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Massimo Pigliucci, Professor of Philosophy at CUNY-City College, is visiting the Science Studies Colloquium Series. Pigliucci has a doctorate in genetics from the University of Ferrara, Italy, a PhD in biology from the University of Connecticut, and a PhD in philosophy of science from the University of Tennessee. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

The seminar is open for everyone!

Abstract:

Since Kripke, philosophers have distinguished a priori true statements from necessarily true ones. A statement is a priori true if its truth can be established before experience, and necessarily true if it could not have been false according to logical or metaphysical laws. This distinction can be captured formally using two-dimensional semantics.

There is a natural way to extend the notions of apriority and necessity so they can also apply to questions. Questions either can or cannot be resolved before experience, and either are or are not about necessary facts. Intuitively, the question ‘am I here now?’ is a priori and contingent, while the question ‘who am I?’ is a posteriori and necessary. Classical two-dimensionalism has no account of question meanings, so it has to be combined with a framework for question semantics in order to capture these observations.

In this talk I will discuss several options, and work out a two-dimensional variant of inquisitive semantics in detail. In this framework, definitions of apriority and necessity can be formulated in terms of information. These definitions apply to questions and statements uniformly.

Massimo Pigliucci, Professor of Philosophy at CUNY-City College, is visiting the Science Studies Colloquium Series at a special event in collaboration with Centre for Advanced Study at Litteraturhuset. Pigliucci has a doctorate in genetics from the University of Ferrara, Italy, a PhD in biology from the University of Connecticut, and a PhD in philosophy of science from the University of Tennessee. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

The seminar is free and open for everyone!