An important focus of inquiry concerns the nature of the properties denoted by some central concepts for human life, value concepts. What properties can they express? How is linguistic communication about value possible given widespread crosspersonal variation? And how can emotional language produce motivational effects in action? This project develops Hybrid Dispositionalism (HD). HD is a new pluralist theory about normative and evaluative discourse, combined with a dispositional metaphysical theory about the nature of the properties denoted. The project argues that dispositional or response dependent value properties are *de nobis* or collective dispositions. The project affords a comprehensive account of norms and values, and combines contextualism at the level of semantic content with expressivism at the pragmatic level. HD promises to be a successful alternative to other extant theories, while fitting with experimental data on conceptual variability, and current research on collective intentionality. The project further promises to make a vital contribution to current philosophical reflection on public and political discourse, and its impact on a multicultural and diverse society.
ACTIVITIES
RESEARCH SEMINARS:
– Reading group: Bad Speakers . (first semester, possibly second 2019/2020)
– Reading group: Value Talk (VT) (first and second semester 2017/2018)
– Reading group: Kate Manne, Down Girl – The Logic of Misogyny (OUP) (second semester 2017/2018)
WORKSHOPS:
Language & Power XII Interuniversity Workshop on Mind, Art, and Morality, organized with Esa Díaz León, 22-23 May 2018, University of Barcelona
BW11 – 11th Barcelona Workshop on Issues in Conceptual Ethics and Engineering , organized with Esa Díaz- León and Manuel Gustavo Isaac, 30-31 May 2019, University of Barcelona
OUTREACH:
Presentation of the CCCB debate with Jason Stanley, on how fascism works: the politics of us vs. them.
Planning and moderation of Cassandra's Dilemma: The Threat of Disinformation, CCCB debate organized with the CCCB and the DIAPHORA Marie Sklodowska-Curie Project.
Invited speakers: Åsa Wikforss (University of Stockholm) and Adrienne Lemon (Director of Institutional Learning at the NGO Search for Common Ground)
Talk "How philosophy of language can help us navigate the news cycle" at The Night of Philosophy at UNESCO; Paris
Diaphora Outreach, with Esa Díaz León, on the Philosophy Festival Barcelona Pensa , on Dangerous Speech (in Spanish)
