Jurģis Šķilters

Photo of Jurgis Skilters
Assist. Prof. Dr. Jurgis Skilters
Director, Center for Cognitive Sciences and Semantics
Executive Chair, Department of Theoretical Philosophy and Logic, University of Latvia
2nd Chairman and Spokesperson (Linguistics), GTA e.V.
Editor-in-Chief, The Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication

My research and academic interests are: Cognitive and formal semantics, Gestalt Theory, human semantic processing (especially the processing of semantic indefiniteness), figure-ground-semantics (particularly the processing of indefiniteness), and the principles of cognitive semantic articulation, both linguistic and visual.

I'm working on several research projects including:

My teaching experience includes the following topics:

Recent publications

Recent Books

  1. Šķilters, J., Eklund, M., Jónsson, P.O., Wiegand O.K. (Eds.) (2006): Paradox: Logical, Cognitive and Communicative Aspects. Riga, Latvia. University of Latvia Press. 271
  2. Šķilters, J., Toccafondi, F., Stemberger (2007): Complex Cognition and Qualitative Science: A Legacy of Oswald Külpe. Riga: University of Latvia Press.
  3. Zuczkowski, A., Šķilters, J. (Eds.) (2008): Relations and Structures in Language and Communication. Wien: Verlag W. Krammer (simultanously: Gestalt Theory, Vol. 30, No. 3)
  4. Šķilters, J. (Volume Editor) (2008): Acta Universitatis Latviensis: Philosophy, Vol. 739.

In total I have worked on 9 books: edited, co-edited, and one of my own…

Recent Papers

  1. Šķilters, J. (2005): Loģika ir sava veida darbarīks. (Logic as a tool). Kultūras forums, Nr. 45 (185), 1, 3
  2. Šķilters, J. (2005): Gestalt Theory and Linguistics, Introduction to GT and Linguistics' Project. In: The Official Webpage of International GTA e.V.
  3. Šķilters, J. (2005/2006): Gestalt Theory and Linguistics - A Bibliography, Gestalt Theory and Linguistics' Project. In: The Official Webpage of International GTA e.V.
  4. Šķilters, J. (2005/2006): People and Institutions in Linguistics related to Gestalt theory, Gestalt Theory and Linguistics' Project. In: The Official Webpage of International GTA e.V.
  5. Šķilters, J. (2005): Loģika, kognitīvās zinātnes un paradoksi. (Logic, Cognitive Sciences and Paradoxes.). Kultūras forums. Nr. 41 (181), 4
  6. Šķilters, J. (2006): Zinātne un zinātniskās literatūras izdevējdarbība (Science and Publishing). Bibliotēku pasaule (offizielle Zeitschrift der Lettischen Nationalbibliothek). Nr. 36 , 48-52.
  7. Šķilters, J. (2006): Oswald Külpe: Qualitative Conception of Psychology. Humanities and Social Sciences. Latvia, 2(48), 28-43
  8. Skilters, J. (2006): Aspekte der Figur-Grund-Strukturierung in der menschlichen semantischen Artikulation. In: Das mentale Paradoxon / The Mental Paradox, Ed. Boudewijnse, Geert-Jan, (Wien: Krammer Verlag), simultaneously: Gestalt Theory, Vol. 28, No. 1/2, 201-222.
  9. Šķilters, J. (2006): Preface. In: Šķilters, J., Eklund, M., Jónsson, P.O., Wiegand O.K. (Eds.) (2006): Paradox: Logical, Cognitive and Communicative Aspects. Riga, Latvia. University of Latvia Press. 5-8
  10. Skilters, J. (2006): Das Spiegelproblem vom Standpunkt der kognitiven Semantik. Gestalt Theory, Vol. 28, 302-307
  11. Šķilters, J. (2006): Alternatīva pieeja uztveres teorijās (An alternative in the theories of perception). Kentaurs XXI, Nr. 41, 4-5
  12. Böger, C., Skilters, J. (2007): Zeit und Bewusstsein bei Augustinus. Eine philosophiehistorische Betrachtung. Acta Universitatis Latviensis 713, 31-39
  13. Šķilters J. (2007): [Report – Bericht] Oswald Külpe: Aspekte einer qualitativen Wissenschaft. Gestalt Theory, Vol. 29, No. 1, 87-91.
  14. Šķilters, J. (2007): Atomistiskā, elementāristiskā un veseluma izpratne par zinātni (Atomic and wholistic conception of science). Kentaurs XXI, 42, 105-123.
  15. Skilters, J. (2007), [Mein Weg zur Gestalttheorie: Logik, Psychologie und Gestlattheorie]. DAGP/ÖAGP-Informationen, Ausgabe 1/2007-16. Jahrgang, 7-9.
  16. Šķilters J. (2007), Īpašvārdu semantika un latviešu valoda (Semantic of proper names and Latvian). Karogs, 4., Apr. 2007, 82-88.
  17. Skilters, J (2008), Frames as structured wholes: On the relations between frame theory and figure-ground semantics. In: Zuczkowski, A., Šķilters, J. (Eds.): Relations and Structures in Language and Communication. Wien: Verlag W. Krammer (simultanously: Gestalt Theory, Vol. 30, No. 3): 357-366.
  18. Šķilters J. (2008): Sprache, Gestalttheorie und Semantik. In: Metz-Göckel H. (Ed.): Handbuch zur Gestalttheorie. Band 1. Wien: Krammer, 203-231.
  19. Šķilters, J. (2008): Loģikas minimālnosacījumi. (The Minimal Conditions of Logic: on the Relations between Language, Logic, and Mathematics.) Acta Universitatis Latviensis: Philosophy, 34-47
  20. Žogla, A., Skilters J., Ante K., Straujums U., Golde, J. (2008): Vēstures notikumveida struktūra: Formālsemantisks klasifikācijas modelis. (Event-based Structure of History: A Formal Semantic Model of Classification.) Acta Universitatis Latviensis: Philosophy, 202-216.

