6/09/2011, THINK! Workshop: Philosophy and Technology of Documentality

Philosophy and Technology of Documentality

Sala Napoleonica, Università degli Studi di Milano

Via S.Antonio 12, Milano

6 September 2011, 14:30-19:00

What keeps society together? Intensions are likely to be involved in the constitution of social reality. However, it is controversial how intentionality could ground the collective nature of social facts and social acts. Conventions play a central role here, as the groundbreaking work of Margaret Gilbert and the reflections of Petar Bojanic have made clear. More recently, in 2005, Maurizio Ferraris has suggested to put at the centre of the social sphere the notion of “documentality”. The basic principle of social ontology is that inscription of acts brings into life social objects. Social objects are the outcomes of acts, which involve at least two persons (or a person and a deputed machine),and which are characterised by being registered on a piece of paper, in a computer file or even simply in the heads of persons.

Social objects — such as marriages, promises, bets, parties, revolutions and economic crises — fill up our world more than do stones, tress and coconuts, and they are more important for us, given that a good part of our happiness or unhappiness depends on them. Yet we do not always take account of them, and even more rarely do we ask what they are made of, taking them seriously only when we lose our wallet or train ticket, our passport or credit card and we set to searching, paying, phoning, writing e-mails and queuing in all sorts of offices. It is only then that we understand (too late, alas) that social objects are made of inscriptions, whether on paper or on some magnetic support, or even (in the case of the promises we make every day) in people’s heads.

In the workshop the most prominent experts in the field of social ontology will discuss the most recent theoretical options in social ontology.

Invited speakers:
Petar Bojanic (University of Aberdeen)
Luca De Biase (Journalist and Writer)
Giorgio De Michelis (University of Milano-Bicocca)
Maurizio Ferraris (LabOnt/University of Turin)
Riccardo Genghini (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan)
Margaret Gilbert (University of California, Irvine)
Paolo Legrenzi (University of Venice)

Organized by:

Tiziana Andina (Labont/University of Turin)
Giuliano Torrengo (Logos/University of Barcelona)

Program

Welcome address: Roberto Masiero, President, THINK! The Innovation Knowledge Foundation

First part: Intentionality and Documentality

15:00 – 15: 30. Margaret Gilbert
15:30 – 16:00. Petar Bojanic
16:00 – 16:45. Discussants: Giuliano Torrengo and Tiziana Andina
16:45 – 17:00 Coffee Break

Second part: Documentality in Society

17:00 – 19:00. Open round table. Keynote speakers: Luca De Biase, Giorgio De Michelis, Maurizio Ferraris, Riccardo Genghini, Paolo Legrenzi

You can register at this event here: