Each year, the UConn Logic Group bestows the title of
Scholar of Consequence to an eminent scholar whose work has shaped the field of logic and its direct applications. The Scholar of Consequence for the academic year of 2019/20 is
Chris Kennedy (University of Chicago,
http://semantics.uchicago.edu/kennedy/).
Prof. Kennedy will be giving the Annual Logic Lecture on Friday November 1:
Friday, November 1, 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm
Annual Logic Lecture
“Expressing experience: Not necessarily ‘stoned’, but ‘beautiful’ “
School of Business, BUSN 127
Abstract:
It has been frequently observed in the literature that assertions of sentences containing predicates of personal taste like 'tasty' and 'fun' give rise to an acquaintance inference that is not present in assertions of sentences containing non-subjective predicates. An utterance of "sea urchin is tasty," for example, implies that the speaker has first-hand experience of the taste of sea urchin, but an utterance of "sea urchin is orange" does not imply first-hand experience of the color of sea urchin. The goal of this talk is to develop and defend a broadly expressivist account of this phenomenon: acquaintance inferences arise because plain sentences containing subjective predicates are designed to express distinguished kinds of mental states, which differ from beliefs in that they can only be acquired by undergoing certain experiences. The resulting framework accounts for a range of data surrounding acquaintance inferences, as well as for striking parallels between acquaintance inferences in subjective predication and the kind of considerations that have fueled motivational internalism about the language of morals.
https://logic.uconn.edu/annual-logic-lecture/
All welcome!
For more information, contact: Magdalena Kaufmann at https://logic.uconn.edu/about/