Franz BRENTANO is at the heart of a veritable philosophical tradition which spread via his pupils and their pupils in Europe between the end of the XIXth century and the Second World War, particularly in Poland. It led to various significant schools or philosophical movements: other than the movement led by Brentano himself (Kazimierz TWARDOWSKI, Ehrenfels, Meinong, the young Husserl, Stumpf, Marty), there were those founded by his pupils, such as the Lvov-Warsaw School (Jan ŁUKASIEWICZ, Stanisławz LEŚNIEWSKI, Tadeusz KOTARBIŃSKI, Kazimierz AJDUKIEWICZ, Izydora DĄMBSKA, Alfred TARSKI), the realist current in phenomenology (Ingarden, Pfänder, Stein, Scheler and Reinach), or the Graz (Ameseder, Höfler, Mally, Vitasek, Martinak), Berlin (Wertheimer, Koffka, Koehler) and Prague (Kraus, Kastil) schools.
The important contributions made to psychology, both of a descriptive and phenomenological nature, as well as the debt owed to it by ontology and value theory are well known today. Yet far less is known about the way it shaped language. Indeed, reflections on the philosophy of language among the members of this tradition have been studied little, other than in the contributions made by Anton Marty – Brentano’s ‘minister of linguistic affairs’ – and Husserl. Nevertheless, the Brentanian tradition is undeniably marked by an interest in language, be this in and of itself or as a way to resolve philosophical problems.
+++ argument to be addressed at the conference
+++ programme of the conference
The conference “Philosophy of the Brentanian Language and Culture” will take place at the Salle de l’Horloge at the University of Liège from Monday 17 until Wednesday 19 September 2018. The Polish Institute Brussels has invited two internationally-renowned researchers to participate: Jan HERTRICH-WOLEŃSKI from the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, and Arkadiusz CHRUDZIMSKI from Szczecin University.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
>>> University of Liège, Salle de l’Horloge (Rue du 20-Août, 4000 Liège, building A1, entrance 7, second entresol) – see map HERE
>>> Monday 17, Tuesday 18 and Wednesday 19 September 2018 – 9h30 > 17h
>>> free entrance
>>> The conference will be held mainly in English
ARGUMENT
The Brentanian tradition shares with analytical tradtition the conviction that linguistic analysis must not focus solely on a grammatical analysis of utterances, but rather that it should hightlight their ‘profound structure’. Only by undertaking work of this kind can one hope to resolve the philosophical problems which do not, at first glance, seem to be of a linguistic nature. However, where these two major philosophical traditions part ways is when it comes to the essence of this ‘profound structure’: whilst Brentanian tradition holds that it is of a mental nature, analytical tradition views it as being logical.
Indeed, at the heart of the Brentanian tradition, linguistic analysis aims to highlight the mental acts expressed by utterances, sometimes attributed themes along the lines of ‘internal form’. This divergence within the programme explains to a large extent why Brentanian tradition has never truly adopted the ‘linguistic turn’ taken up at a later stage by Wittgenstein and Oxford’s philosophers of ordinary language.
What the colloquium primarily sets out to do is evaluate the hypothesis which states that Brentanian tradition offers a genuine programme of original research into the philosophy of languages. The speeches will thus deal with the folowing themes which are present in Brentanian tradition:
1) The theory of signification :
1.1) Subjective and objective signification (psychologism and anti-psychologism regarding signification);
1.2) The communicational and contextual aspects of signification;
2) The internal form of language;
3) Linguistic functions;
4) The relationships between linguistic expressions and mental acts, and notably the issue of the language/thought parallelism;
5) The distinction between categorametic and syncategorametic expressions, as well as the issue of pure grammar;
6) Linguistic analysis as a tool to resolve philosophical problems;
7) The question of nominalism;
8) The question of indexical expressions;
9) Analysing proper nouns and common nouns;
10) Analysing utterances;
11) Linguistic fiction and paraphrasing.
PROGRAMME
Monday 17 September 2018
9:30 – Sébastien RICHARD (ULB), “Objective and Subjective Meaning in the School of Brentano”
10:30 – Denis SERON (FNRS/ULiège), “Brentano and Mauthner on Grammatical Illusions”
11:30-11:45 – BREAK
11:45 – Maria VAN DER SCHAAR (universiteit Leiden), “Modification and Modifying Terms in the Brentano School”
12:45-14:00 – LUNCH
14:30 – Denis FISETTE (UQAM), “Twardowski on Logical Psychologism”
15:00 – Jan WOLEŃSKI (Université Jagellone de Cracovie), Extensionality/intensionality in Polish Philosophy of Language. From Twardowski to Tarski”
16:00-16:15 – BREAK
16:15 – Bruno LECLERCQ (ULiège), “Meaning and Reference in Twardowski, Meinong and Meinongian Logicians”
Tuesday 18 September 2018
9:30 – Kevin MULLIGAN (Université de Lugano), “On Being Guided: Bühler & Wittgenstein”
10:30 – Janette FRIEDRICH (Université de Genève), “Questions psychologiques et questions linguistiques : Bühler et Martinak”
11:30-11:45 – BREAK
11:45 – Basil VASSILICOS (Mary Immaculate College/ University of Limerick), “Wundt and Bühler on Gestural Expression: from Psycho-Physical Mirroring to the Diacrisis”
12:45-14:00 – LUNCH
14:30 – Guillaume FRECHETTE (Universität Salzburg), “The Context Principle in Austro-German Philosophy”
15:30 – Charlotte GAUVRY (FNRS/ULiège), “A Context Principle in Brentano?”
16:00-16:15 – BREAK
16:15 – Olivier MALHERBE (ULB): “Roman Ingarden : usage, contexte et signification”
Wednesday 19 September 2018
9:30 – Arkadiusz CHRUDZIMSKI (Université de Szczecin), “Brentanian Intentionality and Demonstrative Reference”
10:30 – Hamid TAIEB (Humboldt Universiteit, Hamburg), “The Early Husserl on Typicality”
11:30-11:45 – BREAK
11:45 – Claudio MAJOLINO (Université de Lille), “Husserl on Classifying Signs (as to Describe Speech Actions)”
12:45-14:00 – LUNCH
14:30 – Laurent CESALLI (Université de Genève), “Méta-Marty : Essai d’investigation des Untersuchungen“
Links
Centenary of the Polish Independence: https://niepodlegla.gov.pl/
Picture gallery
Documents
