Fabien Schang
- Research Associate:Faculty of Humanities / Formal Philosophy
What is to be believed?
From a preliminary striking question: "What does 'to believe' mean?", I propose to review a number of philosophical problems related to the nature of belief and its unclear relation with close concepts like knowledge, certainty, or even faith. This is done in two steps.
First, a basic questioning is proposed about belief that includes: what to believe, who to believe, why to believe, or what for to believe. Then a meta-question results from this preliminary ones, namely: are there more "philosophical" questions among these, that is: "What is to be believed?", stressing upon both the normative aspect of belief and its main components.
The practical goal of this course is to address a broad problem of philosophy from an French-speaking perpective, thus emphasizing the main conceptual difficulties within the area of epistemology.
The theoretical goal is to see to what extent the mainstream, rationalist approach to belief (I ought to believe what is true) can be turned into an alternative, ethical approach that matches with Willam James' pragmatic truth (what I ought to believe is true).
This is made by means of a number of references, in order to challenge the main objections to a pragmatist definition of truth and the ensuing normative view of belief. One of these objections is the following: How to accept such a switch between the concepts of belief and truth without conflating belief, certainty, or even faith? In other words, doesn't a pragmatist view of truth leads to an absurd equation of morals with science, i.e. scientific and religious beliefs? A crucial distinction between morals and ethics should disentangle this conceptual situation.
The course includes four sessions that exemplify the transition from a rationalist to an ethical conception of belief.
Session1 (14th January): "What to believe? (Je suis Charlie! Je suis Charlie?)"
Session 2 (21st January): "Who to believe? (The making of belief)"
Session 3 (28th January): "Why to believe? (I believe, because I want it)"
Session 4 (4th January): "What for to believe" (Pragmatist and religious faith)
The 5th and last session will be devoted to a final examination (50% of the notes), including a text explanation and an oral test to recapitulate the whole program.
References
G. Bachelard : La formation de l’esprit scientifique
J. M. Bochenski : The Logic of Religion
J. Bouveresse : Peut-on ne pas croire ?
J. Bouveresse : La force de la règle (l’invention de la nécessité)
P. Engel : "Une épistémologie sociale peut-elle être aléthiste?"
E. Kant : La religion dans les limites de la simple raison
B. L. Keeley : "Of Conspiracy Theories"
L. Maury : "Ferdinand Buisson et la Foi Laïque"
Entries
"The Ethics of Belief": http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-belief/
"Doxastic Voluntarism": http://www.iep.utm.edu/doxa-vol/
20171
20164
- Chapter Schang F. An Arithmetization of Logical Oppositions, in: The square of opposition: a cornerstone of thought. Basel : Birkhäuser, 2016.
- Chapter Schang F. How to hintikkize a Frege, in: Soyons Logiques / Let Us Be Logical / Ed. by A. Moktefi, A. Moretti, F. Schang. Vol. 22: Cahiers de Logique et d'Epistémologie. College Publications, 2016.
- Article Schang F. Non-epicurean desires more // Filosofia Unisinos. 2016. Vol. 17. No. 1. P. 63-68. doi
- Book Soyons Logiques / Let Us Be Logical / Ed. by A. Moktefi, A. Moretti, F. Schang. Vol. 22: Cahiers de Logique et d'Epistémologie. College Publications, 2016.
20155
- Article Schang F., Alekseeva A. Conquérir la négritude: considérations inessentielles sur le genre noir // Nouvelles Etudes Francophones. 2015. Vol. 29. No. 2. P. 60-77. (in print)
- Chapter Schang F. Eastern Proto-Logics, in: New Directions in Paraconsistent Logic. Springer, [б.г.]. doi P. 529-552. doi
- Chapter Schang F., Moktefi A. On Rules and Refereeing in Football, in: The Road to Universal Logic. Basel : Birkhauser/Springer, 2015. P. 407-415. (in print)
- Chapter Schang F. On negating, in: Онтология негативности / Отв. ред.: Е. Г. Драгалина-Черная. М. : Канон+, 2015. P. 256-291.
20142
- Article Schang F. Espace logique et modalités chez Wittgenstein // Al-Mukhatabat. 2014. Vol. 9. No. 1. P. 230-242.
- Preprint Schang F. Making Sense of History? Thinking about International Relations / Volgograd: ‘Uchitel’ Publishing House. Series ISBN 978-5-7057-4028-4 "Globalistics and Globalization Studies (Aspects & Dimensions of Global Views)". 2014. (in print)
20134
- Article Schang F. A one-valued logic for non-one-sidedness // International Journal of Jaina Studies. 2013. Vol. 9. No. 1. P. 1-25. (in print)
- Book Richard S., Schang F., Vandenborre K. Jan Lukasiewicz. Ecrits logiques et philosophiques. Vrin, 2013.
