Modals and Copulas in Aristotle
Simona Aimar (UCL)

25 March 2022, 16:00 (Lisbon Time – GMT) | Sala Mattos Romão (Departamento de Filosofia)

Abstract: The following sentences

(1) The Queen is necessarily British.

(2) The Queen is possibly Italian.

are modal claims. They contain modals, words that make a sentence express modalities like possibilities and necessities. Claim (1) contains the modal adverb ‘necessarily’ – a necessity modal. Claim (2) contains the modal ‘possibly’ – a possibility modal. This talk asks: How does Aristotle account for modals?
So far, scholars assume that my question is a non-starter. In their view, Aristotle does not account for modals: no such account is present within his reconstruction of modal logic (in the Prior Analytics), or in his account of language (in De Interpretatione). Even the claim that Aristotle has a systematic semantics for natural language is regarded as suspicious.
My talk debunks the suspicion that Aristotle was no semanticist. I reconstruct his theory of modals and show that it stems from a systematic account of language. Just like many contemporary linguists, Aristotle assumes that language is compositional and assertive claims have truth-conditions. Unlike contemporary authors, however, he analyses predications of the form ‘a is F’ as have a tripartite structure: a copula (‘is’) takes scope over two terms (‘a’ and ‘F’). Given this picture, he argues that modals are copula-modifiers, where his modifiers can be modelled as expressing a function that takes an item of a given linguistic type and issues a different item of the same linguistic type. Specifically, modals take a (non-modal) copula as an input and yield a modal copula as their output. I reconstruct his argument for the claim that modals are non-copula modifiers and how it relies on semantic intuitions about negations (a technique also used in contemporary linguistics). Finally, I show how Aristotle’s account guarantees the insight that modals and quantifiers work in a parallel way and accounts for differences in scope. I conclude by raising the question of why (for all we know) Aristotle did not think about higher-order modal claims. Is there room for these in his semantics at all?.

The room has a limited number of seats. Pre-registration is required at <info@lancog.com> until a day before the event. Note that this is an in-person event and everyone should wear a mask.

The Centre of Philosophy of the University of Lisbon (CFUL) is interested in receiving proposals from candidates wishing to develop research activities leading to the award of a Doctorate in Philosophy (with particular emphasis on the History of Philosophy, Analytic Philosophy or Practical Philosophy), with the CFUL as the host institution, in the context of the Call for PhD Research Grants – 2022, promoted by the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) [info] [opening announcement].

Interested parties are invited to express their interest until March 25, 2022, by sending the following information, in English or Portuguese:

e-mail: c.filosofia@letras.ulisboa.pt

Subject: BID 2022 FCT_ [the applicant’s name]

Send:

1) Research Plan

2) Curriculum Vitae in PDF

3) Name of the supervisor with whom you intend to work / research group where you intend to develop your research.

The decision on which applications the CFUL will accept will be communicated by 30 March 2022.

The FCT call will be open from 8 March to 7 April 2022 at 17:00 (Lisbon time) and must contain the following elements:

1) Detailed research plan

2) Curriculum Vitae (on the CIÊNCIAVITAE platform)

3) Motivation letter

4) Two recommendation letters

5) In case of academic degrees awarded by foreign higher education institutions, recognition of those degrees and conversion of the respective final classification into the Portuguese classification scale.(*)

(*) The recognition of foreign academic degrees and diplomas as well as the conversion of the final classification into the Portuguese classification scale may be requested in any public higher education institution, or in the Directorate-General for Higher Education (DGES). Regarding this matter, we suggest that you consult the DGES portal at the following address:https://www.dges.gov.pt/en/pagina/degree-and-diploma-recognition

Concurso FCT para Atribuição de Bolsas de Investigação para Doutoramento – 2022

No âmbito do Concurso FCT para Atribuição de Bolsas de Investigação para Doutoramento – 2022, o CFUL informa que todas as candidaturas que pretendam ter o Centro como Instituição de Acolhimento devem ser enviadas previamente para conhecimento/aprovação, de acordo com as instruções em baixo:

O Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa (CFUL) mantém o interesse em receber propostas de candidatos que pretendam desenvolver actividades de investigação conducentes à obtenção do grau académico de Doutor em Filosofia (com particular ênfase na História da Filosofia, Filosofia analítica e Filosofia prática) tendo o CFUL como entidade de acolhimento, no âmbito do concurso para Atribuição de Bolsas de Investigação para Doutoramento – 2022, promovido pela Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) [info][aviso de abertura].

Convidam-se os interessados a manifestar o seu interesse até ao dia 25 de Março de 2022, enviando os seguintes elementos, em inglês ou português:

e-mail: c.filosofia@letras.ulisboa.pt

Assunto: BID 2022 FCT_ [o nome do candidato]

Enviar:

1) Plano de Investigação
2) Curriculum Vitae em PDF
3) Nome do orientador com quem pretendem trabalhar.

A decisão sobre as candidaturas que o CFUL aceitará acolher será comunicada até ao dia 30 de Março de 2022.

