Communication and Intelligibility A Binational Colloquium sponsored by The Department of Philosophy, Univ. of Helsinki Forschergruppe Kommunikatives Verstehen, Univ. of Leipzig Helsinki, March 17-18, 2000

Objective: Communication and intelligibility are very closely related phenomena. Any form of communication entails some degree of intelligibility. On the other hand, communicative expressions are ways of making things intelligible. The connection between communication and intelligibility is not a narrow philosophical question but a topic with many philosophical aspects significant to many other disciplines as well. Therefore, this joint effort by the Research Group on the Intelligibility of Processes (Helsinki) and Forschergruppe Kommunikatives Verstehen (Leipzig) is open to scholars from any relevant field. Location: The colloquium will be held at the Department of Philosophy, Unioninkatu 40, Helsinki. Participation: We encourage philosophers as well as scholars of fields such as media and communication studies, aesthetics, and literary theory to participate. Programme: This colloquium consists of five main sessions, the last of which will be under the heading "29 Years of Explanation and Understanding". The former sessions will be scheduled around themes such as informative intelligibility, innocent metaphors, and narrative configuration. Friday, March 17 (1-8 pm.) Session I: Information and Emotion (Chair: Bernt Österman) 13.15 Opening Address / Doc. Arto Siitonen (Helsinki) 13.30 Information, Meaning and Understanding / Prof. Ilkka Niiniluoto (Helsinki) 14.00 Discussion 14.15 Break Session II: Challenges to Communication (Chair: Bernt Österman) 14.30 When is Obscurity Apposite? At the Crossroads of Rhetorical Theory and Modern Epistemology / Doc. Päivi Mehtonen (Tampere) 15.00 Discussion (Initiator: Dr. Jens Silfvast (Helsinki) 15.15 Misunderstanding and Communication / FM Mats Bergman (Helsinki) 15.54 Discussion (Initiator: Coc. Sami Pihlström (Helsinki) 16.00 Coffee Session III Communicative Acts and Interpretation (Chair: Lars Lundsten, discussion initiator: Prof. Raimo Tuomela (Helsinki) 16.30 Communicative Understanding - A Research Program / Prof. Georg Meggle (Leipzig) 16.55 Discussion 17.05 Implicatures / Dr. Christian Plunze (Leipzig) 17.30 Discussion 17.40 Action-Theoretical Reconstruction of Speech Act Theory / Dr. Mark Siebel (Leipzig) 18.05 Discussion 18.15 Break 18.30 Speech act and Interpretation / Prof. Pirmin Stekeler-Weithofer (Leipzig) 18.55 Discussion 19.05 The principle of expressibility and Private Language / Dr. Frank Kannetzky (Leipzig) 19.30 - 20.00 Discussion 20.00 Lunch Saturday, March 18 (9am. - 2 pm.) Session IV: Information, Intelligibility and Innocence (Chair: Arto Siitonen) 09.00 Meaning of(f) the text. An example from Radio / Dr. Carin Åberg (Halmstadt) 09.30 Discussion 10.00 How to construe a President / Dr. Lars Lundsten (Helsinki) 10.30 Innocent Metaphors and Less Innocent Ones / Dr. Ralf Wadenström (Helsinki) 11.00 Discussion (Initiator: Prof. Pirmin Stekeler-Weithofer 11.30 Coffee Session V: 29 Years of Explanation and Understanding (Chair: Arto Siitonen; Guest of honour: Prof. G.H.v. Wright) 12.00 Understanding Actions - Some Problems. Part II / Prof. Georg Meggle and Prof. G. H. v. Wright Coherence and Understanding / Dr Bernt Österman (Helsinki) Further information at http://www.helsini.fi/people/lars.lundsten/under/2000/ or contact Dr. Lars Lundsten ( lars.lundsten@helsinki.fi ) Dept. of Philosophy P.O.B. 24 FIN-00014 University of Helsinki Finland.