HiPhiS Seminar “Can language be the subject of science?”

Tuesday, April 25, 2017, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
IAE (building 29), Robert Reix amphitheater, Triolet campus.
Inter-university seminar on the History and Philosophy of Science, 2017 cycle “Causes, Foundations, Origins.”
Lecture presented by Alain Lecomte, logician and linguist, Professor Emeritus of Language Sciences, Paris-8 Saint-Denis University.

Summary:

In the 1950s, Chomsky proposed a mathematization of syntax based on the then-recent discoveries of logicians (Post, Turing, etc.); Montague went so far as to make no distinction between artificial languages and so-called "natural" languages. It therefore seemed possible to move toward establishing language as a scientific object, since mathematics could be applied to it. Nevertheless, Chomsky now emphasizes the biological nature of language. In our view, this does not necessarily mean that language cannot be mathematized or calculated, provided that we adopt Sylvain Auroux's cherished hypothesis of the exteriority of cognitive structures. In this case, we will focus more on the structures of interaction than on the productions of an isolated subject. The presentation will retrace the stages of this recent history and will focus in particular on the question of the mathematization of language sciences.
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