the deontic. Semantics and Pragmatics, 6, 1-1.
  2. Knobe, J., & Yalcin, S. (2014). Epistemic modals and context: Experimental data. Semantics and Pragmatics, 7, 10-1.
  3. Katz, J., & Salerno, J. (2017). Epistemic modal disagreement. Topoi, 36(1), 141-153.
  4. Turri, J. (2018). Epistemic modals and alternative possibilities. Erkenntnis, 83(5), 1063-1084.