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The Adam Smith Lecture in Jurisprudence; 26 May, Glasgow

The Adam Smith Lecture in Jurisprudence

The Adam Smith Lecture in Jurisprudence seeks to make productive in a contemporary context the distinctive approach of the Scottish Enlightenment to legal philosophy. The Lecture invites some of the world’s most distinguished legal and political philosophers whose ideas have reached out beyond narrow disciplinary boundaries, to shape innovative thinking on key philosophical, political and social aspects of law and government. It is envisaged that these lectures will form landmark moments in our understanding of contemporary debates on law and its place in an interconnected world.

2017 Lecture

T?he 2017 Adam Smith Lecture in Jurisprudence will take place on Friday 26 May.  The invited speaker is A J Julius (UCLA) who will be presenting on ‘Free production through and against property’.

The event will take place at 5:30pm, Humanities Lecture Hall, Main Building.  A drinks reception will follow the lecture.

Free Entry – All welcome

Abstract

This lecture will arrange for Locke, Rousseau, Smith, Kant, and Fichte to agree about property by arranging for them to agree with Karl Marx. The project of using what’s mine to make what’s mine is an attempt at producing freely. It fails: the general interdependence of individual production activity as it’s organized by private property is a mutual subjection. The attempt will succeed only when propertyless workers free themselves to work together on purpose.

More information: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/adam-smith-lecture-in-jurisprudence-tickets-34573781110?aff=es2

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St Andrews Kant Reading Party; 27 July

It is our pleasure to invite you to the 10th edition of the St Andrews Kant Reading Party. The event will take place between the 24th and the 27th of July 2017, at the Burn House in Edzell (http://theburn.goodenough.ac.uk/). The title of this year’s edition is ‘Kant and Sidgwick’, and the main goal will be to investigate the philosophical relations between Kant’s ethics and the utilitarian philosophy of Henry Sidgwick, with a special focus on the nature of morality and the good.

It is commonly argued that Kantian ethics and Utilitarianism (whose most rigorous formulation is arguably to be found in the work of Henry Sidgwick) are incompatible and even opposed to each other. However, it has also been argued that the two views are actually quite similar, both in form and in upshot, and some philosophers have gone as far as to claim (i) that they are largely compatible and/or (ii) that by combining the two an even stronger ethical system could be developed. The debate over the relation between Kantian ethics and utilitarian philosophy is still alive and well, waiting for new insights and new creative contributions.

This year there will be up to six discussion sessions (all texts will be made available), as well as up to four paper sessions (see CFA below).

Participation Fees:

Staff members: £150; Students: £75

The fee covers accommodation and full board at the Burn House, as well as transportation from St Andrews to the Burn House and back.

Invited speakers will be waived the entire participation fee (see CFA below)

If you would like to attend but child care duties make it difficult, please get in contact with Lucas Sierra Vélez (lsv2@st-andrews.ac.uk). We will do our best to meet your requests, and we hope to be able to provide financial support.

Registration:

Since the number of places is limited, the registration process is divided in two steps: 1) Informal registration: send an e-mail including name, affiliation, and a brief expression of interest to Lucas Sierra Vélez (lsv2@st-andrews.ac.uk) by the 26th of May. 2) Payment: selected participants will be given instructions on how to make the online fee payment.

Call for abstracts:

Postgraduate students are invited to send anonymised abstracts of no longer than 750 words, as well as a separate cover sheet including name, position, institutional affiliation, and e-mail address to Kristina Kersa (kk203@st-andrews.ac.uk) by the 26th of May. Abstracts will be selected by blind review, and applicants will be notified by the 9th of June.

Papers should be suitable for a presentation of 40 minutes, and should attempt to clarify the relations between Kant’s ethics and Sidgwick’s Utilitarianism, or at least between Kantian ethics and Utilitarianism more generally. Preference will be given to papers addressing topics from the following list:

The nature of action, practical reason and morality; The nature of human agency and human motivation; The relation between maxims/motives/intentions and consequences; The Kantian idea of ‘practical love’ and its relation to utilitarian benevolence; The moral standing of non-human animals; The axiological, practical and moral significance of happiness; The nature of happiness; The meaning and varieties of ‘hedonism’; The Kantian highest good and its relation to the idea of a maximally happy world; The idea of ‘deserving happiness’; The dualism of practical reason (morality vs egoism); The question of the ultimate/supreme good; The meaning of the term ‘good’ and the varieties of goodness; The notions of intrinsic value and unconditional value; The concepts of ‘dignity’ and ‘respect’; The distinction between ‘harming someone’ and ‘wronging someone’; Ideal theory vs non-ideal theory; Self-regarding and other-regarding duties.

