International Conference: The Nature of Belief – The Ontology of Doxastic Attitudes.
University of Southern Denmark, Odense. 18-19 October 2010.
Confirmed key-note speakers:
Robert Audi, Notre Dame
Robert Matthews, Rutgers
Daniel Hutto, Univ. of Hertfordshire
Tim Bayne, Oxford.
Very diverse opinions on the nature of belief have been voiced in the recent philosophical literature. E.g. beliefs have been construed as inner assertions, behavioural dispositions, natural kind mental states, and fictional entities (not all of which are mutually exclusive categories). What should we say on the nature of belief? How should we go about deciding what to say? And what is the relevance of our answers to e.g. epistemology, ethics, the philosophy of language or the psychological explanation of human and animal behaviour? This conference aims to bring together some of the most prominent voices in the contemporary debate.
In addition to the plenary key-note sessions, a total of 18 papers will be accepted for presentation, based on a double-blind peer-reviewing process of an abstract totalling no more than 4200 characters. Each paper will be given a full hour for presentation and discussion. We bid especially welcome papers within the following topics :
1. Kinds of doxastic attitudes: Should we distinguish metaphysically between e.g. full-blown belief, partial belief and various forms of opining and acceptance?
2. The meta-ontology of mental states: Which methods may legitimately and fruitfully be used in order to reach a sufficiently justified theory on the nature of belief or other types of doxastic states. May we e.g. rely on abductive reasoning based on our “best theories” within semantics, epistemology and psychology or should we settle our basic ontological disputes before engaging in theorizing within said fields?
3. The relevance of doxastic state metaphysics to psychology, semantics, ethics, and epistemology.
4. The phenomenology (if any) of doxastic states and its metaphysical and methodological implications.
5. Defences of original views on the nature of beliefs or other doxastic states (if such exist).
Deadline for abstract-submissions: June 1st, 2010. Abstracts should be sent to nottelmann@ifpr.sdu.dk
Nikolaj Nottelmann & Søren Harnow Klausen , organizers.