Transcendental Argument and Its Discontents

The Taiwan Metaphysics Colloquium series (TMCs) is one of the most noted international philosophy conference series in Taiwan. It was previously hosted by the Department of Philosophy at National Taiwan University and now by the Taiwan Association for Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technology (LMPST Taiwan): https://www.lmpsttw.org/ This series is held biennially and aims to provide a platform for dialogues amongst researchers working on various contemporary metaphysical issues. In previous years, the conferences under the series have invited many renowned local and international scholars, including David Charles, Max J. Cresswell, Dorothy Edgington, Pascal Engel, Hartry Field, Robert Goldblatt, Alan Hayek, Jennifer Hornsby, Hiroakira Ono, and Daniel Stoljar. Following the conference series, multiple international anthologies have been published, including a Logic in Asia (LIAA) book series (Springer) and a special issue of Synthese.

The sixth Taiwan Metaphysics Colloquium (TMC-VI) is titled “Transcendental Argument and Its Discontents.” A transcendental argument roughly has this form: “X is a necessary condition for the possibility of Y – where then, given that Y is the case, it logically follows that X must be the case” (Stern and Cheng, 2023). In about quarter-century ago, the conference on the problems and prospects of transcendental arguments took place at Sheffield, UK, resulting in an edited volume with many influential papers (Stern, 1999). More discussions have been conducted after that. Some have argued forcefully against the viability and relevance of transcendental arguments (Cassam, 2007; Burge, 2010). Some have connected transcendental arguments to contemporary modal metaphysics and epistemology, though in a critical way (Mizrahi, 2017). Some have attempted to apply or rescue it in specific areas, but controversies remain (Korsgaard, 1996, 1998; Gomes, 2017). Transcendental arguments are also closely connected to contemporary epistemology, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and metametaphysics. Some relevant ideas include identity, reduction, supervenience, necessitation, constitution, emergence, and grounding.

We welcome submissions related to the following series of questions, very broadly construed: what are the problems and prospects of transcendental arguments in the 21st century, in particular, in an age of science? Are transcendental arguments rendered obsolete by empirical methods? Or by better philosophical reflections? Can contemporary metametaphysics provide finer-grained apparatuses, i.e., finer than modal logic, for modelling transcendental arguments? Are there some specific transcendental arguments that are successful (or unsuccessful)? At this conference, we plan to gain a better understanding of transcendental arguments in the face of new challenges. [More details in CFP]

We greatly appreciate the sponsorship of Frontward Foundation, National Taiwan University, and National Chengchi University.