Topics

1. Language and power. Does the hierarchical linguistic attitude that pushes researchers into the use of one natural language restrict the equity between researchers who belong to different linguistic communities and/or affect the content of the scientific and cultural research?
2. Multilingualism and Philosophy. What is the relationship between the topics of research in philosophy and the language in which those topics are expressed (the language of the researcher and/or the language that the researcher chooses or is compelled to adopt)? Does the translation of questions and texts in philosophy import a limitation or an enhancement?
3. Plurilingualism and cognitive abilities. Does the ability to engage, on a regular basis, with more than one language, affect the performance in cognitive skills which go beyond the languages themselves?
4. The case of planned and artificial languages. Does a constructed language (conlang) offer any help to the protection of linguistic parity, in multilinguistic contexts such as the European Union? Does the case of conlangs native speakers offer a counterexample to the main paradigm in contemporary linguistics and philosophy of language? Does the construction and/or the use of conlangs involve genuinely philosophical questions, such as categorial taxonomies, ontological assumptions, logical, political, and artistic utopian inspirations?

Submission of papers

Full papers should not exceed 20 pages in length and include an abstract of up to 200 words, be original and unpublished and must be sent within the 29^th of May 2011. The accepted formats are Word document and Adobe pdf. Accepted languages: English, French, German, and Italian.

Papers will be published in a book sponsored by the University of Milan.