Workshop 2: Social Objects and Cultural Artefacts & The Metaphysics of Types
University of Southampton, Avenue Campus, Building 65, Room 1175.
This workshop will be about the metaphysics of social objects and constructions such as institutions, bank notes, touchdowns, marriages, and dinner parties. The workshop will be designed to bridge this topic in social ontology with the ontology of cultural artefacts. Here the workshop will follow the theme of a paper that has been surprisingly neglected by social ontologists, Amie Thomasson's "New Foundations for Social Ontology". In that paper, Thomasson explored the analogy between social objects and cultural artefacts and used it to undermine John Searle’s influential approach to social ontology. The workshop will explore the themes raised by Thomasson's and Searle's approaches.
What kinds of things are repeatable artworks, such as pieces of music? One influential tradition has it that just as we distinguish between the abstract word type, of which there are many tokens, we should likewise think of repeatable artworks as types, the performances and copies of which are tokens. But this just pushes the question back – how should we think of types? And should we extend the type/token distinction to other artefacts such as makes of car, marriages, and bank notes? This workshop will explore the metaphysics of types, and the advantages and limitations of type/token framework.
The updated schedule (16/06/16) is available here.
THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO ALL, BUT REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. Please email Lee Walters ([email protected]) to register.
Please note the conference is at AVENUE campus not the main Highfield campus
For information about getting to the University of Southampton, please see here:
Two recommended, conveniently placed hotels are
University of Southampton, Avenue Campus, Building 65, Room 1175.
This workshop will be about the metaphysics of social objects and constructions such as institutions, bank notes, touchdowns, marriages, and dinner parties. The workshop will be designed to bridge this topic in social ontology with the ontology of cultural artefacts. Here the workshop will follow the theme of a paper that has been surprisingly neglected by social ontologists, Amie Thomasson's "New Foundations for Social Ontology". In that paper, Thomasson explored the analogy between social objects and cultural artefacts and used it to undermine John Searle’s influential approach to social ontology. The workshop will explore the themes raised by Thomasson's and Searle's approaches.
What kinds of things are repeatable artworks, such as pieces of music? One influential tradition has it that just as we distinguish between the abstract word type, of which there are many tokens, we should likewise think of repeatable artworks as types, the performances and copies of which are tokens. But this just pushes the question back – how should we think of types? And should we extend the type/token distinction to other artefacts such as makes of car, marriages, and bank notes? This workshop will explore the metaphysics of types, and the advantages and limitations of type/token framework.
The updated schedule (16/06/16) is available here.
THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO ALL, BUT REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. Please email Lee Walters ([email protected]) to register.
Please note the conference is at AVENUE campus not the main Highfield campus
For information about getting to the University of Southampton, please see here:
- http://www.southampton.ac.uk/about/visit/getting-to-southampton.page
- http://www.southampton.ac.uk/about/visit/avenue-campus.page
Two recommended, conveniently placed hotels are