CFP: Metaphysics in higher-order languages

Deadline extended to 15 March

Submissions are invited for presentation at a forthcoming New York Institute of Philosophy workshop, concerned with questions of metaphysics which can be posed in higher order languages. 

Higher order languages allow for variables having different syntactic categories — for example, variables that are predicates, and variables that are formulae (open sentence) — and for quantifiers that can bind such variables. Sentences of such languages are sometimes treated as shorthand for sentences about abstract objects, such as propositions and properties. The workshop will explore views which reject such equivalences, or at least, take sentences of higher order languages as precise, intelligible, and metaphysically interesting as they stand. This approach has deep historical roots: it is arguably the view of Frege's Begriffsschrift, and was influentially promoted by A.N. Prior. It has also recently enjoyed a resurgence; for example, Timothy Williamson makes extensive use of higher order logic in his book "Modal Logic as Metaphysics". 

Each presentation at the workshop will be followed by comments given by an invited commentator. 

For consideration, please submit an (extended) abstract or a complete paper, anonymized, as a pdf attachment, and including name, institution, and contact details in the email, to Iliana Gioulatou. Please also indicate in your email if you would be interested in commenting on one of the presentations. The submissions will be evaluated by external referees; to ensure triple-blind review, please do not include any identifying information in the abstract/paper, and do not send the submission to the workshop organizer.