Alois Pichler: What is a Text?
The talk for the first Department Seminar this term is given by Alois Pichler.
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Abstract
My talk originates in research on the concept of text in digital humanities contexts. At this instituttsseminar, however, I will focus exclusively on philosophical matters. More specifically, I will deal with questions of the ontological status of texts. Are texts objects? Or rather properties? Or something even more different? I will end by suggesting that texts are events. More specifically, I will argue that texts are actions co-produced by authors and readers. One categorical distinction that leads me to this view is the one between writing and "texting"; another one the distinction between documents and texts; and a third one the Wittgensteinian distinction between signs and symbols.
Here's an outline of my talk:
I. Some definitions and distinctions
1. Document carrier ≠ Document ≠ Text
2. Writing ≠ Texting
3. Sign ≠ Symbol
II. Ontology
1. Objects, properties, events and actions
2. Texts as objects
• Texts as types
• The FRBR ontology
• Texts as immaterial objects
3. Texts as properties
4. Stocktaking
• Why texts are rather not objects
• Why texts are rather not properties
5. Texts as events
• Texts as actions
