Seminar on Language and Communication

Tuesday, May 3, 15:00

Josu Acosta (ILCLI)

Venue: Carlos Santamaria Zentroa, Room 2

Abstract

Is rubbing two sticks for lightning a fire a convention? The use of this example as a possible case by Ruth Millikan (2005) discussing the basic features of conventions reminds me a commonly hold intuition: all cultural things are conventions or conventional. I want to argue that not all in culture is conventional (e.g. techniques), but also that not all conventions are cultural. In other to do so I will expose shortly a view of culture and present my hypothesis of what conventions are. In a nutshell, a convention is a relation between types of situations:
1) that is hold by a group of individuals
2) that is violable
3) that is a regularity in the environment (social environments included) and
4) it does not matter how or why it is established.

 (Attendance is free, but it should be notified in advance to joana.garmendia@gmail.com)