REMINDER
You are cordially invited to the following visiting speaker talk:
Fr, 26 June 2026, 11–12:30
Venue: Lecture Hall 'HS 42', Main Building, Second Floor (Stiege 7)
Liz Camp (Rutgers):
Framing for Perspective: Tools for Making Meaning
Abstract: The world bombards us with information; in order to act, we must make sense of
it. Philosophers typically construe such engagement as one of forming and assessing
hypotheses or plans. But much of our epistemic and practical engagement with the world is
more intuitive: we explore hunches and inclinations without being able to articulate
exactly what these consist in. Getting to the point of even forming a hypothesis or
disagreeing with an interlocutor requires deploying and refining a perspective: a complex
disposition to selectively attend to, integrate, and respond to information, in virtue of
a background of values and statistical assumptions. In order to explore and share
perspectives, we often turn to frames: expressive devices like mantras, metaphors, and
stories that encapsulate regulative principles for intuitive interpretation. Drawing on an
analogy to perception, I identify three ways that the structure of perspectives differs
from that of canonical propositional thought and talk, and illustrate the power of frames
to guide rational inquiry and communication.
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Max Kölbel
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