Articulating the World: Intentionality Language Nature

Workshop / Book Symposium with Joseph Rouse

Free University Berlin, March 911 2016
As the rapid advances of medical and biotechnological research in the late 20th century have
dramatically changed the conditions of human life, the question how homo sapiens is placed in
the world demands renewed philosophical attention. Tackling this question requires a criticalreflexive philosophy that is eminently informed by current scientific practice, and which
similarly understands the practice of science as both disclosing and transforming the world.
In his recently published monograph Articulating the World. Conceptual Understanding and the
Scientific Image (2015, University of Chicago Press), Joseph Rouse develops such a reflexive
and normative philosophy. The workshop aims to discuss Rouses central theses on the unique
character of human intentionality, the natural history of language and philosophical debates on
how the world is disclosed by experimental research. It therefore gathers experts in analytic and
phenomenological philosophy of mind, social-pragmatic philosophy of language and philosophy
of science to discuss the following questions:
Intentionality: Is the capacity to understand objects as objects a uniquely human capacity,
or do non-human animals share similar traits? And furthermore, has the conceptual character
of human intentionality evolved gradually from perceptual and behavioral capacities in
animals, or is it distinctive of the hominoid niche?
Language: Can we understand the use of concepts as committing and entitling speakers to
draw inferences or execute actions as an evolved phenomenon of discursive niche
construction, or does it belong exclusively to the social domain? Can the objectivity of
concepts be understood by their normatively adequate use in the relevant practical domain?
Nature: What can philosophers of science gain by shifting their focus from established
knowledge to the prospective analysis of ongoing scientific practice? Can a pragmatic
understanding of science as research account for the objective status of laws, models and
theories? And does the notion of conceptual articulation through experimental systems
provide a valid alternative to representationalist accounts of science?

Conference organizers: Jan Slaby (FU Berlin), Philipp Haueis (Berlin School of Mind &
Brain), Jrg Volbers (FU Berlin)
Speakers: Uljana Feest (Hannover), Sybren Heyndels (Leuven), Rebekka Kukla (Washington
DC), David Lauer (Berlin), Mark Okrent (Boston), Jaroslav Peregrin (Prag), Hans-Jrg
Rheinberger (Berlin), Markus Wild (Basel), Andrea Woody (Seattle)
Space is limited please register by e-mail to: philipp.haueis@gmail.com

Workshop Schedule
(All talks take place in the FU Berlin, Seminarzentrum, Otto-von-Simson-Str. 26, room L 115)

Wednesday March 9, 2016

14.00 Introduction (Jan Slaby & Philipp Haueis)
14.15 Mark Okrent (Boston) Rouse in Context
15.30 Coffee Break
16.00 Hans-Jrg Rheinberger (Berlin) Articulating the World from a History of
Science perspective
17.15 Short Break
17.30 Philipp Haueis (Berlin) Human and animal intentionality in the Anthropocene: a
critical evaluation of discursive niche construction
18.45 Short Break
19.00 Markus Wild (Basel) Biosemantics and Intentionality
20.30 Dinner at the Ristorante Galileo (on campus)
Thursday, March 10, 2016
09.30 Sybren Heyndels (Leuven) Naturalism and the Primacy of (Im)possibility
10:45 Coffee Break
11.15 Rebecca Kukla (Washington, DC) Ontology and Niche Construction
12.30 Lunch break
14.00 Jaroslav Peregrin (Prag) Normativity in the Evolved World
15.15 Coffee Break
15.45 David Lauer (Berlin) Conceptual Normativity and the second Person
17.00 Jan Slaby (Berlin) Political Philosophy of Science and the Scope of Naturalism
20.00 Conference Dinner (Location tba)
Friday, March 11, 2016
09.30 Uljana Feest (Hannover) Conceptual articulation and the experimental creation
of phenomena: the role of scientific method(ology)
10.45 Coffee Break
11.15 Andrea Woody (Seattle) Configuring normative spaces: Research agendas,
conceptual articulation, and technologies for representation
12.30 Lunch Break
13.30 Joseph Rouse (Middletown) Comprehensive Response and Outlook
14.45 Final discussion
ca. 15.30

End of the conference