Herman Cappelen against assertion

Vendredi 11 mai 2007 de 11h à 13 h à la Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6ème, en salle D040 (rez-de-chaussée), le séminaire Jean Nicod reçoit :
Herman Cappelen (ARCHE/St. Andrews & University of Oslo) :
"Against Assertion"

abstract:
Timothy Williamson, John Hawthorne and Jason Stanley argue that knowledge is the norm for assertion. According to others, the norm is truth, rational credibility, or belief. Others again argue that there is no unique norm that governs assertion: what counts as an acceptable assertion varies between contexts. In contrast to all these views I argue that assertion is an explanatorily empty category. All we need is sayings + contextually variable norms. Sayings are explained using Austin's notion of a locutionary act. The last part of the talk discusses the implications for epistemology and the theory of meaning.