For any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Lucas Sierra Vélez (lsv2@st-andrews.ac.uk).

With best wishes,

The organisers: Lucas Sierra Vélez, Stefano Lo Re, Professor Jens Timmermann.

The Kant Reading Party is made possible by the support of the British Society for the History of Philosophy, the Centre for Academic, Professional and Organisational Development of the University of St Andrews, the St Andrews Philosophy Department, the International Society for Utilitarian Studies, the Mind Association, and the Scots Philosophical Association.

https://www.bshp.org.uk

https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/capod/

https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/philosophy/

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/Bentham-Project/news/isus

http://mindassociation.org/

http://www.scotsphil.org.uk/

Organisers:

Stefano Lo Re
University of St Andrews
Lucas Sierra
University of St Andrews
Jens Timmermann
University of St Andrews
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Self-Control Through Accountability to Others; St Andrews; Monday 8 May

You are warmly invited to attend a workshop in St Andrews on
Self-Control Through Accountability to Others
Monday 8th May

  • 09.00 Tea/coffee
  • 09.30 Natalie Gold (KCL) Promises and Intentions as Mechanisms of Self-Control
  • 10.45 Tea/Coffee
  • 11.10 Bryony Pierce (Bristol) If Self-Control Cannot Rely on Willpower, can Accountability to Others provide an effective substitute?
  • 12:00 Andrew Sims (UC Louvain) Team Reasoning in Self-Control and the Self-Reactive Attitudes
  • 12.45 Lunch
  • 14.00 Garrath Williams (Lancaster) Practices of Responsibility: Moral Capacities and ‘Holding Responsible’
  • 14.50 Leo Townsend (Oslo) Testimony and Doxastic Self-Control 
  • 15.35 Tea/Coffee
  • 16.00 Karen Stohr (Georgetown) Cultivating Self-Control through Etiquette 

Tuesday 9th May

  • 09.30 David Owens (KCL) Promises and Self-Control
  • 10.45 Tea/Coffee
  • 11.10 Lilian O’Brien (UC Cork) Sharing the Power of One’s Intentions With Others
  • 12.00 Samuel Murray (Notre Dame) Competence and Self-Control 
  • 12.45 Lunch
  • 14.00 Paulius Rimkevi?ius (Vilnius) Self-Accountability and Self-Knowledge
  • 14.50 Till Vierkant (Edinburgh) Willpower and Social Tying to the Mast
There is no formal registration or fee, but please email Katherine Hawley kjh5@st-andrews.ac.uk if you are planning to attend.
Further details are available here:
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Scottish Aesthetics Forum: Dr Cain Todd; 27 April; Edinburgh

The Scottish Aesthetics Forum is delighted to announce its next lecture:

Dr Cain Todd (Lancaster)

“Transparency, Imagination, and Time in
Aesthetic Experience”

Thursday, 27 April, 2017, 4:15 – 6:00pm

Room 1.20, Dugald Stewart Building,

University of Edinburgh

The lecture is free and open to all!

Abstract: The main aim of this paper is to explore some connections between imagination and time in aesthetic experiences, where such experiences are not confined solely to an engagement with works of art. In the process, I will examine how aesthetic experiences differ significantly from perceptual experiences in respect of their transparency, their employment of attention, and their effects on temporal representation. This will lead to a discussion of some implications for how we should characterise aesthetic experiences in general, as well as how to understand the normative dimension of the judgements that are held to express them.

About the speaker: Cain Todd is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Lancaster. His main research interests span predominantly issues in aesthetics that intersect with concerns in the philosophy of mind, epistemology, and ethics. Currently, he focuses on the nature of emotion and imagination with a view to outlining their roles in value judgement. As part of this project he also works on buck-passing accounts of value, evaluative disagreement and relativism, the phenomenology of evaluative experience, meta-cognition, and the nature of epistemic emotions. He is the author of the monograph The Philosophy of Wine: A Case of Truth, Beauty, and Intoxication (London: Acumen 2010).

Additional information: The lecture will be followed by a dinner with our speaker. If you would like to attend the dinner, please contact the organisers by Monday, 24 April.

