Similarity after Carnap - Perspectives from Philosophy and Cognitive Science

We are pleased to invite six contributed talks for a GAP Satellite Workshop “Similarity after Carnap - Perspectives from Philosophy and Cognitive Science”, taking place right after the GAP.12 on 12th and 13th September at the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf. The event aims to bring together researchers from philosophy and psychology to discuss the development of the concept of similarity following Carnap’s “Aufbau”, the subsequent famous criticism by Nelson Goodman and its influence on psychological theories. We welcome contributions to topics such as: 

• Carnap’s conceptions of similarity (e.g, recollection of similarity, quality spaces, analogical inference) 

• The prospects and problems of quasi-analysis and related tools of similarity-based category formation in psychology and philosophy

• Goodman’s criticism against similarity and its influence on similarity concepts within cognitive science

• Tensions between different conceptions of similarity in philosophy and psychology (e.g., spatial accounts versus feature-matching)

• Advantages and limitations of explaining cognitive development in terms of similarity

This is our current list of confirmed speakers

• Javier Belastegui Lazcano (Logic, Cognition, Language and Information, University of the Basque)

• Karin Enflo (Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Umeå University)

• Christian Feldbacher-Escamilla (Philosophy, University of Cologne)

• Ulrike Hahn (Psychology, Birkbeck), 

• Thomas Mormann (Philosophy, Tsukuba) 

• Matías Osta-Vélez (Philosophy, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf / Universidad de la República)

• Nina Poth (Radboud University Nijmegen, Philosophy of Mind and Language)

• Corina Strößner (Philosophy, University of Greifswald)

• Steven Verheyen (Cognitive psychology, Rotterdam)

We invite abstracts for up to six contributed talks (30 minutes presentation, followed by 10 minutes discussion). Note that participation entails a registration at the GAP.12. If you are interested in giving a talk, please submit a blinded abstract of maximal 500 words (excluding references) by 16th May 2025 to [email protected]. We will send out notifications of acceptance by 31st May 2025. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact the organizing committee via [email protected].

Organizers: M. Osta-Vélez (HHU), N. Poth (Radboud University), A. Schuster (TU Dortmund), C. Strößner (Uni Greifswald), Christian Feldbacher-Escamilla (Cologne)

Program consultant: Matteo De Benedetto (Lucca)