Argumentation, Cognition and Language
The Argumentation, Cognition and Language Lab (ArgLab) is a research structure within the larger research-oriented NOVA Institute of Philosophy (IFILNOVA) at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University Lisbon, Portugal.
The ArgLab contributes to IFILNOVA’s general thematic concern with values and their role in human practices by developing a philosophical perspective on the fundamental problems of reasoning and knowledge. To this end, the ArgLab investigates forefront issues in argumentation theory, philosophy of mind and technology, epistemology, and the philosophy of language. Across all these areas, it focuses on the study of the values and the norms at stake in knowledge and reasoning processes, both in their linguistic and cognitive aspects. This includes the investigation of rationality in human uses of language and argumentation as well as the study of cognitive and epistemic values, the role of mind in normative practices, the ethics of the extended mind and related applied questions involving the ethics of technology. The result is a situated approach, where philosophical concepts are developed and employed as tools for empirical investigation and social intervention in particularly salient social contexts – education, environment, healthcare, law, politics, and technology.
Thanks to its solid research output, numerous projects (including various european projects), ongoing activities, and the active participation in research networks, the ArgLab has become a leading, internationally acknowledged centre for the study of epistemology, the mind and argumentation. In addition to its 16 fully integrated researchers (post-docs, research fellows, professors) and 4 PhD students, the ArgLab has an extended network of over 20 external collaborators. Additionally, the ArgLab has been host to tens of young researchers, who have, with the help of the medium-term grants they received at IFILNOVA, contributed to a rich interdisciplinary study about knowledge, argumentation and reasoning.
The work of the ArgLab is carried out in four main research groups:
- Philosophy of Language and Argumentation Theory (PHILA) Group
- Philosophy and Argumentation in Society (PAIS)
- Lisbon Mind, Cognition & Knowledge Group (LMCK Group)
As well as the transversal research platform:
