Judgment and Justification

At least since Kant, the nature of judgment has been one of the central issues in philosophy. According to one view that derives from Frege’s philosophy, judgments are acts in which a propositional content, a thought, is presented as true. Assertions, in turn, can be considered as judgments made public by means of language. By making a judgment, you present yourself as entitled to this act, which means that you have a justification for your judgment. Certain types of contents for judgments, for example ones concerning moral value or taste, raise special questions about the possibility and the nature of justification. More generally, philosophers have addressed issues concerning the sources and the legitimate forms of justification. Such inquiry need not be only descriptive; in fact, it can result in revisionism about justificatory practices, as witnessed for example in Dummett’s philosophy.

The aim of this international conference is to bring together researchers from different fields and orientations in philosophy to discuss the nature of judgments and their justifications from a broadly systematic (not purely historical) point of view. 

Monday 24.9.

Paavo Koli Lecture Theatre, Pinni A2100
9:45 Opening
        Leila Haaparanta
10:00 Assertion and Proof
        Maria van der Schaar (Leiden)
11:30 Break
11:45 Justification and Truth Conditions in the Concept of Knowledge
        Dale Jacquette (Bern)
12:30 On Judgement and Commitment
        Tuomo Aho (Helsinki)
13:15 lunch
14:30 Justification, Responsibility and Doxastic agency
        Conor McHugh (Southampton)
15:15 coffee

2 Parallel Sessions

I Paavo Koli
16:00 Formal and Cognitive Foundations of Probabilistic Justification
        Niki Pfeifer (LMU Munich)
16:45 Justifications and Wrong Judgements
        Giuseppe Primiero (Ghent)

II Pinni A3111
16:00 No Rest for the Realist - Why Dummett's Challenge is still a Threat
        Johan Gersel (Copenhagen)
16:45 Judgement and Justification: a Phenomenological Point of View
        Mirja Hartimo (Helsinki)

17:30 Welcoming Reception  (Pinni B4132)

Tuesday 25.9.

Paavo Koli Lecture Theatre, Pinni A2100
10:00 Assent, Judgement and Belief
        Katalin Farkas (CEU)
11:30 Break
11:45 Reflective Equilibrium and Justification
        William Knorpp (James Madison University)
12:30  Intuitionism about Epistemic Judgements
        Rachael Boch (Brigham Young University)
13:15 Lunch
14:30 Conceiving and Justifying: What is the Connection, if any?
        Leila Haaparanta (Tampere)
15:15 Coffee

2 Parallel Sessions

I Paavo Koli
16:00  Believing, Judging and Supposing
        Benoit Gaultier (Institut Jean-Nicod, Paris)
16:45 Easy Knowledge and the Scope of the Epistemic Theories of Justification
        Joose Järvenkylä  (Tampere)

II Pinni A3111
16:00 Justifying Modal Beliefs and the Analogy to Perception
        Margot Strohminger (St. Andrews)
16:45-17:30 Coordination and Primary Intension
        John Hawthorne and Juhani Yli-Vakkuri (Oxford)

19:00 Conference dinner  (TBA)

Wednesday 26.9.

Paavo Koli Lecture Theatre, Pinni A2100
10:00 Disagreeing Judgements: Ethics and Elsewhere
        Folke Tersman (Uppsala)
11:30 Break
11:45 Moral Disagreement and Metaethical Variability
        Francesco Orsi (Tartu)
12:30 Moral Knowledge by Testimony
        Amber Riaz (University of Management Sciences, Lahore)
13:15 Lunch
14:30 Moral Judgement and Moral Reality: a Non-Orthodox Humean Approach to Justification
        Dejan Simkovic (Sydney)
15:15 Coffee

2 Parallel Sessions

I Paavo Koli
16:00 The Possibility of Assertion
        Alfredo Di Giorgio (Bari) & Daniele Chiffi (Padova)
16:45 G.E. Moore and the Nature of Judgement
        Alma Korko (Tampere)

II Pinni A3111
16:00 Wittgenstein on Music and Rules
        Hanne Appelqvist (Helsinki)

17:30 Ending

Information: jani.hakkarainen[at]uta.fi

Organising Committee:

Professor Leila Haaparanta
Docent Mirja Hartimo
Dr Jani Hakkarainen
Dr Antti Keskinen
Dr Heikki J. Koskinen

The conference is organised and financed by the Academy of Finland project Judgement and Human Rationality (http://www.uta.fi/yky/judgement/index.html).