The Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) is organising a two-day scientific conference entitled Normativity: Between Theory and Practice from an Interdisciplinary Perspective. The event will take place on 20–21 October 2026 in Bratislava and will focus on normativity in the contexts of philosophy, law, language, political thought and the social sciences.
International Participation and Plenary Lectures
The Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences invites participants to the conference entitled “Normativity: Between Theory and Practice from an Interdisciplinary Perspective“, which will take place on Tuesday, 20 October, and Wednesday, 21 October, at the Institute’s premises, in the meeting room on the fifth floor (Klemensova 19, Bratislava).
The conference programme includes two invited plenary lectures:
Assoc. Prof. Scott Aikin, PhD. (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee);
Prof. Mgr. Marián Zouhar, PhD. (Comenius University in Bratislava).
The Institute of Philosophy SAS will be represented by its researchers: Prof. PhDr. Tatiana Sedová, PhD.; Doc. PhDr. Eva Smolková, PhD.; Mgr. Jakub Švec, PhD.; Mgr. Tomáš Kollárik, PhD.; and Mgr. Martin Foltin, PhD..
The conference will bring together members of the VEGA research project team from the Institute of Philosophy SAS and the Faculty of Law of Comenius University. Participants will also include researchers and academic staff from institutes of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the University of Prešov, Comenius University, the University of Žilina, Trnava University, Central European University in Vienna, and Vanderbilt University in the United States.
Thematic Focus of the Conference
The scientific programme is organised into thematic sessions addressing speech acts and linguistic normativity, normativity and rationality, moral and legal normativity, the ontology of normativity, normative attitudes, and the historical sources of normativity.
The discussions will also examine individual and collective autonomy, normative authority, political legitimacy, justice, the relationship between law and political rationality, and normativity in relation to the environment.
The first day will feature a plenary lecture by Scott Aikin entitled An Arguer’s Model of Free Speech, addressing freedom of speech from the perspective of argumentation. The second day will begin with a plenary lecture by Marián Zouhar entitled Implicit Normativity of Speech Acts and Its Regulation.
The programme includes academic presentations and discussions intended to examine different philosophical and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of normativity.
Organisation and Research Project Context
The conference is organised by the Department of Normativity and Human Rights Research of the Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The conference is being held as a planned output of VEGA project No. 2/0118/24, “The Social Nature of Normativity as a Starting Point for Explaining the Relationship between Individual and Collective Autonomy”.
Key Event Information
Title: Normativity: Between Theory and Practice from an Interdisciplinary Perspective
Dates: 20–21 October 2026
Starting times: 20 October at 9:30 a.m. (participant registration); 21 October at 9:00 a.m.
Venue: Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, Bratislava, Meeting Room, 5th Floor
Organiser: Institute of Philosophy SAS – Department of Normativity and Human Rights Research
Contact: jakub.svec@savba.sk
Further information:
https://thesocialnatureofnormativitysav.eu