*** There are limited funds to cover dinner expenses for two students, offered on a first-come-first-served basis. ***

– To contact the organisers: scottishaestheticsforum@gmail.com.

– For more information: http://www.saf.ppls.ed.ac.uk

– Or find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottishaestheticsforum

SAF is generously supported by the
British Society of Aesthetics & the Scots Philosophical Association.

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The Ethics of Giving Conference; University of St Andrews; 23 – 25 May 2017

The Ethics of Giving Conference
University of St Andrews
23 – 25 May 2017

 

23 May 2017 – Sessions in Upper College Hall

9.00 Hilary Greaves (Oxford) TBA
9.45 Travis Timmerman (SHU) Effective Altruists: Actualists or Possibilists?
10.30 Joe Slater (St Andrews) Effective Altruism and its Philosophical Foundations (Or Lack Thereof)
11.15 Coffee Break
11.30 Christian Barry (ANU) On Satisfying Duties to Assist
12.15 Amanda Askell (NYU) & Tyler John (Rutgers) Moral Offsetting
13.00 Lunch Break
13.45 Amy Berg (UNC) Beneficence and Partial Compliance
14.30 Michael Bukoski (Dartmouth) Moral Uncertainty and Moral Demandingness
15.15 Coffee Break
15.30 Brian McElwee (Southampton) Affluence and Blame
16.15 Joseph Carlsmith (NYU) Helping People and Creating People

24 May 2017 – Sessions in Upper College Hall

9.00 Rhys Southan (Oxford) Effective Altruism and the Contradiction in Willing
9.45 Leonie Smith (Manchester) Individual charitable giving as a part of the negative duty not to harm, in the case of global poverty
10.30 Elizabeth Ashford (St Andrews) TBA
11.15 Coffee Break
11.30 Sophie Hermanns (Harvard) & Scott Weathers (Harvard) Of ancient grudges and star-cross’d lovers: Difference and convergence between Effective Altruism and Social Justice
12.15 Eden Lin (Ohio State) Effective Altruism and American Electoral Politics
13.00 Lunch Break
13.45 Ketan Ramakrishnan (NYU) Property Rights and Duties of Aid
14.30 Judith Lichtenberg (Georgetown) Effective Altruism: A Critique
15.15 Coffee Break

24 May 2017 – Keynote Lecture in the Buchanan Lecture Theatre

16.00 Peter Singer (Princeton/Melbourne) Book Signing
17.15 Peter Singer (Princeton/Melbourne) 2017 Knox Lecture: Living Ethically in the 21st Century

25 May 2017 – Sessions in Upper College Hall

9.00 Adam Etinson (St Andrews) TBA
9.45 Ben Bramble (Trinity College Dublin) Effective Altruism and Our Reasons to Give
10.30 L.A. Paul (UNC) and Jeff Sebo (UNC) Effective Altruism and Transformative Values
11.15 Coffee Break
11.30 Ben Sachs (St Andrews) Effective Exhorting
12.15 Tobias Jung (St Andrews) Concerns about effective altruism: a view from the philanthropy research field
13.00 Lunch Break
13.45 Alan Fenwick (Schistosomiasis Control Initiative) TBA
14.30 Michelle Hutchinson (Centre for Effective Altruism) TBA
15.15 Giving Game

Attending the Conference

As seats are limited, we require all potential attendees to send us an expression of interest in attending (at standrewsethicsofgiving@gmail.com) by 14 April 2017. We will then confirm no later than 21 April 2017 whether you have a reserved seat at the conference. We regret that we have no remaining funding for travel assistance. Moreover, a reserved seat at the conference does not on its own guarantee a reserved seat at the Singer lecture, which is a ticketed event.

Organiser

Theron Pummer is the main organiser (tgp4@st-andrews.ac.uk); for administrative questions, please contact Laura Newman (cppa@st-andrews.ac.uk).

Acknowledgements

For generous funding and support, we are grateful to the Mind Association, the Society for Applied Philosophy, the Scots Philosophical Association, the JN Wright Trust, the Giving What We Can chapter at the University of St Andrews, the Department of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews, and the Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs at the University of St Andrews.

