CFP: The Foundations of Representational Content

We are pleased to announce the CFA for the conference “The Foundations of Representational Content,” which will take place at the University of Milan on the 4th and 5th of September 2023. 

Confirmed speakers: 

• Max Deutsch (University of Hong Kong)
• Anandi Hattiangadi (Stockholm University)
• Angela Mendelovici (University of Western Ontario)
• David Papineau (King’s College London)
• Adam Pautz (Brown University)
• Olivia Sultanescu (Concordia University)
• J Robert G Williams (University of Leeds)

Call for Abstracts for young researchers:

The aim of the conference is to explore new directions in contemporary work on the determination of representational content in the philosophy of mind and language. The focus will be on the foundational issue of how mental representations come to have the meaning or content they do. 

In other words, the central questions of this event will concern the broader mystery of intentionality: how is it possible for thought, belief, and language to be about things? And how is it possible that they are about specific, determinate things? What links a representation and its object? How crucial is our understanding of misrepresentation to an adequate theory of content? How have advances in the natural sciences affected answers to the foundational question of representation? Is there hope for naturalistic approaches to representation? What is the role of the notion of function when representation is concerned? How does representational content relate to phenomenal character? Papers concerning any of these issues, or any related areas, would be welcomed as submissions.

Graduate students and early-career researchers (within 5 years of obtaining their PhD) are invited to submit an abstract of no more than 500 words on the topic of the conference to [email protected]. Abstracts should be prepared for blind review and suitable for a 30/40 min presentation. Applicants should include contact information and their affiliation in the body of the email.

The conference will be held in person. Travel expenses will be covered for the selected presenters. The deadline for submissions is the 20th of May 2023, and applicants will be notified about the results by the 20th of June 2023. 

Conference information:

Details about the program of the conference will be updated and found on the conference's website, sites.unimi.it/representation.

If you have any questions, please contact the organizers at [email protected].

The conference is organized by Anandi Hattiangadi (University of Stockholm), Alex Moran (Trinity College Dublin), Elisa Paganini (University of Milan), and Sara Papic (University of Milan). Support for the conference is provided by the University of Milan and the Swedish Research Council.