HPhil Seminar: November 27, 2025

The HPhil (History of Philosophy) Research Group of the Centre of Philosophy of the University of Lisbon announces the 2025/26 edition of its permanent seminar on the history of philosophy, devoted to the presentation of conferences by renowned specialists while also creating opportunities to emerging scholars, aiming to promote advanced studies in groundbreaking debates and the permanent training of its academic community.

In this session of the seminar, José Mestre (CFUL) will present a work of his, entitled “Analysis, decomposition, and the context principle”. (abstract below)

The session will take place on November 27, 2025 at 5 p.m., in the Room 201.J (Room Mattos Romão, Department of Philosophy). Admission is free

Abstract

There is an apparent tension within Frege’s theorizing regarding the question whether thoughts can be analysed in different ways. Michael Dummett famously sought to resolve this tension by distinguishing between two kinds of analysis on his behalf: analysis proper, which is unique, and decomposition, which is not. More recently, James Levine has argued that this distinction ought to be attributed, not to Frege, but to Russell. In this talk, I will defend Dummett’s interpretation of Frege from Levine’s critique, and argue that the real difference between Frege’s and Russell’s conceptions of analysis ultimately concerns the context principle.