News

FLFI.01.117 Death and the Meaning of Life (3 ECTS) Jaanus Sooväli, Olena Kushyna Wed 18-20 Jakobi 2-337

Jaroslav Endrle is a visiting PhD student from the University of Hradec Králové. His visit is funded by the Erasmus+ programme.

Mindaugas Gilaitis (Vilnius University) will deliver four lectures on semantic naturalism from 15.-18. October. His visit is funded by the Erasmus+ Teaching Mobility programme. Mindaugas Gilaitis, PhD, is an assistant professor of philosophy at Vilnius University. His main research interests are in philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and action, epistemology and philosophical methodology. He has published on semantic naturalism and linguistic meaning, and is currently working on the project on semantic normativity.

In 1981 the publishing house Valgus published the book "A Story of a Science: On the Evolution of Chemistry" which became hugely sucessful in the field of history of science. The author Rein Vihalemm presented in the book both his philosophy of history and the history of chemistry. The book is now published in English as a special issue of the journal Acta Baltica Historiae et Philosophiae Scientarum 7.2. Translated by Ain Rada, Kait Tamm and Meelis Leesik and edited by Endla Lõhkivi and Ave Mets who also wrote a new foreword.

Claudio Ternullo has taken up the position of Research Fellow of Theoretical Philosophy on the 1st of September, 2019.

At 5 pm on September 4 (next Wednesday), at Physicum (W. Ostwaldi 1) a small reception will be held to celebrate the first public viewing of Endla Lõhkivi's paintings. The exhibition is called “Minu maastikud” (My Landscapes) and will remain open until October 2. Everybody is welcome to attend!

Tartu Summer School of Semiotics 2019 programme is available at the event homepage http://tsss.ut.ee

Introduction to Philosophy FLFI.00.113 (6 ECTS) Alexander Davies Mon 12-14 Jakobi 2-336, weeks 2-12 An introduction to a diverse handful of philosophical questions and to the argument-based approach to answering these questions that is typical of contemporary analytic philosophy. The following fields will be covered: * Ethics (two topics) * Metaphysics (two topics) * Epistemology (two topics) * Political Philosophy (two topics) * Philosophy of Mind (two topics)

The final event of the Berkeley-Tartu biosemiotic summer seminar in Tartu will take place on Monday, July 15, from 12.15 to 18, Jakobi 2–336. Terrence Deacon (University of California, Berkeley) will give a talk at 12.15, on the topic "The bridge from information theory to semiosis". Part I: June 26, with Jeremy Sherman, Part II: July 11, with Yogi Hendlin, Part III: July 15, with Terrence Deacon.

María Inés Arrizabalaga is known as a translation scholar and a translator of semiotic works. She is Professor at the School of Languages (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba) and researcher at CONICET (National Scientific and Technical Research Council) in Argentina. Tuesday, 21.05, 14.15-15.45 (Jakobi 2-305) “Translation and the formation of a literary canon from the perspective of Semiotics of Culture.” Wednesday, 22.05, 14.15-15.45 (Jakobi 2-305)

International workshop "Self-Determination of Peoples in Historical Perspective" Friday, 17 May, 2019 Venue: Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics, Faculty of Humanities, Jakobi 2-336

Public lecture: David Armitage (Harvard University): TREATIES IN DANGER? CONTEMPORARY CRISES OF INTERNATIONAL ORDER IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE. Abstract:

Book launch seminar on May 30 at 16.15-17.45 Jakobi 2-336 with Amirouche Moktefi, Tallinn University of Technology, an editor of the book “The Mathematical World of Charles L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll)” (edited by Robin Wilson and Amirouche Moktefi).

The Graduate School of Culture Studies and Arts invites doctoral students and other interested candidates to participate in a three-day spring school Semiotics of Conflict. During the event the participants will have the opportunity to explore and learn about the dynamic nature of conflicts through a series of engaging lectures and workshops as well as gain insight into diverse cultural contexts.

We proudly announce that our PhD student Mirko Cerrone has won the Biosemiotic Achievement Award for 2018 for the best article published in the journal Biosemiotics in 2018. “Umwelt and Ape Language Experiments: on the Role of Iconicity in the Human-Ape Pidgin Language” (Biosemiotics 2018, Vol 11/ 1, pp 41–63). “The paper is impressive for its theoretical depth and richness, and for its originality,” say members of the award committee Riin Magnus and Maurita Harney. Congratulations, Mirko! https://rdcu.be/bv2C9

Cary Campbell is a doctoral candidate (ABD) in the faculty of education at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. He is an educational researcher, currently working for the International Centre of Art for Social Change (ICASC) and MODAL research group. His main research interests are broadly philosophy of education, semiotics, and arts/music education. His published research has mostly been concerned with developing semiotics informed educational approaches and conceptualizations.

Adrian Currie (University of Exeter) will give four public lectures on the philosophy of historical sciences such as archaeology, paleontology, geology, etc. The lectures are a part of the workshop “Science & the Deep Past”, taking place on 18-21 March 2019 in the UT Department of Philosophy (Jakobi 2) and UT Museum of Nature (Vanemuise 46), focusing on the methodology of historical sciences. The lectures are open for all interested people.

CfP: Research seminar “Inter- and transmedial translation analysis: methods and concepts” 22 March 2019, Jakobi 2-114, University of Tartu The movement of texts from one medium to another and their parallel manifestation in various media are phenomena that are well-known to us from our everyday life as well as from history (e.g. the same text as a work of literature, as a film or as a comic strip; the same story told orally or in written form, as pictures or as songs etc.).

The opening assembly of the University of Tartu of the Republic of Estonia on 1 December 1919 marked the establishment of an Estonian-language university that was above all designed for Estonian students and to serve Estonian society. The centenary of the national university is celebrated throughout the year with a nation-wide cultural programme, an opinion festival and the largest gathering of alumni to date. The anniversary year draws to a close in December.

Juri Lotman proposed that the primary semiotic dualism lies in the duplication of the world in language and the duplication of the human in space: „Genetically speaking, culture is built upon two primary languages. One of these is the natural language used by humans in everyday communication. […] The nature of the second primary language is not so obvious. What is under discussion is the structural model of space“ (Lotman 1992: 142).