Philosophy in the Library: Brains, Ants, & Meaning with Kelle Dhein

In the November Philosophy in the Library, philosopher Kelle Dhein looks at a millennia-old mystery involving both "meaning" and animals.

Human life is permeated by things that mean other things, yet despite the ubiquity of that phenomenon, there is no scientific or philosophical consensus about what meaning is or how it works. In this talk, Kelle Dhein examines the concept of meaning in the context of animal behavior experiments. What do scientists mean when they ascribe meaning to the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying behavior? To answer that question, Dhein adopts a strategy for clarifying ideas that are at the heart of an American philosophical tradition known as pragmatism.

Kelle Dhein is a philosopher and historian of science who focuses on the history and philosophy of the behavioral sciences. Dhein was born and raised in Pheonix, Arizona, and currently lives in Lexington, Kentucky, where Dhein is a Lyman T. Johnson Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Kentucky. Dhein loves stories, especially the genres of horror, mystery, and science fiction. Dhein is also fascinated by animals.