Burmanföreläsningarna 2025. Nr. 1: Felicitous Underspecification
ons
8
okt
Onsdag 8 oktober, 2025kl. 13:15 - 15:00
HUM.D.220
Institutionen för idé- och samhällsstudier bjuder in till de årliga Burmanföreläsningarna i filosofi. Årets gästföreläsare är John Macfarlane, Professor i filosofi vid University of California, Berkeley, som ger tre öppna föreläsningar under tre dagar.
Föreläsning 1: Felicitous Underspecification
Onsdag 8 oktober kl. 13.15-15.00, Hörsal HUM.D.220
Abstract (på engelska): In recent work, Jeffrey King has called our attention to the phenomenon of “felicitous underspecification”: felicitous uses of context-sensitive language in the absence of determinate intentions about the needed contextual supplementation. An example would be talk of a “local shop” in the absence of a determinate intention defining the scope of the locality (local-to-the-neighborhood, local-to-the-city, local-to-the-region?). After discussing the challenge this phenomenon poses for standard theories of communication, I consider King’s own solution and argue that it is inadequate. I then describe the solution I think is needed, which makes use of the basic ideas of Allan Gibbard’s plan expressivism. According to this approach, ordinary descriptive claims like “I went to a local bar” must be understood as expressive of practical plans for the use of words, as well as ordinary beliefs. Indeterminacy amounts to practical indecision.