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The Metaphysics of Totality, 30-31 March, Glasgow

The Metaphysics of Totality

University of Glasgow, 30-31 March 2017
Thursday 30th

[9-9.30: coffee]
9.30-11: Aaron Cotnoir & Bruno Jacinto (St Andrews) – A Formal Semantics for the Theory of Embodiments

11.15-12.45: Stephan Leuenberger (Glasgow) – Totality Operators and Metaphysical Defaults
[lunch]

2.15-3.45: Anna-Sofia Maurin (Gothenburg) – Regress and Metaphysical Explanation

4-5.30: Louis deRosset (Vermont) – The Metaphysical Transparency of Truth
[7: dinner]
Friday 31st

[9-9.30: coffee]
9.30-11: Philipp Blum (Lucerne) – Every Thing is Positive

11.15-12.45: Naomi Thompson (Southampton) – Fictionalism about Grounding
[lunch]

2.15-3.45: Bruno Whittle (Glasgow) – Mathematical Anti-Realism and Explanatory Structure

4-5.30: Alexander Skiles (NYU) – Existence and Second-Order Quantification
[7: dinner]
All talks will be in the Reid Room, of 69 Oakfield Avenue.
Abstracts are available at:
Everyone is welcome to attend (without charge). But if you plan to come, please let us know by writing to: bruno.whittle@glasgow.ac.uk
This workshop is part of the AHRC funded project The Whole Truth. For more information about the project, please see:
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Kant’s Scots, Edinburgh, 21 April

Kant’s Scots

Bi-annual workshop on Kant’s philosophy

Friday 21st April 2017

Room 7.01, Dugald Stewart Building, 3 Charles Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AD

Program

10h30-12h00

Sasha Mudd (Southampton): Both the Law and the Good: Exploring a No Priority Approach to Kant’s Ethics

12h00-13h00

Stefano Lo Re (St Andrews): The function of the Kingdom of Ends in the Groundwork

14h30-16h00

Sacha Golob (KCL): Kant on Education (tbc)

16h15-17h45

Stefano Bacin (Universita Vita-Salute San Raffaele): “Kantian ‘Common Rational Moral Cognition’ and Moral Intuitions: On the Method of Kant’s Moral Philosophy”

Organiser: Alix Cohen (alix.cohen@ed.ac.uk)

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Workshop on the requirement of total evidence, May 29/30, Edinburgh

WORKSHOP ON THE REQUIREMENT OF TOTAL EVIDENCE

May 29-30

Room G.05, 50 George Square

University of Edinburgh

Confirmed Speakers:

Jessica Brown (St Andrews)

Peter Milne (Stirling)

Martin Smith (Edinburgh)

Julia Staffel (Wash U, St Louis)

Lauren Ware (Stirling)

Lee Whittington (Edinburgh)

Registration is free but places are limited.  To register please contact Martin Smith – Martin.Smith@ed.ac.uk.

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Scottish Aesthetics Forum, 6 April, Edinburgh, Dr Hans Maes

The Scottish Aesthetics Forum is delighted to announce its next lecture:

Dr Hans Maes (Kent)

“Portraits of Philosophers and the Philosophy of Portraits”

Thursday, 6 April, 2017, 4:15 – 6:00pm

7 Bristo Square, Room G.009 – Richard Verney Health Centre,

University of Edinburgh

The lecture is free and open to all!

Abstract: This paper presents a close analysis of Steve Pyke’s famous series of portraits of philosophers. By comparing his photographs to other well-known series of portraits and to other portraits of philosophers we will seek a better understanding of the distinctiveness and fittingness of Pyke’s project. With brief nods to Barthes, Baudrillard, Berger, Hegel, and Schopenhauer and an extensive critical investigation of Cynthia Freeland’s ideas on portraiture in general and her reading of Steve Pyke’s portraits in particular this paper will also aim to make a contribution to the philosophical debate on portraiture.

About the speaker: Hans Maes studied at the University of Leuven, Belgium, and graduated there with a PhD in Philosophy. His dissertation, focusing on problems in ethics and moral psychology, was published as a book in Belgium and The Netherlands. He has since made aesthetics and the philosophy of art the main focus of his postdoctoral activities. He worked at the Department of Aesthetics of the University of Helsinki, Finland, and the University of Maryland, USA, before moving to Kent where he is currently Senior Lecturer in History and Philosophy of Art. He has authored papers on a variety of topics in aesthetics, including the role of intention in the interpretation of art, the notion of free beauty, the art of portraiture, and the relation between art and pornography. The latter is the subject of two essay collections: Art and Pornography (co-edited with Jerrold Levinson, OUP, 2012); and Pornographic Art and The Aesthetics of Pornography (Palgrave MacMillan, 2013). Hans Maes is Co-Director of the Aesthetics Research Centre at Kent and from 2010 until 2013 was President of the Dutch Association of Aesthetics. For more information about Hans Maes’ work please visit: https://kent.academia.edu/HansMaes

Additional information: The lecture will be followed by a dinner with our speaker. If you would like to attend the dinner, please contact the organisers by Monday, 3 April.

