Social Ontology and Philosophy of Social Sciences

Research Group at the Department of Philosophy

Past Events include:

Franz Brentano Lectures on Practical Philosophy with Robert Brandom: Recollection and Recognition. Semantic and Practical Dimensions of Hegel’s Phenomenology. 8-9 April 2019, University of Vienna.
The Social Institution of Norms: a workshop with Robert Brandom, 8 - 10 April 2019, University of Vienna
Atmospheres of Shared Emotion, 25 - 26 April 2019 Workshop, Department of Philosophy
Confronting fanaticism: theoretical and applied perspectives, 20 - 22 November 2019 Workshop, University of Vienna.
Layers of Collective Intentionality, workshop organized by Michael Schmitz, Hans Bernhard Schmid and Leo Townsend, University of Vienna, 16-18 August 2018, program.
Groups, Norms, and Practices: Intentionalists vs. Inferentialists, workshop funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and organized by Leo Townsend, Hans Bernhard Schmid, and Michael Schmitz, University of Vienna, 3-4 November 2017, program.
Group Speech Acts, conference organized by Michael Schmitz, Hans Bernhard Schmid and Gerhard Thonhauser, University of Vienna, 26-27 August 2016, program.
Existentialist Social Philosophy, organized by Hans Bernhard Schmid and Gerhard Thonhauser in cooperation with Institut für Wissenschaft und Kunst (IWK), 28-29 July 2016, program.
Collective Self Awareness, conference organized by Hans Bernhard Schmid and Michael Schmitz, 10-12 September 2015, University of Vienna, program.
Analyzing Social Wrongs: Workshop on Social Criticism in Analytic Philosophy, organized by Hilkje Hänel (HU Berlin), Daniel James (HU Berlin), and Odin Kroeger (University of Vienna), 14-16 May 2015, Institut für Wissenschaft und Kunst (IWK), Vienna, program.
John R. Searle: The Ontology of Human Civilization, Lecture, May 27, 2015, 6.15pm, Hörsaal C1 Campus, organized by Hans Bernhard Schmid and Michael Schmitz, program.
Vienna-Copenhagen-Workshop: "We" - Distributive and Collective, organized by Alessandro Salice and Hans Bernhard Schmid, 30 March 2015, University of Vienna, program.
Conference: Conventionalism. Heidegger’s “Anyone” and Contemporary Social Theory, 4-6 December 2014, University of Vienna,program.
Philosophy Lectures: Epistemology, Philosophy of Science, Social Ontology, Lecture Series, Summer 2014, Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna, program.
Conference: Acting under the “Guise Of The Bad”? Practical Rationality and Evil Action, 15-17 May 2014, University of Vienna, organized by Prof. Hans Bernhard Schmid and Prof. Herlinde Pauer-Studer, program.
Social Ontology Workshop, Winter 2013, with presentations by Eve Kitsik, Michael Schmitz, Jelena Jankovic, Gerhard Thonhauser, Odin Kroeger, Michael Berger, and Katharina Bernhard.
Philosophy Lectures: Epistemology, Philosophy of Science, Social Ontology, Lecture Series, Winter 2013, Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna, program.
ENSO III, 3rd conference of the European Network on Social Ontology, Helsinki, October 23-25, 2013 (read more).
Philosophy Lectures: Epistemology, Philosophy of Science, Social Ontology, Lecture Series, Summer 2013, Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna, program.
Social Reality. The Phenomenological Approach, Organized by Alessandro Salice, Hans Bernhard Schmid, and Thomas Szanto, University of Vienna, March 21-23, 2013, program.
Philosophy Lectures: Epistemology, Philosophy of Science, Social Ontology, Lecture Series, Winter 2012/13, Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna, the program is available program.
Social Facts: Metaphysical and Empirical Perspectives. A Special Issue of Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Guest Editors: Alessandro Salice (Universität Basel & Universität Wien) and Luca Tummolini (ISTC-CNR, Rome) (read more)
"Objective Mind and the Metaphysics of the Social" was a research project sponsered by the Swiss National Science foundation. It ran from Sept. 2010 until August 2012, and includes a small team of collaborators. Its general aims and purposes are described here (in German).
Special Symposium on Empathy and Fellow Feeling, Conference on Collective Intentionality VIII, University of Manchester, August 31st, 2012. (read more)
Walking with Rousseau: Group Attitudes between Aggregation and Association, University of Geneva, September 12-13, 2012, program.
Workshop on Collective Intentionality and Group Agency, University of Vienna, May 24-26, 2012 (with Philip Pettit), program.
Social Ontology & Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Lecture Series, Summer 2012, Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna, program.
II Conference of the ENSO. Social Ontology: Metaphysical and Empirical Perspectives (read more)
Coll Int VII: Conference on Collective Intentionality VII (read more)
ENSO Inaugural Meeting: The Background of Institutional Reality (read more)
Workshop on Social Capital and the Sense of Belonging In an Individualized Society From its earliest beginnings up to recent times, the rise of the individual has been accompanied by worries about the erosion of social bonds. – When Adam Smith analyzed self-interest in the 18th century, he also explored the notions of fellow-feeling and sympathy. – When Alexis de Tocqueville coined the term “individualism” in the early 19th century, he at once turned to resources of communality and sociability as well. – In recent years, discussions on the “individualized society” and its discontents have led to a growing interest in the concept of “social capital.” (read more)
Workshop on the Phenomenology of Shared Feelings: Max Scheler and Hermann Schmitz (read more)
Conference on Self Evaluation Philosophers have explored at great length the metaphysics of the self and the nature of self-reference. Although some of the self-directed (reflexive) emotions - like shame, pride and guilt – have been investigated carefully, many self-directed attitudes remain unexplored and thus the interrelations between these attitudes and reactions and their importance for the self are little understood. [read more]
Workshop on Collective Epistemology While traditional epistemology and philosophy of science used to focus on individual reasoning, recent work in social epistemology has tried to establish the importance of social groups for cognition. All the proponents of social epistemology agree that the idea of science as driven by unbiased, purely epistemically oriented individual cognizers has to be rejected. However, ... [read more]
Workshop on Rationality and Commitment: Rational choice theory forms the core of the economic approach to human behaviour. It is also the most influential philosophical account of practical rationality. Yet there are persistent controversies about the scope of rational choice theory in philosophy and, increasingly, in economics as well. A leading critic is the philosopher and Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen [read more]
Workshop on Altruism in Philosophy, Psychology, and Economic Theory (University of St. Gallen, May 31 – June 2, 2007): Ever since the days of Adam Smith, philosophers, (proto-) social scientists and (proto-) psychologists have been debating the possibility, structure, and role of altruism. While next to no-one has ever denied that people frequently act in an other-directed fashion, the following question has been at the center of much controversy: are such acts just another means of pursuing one’s own goals (e.g. by motivating other agents to reciprocate), or are at least some of them genuinely geared towards the goals of others, irrespective of the agent’s own aims? Is there, in other words, such a thing as genuine altruism? [read more]