CFP: Assertion and its social significance - Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio

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Vol. 13, N. 1/2019: Assertion and its social significance

Edited by Bianca Cepollaro, Paolo Labinaz & Neri Marsili

This special issue of RIFL investigates the topic of assertion, with a special focus on its role(s) and effects in our discursive practices and communication. Assertion is probably the most studied speech act in philosophy of language. It is the prototypical way to share knowledge and making claims about how things are. It is thus unsurprising so much emphasis is being placed on it by philosophers of language, together with epistemologists and scholars from other fields of research.

To this date, there is still much controversy about the nature of assertion (how it differs from other illocutionary acts, as well as its normative status). Furthermore, scholars are becoming increasingly interested in how assertion relates to other types of speech acts (such as dangerous speech acts, like the act of silencing), and to other ways of conveying truth-conditional content, such as implicatures and presuppositions. These questions have also attracted the interest of experimental philosophers and linguists, whose empirical studies greatly enriched and challenged the theoretical debate. This special issue aims to bring together these diverse perspectives, to promote a fruitful dialogue between scholars who are interested in assertion, its nature, and its social significance.