Conference ‘Semantic Traps’ – Report

by Georg Winder*

Have you ever wondered how many of our habitually used terms have assumed quite different meanings or, maybe deliberately, have even taken on undertones that suggest something detrimental to what we wanted to get across?  Especially in the political discourse, these «semantic traps» they are misleading, hazardous and seriously weaken our civil liberties.

Conference ‘Semantic Traps’ – Report | To better understand these subtle changes and to make sure to grasp their impact on the economic and political debate, the Liechtenstein Academy Foundation organized a conference  at Schloss Freudenfels from June 9-11, 2016 with the title ‘Semantic Traps: Politics with Loaded Terms’. In an academically inspiring cooperation between PERC (a “Think Tank” based in Montana, USA), the European Center of Austrian Economics, ECAEF (based in Vaduz) and the Liechtenstein Academy Foundation LAF (Vaduz / Freudenfels) we were very pleased that world leading scholars and also experts from business followed our invitations and joined us to discuss the implications of political language traps on a high academic standard with a selected group of participants.

The symposium was the opening for the innovative course organized by the Liechtenstein Academy on ‘Understanding How Society Works’. The course, consisting of 8 stand-alone modules, will start in autumn 2016. For detailed information please visit our website  www.ae-laf.com.

*Georg Winder is Program Manager at Liechtenstein Academy Foundation (LAF), Herrengasse 12, FL-9490 Vaduz. The Liechtenstein Academy is a non-profit competence center that creates the environment for an effective integrated personality development and support you in the challenge of bearing responsibility for company, family and wealth. For this purpose, LAF develops tailor made programs, which combine scientific knowledge with well-proven practical methodology.