You are invited to the next Colloquia in our Spring 2022 Series on March 18, 2022, with Associate Professor Elliot Samuel Paul from Queen’s University.
“Cartesian Inference”
Lecture by Elliot Samuel Paul, Associate Professor, Queen’s University
March 18, 2022
3:00-5:00 p.m, (via zoom)
Abstract:
What is an inference? Descartes has a remarkably nuanced answer to this question, but it has been misunderstood. On the standard reading, Descartes thinks an inference is merely a causal process in which perceiving some truths causes you to perceive others. On my reading, perceptions within an inference are not related as causes and effects but rather as parts of a whole. An inference is a completely clear perception within which the parts of an argument are fused into a unified whole. And the truth of the conclusion is illuminated or made clear to you precisely because you see it as a part of the argument as a whole. A major benefit of this view is that it can be used to solve Lewis Carroll’s famous regress problem for inference, which philosophers still wrestle with today.
About Elliot Samuel Paul
Elliot Samuel Paul works mainly in early modern philosophy, the philosophy of creativity, and epistemology. He also has interests in philosophy of mind and cognitive science. Before joining the faculty at Queen’s University in Canada, he was a Bersoff Fellow at NYU and then an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Barnard College of Columbia University. He holds a Ph.D from Yale University. He is co-editor of THE PHILOSOPHY OF CREATIVITY: NEW ESSAYS (Oxford University Press, 2014). His new book, CLARITY FIRST: RETHINKING DESCARTES’S EPISTEMOLOGY, is forthcoming with Oxford University Press.
For zoom link information, RSVP by March 16th, 2022 to: phil.ugradengagement@ubc.ca
We are looking forward to welcoming you!
