Workshop. Lisbon. 15/02/2018 - 16/02/2018. Explanatory Practices: Interaction, Dialogues, and Cognitive Processes

Explanatory Practices: Interaction, Dialogues, and Cognitive Processes
Place: CFCUL, Lisbon, Portugal
Date: 15-16 February 2018
The aim of this workshop is to stimulate an interdisciplinary discussion about explanatory
practices, whether it be from the perspectives of logic, argumentation, linguistics, cognitive
sciences, epistemology, philosophy of science, philosophy of mind. On the one hand,
explanatory practices can be understood in relation to specific personal actions; that is, actions
by means of which a cognitive agent produces explanations to surprising or complex facts, but
also actions by means of which he makes uses of such explanations. For example, abductive
reasoning can be perceived as an act by means of which such explanations are sought, but also
in which they are used in further reasoning. On the other hand, explanatory practices can be
understood in the context of dialogues and intersubjective interaction; that is, as a context of
communication in which explanations are shared with other cognitive agents, or even the
context in which such explanations arise. E.g. in dialogical logic, validity is explained in terms of
argumentative interaction. Proposals broadly related to these topics, including formal and
informal approaches, dialogues, interactive models, linguistic models, abductive reasoning,
clinical reasoning, creative process, methodology of science, generation and use of hypotheses
in general, among others, are welcome.