24-26 Sep 2014
Aarhus, Denmark
CALL FOR REGISTRATION: EPISTEMOLOGY OF MODALITY Conference September 24-26, 2014 Aarhus University, Denmark MAIN SPEAKERS: Otàvio Bueno (Miami) Hannes Leitgeb (München) Stephen Mumford (Nottingham) Daniel Nolan (ANU) Sonia Roca Royes (Stirling) Anand Vaidya (San Jose) Timothy Williamson (Oxford) CONFERENCE THEME: The capacity of humans to acquire knowledge of what is actually true is in many ways relatively well understood. For example, by visual perception we are able to acquire knowledge of the actual spatial location of the objects within our field of vision; by memory, we are able to recall events that actually took place in the past; etc. But humans are not only interested in what is actually the case. Often, we are also interested in what could be the case (possibilities), what must be the case (necessities), and what would be the case, if something else, which is not in fact the case, were the case (counterfactuals). Propositions of these kinds belong to the class of modal propositions. Knowledge of such modalities cannot be acquired in a direct way by any of the usual and basic cognitive pathways, such as perception. No amount of observation of some particular fact will tell one whether that fact obtains with necessity, or whether it would have obtained if some other fact had obtained. Instead, modal knowledge seems to require reasoning and cognitive faculties of a decidedly shakier kind, involving inexact and ill-understood operations such as imagination, intuition, and mental simulation. This conference will address questions concerning our capacity for modal knowledge. More information and registration at conference website: http://projects.au.dk/modal-epistemology-six-investigations/conference/ -- Asbjørn Steglich-Petersen, Ph.D Associate Professor of Philosophy Director of the Research Programme for Philosophy and Intellectual History Department of Culture and Society Aarhus University, Denmark http://person.au.dk/en/filasp@hum.au.dk