- Article Schang F., Chatti S. The cube, the square and the problem of existential import // History and Philosophy of Logic. 2013. Vol. 34. No. 2. P. 101-132. (in print)
20125
- Article Schang F. Abstract Logic of Oppositions // Logic and Logical Philosophy. 2012. Vol. 21. P. 415-438. (in print)
- Preprint Schang F. Believing the Self-Contradictory / Ontos Verlag. Series ISBN 9783868381320 "The Right to Believe: Perspectives in Religious Epistemology". 2012. (in print)
- Article Schang F. L'opposition: analyse sémantique d'une notion flottante // Syntaxe et Sémantique. 2012. Vol. 13. P. 65-85.
- Preprint Schang F. Oppositions and Opposites / Springer, Studies in Universal Logic. Series ISBN 978-3-0348-0378 "Around and Beyond the Square of Opposition ". 2012. (in print)
- Preprint Schang F. Questions and Answers about Oppositions / Peter Lang - Editions Scientifiques Internationales. Series ISBN 978-3-0343-0537 "The Square of Opposition (A General Framework for Cognition)". 2012. (in print)
20112
- Article Schang F. MacColl's Modes of Modalities // Philosophia Scientiae. 2011. Vol. 15. No. 1. P. 149-188.
- Article Schang F. Two Ancient Dialectical Logics: saptbhangi and catuskoti // Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research. 2011. Vol. 27. No. 1. P. 47-76.
20104
- Preprint Schang F. A Plea for Epistemic Truth: Jaina Logic from a Many-Valued Perspective / Ontos Verlag, De Gruyter Series. Series ISBN 3110319578 "Logic in Religious Discourse". 2010. (in print)
- Preprint Schang F. Beyond the Fregean Myth: The Value of Logical Values / De Gruyter, Editiones Scholasticae. Series ISBN 3110330105 "Philisophy of Language and Linguistics (The Formal Turn)". 2010. No. 2. (in print)
- Preprint Schang F. Entries: "biconditional", "contingent", "sentence" / Bloomsberry Academic. Series ISBN-10: 1847061141 "Key Terms in Logic". 2010. (in print)
- Preprint Schang F. Trois paralogismes épistémiques, une logique des énonciations / College Publications. Series ISBN 978-1-84890-016-5 "Construction (Festschrift for Gerhard Heinzmann)". 2010. (in print)
20093
- Article Schang F. Inconsistent logics! Incoherent logics? // The Reasoner. 2009. Vol. 3. No. 7. P. 8-9.
- Preprint Schang F. Negation and Dichotomy / Epigram Publishing House. Series ISBN 978-83-61231-20-2 "Scientific Knowledge and Common Knowledge". 2009. (in print)
20082
- Preprint Schang F., Moktefi A. Depicting Negation in Diagrammatic Logic: Legacy and Prospects / Springer-Verlag. Series ISBN-10: 3-540-87729-0 "Diagrammatic Representation and Inference". 2008. (in print)
- Preprint Schang F. Wittgenstein's Attitudes / The Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society, Ontos Verlag. Series ISSN: 1022-3398 "Reduction and Elimination in Philosophy and the Sciences". 2008. No. 16. (in print)
20052
- Article Schang F. Dire et penser dans le principe psychologique de non-contradiction d'Aristote // Philosophia Scientiae. 2005. Vol. 2. P. 1-20.
- Article Schang F. Entre naturalisme et esthétisme: Quine l'extensionaliste // Philosophia Scientiae. 2005. Vol. 9. No. 2. P. 275-289.
HSE Semantics & Pragmatics Workshop
On September 30 - October 1, 2016, an international Semantics & Pragmatics Workshop was held at HSE. The event was organized by the School of Linguistics, the School of Philosophy and the Formal Philosophy Research Group.
The First HSE Semantics & Pragmatics Workshop was held on 30 September and 1 October 2016.
The First HSE Workshop on Semantics and Pragmatics took place on September 30 and October 1 in Moscow. The first HSE Semantics and Pragmatics workshop was held on September 30 and October 1 in Moscow. The workshop was organized by a Research group “Formal Philosophy”, School of Philosophy and School of Linguistics.
New Voices: Research Projects and Ideas
In 2015 HSE laboratories and centres chose 24 scholars as post-doctoral fellows in the fields of philosophy, history, data analysis, finance, and cognitive studies. University bulletin HSE Look introduces these researchers as well as the teams with which they are now working.
