Call for papers
Fifth Italian Conference on Analytic Ontology (including a Workshop on Contingentism)
Padova, June 27th-28th 2016
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: March 30th 2016
The Fifth Italian Conference on Analytic Ontology will be held in Padova on June 27th-28th 2016. Previous Italian Conferences on Analytic Ontology have been held, since 2003, in Padova, Pisa, Bergamo and Torino and their organizers were Andrea Bottani, Maurizio Ferraris, Massimo Mugnai. The Conference is an occasion for discussing innovative research in analytic ontology and metaphysics. We invite submissions on the following broad research areas:
1) Methodology of Ontology and Metaphysics (Metaontology; Metametaphysics; Descriptive vs Revisionary Ontology; Grounding; Metaphysical Explanation);
2) Time and Change (Theories of Persistence; Ontology and Metaphysics of Time; Philosophy of Time-Travel; Metaphysical Relevance of Relativity Theory);
3) Abstract and Fictional Entities (Nominalism vs Realism; Indispensability Arguments; Fictionalism; Ontology of Mathematics; Abstract-Concrete Distinction);
4) Substance and Properties (Metaphysics of Substance; Properties and Relations; Universals vs Tropes; Instantiation);
5) Mereology and Constitution (Mereological Essentialism; Classical Mereology vs. Hylomorphism; Ordinary Objects; Composition as identity)
Vagueness; Monism vs Dualism about Material Constitution);
6) History of Metaphysics (Aristotle and Neo-Aristotelian Approaches in Metaphysics; Leibniz and Analytic Metaphysics, History of Early Analytic Metaphysics; The Metaphysical Turn in Analytic Philosophy; History of Mereology);
7) Metaphysics and Semantics (Propositions, Facts, Events, States of Affairs; Truthmaking; Ontological Commitment; Quantifier Variance; Mass Terms and Stuff Ontology);
8) Modal Metaphysics (Possible Worlds and Possibilia; Dispositions and Powers; Counterpart Theory);
9) Social ontology (collective intentionality, group agency, documentality, metaphysics of persons, ontology of law and money).
WORKSHOP ON CONTINGENTISM
In the recent literature, the word “contingentism” is used in two seemingly disparate ways. On the one hand, metaphysical contingentism (K. Miller, “Defending Contingentism in Metaphysics”, Dialectica 63, 2009) is the view that at least some metaphysical truths (e.g.: that properties are universal, that composition is identity, that objects persist through time) are contingently true if true. On the other hand, according to T. Williamson (Modal Logic as Metaphysics, OUP 2013), contingentism and necessitism are modal these about what there is. Namely, according to necessitism, necessarily everything is necessarily something. Contingentism is the negation of necessitism, and is the view that it is possible that something is possibly nothing. The aim of this workshop is to explore the possible connections between these two kinds of contingentism (and the corresponding kinds of necessitism) and to investigate more specific issues, such as:
a. contingentism and mathematical objects;
b. contingentism and set-theory;
c. contingentism and the metaphysics of properties;
d. contingentism, necessitism and grounding;
e. contingent identity;
f. contingentism and a priori/a posteriori knowledge;
g. expressive limitations of contingentism.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: March 30th 2016
SUBMISSIONS
Contributors will have 40 minutes, ideally divided into 30 minutes of exposition and 10 minutes of discussion. The language of the conference will be English. Those wishing to deliver a talk should submit an abstract of maximum 700 words. The abstract should be prepared for double-blind review and sent to the following email address as a PDF attachment:
The outcome of the refereeing process will be notified by April 30th 2016. Please indicate in the headline of your submission if you intend to submit your abstract for the general conference or for the workshop on contingentism.
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
- Massimiliano Carrara (massimiliano.carrara@unipd.it)
- Ciro De Florio (ciro.deflorio@unicatt.it)
- Giorgio Lando (giorgio.lando@sns.it)
- Vittorio Morato (vittorio.morato@unipd.it)
- Marzia Soavi (marzia.soavi@unipd.it)
IMPORTANT DATES
- Deadline for submissions: March 30th 2016.
- Notifications of acceptance: April 30th 2016.
- Conference dates: June 27th-28th 2016.