Argumentation, Cognition and Language
ArgLab (Laboratory of Argumentation, Cognition and Language) develops philosophical research on fundamental problems of reasoning, knowledge, and language. The research carried out at ArgLab is situated in the fields of argumentation theory, philosophy of language, epistemology, and philosophy of mind, with special attention to the norms that govern processes of reasoning, communication, and knowledge in their social, linguistic, and cognitive dimensions. In this sense, its aim is to understand how values such as truth, justification, rationality, epistemic responsibility, discursive equity, and the quality of disagreement structure our cognitive, communicative, and social practices.
The laboratory also adopts a situated approach, in which philosophical concepts are developed and mobilised as tools for empirical investigation and social intervention in particularly relevant contexts, such as education, healthcare, law, and politics.
ArgLab’s research is organised around three main lines:
- Argumentation and Public Controversy: this line seeks to assess the form and quality of public reasoning, the dynamics of dialogue and dispute, as well as the structure, risks, and strategies of disagreement in different formal and informal contexts.
- Knowledge and Society: this line examines the foundations of knowledge and the cognitive and applied dimensions of inquiry, from theoretical epistemology to social epistemology, analysing the processes through which we come to know and learn, as well as the obstacles that may compromise our epistemic agency.
- Meaning and Action: this line analyses linguistic phenomena and activities, both in their abstract and socially situated dimensions, beginning from the theoretical perspective of philosophy of language and reasoning, moving through semantics, pragmatics, and conceptual engineering, and extending to social and political philosophy of language, including feminist approaches.
Thanks to its scientific production, its numerous research projects — including several European projects — and its active participation in international networks, ArgLab has become an internationally recognised centre of reference in the study of argumentation, language, and epistemology in their multiple dimensions.
