The Project

The essential characteristic of “Defeasible Discourse Dependent Concepts” is that their content and extension are fixed by sets of standard conditions and defeasibility conditions. The former are the conditions under which one is entitled to apply the concept by default (without any explicit reasoning required), the latter allow this entitlement to be challenged, or even defeated.

In this project (german title: “Anfechtbare Zuschreibungsbegriffe”; duration: 2007-2010), which is funded by the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), the structure and function of Defeasible Discourse Dependent Concepts will be investigated systematically, and two central philosophical concepts will be analyzed in these terms. We shall suggest that the normative status of epistemic justification (perceptual and a priori) and responsibility may be defeasibly attributed to subjects under standard conditions, unless some appropriate challenge occurs.

Further Information

• Project outline
• Papers
• Workshops
• Photos
• Bibliography of work on Defeasibility

Project Team

• Claudia Blöser
• Claudia Cuadra Carbajal
• Mikael Janvid
• Hannes Ole Matthiessen
• Marcus Willaschek