ArgLab • Permanent Seminar

Explanatory dialogues: ideas towards an operational definition

Andrés Soria Ruiz

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>.