Intelligent Competences: Concepts, Understanding, and Expertise

Intelligent Competences: Concepts, Understanding, and Expertise

12 – 13 December 2026, 08:45 – 18:00 Room KAB-G-01, University of Zurich

The Zurich Epistemology Group on Rationality is pleased to announce its upcoming conference ‘Intelligent Competences: Concepts, Understanding, and Expertise’ on 12-13 December at the University of Zurich (Room KAB-G-01).

The conference is organised by Miloud Belkoniene (University of Zurich) and Christos Kyriacou (University of Cyprus) and is supported by the SNSF Starting Grant for the project ‘Understanding: Between Contents and Phenomena’.

Conference Programme

Day 1, 12 December 2026

8:45-9:00: Introduction

9:00-10:00: Hans-Johann Glock – In what sense, if any, are concepts normative?

10:00-11:00: Sarah Sawyer – Concepts and Competence.

11:00-11:15: Coffee break

11:15-12:15: Elisabeth Schellekens (online) – Thinking the Aesthetic: Recognizing, Applying and Valorizing Aesthetic Concepts.

12:15-13:45: Lunch Break

13:45-14:45: Carlotta Pavese – The metaphysics of general intelligence.

14:45-15:45: Giacomo Melis – Can non-human animals think conceptually?

15:45-16:00: Coffee break

16:00-17:00: Haridimos Tsoukas – Understanding skillful improvising in organizations: A phenomenological approach.

17:00-18:00: Duncan Pritchard (online) – Achievements, Luck and Risk.

Day 2, 13 December 2026

9:00-10:00: Drishtti Rawat – Grasp in morally worthy motivation.

10:00-11:00: Christopher Peacocke – Expression, Justification, and the Nature of Concepts.

11:00-11:15: Coffee break

11:15-12:15: Michael Strevens – Grasp of Explanations and Grasp of Meaning.

12:15-13:45: Lunch Break

13:45-14:45: Matt Stichter – The Goals of Moral Understanding.

14:45-15:45: Patrik Engisch – Concepts and the Aesthetic Appreciation of the Natural.

15:45-16:00: Coffee break

16:00-17:00: Herman Cappelen – Assessing, Improving, and Abandoning Concepts: Meta-Conceptual Competence in Humans and AI.

17:00-18:00: Judith Burkart – Conceptual competence in nonhuman animals? Recent empirical approaches.