*** There are limited funds to cover dinner expenses for two students, offered on a first-come-first-served basis. ***

– To contact the organisers: scottishaestheticsforum@gmail.com.

– For more information: http://www.saf.ppls.ed.ac.uk

– Or find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottishaestheticsforum

SAF is generously supported by the
British Society of Aesthetics & the Scots Philosophical Association.

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SSEMP VIII (University of Edinburgh 10-11 April 2017)

SCOTTISH SEMINAR IN EARLY MODERN PHILOSOPHY

SSEMP VIII

University of Edinburgh 10-11 April 2017

Project Room, room 1.06, William Robertson Building

University of Edinburgh, 50 George Square

Edinburgh, EH8 9LH

 

Key note speakers:

Beth Lord (University of Aberdeen)

Peter Millican (Oxford University)

 

PROGRAMME

Monday 10 April

8.45                 Welcome

Session 1: Hobbes and Spinoza

9.00-9.45        Francesca Rebasti (ENS de Lyon), “Reshaping Liberty of Conscience: Hobbes’s Heterodox Exegesis of the Gloss on Romans 14:23”

9.45-10.30      José Maria Sanchez de Leon (Hebrew University, Jerusalem), “Spinoza on Common Notions and the Order of Philosophizing”

10.30-10.45    Break

Session 2: Addison

10.45-11.30    Endre Szécsényi (Aberdeen), “The Birth of Modern Aesthetics from Spiritual Exercises”

11.30-12.15    Monica Uribe (Guanajuato), “Taste and Imagination in Addison’s Aesthetic Thought”

12.15-13.45    Lunch

Key Note Speaker

13.45-14.45    Beth Lord (Aberdeen), “Spinoza on Pride and Despondency”

14.45-15.00    Break

Session 1: Leibniz

15.00-15.45    Norma B. Goethe (Cordoba), “Leibniz on the Value of Learning from Exploratory Research”

15.45-16.30    Carlos Portales (Edinburgh), “Leibniz’s Modal Metaphysics as Ground for Nature’s Objective Aesthetic Value”

16.30-16.45    Break

SSEMP Essay Prize Winner

16.45-17.45    Kathrine Cuccuru (UCL), “Style over Substance? Literary Criticism and the Origins of the British Philosophical Sublime”

Tuesday 11 April

Session 4: Trotter, Masham, Locke

9.00-9.45        Simone Webb (UCL), “Self-Revelation and Sociability: Reading Damaris Masham’s Letters to John Locke as Philosophical Autobiography”

9.45-10.30      Emilio Maria de Tommaso (Calabria), “The True Grounds of Morality in Catharine Trotter’s Defence of Mr. Locke’s Essay”

10.30-10.45    Break

Session 5: Descartes

10.45-11.30    Andrea Christofidou (Keble College, Oxford), “Descartes on the Mind-Body Relation: A Solution?”

11.30-12.15    Christian Barth (Humboldt University, Berlin), “Cognitio interna and Conscientia in Descartes’ Conception of the Mind”

12.15-13.45    Lunch

Key Note Speaker

13.45-14.45    Peter Millican (Oxford), “Logic, Scepticism, and Egoism: Why Hume Disowned the Treatise of Human Nature”

14.45-15.00    Break

Session 6: Locke, Shaftesbury, Huygens

15.00-15.45    Tim Stuart-Buttle (Cambridge), “Locke on the ‘Two Provinces of Knowledg’”

15.45-16.30    Christian Maurer (Lausanne), “Shaftesbury’s Manuscript Pathologia. Stoicism, the Passions and Virtue”

16.30-16.45    Break

16.45-17.30    Miguel Palomo (Sevilla), “Christiaan Huygens, the Observer of the Cosmos”

Organisation: Pauline Phemister (Edinburgh), Mogens Lærke (IHRIM, CNRS, ENS de Lyon)

Funding: Scottish Philosophical Association (SPA) / British Society for the History of Philosophy (BSHP)/ Edinburgh University /IHRIM (CNRS, UMR 5317), ENS de Lyon.

