Event Date: April 10, 2024 - 1:30pm to 3:00pm
Location: FSS 4004, 120 University Private, University of Ottawa
Presented by CIPS and the International Theory Network
We regularly have trouble understanding others, whether relatives, neighbours, friends, colleagues, or members of entirely different cultures, past and present. In fact, we often struggle to understand our own selves. But what exactly are the obstacles to understanding oneself and others and how can we best overcome them?
In this talk, Constantine will consider and reject the most popular answers to these questions, on the grounds that they are overly informationalist. By this, he means that they conceive of understanding as a kind of ‘mind reading’, which purportedly involves accessing information that is stored in the mind or brain. He contrasts such accounts with Wittgenstein’s idea that we only begin to understand one another through the sharing of interests, activities, practices, and – ultimately – lives. Wittgenstein’s approach holds up across cultural, political, and even biological divides. It faces serious challenges, however, in cases of historical understanding and self-understanding. He will conclude with some remarks about how Wittgenstein may nevertheless help us to think through these more difficult cases.
Speaker:
Constantine Sandis is Director of Lex Academic and Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hertfordshire. His authored books include The Things We Do and Why We Do Them, Character and Causation, From Action to Ethics, and Real Gender. Sandis is currently working on a book on understanding oneself and others for Yale University Press.
Chair:
Kevin McMillan is an Associate Professor of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa.