We invite contributions for the conference ‘Philosophy’s Experimental Turn and the Challenge from Ordinary Language’ (Berlin, June 22-24, 2022) which will form the basis for a related Special Issue of a general interest philosophy journal (details TBC).

The conference will bring together philosophers working in the ordinary language tradition, experimental philosophers, and empirically and historically-informed linguists, psychologists, and legal theorists to investigate the philosophical significance of how people use and interpret ordinary language in a variety of contexts. The event seeks to acquire a philosophically and empirically informed understanding of:

• how ordinary language philosophy poses challenges to the experimental investigation of meaning;
• how insights from ordinary language philosophy can improve the ecological validity of experimental philosophy of language;
• how, conversely, methods and findings from experimental philosophy of language can help develop theory and practice of ordinary language philosophy;
• how empirical investigation can help us understand and pursue intentionally normative enterprises with practical concerns, such as metalinguistic negotiation and conceptual engineering.

Submission Guidelines

Please submit a c.500 word abstract, prepared for blind review, by January 31, 2022. We aim to communicate decisions about accepted abstracts by February 28, 2022. Full papers for accepted abstracts should be submitted by May 31, 2022. 

Accommodation costs for accepted speakers (corresponding authors) will be covered. We will endeavour to subsidise travel costs for accepted speakers (corresponding authors) as well. 

Organizers

• Eugen Fischer (University of East Anglia) (E.Fischer@uea.ac.uk)
• Nat Hansen (University of Reading) (n.d.hansen@reading.ac.uk)

Invited Speakers

• Avner Baz (Tufts)

• Siobhan Chapman (Liverpool)

• Rachel Dudley (Central European University)

• Kathryn Francis (Keele)

• Martin Gustafsson (Åbo)

• Joachim Horvath (Bochum)

• Guy Longworth (Warwick)

• Ángel Pinillos (Arizona State)

• David Plunkett (Dartmouth)

• Kevin Reuter (Zürich)

• Rachel Rudolph (Auburn)

• John Schwenkler (Florida State)

• Rachel Sterken (Hong Kong)

• Justin Sytsma (Wellington)

• Kevin Tobia (Georgetown Law School)

• Julia Zakkou (Bielefeld)

Venue

The conference will be held at the Freie Universität Berlin, International Research Center at 34 Grunewald Straße. 

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to n.d.hansen@reading.ac.uk and E.Fischer@uea.ac.uk.

Sponsors

The conference is made possible by a generous grant from the Fritz-Thyssen-Stiftung.