Philosophy Colloquium: Mark Schroeder

The Syracuse University Department of Philosophy is pleased to welcome Mark Schroeder (USC). Schroeder will deliver a talk entitled, “Interpretive Objects.”

Abstract: Objects come in many kinds. Some are natural; others are artifacts. And still others are functional objects, biological objects or social constructs. In this talk, I’m going to introduce you to the concept of a new kind of object – an interpretive object. Interpretive objects, I will argue, are no stranger than any of the other kinds of objects. And they are all around us. Indeed, many of the most important things in our lives, including words, contexts, laws, traditions, works of literature, and even you and I, are interpretive objects. Philosophers have misunderstood all of these things, because they have confused interpretive objects for other kinds of thing. I will not establish all of these things in this talk. But I will introduce you to the concept of an interpretive object, and to one natural way of theorizing about them. And I’ll argue for two key applications of the theory of interpretive objects – to the ontology of works of literature, and to the ontology of words.