New applications of the directival theory of meaning (lecture by Paweł Grabarczyk) скачать в хорошем качестве

New applications of the directival theory of meaning (lecture by Paweł Grabarczyk)

Paweł Grabarczyk (IT University in Copenhagen) Title: New applications of the directival theory of meaning Date: 8th of January, 2026 Abstract: The Directival Theory of Meaning (DTM from now on) is a pioneering form of functional-role semantics devised by the Polish philosopher Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz in the 1930s. Despite some groundbreaking ideas, the theory was never fully developed by its author and remained a historical curiosity. In 2019, I published a book that shows how the original theory can be expanded so that it transcends Ajdukiewicz’s initial vision and applies to natural languages. In the book’s conclusion, I suggested two additional applications of the theory that may be of interest to contemporary philosophers. The first of these applications is treating the DTM as a theory of literary fiction. The second is treating the DTM as a basis for a theory of knowledge for Artificial Intelligence. In my talk, I begin by providing the basics of the DTM that are necessary to understand these expansions. Next, I explain how the theory can be used to account for discourses about fictional entities and how it may prove useful for building new AI models, in particular, explainable AI. About the Speaker Paweł Grabarczyk is an Associate Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen, where he is part of Play, Culture, and AI and serves as Head of the Games Research Group, affiliated with the Center for Digital Play and the Center for Computing Education Research. He works primarily in philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, game studies, and semantics, with a special focus on Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz’s Directival Theory of Meaning and functional-role approaches to meaning. He is the author of Directival Theory of Meaning: From Syntax and Pragmatics to Narrow Linguistic Content (Springer, 2019), which offers the first systematic treatment of the Directival Theory of Meaning in English and develops a novel framework combining syntactic, pragmatic, and narrow-content considerations. Beyond his work on meaning and concepts, he has also published on topics in game studies and the philosophy of games, including research on game jams and how games can engage with “heavy” or anxiety-inducing topics, as well as on issues at the intersection of AI, explanation, and digital design.