Corso di laurea magistrale in Filosofia

This course will deal with the integration of formal and empirical methods in philosophy by focusing specifically on the status and definition of concepts in language and thought. In logic, concepts since Frege have been characterized both as functions and as set extensions, but Frege postulated a strong separation between concepts and mental representations. This leaves unexplained the constitution of concepts and does not account for the vagueness of most of our concepts. The course will look at formal and empirical issues concerning concept constitution and concept combination for a wider variety of concepts than considered in classical logic. We will discuss the role and the definition of prototypes in the formation of concepts, the way in which prototypes mediate perception and cognition, and the structure of conceptual spaces. We will then consider specific challenges which concern the composition of concepts, the definition of logics suitable to deal with vague concepts, and the extent to which concepts can be shared and communicated over and above individual differences. Finally, we will discuss normative ways in which concepts can be improved and revised.

Students who successfully complete the course will acquire an understanding of some central issues and debates concerning the nature of concepts (how are concepts built? How much can they vary inter-individually? How are they revised?). On the formal side, specific emphasis will be put on logical models of vagueness and their relations (supervaluationist, degree-theoretic, probabilistic). On the empirical side, students will be presented with central results and hypotheses regarding concept constitution (relation between typicality and membership). The course will be of interest to students in philosophy of mind, logic, linguistics, and cognitive science. The course will also provide a solid background for students interested in current debates on conceptual engineering and concept revision.

LIST OF TOPICS

• Concepts and Prototypes
• Perceptual categories
• Conceptual spaces
• Concept combination and compositionality
• Logics for vague concepts
• Communicating concepts
• Concept revision and conceptual engineering

 

A combination of: (i) targeted recorded lectures, (ii) individual assignments (readings and focused tasks), and (iii) interactive meetings. We'll employ the Schoology platform for (i) and (ii), and go to the class (if possible) for (iii).

The assessment of learning achievements will be made by (i) a test at the end of the term or an oral exam (about 15-20 minutes), and (ii) an essay (approximately 2500-3000 words) based on relevant assigned readings (a detailed list will be provided). To meet the course requirements, students will have to be able to describe and discuss the central issues of the course on the basis of the notions and skills acquired, including clarity in presentation, informed use of the terminology, and understanding of appropriate reasoning techniques.

The course will include an introduction to probability and decision theory. Relevant study material at elementary level can be found in the following books (.pdfs will be available in Schoology).

 

Topic: PROTOTYPES

Rosch, E., & Mervis, C. B. (1975). Family resemblances: Studies in the internal structure of categories. Cognitive psychology, 7(4), 573-605.

McCloskey, Michael E., and Sam Glucksberg. "Natural categories: Well defined or fuzzy sets?." Memory & Cognition 6.4 (1978): 462-472

Armstrong, Sharon Lee, Lila R. Gleitman, and Henry Gleitman. "What some concepts might not be." Cognition 13.3 (1983): 263-308.

Tversky, A. (1977). “Features of similarity””. Psychological Review, 84(4), 327–352.

 

Topic : PERCEPTUAL CATEGORIES

Rosch, Eleanor. "Cognitive reference points." Cognitive psychology 7.4 (1975): 532-547.

Regier, Terry, Paul Kay, and Richard S. Cook. "Focal colors are universal after all." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102.23 (2005): 8386-8391.

Kay, Paul, and Willett Kempton. "What is the Sapir‐Whorf hypothesis?" American anthropologist 86.1 (1984): 65-79.

Drestke, F. “Sensation and Perception”, in Knowledge and the Flow of Information, (1981), CSLI Publications.

 

Topic: CONCEPTUAL SPACES

Gärdenfors, Peter. “Induction, conceptual spaces and AI”. Philosophy of Science 57 (1990), 78-95.

Douven, Igor. "Vagueness, graded membership, and conceptual spaces." Cognition 151 (2016): 80-95

Verheyen, Steven, and Paul Égré. "Typicality and graded membership in dimensional adjectives." Cognitive Science 42.7 (2018): 2250-2286.

Chemla, Emmanuel, Brian Buccola, and Isabelle Dautriche. "Connecting content and logical words." Journal of Semantics 36.3 (2019): 531-547.

 

Topic: COMPOSITIONALITY

Fodor, Jerry, and Ernest Lepore. "The red herring and the pet fish: Why concepts still can't be prototypes." Cognition 58.2 (1996): 253-270.

Kamp, Hans, and Barbara Partee. "Prototype theory and compositionality." Cognition 57.2 (1995): 129-191

Hampton, J. A. “Compositionality and concepts”. In J. A. Hampton & Y. Winter (Eds.), Compositionality and concepts in linguistics and psychology. (2017): 95–122. London: Springer

Del Pinal, G. “Prototypes as compositional components of concepts”. Synthese, 193(9), (2016): 2899-2927.

 

Topic: LOGICS FOR VAGUENESS

Cobreros, Pablo, et al. "Tolerant, classical, strict." Journal of Philosophical Logic 41.2 (2012): 347-385

Alxatib, Sam, and Francis Jeffry Pelletier. "The psychology of vagueness: Borderline cases and contradictions." Mind & Language 26.3 (2011): 287-326.

Hersch, H. M., & Caramazza, A. (1976). A fuzzy-set approach to modifiers and vagueness in natural languages. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 105(3), 254-276.

Leffel, Timothy, Leffel, T., Cremers, A., Gotzner, N., & Romoli, J. "Vagueness in implicature: the case of modified adjectives." Journal of Semantics 36.2 (2019): 317-348.

 

Topic: COMMUNICATING CONCEPTS

Lassiter, Daniel, and Noah D. Goodman. "Adjectival vagueness in a Bayesian model of interpretation." Synthese 194.10 (2017): 3801-3836.

Parikh, Rohit. "Vagueness and utility: The semantics of common nouns." Linguistics and Philosophy 17.6 (1994): 521-535

Verheyen, Steven, Sabrina Dewil, and Paul Égré. "Subjectivity in gradable adjectives: The case of tall and heavy." Mind & Language 33.5 (2018): 460-479.

 

Topic: CONCEPTUAL ENGINEERING

De Clercq, Rafael, and Leon Horsten. "Closer." Synthese 146.3 (2005): 371-393.

Egré, Paul, and Cathal O’Madagain. "Concept Utility." The Journal of Philosophy 116.10 (2019): 525-554.

Koch, Steffen. "The externalist challenge to conceptual engineering." Synthese (2018): 1-22.

Haslanger, Sally. "Gender and race:(What) are they?(What) do we want them to be?." Noûs 34.1 (2000): 31-55.