All events are open to the public unless otherwise noted.

Rick Grush
Department of Philosophy
University of California - San Diego

"A Cognitive Semantics of Demonstratives"

Abstract: It is surprisingly difficult to say precisely what, if anything, is characteristic of demonstrative expressions in natural language as a semantic category. Since the work of Gareth Evans one approach has been to find the essence in the kinds of psychological and cognitive mechanisms involved in thoughts corresponding to sentences employing demonstrative expressions (the thought one would have to grasp in order to correctly understand the sentence). Such an approach is an instance of cognitive semantics. In this talk I will provide a tentative and schematic proposal, also in a cognitive semantic style, that I believe captures the essential core of the semantics of demonstratives, as well as provides for a natural explanation of the range of variation that demonstrative expressions can take, including so-called proximal distal contrasts and their use as exophoric as well as endophoric anaphors.

February 22, 2010
4:00 pm
Bentley Hall, 140

History and Philosophy of Science Lecture Series Presents.......

Alan Hajek
Australian National University

March 2, 2010
3-5 pm
Place TBD

The Institute for Applied and Professional Ethics presents.......

Rebecca Skloot
Freelance science writer and author of "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"
(the story of the origin of HeLa cell line)...Discussion of ethics and science writing.

April 9, 2010
Time and Place TBD

History and Philosophy of Science Lecture Series Presents.......

Geoffrey Hellman
University of Minnesota

Institute for Applied and Professional Ethics presents.....

Vivian Weil
Professor of Ethics and Director, Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions
Illinois Institue of Technology

A lecture on research and ethics; workshop on engineering ethics