Fall 2016
October 13 – Marija Jankovic, Assistant Professor of Davidson College
Paper Title: “Knowledge and Linguistic Communication”
Here is common view about communication. For a speaker and an audience to successfully communicate, it is not enough for the audience to have a true belief about what the speaker means. For example, if Berit says in German “Ich bin eine Krankenschwester”, and I simply guess (without knowing any German) that she said that she is a female nurse, though I do get things right, I do not understand Berit. Understanding requires something more than just guessing what people mean. This additional element is sometimes thought to be common knowledge of what the speaker means (and, therefore, of her intentions). But a view that postulates such strong knowledge requirements seems to quickly run into trouble. For it may seem implausible that we should need to know of subtle internal states of speakers in order to successfully communicate with them.
My goal in this paper is to argue against a strong knowledge requirement on communicative success. I agree that something more than just getting things right is required for successful communication. But I claim that this additional element is not to be found in the domain of belief or knowledge. Instead, we should look for it in the domain of intention. I propose that communication is a collective intentional action type — a type of action that, like dancing the tango or playing basketball, has to be performed by a group of agents acting together intentionally. For that to happen, intentions of the agents have to be connected in the right way. This interlocking, I will suggest, is what is required for success in communication in addition to getting the correct message across.
October 15 – “North Carolina House Bill 2: Privacy or Discrimination?” Public Forum
1:45-3:15 p.m. in Carswell 111 Annenberg Forum
AMINTAPHIL (American Section of the International Association of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy) will host a public forum. Panelists are: Leslie Francis (Philosophy and Law, University of Utah and AMINTAPHIL), Kristina Gupta (WGS, Wake Forest), Harold Lloyd (Law, Wake Forest), and Win-chiat Lee (Philosophy, Wake Forest, and AMINTAPHIL).
This event is co-sponsored by Wake Forest University Department of Philosophy, Department of Woman, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and School of Law.
October 27 – Samuel Freeman, Avalon Professor of the Humanities, Professor of Philosophy and Law, University of Pennsylvania
Paper Title: “Three Liberalisms: Classical Liberalism, Libertarianism & the High Liberal Tradition”
Liberalism is the reigning political philosophy of Western democratic societies. Freedom and equality are the fundamental liberal values. The major political parties and their members, including conservatives, endorse freedom and equality, and the institutions that support them: constitutional rights and liberties, equality of opportunity, private property, a free market economy, and government’s role in providing public goods. But political parties interpret these values and institutions differently. This colloquium compares the three different traditions of liberal thought that inform our understanding of basic liberal values and institutions.
November 10 – Gary Rosenkrantz, Professor and Department Head of Philosophy at University of North Carolina – Greensboro
According to our folk-ontology, natural beings like carbon-based living organisms and compound solids are substantial individuals. Some philosophers deny the reality of compound substances other than living organisms on the ground that they lack the requisite compositional unity. I defend the ontological thesis that compound solids, liquids, gases, and plasmas are substantial individuals. As part of this defense, I elucidate the relations that unite the parts of compound particulars of the foregoing sorts. In my view, the relations in question are causal or lawful in nature.