[SydPhil] University of Sydney Philosophy Seminar Series, David Plunkett, (Dartmouth)

[Ryan Cox]

 Hi everyone,

This week's speaker in the University of Sydney Philosophy Seminar Series is David Plunkett, (Dartmouth)

The title of the talk is "Topic Continuity, Realism, and The Objects of Philosophical Inquiry". Here is an abstract for the talk:

Some philosophical inquiry is directed at our thought and talk about a subject matter (e.g. how to understand the nature of moral thought, or our concept of consciousness), while other philosophical inquiry is directed towards understanding the “things themselves” (e.g. the nature of moral facts and properties, or of consciousness itself). This paper considers the methodology of the latter, “object-level” type of inquiry. We introduce a contrast between two ways of structuring this kind of inquiry. One alternative structures inquiry by focusing on those entities picked out by our existing concepts. For example, on this approach, moral inquiry would be inquiry into the parts of reality (if any) that are picked out by our actual moral concepts. We motivate an alternative approach, where object-level inquiry is directed at those explanatorily and/or normatively important kinds which are “in the topical vicinity” of our actual concepts. One way to see the usefulness of this approach is to contrast the differing significance of two “nihilist” hypotheses: nihilism about the stuff picked out by our actual moral concepts, vs. nihilism about explanatorily and/or normatively important kinds in the topical vicinity of “morality.” We then draw on the account of topic continuity we developed in our paper “Topic Continuity in Conceptual Engineering and Beyond,” to argue that whether a given kind counts as being in the “topical vicinity” of (e.g.) “morality” is a context-sensitive matter, which rests in large part on a certain set of priorities for inquiry of the conversational participants. We conclude by explaining how the methodology we develop here smoothly motivates a range of inquiries in conceptual ethics.

The seminar will take place at 3:30pm on Wednesday Nov 26 in the Philosophy Seminar Room (N494).

Enquiries about the seminar series can be directed to ryan.cox at sydney.edu.au

Ryan Cox
Lecturer in Philosophy
Discipline of Philosophy
School of Humanities
University of Sydney
ryan.cox at sydney.edu.au