Lukas Skiba Wins Prize for Young Researchers in Humanities 2025
How does language relate to reality? Lukas Skiba is awarded the Prize for Young Researchers for his work on how language shapes our understanding of the world. His work explores some of philosophy’s most fundamental questions about language and reality, and how they relate to one another.
Main content
Lukas Skiba believes that some of these questions have gained new relevance with the rise of large language models (LLMs). What does it take for something to have meaning? And what can AI-generated language tell us about how language works? He has recently begun to investigate some classic philosophical questions in light of modern AI.
What does it take for something to have meaning?
“Ideally, artificial intelligence is a topic where we can use philosophical theories to throw light on a phenomenon of large ongoing interest. And by trying to make sense of artificially produced language, we may also learn more about language in general,” Skiba says.
Most of his research relates to the philosophy of language, logic and metaphysics, and often the intersections between these fields. A common thread is his focus on the basic mechanisms of language and how language relates to reality. His fascination with big philosophical questions arose early.
“Questions like ‘What is it for something to have meaning?’, ‘What is the relation between language, mental states, and the world?’ have been an interest of mine since I started studying philosophy as a teenager, and it has stuck with me since,” Skiba says.
Can AI perform human speech acts?
According to him, AI raises several conceptual challenges — such as how we should think about what these systems are actually doing, and which concepts we should or shouldn’t use when trying to understand their behaviour.
“In relation to this, I have recently become interested in whether LLMs can perform so-called ‘speech acts’: whether they can, for example, make assertions, give promises or advice, or issue apologies.”
As part of this newest line of research, Skiba investigates what it takes to perform such speech acts, and whether LLMs meet those requirements. He is not assured they do.
“I'm sceptical that they do, because I think you must submit yourself to certain norms associated with the relevant speech acts in order to perform them, and I’m not convinced LLMs have the ability to do this.”
Self-shaving barbers and other paradoxes
Most of Skiba’s research to date has been on even more foundational questions. His focus has been on how language can inform our understanding of what exists. He notes that a challenge arises when we encounter linguistic expressions that seem as if they should refer to something, but in fact cannot do so.
To illustrate this, Skiba points to a version of the well-known puzzle often associated with Russell’s paradox:
“Consider a barber who shaves all and only those who don’t shave themselves. Does the barber shave himself or not? The problem is that, given how the barber has been described, he shaves himself just in case he does not. But that’s a contradiction,” Skiba explains.
The logic behind properties and existence
Similar problems crop on in many areas of philosophy, among them theories of properties and propositions. These are among the most basic concepts in theoretical philosophy, and they are implicitly involved in how we think about the world around us and our place within it: properties are what two things share when they have some feature in common. And propositions are the contents of our mental states and speech acts.
To develop precise theories of properties and propositions that avoid contradictions, philosophers often use formal languages. However, it is still an open question what the best such language should look like exactly and which logical rules should govern it. An important part of Skiba’s research has been concerned with the project of figuring out what the best formal language is for theorising systematically about properties, existence, and related notions.
Delighted to receive the Prize for Young Researchers
Skiba is very grateful for being awarded the Prize for Young Researchers in Humanities.
“I’m delighted to win this prize. In philosophy, there is great applied work and great foundational work. A lot of my work is on the foundational side, and I’m very happy to see foundational research being recognized,” he says. He emphasizes the extraordinarily constructive and cooperative atmosphere in the department, where everyone helps each other succeed.
“It’s a joy to work under such conditions.”
Looking ahead, Skiba hopes to continue contributing to philosophy’s biggest questions. “I look forward towards continuing my extant research projects and beginning some new ones. I’ve recently been thinking about two questions that are not usually considered together. The first is whether there can be more than one correct logic. The second is whether there can be more than one way in which things exist. I’m interested in the connection between these questions and whether answering them can teach us something about the nature of disagreement.”