The Evolutionary Origins of Speech Acts

"The Evolutionary Origins of Speech Acts" conference is organized in partnership between the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Bucharest (through its Department for Theoretical Philosophy) and the Center for Logic, Philosophy and History of Science (CELFIS).

The event is scheduled to take place May 17th, 2023, between 10am-7pm, local time for Bucharest, Romania. Regular presentations will be 30 minutes long, followed by 10 minutes long Q&A and 10 minutes breaks.

The conference will have a mixed format, in that speakers may choose whether they present online only or face to face at the event's location (if so, their session will enjoy a live audience, but it will also be streamed to remote participants).

Programme for Wednesday, May 17:

9.00 Fredrik Stjernberg, Linkoping University, “The evolution of asking”

10.00 (online) Bart Geurts, Radboud University, Nijmegen, “From chimp-style communication to human discourse”

11.00 keynote Mitchell Green, University of Connecticut, “The Evolution of Speech Acts”

12.00 Krisztina Orbán, Tübingen University, “Communicative Action, Sense and Reference”

13.00 Ladislav Koreň, University of Hradec Králové, "A Pragmatic Genealogy of Asserting"

Lunch break

17.00 (online) Peter van Elswyk, Northwestern University, “From mindreading to speech acts”

All times are for Bucharest, Romania. For those of you joining face to face, the conference will be in "Mircea Florian" hall, 1st floor in the Faculty of Philosophy, at Splaiul Independenței nr. 204, București 060024.

Registering and other details

For any questions, please don't hesitate to email [email protected] You may register at the same address (or by RSVP here on PhilEvents) on or before May 15th in order to receive the Zoom connection details.

The conference is organized with the support of students in the “Mind the Brain” master’s programme in cognitive science within the Department for Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Bucharest. More details about the programme are available here: https://filosofie.unibuc.ro/master-of-arts-in-cognitive-science-mind-the-brain/

The event is also organized with the support of students undertaking their curricular practical training with CELFIS. More about the center’s activity is available here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063082908977 Recordings of past events are also available on the Department for Theoretical Philosophy at UB’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOgUq3dN8CXI4L6DhZT1f_Q

In the aftermath of the conference, we would enjoy jointly exploring the possibility of publishing its proceedings. More details will be forthcoming at the time.