SNSF Eccellenza Professorship

The SNSF-Eccellenza Professorship primarily addresses topics in the philosophy of language as well as questions at the interface between philosophy and the empirical sciences. A central aim of our research is to examine the structure and meaning of philosophical concepts both analytically as well as with empirical means, e.g., using questionnaires and corpus studies. A specific focus is put on the analysis of so-called dual character concepts. Dual character concepts, like art, woman, father, happiness, have a unique dual structure, encoding both descriptive as well as normative content. The existence of dual-character concepts posits great challenges for philosophical theorizing, but also points to new ways in which we can advance our understanding of the normative realm and its impact on people’s cognitive processes.

SNSF Eccellenza Professorship