top of page
The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute
New Work on
Ineffability ​
May 19, 2016
Speakers
Objectives
This one-day workshop brings together four of the leading scholars whose work revolves around (some aspects of) ineffability. The topic of ineffability has a long and distinguished philosophical history, though contemporary analytical work on it is sparse. The goal of this workshop is to shed light on the different perspectives on and approaches to the concept of ineffability, and to gain a deeper understanding of questions regarding the possible metaphysical structures underlying ineffability, the epistemic implications of ineffability, and the applications of the concept in aesthetic and religious contexts.
Speakers
Thomas Hofweber is Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). He works primarily on metaphysics, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of mathematics and has published extensively in those areas. His recent publications include 'Inexpressible Properties and Propositions' (Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, 2006), 'A Puzzle About Ontology' (Noûs, 2005), and 'Infinitesimal Chances' (Philosopher's Imprint, 2014). Currently Thomas is working a lot on idealism, in particular the question of how it is properly formulated, what problems it may help solve, and whether, once properly formulated, idealism is true (he thinks it is).
James Shaw is Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. He works primarily on the philosophy of language and philosophical logic, with a special interest in the topics of truth and semantic defect. James' publications include 'Truth, Paradox, and Ineffable Propositons' (Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 2013), 'De Se Belief and Rational Choice' (Synthese, 2013), and 'What is a Truth-Value Gap?' (Linguistics and Philosophy, 2014). Besides his areas of specialization, James is also interested in formal epistemology, ethics, philosophy of mind, and the history of analytic philosophy.
Guy Bennett-Hunter is a philosopher at the University of Edinburgh and the Executive Editor of The Expository Times. He is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Guy specializes in phenomenology, existentialism, and philosophy of religion. He has recently published a monograph entitled Ineffability and Religious Experience (Routledge, 2014) and is the author of 'Divine Ineffability' (Philosophy Compass, 2015), 'Emergence, Emergentism, and Pragmatism' (Theology and Science, 2015), and 'Natural Theology and Literature' (Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology, 2013). Guy also writes on philosophical, literary, and religious themes in non-academic publications.
Silvia Jonas is a Polonsky Postdoctoral Fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and a Visting Researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her main interests are in metaphysics and epistemology, but she has also published on issues in the philosophy of mathematics, aesthetics, and the philosophy of religion. She is the author of the monograph Ineffability and its Metaphysics: The Unspeakable in Art, Religion, and Philosophy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) as well as of 'On Mathematical and Religious Belief, and On Epistemic Snobbery' (Philosophy, 2015) and 'Aesthetic Ineffability' (Philosophy Compass, forthcoming).
bottom of page