The Research Seminar Series in Philosophy invites you to a seminar with Nils Franzén, "The social basis of sense data theories".
Abstract: The history of analytical philosophy is mainly studied intra-philosophically, focusing on the relations between various philosophers and the arguments that they offer. Much more rarely are developments within analytical philosophy studied from the perspective of broader intellectual currencies within society. This is what I will attempt to do in this presentation, focusing on early 20th-century sense-data theories i.e. the view that the objects of perception are not material things but sense data. Hobsbawm (1987) and Lukács (1953) both identify a crisis for the idea of progress in late 19th-century bourgeoise culture and seek to explain certain artistic and intellectual developments as springing from reactions to this crisis. I discuss whether their diagnoses can be extended to sense-data theories within early analytical philosophy.
All interested are welcome to participate in this seminar.
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