II BARCELONA WORKSHOP ON ISSUES IN THE THEORY OF REFERENCE

Special topic: TWO-DIMENTIONALISM


The Second Barcelona Workshop on Issues in the Theory of Reference was be held in Barcelona on June 28-30, 2001. This second edition of the Barcelona Workshop was devoted to the discussion of the two-dimensional semantic framework. The workshop was organised by LOGOS -- Logic, Language and Cognition Research Group.

Participants

There were 3 invited talks and 15 contributed papers (plus one alternate paper). Invited talks sessions were 2 hours long (1 hour presentation + 1 hour discussion), submitted papers sessions were 1 hour long (30-40 minutes presentation + 30-20 min. discussion).

The invited speakers were David Chalmers (University of Arizona), Mike Martin (University College London) and Robert Stalnaker (MIT). At the end of this report there is a list of all the speakers together with a short abstract of the paper they presented.

The call for papers was very successful as 36 authors submitted papers (5 form the UK, 16 from continental Europe, 12 from North America, 3 from Asia and Australia). The selection process was, then, highly competitive. Submissions were anonymously refereed. The members of the scientific committee were: David Chalmers (Univ. Arizona), Manuel Garcia-Carpintero (Univ. Barcelona), Josep Macià (Univ. Barcelona), Genoveva Martí (London School of Economics), Mike Martin (University College London) and Robert Stalnaker (MIT).

Two-dimensionalism

The two-dimensional semantic framework has its roots in Saul Kripke's Naming and Necessity (1972, 1980); it is developed in such works as David Kaplan's "Demonstratives" (1989), Robert Stalnaker's "Assertion" (1978) and Martin Davies & I.L. Humberstone's "Two notions of necessity" (1980). Some applications of the framework are found, for instance, in David Chalmers' The Conscious Mind (1996) and Frank Jackson's From Metaphysics to Ethics (1998).

The Barcelona Workshop on Issues in the Theory of Reference

The Barcelona Workshop on Issues in the Theory of Reference is held every other year. The first workshop was held in the spring of 1999. The speakers at that first Workshop were: David Kaplan (UCLA), Joseph Almog (UCLA), Filip Buekens (Tilburg Univ.), Miguel Hernando (MIT), Diego Marconi (Univ. Torino), Genoveva Martí (Univ. of London), Xavier van Mechelen (U. of Leuven), Mathias Paul (WWU Münster), Jorge Rodríguez Marqueze (Univ. of Oviedo), François Récanati (CREA) and Alberto Voltolini (Univ. Piemonte Orientale, Vercelli).

This first Barcelona Workshop on Reference had a general character. The II Barcelona Workshop had as special topic two-dimensionalism. Future editions of the Workshop will maintain this year's format and each of them will focus on some particular topic in the theory of reference.

Sponsors

The following institutions provided financial support for the II Barcelona Workshop: Ministry of Science and Technology-Spanish Government, Department of Universities, Research and Society of Information-Catalan Government, Council for the City of Knowledge-Barcelona City Hall, University of Barcelona,.

The II Barcelona Workshop was part of the events of the Forum Barcelona'2004.