Explanatory dialogues: ideas towards an operational definition

Explanatory dialogues are ubiquitous. We give explanations for every day events and actions, as well as for our theoretical choices. Some explanations are justificatory; some are merely descriptive. In this exploratory talk, I aim to lay out a few central properties of explanatory dialogues as they appear in natural language. Some of the aspects to be discussed are: factivity, the structure of why-questions, sensitivity to contrast-classes, interest-relativity, and the justificatory vs. descriptive dimension of explanations.

For online participation, please use this link (password: 006421).

Everybody is welcome to join!

This event is organized by P. Abreu and E. Rast. The purpose of this seminar series is to give researchers a platform to discuss ongoing work and problems in the philosophy of language, epistemology, argumentation, metaethics, and related areas. For administrative inquiries, please contact Pedro Abreu <pedroabreu@fcsh.unl.pt> or Erich Rast <erich@snafu.de>.