[Philweb] 6th Lugano Philosophy Colloquia - Timothy Williamson

Sixth event of the Lugano Philosophy Colloquia: "Metametaphysics and Semantics" - Timothy Williamson (Oxford). June 10th at 6:00 PM (CET) The MAP (Master in Philosophy) at USI (Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano) is pleased to announce the sixth talk of the Lugano Philosophy Colloquia, "Metametaphysics and Semantics". The guest speaker is: Timothy Williamson (Oxford). The talk will be chaired by: Franz Berto (St Andrews and visiting professor at USI). Date: Thursday, June 10th at 6:00 PM (CET). Location: The talk will be held on Zoom and it will also be live-streamed on USI Master in Philosophy Facebook page (www.facebook.com/usimap) Abstract: Intensional semantics threatens to trivialize metaphysics by making all sentences expressing necessary truths, including trivial tautologies, express the same proposition. This threat can be found in Wittgenstein’s *Tractatus *and in more recent work by Stalnaker and Hirsch. It is quite different from epistemologically sourced critiques of metaphysics such as the logical positivists’. Hyperintensional responses invoking Russellian propositions, Fregean thoughts, impossible worlds, or other devices do not get to the root of the problem; nor do metalinguistic reinterpretations of metaphysical claims. The basic problem is not specific to necessary and impossible propositions. It is that matters of cognitive significance such as triviality and non-triviality are irreducibly sensitive to the vehicles of content (e.g. sentences in contexts) as well as to the contents themselves. Fine-grained accounts of metaphysical inquiry must therefore track vehicles as well as contents. Scapegoating intensional semantics is a misdiagnosis. To participate: Please send an email to amm.map(a)usi.ch or write a message to our Facebook page. More information available on the Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/155698509858925. This talk is part of the Lugano Philosophy Colloquia – a series of events organized by: Master in Philosophy at USI. Ratio – Philosophical Association Istituto di Studi Filosofici, Lugano. If you want to stay updated on our incoming philosophical events, please check our page https://www.usi.ch/en/feeds/15250 and subscribe to our mailing list https://lists.usi.ch/mailman3/postorius/lists/philosophy.lugano.lists.usi.c… . For any question, please write to: amm.map(a)usi.ch We look forward to your presence. Best regards,