CALL FOR PAPERS

The Structure of Nonconceptual Content

European Review of Philosophy, 6 (2006)

Christine van Geen & Frédérique de Vignemont, editors

Submission deadline: 1 May 2005

The debate about the definition of non conceptual content (further shortened as NCC), or for that matter its existence as well as the relevance of the notion, is not settled yet. We would like to tackle this debate from the angle of the structure of NCC: how far can one carry the homomorphism between non conceptual and conceptual content (further shortened as CC)?
On the one hand, in order to explain the transition from the former to the latter, one may want to maximize the analogy between the two structures. For instance, NCC has been said to be describable in terms of "protopropositions", a claim that deserves to be formally developed. On the other hand, NCC should retain its specificity, if it makes sense to defend its existence. This implies to minimize the analogy.
Both NCC and CC are characterized by their propositional character. However, does it necessarily mean that they both have a predicative structure and if so, how could we distinguish NCC and CC? And is there any empirical evidence that argues for the fact that NCCs are apprehended as structured, rather than as undifferentiated wholes?
There is thus a need both for the "conceptualist" and for the "non-conceptualist" to elaborate their ideas on the structure of NCC. More particularly, the former may want to develop arguments against NCC based on problems caused a priori by any attempt to describe its structure, while the latter would have to specify the conditions of possibility of the transition between NCC and CC.

Guest authors

• Sonia Sedivy, University of Toronto
• Michael Tye, University of Texas at Austin

Authors are invited to submit electronically their paper as an attachment (preferably pdf) to either of the following addresses:

christine.van.geen@erp-review.org
frederique.de.vignemont@erp-review.org

The paper should include the name of the author, her or his affiliation, the title of the paper and an abstract of up to 200 words. Papers should not exceed 8000 words. Please include with your submission your contact information (postal address, e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers).
For more detailed guidelines, please refer to the ERP website (http://www.erp-review.org).

All papers will be blind reviewed.
Deadline for submission: 1 May, 2005.

Christine van Geen (Université de Rouen / Institut Jean Nicod)
Frédérique de Vignemont (CNRS)

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