Do things exist because we talk about them?

Michele Marsonet, Dean of the School of Humanities at the University of Genoa, is in Malta today to give a talk on the connection between the natural and linguistic world. Hosted by the Department of Philosophy Research Seminars, A Limited View of Realism will look at how a distinction can be drawn between the natural world on the one hand and the social-linguistic world on the other. According to many authors, however, it should not be difficult to understand that we began to identify ourselves and the objects that surround us only when the social-linguistic world emerged from the natural one. In turn, this means that our criteria of identification are essentially social and linguistic. Thus, we need an intersubjective criterion to give rise to the notion of a world which is both objective and mind-independent. The distinction between subject and object arises only when such a criterion is in place. Marsonet graduated in philosophy at the University of Genoa and received a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh (Philosophy of Science). His academic career began as a research fellow of the Italian National Research Council (CNR). He is now full professor of philosophy of science...