In total I have worked on 50 papers, some still in process; mainly on cognitive sciences, logic and semantics.

Recent presentations and talks

  1. Böger, C., Skilters, J. (2006): (Abstract) Semantic Articulation and Movement Execution, Queen's University Belfast, Annual Meeting of European Society of Philosophy and Psychology, 24-27.
  2. Skilters, J., Böger, C. (2006): (Abstract) Zur Wechselwirkung von Bedeutung und Bewegung: Wurzeln der semantischen Artikulation in der Wahrnehmung, in: Schmid, H.-J., Engelhardt, M. (Hgg.) Abstractband von Second International Conference of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association, 5.-7.10.2006. München: LMU- München, ICCLS, 2006, S. 138.
  3. Šķilters, J. (2006) (Abstract): Apziņas nenovērojamo saturu problēma 19. un 20. gs. mijas psiholoģijā (Non-obcervable contents in the psychology of 19th and 20th century). Materialien der Internationalen Tagung (Universität Lettlands, Österreichische Botschaft): Traum und Wirklichkeit in der globalisierten Gesellschaft.
  4. Skilters, J. (2007): Oppositions Within a Frame. In: Béziau J.-Y., Payette G. (Eds.) Hand Book of the First World Congress on the Square of Opposition. Montreux, Switzerland, June 1-3, 2007, University of Neuchatel, p. 48. (prepared but not presented…)
  5. Šķilters, J. (2007): Frames as Structured Wholes. Congress: Relations and Structure. University of Macerata, Italy, May 2007
  6. Skilters, J., Böger, C. (2007): Embodied semantic structures in movement execution and language. In: United Kingdom Cognitive Linguistics Association 2nd Meeting: New Directions in Cognitive Linguistics-2, 27-30 August. Cardiff University, 38-39.
  7. Skilters J. (2007): Frame-based meaning activation model of polysemy processing. In: Loebner S. et al. (Eds.): Concept Types and Frames in Language, Cognition and Science, Duesseldorf, Germany, August 20-22, University of Duesseldorff, 85-86.
  8. Skilters, J. (2008): Semantic prominence and semantic segmenting: on the relations between cognitive semantics and Gestalt theory. In: Language, Communication & Cognition, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK, August 4th-7th 2008
  9. Skilters, J., Böger, C. (2008): Semantic grounding of movement: Effects of movement execution on the semantic processing. The 9th Conference on Conceptual Structure, Discourse, and Language, Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio) on 18-20 October, 2008, USA
    Abstract available at Social Sciences Research Network: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1292853.

Referee for: