Due to a temporary illness, Karin Verelst wont be able to give her seminar. It will be postponed to April.
Sorry for the inconvenience. Best regards, Clément Vidal. ----- Feel free to distribute this announcement to anyone who might be interested. You are hereby invited to the ninth seminar in our new interdisciplinary series on <http://ecco.vub.ac.be> Evolution, Complexity and Cognition (ECCO): Deixis and Truth from Aristotle to Poincaré. Karin Verelst (FUND, CLEA, VUB) Abstract: The French linguist Emile Benvéniste investigated the category of "les déictiques" in language in a series of articles from the 1930's onwards. At the hart of natural, spoken language is the "je-tu"(I-you)-relationship, in which the "présent instance du discours" - denoted by the act of pointing, by the word "I", or by verbal modality - structures denotation and reference - hence truth - as well as spatio-temporal relationships - hence existence - literally around him. The functioning of deictica is therefore exactly opposite as to how it is generally presented in more recent literature on "indexicality". I will show that deixis --- thus conceived --- is crucial (though often unnoticed) to a proper understanding of issues central to both philosophy and science, and will demonstrate this by an analysis of Aristotle's conception of truth in Metaphysica gamma and Poincaré's notion of "l'espace restreint", which is at the basis of his first formulation of the Principle of Relativity in 1904. The deictical world-centre or sphere of being established by every-body moreover allows for a straightforward interpretation of logical modality as it operates in Kripke-semantics, without being forced into incomprehensible "possible worlds". Finally, an outline of a potentially non-arbitrary ontological perspective on ethics is provided via Buber's conception of the dialogical relationship ``Ich und Du". When? This Wednesday 7th March , 2-4 pm. Where? The seminar room is B 0.036 (building B, level 0, close to the human sciences computer rooms), on the VUB Campus Etterbeek. Coffee and drinks are available. Free entrance: everybody welcome! _____ Seminar Program for the coming weeks: Date Speaker Topic More 14 Mar Helen De Cruz Universal Selection Theory and the Evolution of Mathematics Discussion <http://www.knosos.be/?q=node/1659> 21 Mar Arnold de Loof "Life": Compartmental Organization, Communication and Problem-Solving Activity. Discussion <http://www.knosos.be/node/2153> 28 Mar Mehmet Tezcan A complex systems critique to mainstream IR theory: A case study of foreign policy integration in Europe as a complex system Discussion <http://www.knosos.be/?q=node/1867> 4 Apr Klaas Chielens The Status of Memetics as a Science: update Discussion <http://www.knosos.be/node/2154> (the discussion link links to the abstract). _____ See and discuss the past seminars! Date Speaker Topic More 10 Jan Carlos Gershenson Towards Self-organizing Bureaucracies Presentation <http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ECCO/Seminars/SOBs-ECCO.pdf> Paper <http://uk.arxiv.org/abs/nlin.AO/0603045> Discussion <http://www.knosos.be/?q=node/1657> 17 Jan Francis Heylighen Characteristics and Problems of the Gifted: neural propagation depth and flow motivation as a model of intelligence and creativity Presentation <http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ECCO/Seminars/Giftednessseminar.pdf> <http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ECCO/Seminars/Giftednessseminar.pdf> Paper Discussion <http://www.knosos.be/?q=node/1617> 25 Jan Jan Bernheim A Progressive Evolutionary Worldview Presentation <http://pcp.vub.ac.be/ECCO/Seminars/Bernheim2007.ppt> Discussion <http://www.knosos.be/?q=node/1825> 31 Jan Clément Vidal A Minimal Philosophical Agenda. Worldview Construction as a Philosophical Method Presentation <http://ecco.vub.ac.be/%7Eclement/seminars2007/ecco-clem.ppt> Paper <http://ecco.vub.ac.be/%7Eclement/vidal2007-wp.pdf> Discussion <http://www.knosos.be/?q=node/1660> 7 Feb Mixel Kiemen Complex-Adaptive information processing Presentation <http://www.knosos.be/?q=node/1661> Discussion 14 Feb Wim Christiaens Apostel's Concept of Causality: Defining Being by Folding "logic" on "life" Discussion <http://www.knosos.be/?q=node/1662> 21 Feb Dirk Kenis Knowledge Management in Virtual Communities: opportunities for Agile Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) Presentation <http://ecco.vub.ac.be/%7Eclement/seminars2007/ecco-kenis.pps> Discussion <http://www.knosos.be/?q=node/1663> 28 Feb Erden Göktepe Mediating International Agents: a Question of Efficiency Discussion <http://www.knosos.be/?q=node/1664> More informations about the ECCO seminars: http://www.knosos.be/?q=node/1666 (PDF <http://www.knosos.be/?q=system/files/ecco_seminars_2007_0.pdf> program with abstracts). Best regards, Clément Vidal. _________________________________ http://clement.vidal.philosophons.com <http://clement.vidal.philosophons.com/> Evolution, Complexity and Cognition research group, Free University of Brussels. Krijgskundestraat 33. B-1160 Brussels, Belgium. +32 (0) 2 640 67 37
