Lies Without Assertions

Lying requires that a person makes a statement, but does it require assertion? This last thesis has been recently challenged. It has been argued that speakers can lie with presuppositions (Viebahn 2019), promises (Marsili 2016), and arguments (Sorensen 2017). Questioning the relation between lies and assertion raises further questions: should we capture in one theoretical category all and only cases we pre-theoretically call ‘lies’? How should we draw the distinction between lying and other kinds of deception such as misleading? What can the nature of lying tell us about the relation between assertion and other speech acts?

Confirmed Speakers:

• Roy Sorensen (University of Texas at Austin/University of St Andrews)

• Andreas Stokke (Uppsala University)

• Jessica Pepp (Uppsala University)

• Neri Marsili (University of Barcelona)

• Emanuel Viebahn (Humboldt-Universität/Freie Universität, Berlin)