*Please distribute to others who may be interested...* You are hereby invited to the next weekly seminar in our interdisciplinary series on Evolution, Complexity and Cognition<http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108>(ECCO) and theGlobal Brain Institute<http://www.globalbraininstitute.org/>(GBI).
*Time*:* Friday, May 18th, *14:00-16:00 p.m *Place*: *Room 3B217 * (building B, level 3, From the elevator take the long corridor to the right, to its end), on the VUB Campus Etterbeek (Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels), Free entrance: everybody welcome! * * ------------------------------ How speech-acts are conquering the world *Luk van Langenhove* <http://www.lukvanlangenhove.be/>* (CRIS, United Nations University)* Abstract: This talk is about the ontology of the social realm. It will be argued that the 'substance' of the social world is made out of speech-acts. They can be regarded as the equivalent of what matter is for the natural world. But where matter can be situated in an Euclidean time-space grid, speech-acts exist in a different grid that is non-Euclidean. As such, speech-acts constantly shape a 'parallel universe' to the natural world: a social world that allows persons and institutions to exist and interact. In that world causality exists next to intentionality. Furthermore, it will be argued that in the course of the history of mankind, speech-acts have found technological devices to become more independent of people. They can now 'travel' instantly across the planet or stay dormant for many years and come back to live again. Together, the universe of speech acts form a world wide web that envelops all people on Earth. Finally , the question will be raised if this metaphorical view of the substance of the social realm can be pushed further: are we entering a new era in which speech-acts can interact with other speech-acts without persons as intermediates? References:Van Langenhove, L. (2007). Innovating the Social Sciences. Vienna: Passagen. Van Langenhove, L. (2010). *People and Societies*. London: Routledge. Van Langenhove, L. (2012). Make social sciences relevant, *Nature*, vol 484, p. 442. The Speaker: Bio: see: http://www.lukvanlangenhove.be/biography.php ------------------------------ * Forthcoming ECCO/GBI seminars* * May 25 (ECCO/GBI) *'The Interrelatedness of Many Things': Toward a McLuhanist Philosophy of Technology Yoni Van Den Eede <http://nl-nl.facebook.com/yonivandeneede> ( Faculty of Philosophy, VUB) * June 1 (ECCO/GBI) *The social dynamics of ontological commitment Christophe Debruyne <http://www.linkedin.com/in/christophedebruyne>(STARlab, VUB) * June 8 (ECCO) *Who needs a worldview ? S.N. Balagangadhara <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._N._Balagangadhara> (aka Balu) (Center for Comparative Science of Cultures, University of Ghent) * June 15 (ECCO)* The ACTION of making DISTINCTIONS Petter Braathen <http://memetor.com/petter-braathen/> (Memetor) * June 22 (ECCO/GBI)* Chemical Organizations Theory Tomas Veloz <https://people.ok.ubc.ca/tomveloz/homepage.htm>* *(University of British Columbia) More info about the ECCO seminar program: http://ecco.vub.ac.be/?q=node/108 -- David R. Weinbaum (Weaver) ECCO/GBI Seminar Coordinator Email: [email protected] http://clea.academia.edu/DavidWeinbaum
