The Institute of Philosophy's Fall 2025 Invited Talk, Prof. Igal Kvart (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

We are pleased to announce that Sungkyunkwan University's Institute of Philosophy will host the Fall 2025 Invited International Scholar's Talk on September 20th (Saturday) from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM. The event will take place in Room 31511 of Toegye Hall of Humanities. At this event, Prof. Igal Kvart from Hebrew University of Jerusalem will deliver a talk titled "A New Pragmatics, with Application to Assertion." We invite all faculty and students to attend and engage with this topic. Title: A New Pragmatics, with Application to Assertion Abstract: In this paper I present a new approach to Pragmatics and a new Pragmatic Theory, with applications to Assertion, Presuppositions and more. The new Pragmatics comes in a new Conceptual Framework. (Please find the full abstract at the bottom.) Bio: Prof. Igal Kvart is a Professor of Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with an affiliation to Rutgers University. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh with W. Sellars, on counterfactuals. His book A Theory of Counterfactuals (1984) was awarded the Johnsonian Prize by the Journal of Philosophy. He has also published extensively in prestigious journals on topics such as causation, reference, knowledge, pragmatic encroachment, and the new pragmatics. Date and Time: September 20, 2025, Saturday, from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM Location: Sungkyunkwan University, Toegye Hall of Humanities, 5th Floor, Room #31511 Schedule: 4:00~6:00 Igal Kvart (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) A New Pragmatics, with Application to Assertion If you have any questions regarding the event, please contact us at the information below. Research Director, Jeonggyu Lee / 02-760-0208 / jeonggyulee@skku.edu Research Assistant, Injin Woo / jaegoi53@gmail.com Full Abstract: In this paper I present a new approach to Pragmatics and a new Pragmatic Theory, with applications to Assertion, Presuppositions and more. The new Pragmatics comes in a new Conceptual Framework. The main concepts are: 1. Steering-Thrusts – any Verbal Act (spoken or written or thought) comes with a certain degree of 'steering' the hearer/audience towards adopting a certain content (conveyed by the speaker's Verbal Act). 2. Pragmatic Stances: Types of cognitive states hearers are steered towards. One among others is the Epistemic/informational Pragmatic Stance, with propositional contents – familiar in traditional Pragmatics (Grice, Stalnaker). But there are various others – attitudinal, attentive, Action-Directed, emotive, etc. Their contents need not be propositional. 3. A new set of Norms – comprising Conversational Etiquette. One among them is the familiar Sincerity Norm. It's generalized into the Broad Sincerity Norm. But Conversational Etiquette comprises also other types of norms, not considered in current Pragmatics. The proposed Pragmatics is not governed by Gricean Maxims of Rationality but rather by different special norms of Conversational Etiquette 4. A cognitive state of Posting -- having a certain Pragmatic Stance, which is NORM-CONFERRED by Conversational Etiquette, usually via Steering by a verbal act that makes it PUBLIC. For instance, in steering towards an Epistemic Position, the speaker THEREBY Posts having it. Applications: This set of concepts makes it possible to provide a new outlook on what Assertions are – they inherently invoke certain degrees of Steering-Thrust, NOT some epistemic position. So-called Presuppositions turn out to be mental acts of Posting-Without-Steering. (Epistemic) Pragmatic Encroachment, it would follow, DOESN'T EXIST – the underpinning phenomena are Verbal Acts conveying 2 distinct Steering Thrusts, where the Action-Directed Steering Thrust OVERWHELM the epistemic Steering Thrust (in view of strong normative pressures, such as in High Stakes): The phenomenon is PRAGMATIC, not semantic (as in, e.g., Epistemic Contextualism, or Shifty Epistemology). Misleading is a Pragmatic phenomenon – conveying implicit contents that the speaker Posts having but in fact doesn't. Pragmatic Inconsistencies, as in Moorean sentences, involve CONFLICTING STEERING THRUSTS, i.e., in opposite directions (vis-à-vis towards an action, an epistemic position, an attitude, etc.). Among many particular and general differences from traditional Pragmatics, note Grice's notion of implicature, which is inexorably interwoven with his set of Maxims (aiming at Rational Cooperation towards a Common Goal), which therefore needs to be replaced by the more neutral and general Implicit Content. The domain of application of STPP is much larger than that of the Gricean Pragmatics. The contents of implicit content need not be propositional (as in Grice and Stalnaker), due to the variety of Pragmatic Stances. So-called Presupposing is characterized precisely via the notions of Steering and Posting. In this talk I'll introduce the new Pragmatics, and give a taste (only, due to time constraints) of some of its applications, as mentioned above.

Hyeongseok Na (Ph.D. student) Selected for the NRF Doctoral Student Research Fellowship

The Department of Philosophy is pleased to announce that Hyeongseok Na, a doctoral student, has been selected as a new awardee of the 2025 Humanities & Social Sciences Next-Generation Scholars Program (Doctoral Student Research Fellowship) funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF). His project, titled "A New Consideration of Consciousness Theories," will be supported by a research grant of 40 million KRW over a two-year period, from September 1, 2025, to August 31, 2027. Congratulations!

APPSA-LMPST Taiwan 2025 Participation Photos (Seong Soo Park, Mincheol Seo, Injun Seo, Injin Woo)

APPSA-LMPST Taiwan 2025 (A joint conference of the Asia-Pacific Philosophy of Science Association (APPSA) and the Taiwan Association for Logic, Methodology, Philosophy of Science and Technology (LMPST Taiwan)) https://appsa2025taiwan.mystrikingly.com/ Please find below the photos from our participation in APPSA-LMPST Taiwan 2025. Seong Soo Park: Can AI Systems Be Considered Free Agents Mincheol Seo: Multi-Agent Belief Ascription Injun Seo: Against Chakravartty: Dispositional realism cannot unify entity realism and structural realism Injin Woo: Frenemies in the Same Boat: A Critical Assessment of Explanatory Voluntarism and Its Implications for the DRK view of Scientific Understanding

Philosophy Department’s 2025 Spring Hike Successfully Concluded

The Philosophy Department’s 2025 Spring Hike took place on April 26. This year’s hike to Bugaksan brought together a wide range of participants, including Professors Emeritus Han-Gu Lee and Joa-Yong Lee, Professors Byoung Deok Lee, Min Seol, Jeonggyu Lee, and Seong Soo Park, along with 11 graduate students and 18 undergraduates. It was a meaningful occasion for intergenerational exchange and connection. Thanks to everyone’s enthusiastic participation and warm support, the event concluded successfully.