O concurso FCT estará aberto de 8 de Março a 7 de Abril de 2022 às 17:00 (hora de Lisboa) e terá de conter os seguintes elementos:

1) Plano de investigação detalhado
2) Curriculum Vitae (na plataforma CIÊNCIAVITAE)
3) Carta de motivação
4) Duas carta de recomendação
5) No caso de graus académicos atribuídos por instituições de ensino superior estrangeiras, reconhecimento desses graus e a conversão da respectiva classificação final para a escala de classificação portuguesa.(*)

(*) O reconhecimento de graus académicos e diplomas estrangeiros bem como a conversão da classificação final para a escala de classificação portuguesa pode ser requerido em qualquer instituição de ensino superior pública, ou na Direcção-Geral do Ensino Superior (DGES). Relativamente a esta matéria, sugere-se a consulta do portal da DGES através do seguinte endereço: https://www.dges.gov.pt/en/pagina/degree-and-diploma-recognition

Andrés Saenz de Sicilia

Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London | UNAM

Capitalism as System and History: On Marx’s Theory of Subsumption

22 March 2022, 17h00 (Lisbon Time – GMT+0)

Sala Mattos Romão (Room C201.J – Department of Philosophy) | School of Arts and Humanities – University of Lisbon

Abstract

One of the fundamental tensions within Marx’s writings arises from the complex relationship between the systematic and historical aspects of his description of capitalist society. This paper argues that among all the concepts deployed by Marx ‘subsumption’ is key with respect to this issue. The different forms of capitalist subsumption analysed by Marx designate the mechanisms by which capital shapes the developmental dynamics of modern societies. Yet the concept is undertheorized in Marx’s writings and has been subject to divergent interpretations. Its implications remain contested. By returning to the philosophical origins of subsumption, in particular to Kant’s ‘critical’ reconceptualisation of it as a productive act of ‘synthetic determination’, this paper seeks to establish its centrality for Marxist thought. Subsumption, it is argued, is the fundamental category of analysis linking capital as system to capital as history.

Barcan Formulas and the Limits of Contingency
Adam Russell Murray (University of Manitoba)

18 March 2022, 16:00 (Lisbon Time – GMT) | Sala Mattos Romão (Departamento de Filosofia)

Abstract: Our simplest and best understood theory of first-order metaphysical modality represents individual existence and non-existence as strictly non-contingent. However, these necessitist implications of the simple theory appear to be undermined by robust intuition to the effect that existence and non-existence are largely contingent matters. In this talk, I show how resources familiar from two-dimensional semantics support a novel interpretation of the necessitist’s theoretical commitments. In contrast with existing positions in these debates, the necessitist theory I develop preserves both the simple theory and a non-revisionist metaphysics of individuals, while also explaining much of the intuitive allure of the alternative, contingentist picture.

The room has a limited number of seats. Pre-registration is required at <info@lancog.com> until a day before the event. Note that this is an in-person event and everyone should wear a mask.

Viriato Soromenho-Marques

Praxis-CFUL, University of Lisbon

Anthropocene, Utopia and Dystopia. Contributions to a Philosophy of History of the Near Future

15 March 2022, 17h00 (Lisbon Time – GMT+0)

Sala Mattos Romão (Room C201.J – Department of Philosophy) | School of Arts and Humanities – University of Lisbon

Abstract

The roots of our present predicament are entangled in the humanistic turn of European Modernity, which was quickly embedded with a new vision of technology. The latter ceased to be a mere instrumental and secondary derivative consequence of knowledge primacy, to become the very vehicle and purpose of the most desirable future, able to be reached through our increased ability to alter and mobilise nature to suit our needs and even our whims. It is no sheer coincidence that the concept of utopia was invented in this period (in Thomas More’s Utopia, 1516), and that the most influential utopias that followed suit, like those of Tommaso Campanella and Francis Bacon have the increasingly predominant presence of techno-science as the anticipation driving force of a desirable future. We have reached the contemporary period with a full-fledged technological orientation of the science infrastructure, and also of its planning and operating procedures, in an atmosphere of uncritical optimism, averse to any prudential reserve. The discourse of unlimited scientific progress marginalised dissenting voices and discounted as acceptable collateral damage the increasing toll of environmental and social negative impacts. The utopian drive of techno-science is growingly escalating towards the opposite world of a dystopian nightmare.

An Internal Realist Interpretation of the Primitive Ontology Programme
Andrea Oldofredi (University of Lisbon, LanCog)

11 March 2022, 16:00 (Lisbon Time – GMT) | Sala Mattos Romão (Departamento de Filosofia)

Abstract: New interesting developments and extensions of the Primitive Ontology (PO) programme have been recently proposed in order to defeat Laudan’s Pessimistic Meta-Induction on the one hand, and to provide a theory-independent fundamental atomistic ontology of the world on the other. Against this background, the aim of the talk is twofold: I will firstly discuss the main assumptions behind those arguments according to which the PO programme can overcome Laudan’s induction and offer a scale-invariant ontology, showing possible counterexamples to these claims. Secondly, I will argue that the realism introduced by the PO approach can be consistently interpreted as internal realism, i.e., I will show that the internal realist view can faithfully represent the ontological commitment (and its limits) implied by the acceptance of a given PO theory, capturing also the pluralist stance of this programme as originally conceived by David Bohm and John S. Bell.

The room has a limited number of seats. Pre-registration is required at <info@lancog.com> until a day before the event. Note that this is an in-person event and everyone should wear a mask.

Teresa Joaquim

Universidade Aberta

A questão da natalidade como (possibilidade de) transmissão de um mundo comum: entre Hannah Arendt e Françoise Collin

8 March 2022, 16h00 (Lisbon Time — GMT+0)

Sala Mattos Romão (Room C201.J – Department of Philosophy) | School of Arts and Humanities – University of Lisbon

Abstract

Pretende-se com esta exposição traçar o fio de compreensão que a noção de natalidade de Hannah Arendt permitiu a Françoise Collin repensar a criação de um mundo comum marcado pela vulnerabilidade não só do ponto de vista teórico como numa praxis feminista na sua pluralidade de modo a tornar esse mundo na expressão de Virginia Woolf “um lugar que seja seu” (a room of one’s own) ou antes nosso. Talvez seja necessário ir até o Segundo Sexo de Simone de Beauvoir e o que ela diz sobre a maternidade — como repetição e sem inovação — para perceber como a leitura de Collin a partir da reelaboração do conceito de natalidade de Arendt permite questionar, reformular a noção de mundo comum, e como a natalidade introduz nele, de cada vez, initium, refundando o político. A questão da natalida­de está intimamente ligada com a questão política na obra de Arendt, já que o nascimento é o surgimento do novo, no espaço comum, e é a construção desse espaço que constitui a polis; “nascer é afirmar a sua presença de ser que fala e age na comunidade, o inter-esse”.

From Metaphilosophy to Semantics
Jonathan Berg (University of Haifa)

4 March 2022, 16:00 (Lisbon Time – GMT) | Sala Mattos Romão (Departamento de Filosofia)

Abstract: I aim to show how a commonly accepted metaphilosophical assumption has important consequences for a hotly debated issue in the philosophy of language. The seemingly innocuous metaphilosophical claim is this: The Principle of Philosophical Thought Experiments – Philosophical theories must be compatible (ceteris paribus) with the intuitions elicited by philosophical thought experiments. The controversial semantic claim it supports is this: Strict Semantics – Every disambiguated sentence has a determinate semantic content, relative to an assignment of contents to its indexical expressions. After considering each of these claims individually, I shall suggest how the first provides evidence for the second.

The room has a limited number of seats. Pre-registration is required at <info@lancog.com> until a day before the event. Note that this is an in-person event and everyone should wear a mask.

Consequences do not trickle down
Diogo Santos (University of Lisbon, LanCog)

25 February 2022, 16:00 (Lisbon Time – GMT) | Sala Mattos Romão (Departamento de Filosofia)

Abstract: I have argued that consequentialists should endorse what I call the No Trickle Down Principle (NTD), which is a restriction on what counts as consequence of an isolated action. In its stronger version NTD states that for any sequence of actions S initiated by an isolated action A, consequences of S are not consequences of A. The adoption of the principle allows for consequentialism to, at the very least, improve its standing when confronted with the classical epistemic objection. Notwithstanding the reasons for NTD, there are seeming unpalatable consequences from endorsing it. I focus on addressing two of these: (i) without further classification, the principle wrongly predicts that some isolated actions do not generate the consequences they actually generate; (ii) the principle entails that permissible isolated actions can initiate impermissible sequences and that impermissible isolated actions can initiate permissible sequences. I address (i) by proposing a distinction between isolated actions and sequence of actions which borrows ideas from the literature on collective action and I assuage the second concern by showing that there is an interesting parallel between NTD and compelling non-reductive approaches to team agency and collective responsibility.

The room has a limited number of seats. Pre-registration is required at <info@lancog.com> until a day before the event. Note that this is an in-person event and everyone should wear a mask.

Ludger Schwarte

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf

Critique of Contemporary Art

22 February 2022, 17h00 (Lisbon Time — GMT+0)

Sala Mattos Romão (Room C201.J – Department of Philosophy) | School of Arts and Humanities – University of Lisbon

Abstract

Theoretical determinations of the peculiarities of contemporary art have been put forward for about 10 years. Previously, one was largely limited to mapping its individual currents, formats, media, performance venues and social shifts.  Now it is becoming clear in what respects contemporary art differs from modern art and what these ruptures aim at. Contemporary art takes a critical stance towards modern art and thus pursues not only a change in artistic practice but also political goals. My lecture presents the most important characteristics of contemporary art and discusses the alternatives that have also recently been formulated to the “epoch of contemporaneity”. My lecture culminates in a plea for Future Art.