Rules, Norms, and Reasons 1: Kripkenstein’s Paradox

Workshop description:

In the early ‘80s, Saul Kripke formulated a skeptical paradox on rule-following and meaning, drawing on some remarks from the Philosophical Investigations and other works of Wittgenstein’s. The paradox has generated a plethora of different answers, reactions and responses; it has also given rise to several debates concerning cognate topics, such as the (alleged) normativity of meaning. This workshop aims at discussing the paradox and some of the most interesting philosophical troubles that came with it. There will be room for some contributed talks; possible topics include (but are not limited to):

- Dispositional analyses of meaning.

- Analyses of meaning in terms of natural properties or universals.

- Semantic primitivism.

- Skeptical solutions to Kripkenstein’s Paradox.

- Is meaning normative?

- Kripkenstein’s Paradox and the metaphysics of dispositions.

- Game-theoretic accounts of meaning and rules.

Accepted speakers will be provided with an accommodation at the university. Contingent on funding, the department might be able to contribute to the speakers’ travel expenses, too.

Submission guidelines:

Abstracts (500-1.000 words, references not included) should be ready for blind review and include the title of the paper; they should make clear both the topic and the main arguments of the paper. The paper should be suited for a 45-minute presentation, which will be followed by a 45-minute discussion. Please send also a separate document with name, affiliation (if any), contact information, and title of the paper.

Abstracts should be sent to [email protected] by November 30th, 2018. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by the end of January 2019. Accepted speakers will be asked to share a draft of their paper by May 1st, 2019.

Organizing committee:

Andrea Guardo (University of Milan), scientific director

Andrea Raimondi (Northwestern Italian Philosophy Consortium)

Paolo Spinicci (University of Milan)

For any queries and clarifications, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].