Institutions
The protocol (Portuguese version only)
The Instituto de Filosofia da Linguagem [Philosophy of Language Institute] (IFL) is a research unit of the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences (Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas) of the New University of Lisbon (Universidade Nova de Lisboa) and it's supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e para a Tecnologia) of the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. The main purpose of IFL is to develop research programs in the current fields of philosophy of language, philosophy of logic, philosophy of communication, aesthetics, political philosophy, philosophy of mind, and areas of philosophy of action and moral philosophy which are the main research fields of the Institute. There is not in the IFL a unique and strict philosophical (not to mention, ideological) orientation such as analytical versus continental philosophy and one can speak in a plurality of orientations of its members.
The Program in Literary Theory is a graduate program affiliated with the Faculty of Letters at the University of Lisbon, offering an M.A. and a PhD in Literary Theory, as well as a basic certificate and post-doctoral programs. It was established in 1991, and has a current enrolment of about 65 students.
Most teaching and research done in the Program in Literary Theory are also part of the teaching and research currently being done in some Literature, Philosophy, Arts, and Social Science Departments, as well as in some Law Schools. What is peculiar to the Program is the combination of some or all of these interests. In this sense, the Program in Literary Theory is a program in the Humanities, where disciplinary boundaries count for less than the possibility of establishing relations between different disciplines, and where the debate and discussion count for more than the transmission of acquired knowledge.
Its students characteristically have some previous background in Literature or Philosophy, as to a great extent ours is a program in Philosophy and Literature, but there are no background prerequisites for admission to the Program. The absence of such prerequisites, like the absence of what is usually called “a policy” is, in our opinion, of great advantage. Its faculty, resident and visiting alike, have very different interests and often very different theoretical and practical inclinations. Conflict is therefore both inevitable and welcome.
The Program is also part to the Fulbright Scholar in the Humanities/University of Lisbon program, which assures one annual Fulbright visiting professorship in the Program through 2014.
