TFAP
Tokyo Forum For Analytic Philosophy
Program
Charitable Interpretation and Self-Understanding
Speaker: Ben Winokur
From: University of Macau
URL: http://benwinokur.com/
Abstract: Donald Davidson routinely argued that a certain principle of charity necessarily governs our interpretive activities. The principle implies that successful interpretation culminates in at least some understanding of one another, since successfully abiding the principle not only culminates in correctly attributing attitudes to one another but, also, in seeing those attitudes as constituting a rational point of view. And yet Davidson also argued that interpreters are not generally in the position of needing to interpret their own attitudes. Granting this, how does self-understanding generally arise, and what importance might self-understanding hold for us? I argue that self-understanding plays a key role in fortifying our first-person authority against interpersonal challenges, and that we might explain its non-interpretive origins by adapting “agentialist” theories from contemporary discussions of self-knowledge.
Art is not a game
Speaker: Zed Adams
From: The New School for Social Research, New York City
URL: https://www.newschool.edu/nssr/faculty/zed-adams/
Abstract: Interpretations of artworks seem governed by two requirements: on the one hand, we want our interpretations to be correct; on the other hand, in arriving at our interpretations, we prohibit ourselves from relying upon the testimony of others. These requirements can seem to be in tension: if we really aim at correctness, why prohibit ourselves from relying on others? Thi Nguyen proposes to resolve this apparent tension by arguing that art interpretation has a similar structure to playing a game, in which we impose artificial restrictions on the pursuit of goals in order to make the pursuit of those goals enjoyable for its own sake. When we interpret art, we aim at correctness (just as we sometimes aim to knock down a set of ten pins with a heavy ball), but we also impose an artificial restriction of not relying on others (just as in trying to knock down the pins we restrict ourselves from coming closer than 60 feet from them). This gives us an autotelic activity that we enjoy participating in for its own sake, whether it’s interpreting art or bowling (Nguyen 2020).
In this talk, I criticize Nguyen’s proposed resolution of the apparent tension between these two requirements and offer my own alternative account. On my account, unlike Nguyen’s, the prohibition on testimony isn’t an artificial imposition–it’s a consequence of the very nature of aesthetic judgments. The interpretation of art is, for this very reason, not a game.
TBA
Speaker: Tatyana Kostochka
From: Ashoka University
URL: https://www.ashoka.edu.in/profile/tatyana-kostochka/
Abstract: TBA
Episodic memory and the multiple functions hypothesis
Speaker: Doudja Boumaza
From: Center for Philosophy of Memory, Université Grenoble Alpes
URL: https://phil-mem.org/members/boumaza.php
Abstract: Debates in philosophy of memory have focused on the ontological issue as to what episodic memory is. Only recently, the functional issue as to what episodic memory is for has started to be tackled. Drawing on empirical evidence, many authors (see Addis et al., 2007) have started to say that the episodic memory neurocognitive system could have evolved not to support the remembering of past episodes of experience, but to anticipate future episodes of experience by their simulations through the combinations of stored experiential bits of information. In the wake of this breakthrough, the issue of the function of episodic memory has started to emerge as a topic of importance. Drawing from a Darwinian framework I propose that episodic memory has been shaped by a variety of evolutionary pressures, encompassing not only biological needs but also social and cultural factors. My main argument is that episodic memory is a multifaceted system serving multiple, sometimes independent, but often coextensive functions. The co-occurrence of these functions, I defend, underscores the flexibility and plasticity of episodic memory, a feature central to its evolutionary success (Anderson, 2010).
TBA
Speaker: Bronwyn Finnigan
From: Australian National University
URL: http://bronwynfinnigan.com
Abstract: TBA
TBA
Speaker: Fiora Salis
From: University of York
URL: https://www.york.ac.uk/philosophy/people/fiora-salis/#research-content
Abstract: TBA
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Speaker: Fabian Wendt
From: Kellogs Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Virginia Tech University
URL: https://www.fabianwendt.com/
Abstract: TBA
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Speaker: Igal Kvart
From: Hebrew University of Jerusalem
URL: https://en.philosophy.huji.ac.il/people/igal-kvart
Abstract: TBA
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Speaker: Graham Peebles
From: University of Tokyo
URL: https://grahampeeblesphilosophy.weebly.com/
Abstract: TBA
TGBA
Speaker: Thomas Hofweber
From: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
URL: https://www.thomashofweber.com/
Abstract: TBA
TBA
Speaker: Tony Cheng
From: Waseda University
URL: https://www.tonycheng.net
Abstract: TBA