Enrico Terrone (Genoa): 14 h

Place: Seminari de Filosofia (UB, 4th floor, C/ Montalegre, 6)

Title: Imagining Fictional Worlds

Abstract: The popular view according to which fictions are prescriptions to imagine is challenged by the request to specify which is the specific imaginative response that fiction prescribes. It has been argued that such response consists in imagining fictional worlds. However, if this is the case, the notion of fictional worlds is to be elucidated. In the philosophy of fiction, fictional worlds are usually conceived in terms of clusters of propositions. This paper argues that, if we want to characterize fictions as prescriptions to imagine fictional worlds, the propositional conception is to be supplemented with another conception which casts fictional worlds as imaginary spatiotemporal frameworks.


Andreas Stokke (Uppsala): 16 h

Title: Testimony and Fiction

Abstract: This talk asks whether we can acquire testimonial knowledge from fiction. According to a standard view, testimony is a species of assertion. Further, some have argued that fictional discourse cannot include assertions. These two views imply that fiction cannot deliver testimonial knowledge. Yet many philosophers hold that fiction sometimes include assertoric utterances, and as such, acquiring testimonial knowledge from fiction is not ruled out. I argue that fiction acts as a defeater for beliefs formed on the basis of fictional discourse. Hence, acquiring testimonial knowledge from fiction always requires defeating this default defeater triggered by fictional discourse. I discuss a number of issues concerning the relevant kind of defeat, and the consequences for learning from fiction.
 



Organizers:
Filippo Contesi (Universitat de Barcelona - https://contesi.wordpress.com/)
Manuel García-Carpintero (Universitat de Barcelona - http://www.ub.edu/grc_logos/manuel-garcia-carpintero)
Neri Marsili (Universitat de Barcelona - https://www.nerimarsili.com/)