Varieties of Understanding: Challenges and New Directions

Conference date: June 23-25, 2025

Where: Institute for Philosophical Research-UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico.   Keynote speakers:  Stephen Grimm (Fordham) Soazig Le Bihan (Montana) Allan Hazlett (WU, St. Louis)   The dawn of the XXI century saw the beginning of an explosion of interest in the nature of the precious cognitive achievement that goes by the ordinary name of “understanding”. Two and a half decades later, the literature produced by epistemologists, philosophers of science, cognitive psychologists, has shed so much light on so many aspects and manifestations of the diverse forms that understanding can take, that it feels appropriate to ask where our understanding of understanding stands at the present, after all those contributions.    This conference aims to address that very general question by calling for papers that tackle any of the following more specific questions and related ones: 

• What distinguishes understanding from knowledge, explanation, and interpretation?
• Is understanding an epistemically privileged cognitive state? what grounds this privilege?
• What are the theoretical vs. practical dimensions of understanding? How do they interact / inform each other?
• How can recent advances in cognitive science, AI, or data science challenge traditional views on understanding?
• What novel frameworks or theories offer promising directions for studying understanding in diverse contexts (scientific, social, ethical)?
• How does understanding vary across different disciplines, cultures, and historical contexts?
• Can diverse epistemic traditions contribute to a more pluralistic view of understanding?
• How do practical activities (like craftsmanship or performing arts) contribute to our understanding of complex concepts?
• What role should embodied, tacit, or skill-based knowledge play in our theoretical models of understanding?

Selected papers will enjoy one-hour slots: 30 minutes for presentation and 30 minutes for Q&A.