THE MINIMALISTIC DEFINITION OF CONVENTIONS: ONE STEP BEYOND MILLIKAN’S APPROACH

• Authors: Vojtěch Zachník
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The study proposes a new approach towards a social phenomenon called convention and submits a minimalistic definition of convention, which provides a promising basis for future analysis unburdened by contra-Lewisian objections. The definition itself, based on the insights of Ruth Millikan in the study Language Conventions Made Simple, represents a simple and efficient means of delimiting essential components of conventional behaviour (stripped of most of the controversial issues from previous debates on Lewis’s notion) solely by means of the role of precedent and its ability to reproduce. Yet, it is argued that a few additional conditions are required for a valid and distinct notion of conventionality: namely, the inclusion of a coordination aspect and an extension of the concept of precedent. The final version of the definition, thereafter, meets intuitive requirements of conventionality (e.g., arbitrariness) and has the generality to embrace different types of conventions.

Keywords

EN

CONVENTION; COORDINATION; MINIMALISTIC DEFINITION; MILLIKAN RUTH

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Institute of Philosophy of Academy of Sciences of Czech Republic
• Journal: Organon F. medzinárodný časopis pre analytickú filozofiu
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 378 – 394

Contributors

author

Vojtěch Zachník

• Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, University of Ostrava, Reální 5, 701 03 Ostrava, Czech Republic