Category: Talks SOPhiA

Qingxuan Wang The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen Not being able to speak positively is different from not being able to speak at all, especially when the subject of our speech is the Godhead. This paper aims to explore Maimonides’s negative theology in The Guide of the Perplexed and its reception and interpretation by…

Luigi Parodi University of Turin Trenton Merricks, in his 2001 book titled Persons and Objects, provides some arguments in support of a strong form of eliminativism, denying the existence of objects while, on the other hand, defending the existence of persons and living organisms. In the first section of this paper, I will present some…

Danila Ivanov Higher School of Economics Symbolic derivatives from objective analytical systems act as a residual category of demarcation principles (Gieryn, 1987). In SSK (Bloor, 2005), such symbolic (and generally “social”) factors are explicitly included in the structure of the production of scientific knowledge, thereby influencing and ‘blurring’ the specifics of following the rule of…

Bin Zhao University of California, Irvine Nozick has an account of inferential knowledge which has rarely been discussed. According to this account, in order to know q via inference from p, S’s belief in q should track the truth of p in the right way. In detail,S knows (via inference from p) that q iff1*.…

Nicholas Noyola University of Lucerne Brian Embry argues that Francisco Suarez’s seemingly contradictory statements about Entia Rationis are best understood within the framework of ontological pluralism. In response to the objection that ontological pluralism is unintelligible, Embry offers a Suarezian argument against the possibility of ontological monism. I argue that Embry makes the illicit assumption…

Jinglin Zhou LMU Munich In this paper, I explore how to make moral progress through conceptual improvements. Concepts play a vital role in how we make moral judgments and decisions. When we categorize creatures or things in the world using different concepts, it can have a significant impact on our moral progress. For example, during…

Ataollah Hashemi Saint Louis University The metaphysical discourse on the science of properties features a well-known dichotomy between categorical and dispositional properties. Dispositional properties are considered to be relational, extrinsic, and dynamic, representing potentialities that exist in the natural world. In contrast, categorical properties are intrinsic and qualitative. Traditionally, the distinction between these two types…

Carlota G. Llorente Complutense University of Madrid Natural language has always been one of the major contributors to the research on ontology. However, many authors consider it as a misleading guide for the study of what there is. The conception of natural language as a trap is carried over to the present day, where contemporary…

Youssef Aguisoul University of Lisbon Bare particularists distinguish Internal from External Exemplification. If particular P internally exemplifies universal F, P characterizes F. But if P externally exemplifies F, P is related to but doesn’t characterize F. Anti-bare particularists reject the distinction by rejecting external exemplification (EE). They argue that since the hallmark of exemplification is…

Anabela Dias Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa We tend to see time as something independent of us. As something that moves of its own accord and that influences our way of acting and thinking. But, is time really something as special as we tend to believe? How can we be so sure that…