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A message from Robin Cameron (Aberdeen)

The retired philosophers at Aberdeen thought their colleagues in Scotland would want to know that David Braine, formerly of the Aberdeen Department, died on 17th February.  He was severely disabled and bed-bound as the result of a car accident in the 1970’s, but managed to keep up some teaching and a lot of writing (three books).  The funeral and a requiem mass is to take place at 10.45 on Thursday 9th March at St Mary’s Cathedral, Huntly Street, Aberdeen.

Professor Robin Cameron,
University of Aberdeen (Emeritus),
Department of Philosophy,
University of Aberdeen, King’s College, Old Aberdeen  AB24 3UB
Home:  70 Cornhill Road, Aberdeen  AB25 2EH  tel (0)1224-486700.

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Meeting of the Northern Association for Ancient Philosophy (Edinburgh, 10-11 April)

We cordially invite you to attend the Meeting of the Northern Association for Ancient Philosophy which will take place in Edinburgh on April 10-11, 2017, at the University of Edinburgh, in Room G. 06, 50 George Square:

Conference programme 

Monday April 10, 2017: 

1-1.30 pm Registration and coffee

1.30-3.00 pm Professor William Charlton (University of Edinburgh, Emeritus),

‘Ancient and modern treatments of some syncategorematic terms.’

3.00-3.40 pm Ni YU (PhD candidate, University of Edinburgh)

‘The Unity of Plato’s Meno’

3.40 – 4.00 pm tea/coffee break

4.00-5.30 pm Dr Laura Maria Castelli (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich)

‘Alexander of Aphrodisias on deductive arguments and their principles’

5.30- 5.40 pm short break

5.40-6.20 pm Jonathan Greig (PhD Candidate, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich)

‘The One’s causality between Proclus and Damascius’

Tuesday April 11, 2017

9.30-11 am Professor Richard King (University of Bern)

‘Aristotle on Nutrition’

11-11.30 am Coffee break

11.30 am -1 pm Dr David Leith (University of Exeter)

‘Athenaeus of Attaleia on the Elements of Medicine’

1:00- 1:15 ABM

Lunch

A limited number of student bursaries is available: please contact the organisers.

The conference is made possible by the generous support from the Mind Association, Scots Philosophical Association, and the Eidyn Research Centre at the University of Edinburgh.

Should you have any questions/ further queries, please contact the organisers:

Inna Kupreeva (inna.kupreeva@ed.ac.uk) and Simon Trépanier (simon.trepanier@ed.ac.uk)

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Upcoming Arché Events (St Andrews)

The following events are upcoming at St Andrews:

Self-Control through Accountability to Others Workshop,  8th – 9th May 2017 School V, St Andrews

Proofs of Propositions in 14th-Century Logic Workshop, 23rd – 24 May 2017 Hebdomadar’s Room, St Salvator’s Quad, St Andrews

Blame and Norms Workshop, 15th – 16 June 2017 School II, St Andrews

Slurring and Swearing Workshop, 3rd – 4th June 2017 School II, St Andrews

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The Scottish Aesthetics Forum (7 March, Univ. of Edinburgh)

The Scottish Aesthetics Forum is delighted to announce its next lecture:

 

Professor Derek Matravers (Open University)

“Those Pesky Categories of Fact and Fiction”

Tuesday, 7 March, 2017, 4:15 – 6:00pm

Sydney Smith Lecture Theatre – Doorway 1 (Medical School, Teviot)

University of Edinburgh

 

The lecture is free and open to all!

 

Abstract: This paper will consider whether works in genres such as biopics, docudramas, and Shakespeare’s History Plays are fiction or non-fiction. It will argue that (a) some of them are non-fictions and (b) that, for others, it is a mistake to classify them under either heading. This will lead to a consideration of what motivates authors of non-fiction, and argues that a commitment to truth has both an epistemological and a non-epistemological function. Along the way it will conclude (as does Kendall Walton) that it is misguided to think that fiction is more of a philosophical puzzle than non-fiction.

 

About the speaker: Derek Matravers is Professor of Philosophy at The Open University. His main interests are in aesthetics and the philosophy of art, while he also works in political philosophy, ethics, and the philosophy of mind. Currently, he is considering how to integrate the protection of cultural property into Just War Theory, whist also working on some problems from his recent monograph Fiction and Narrative (OUP: 2014). Other recent books by Derek Matravers include Empathy (Polity: 2017), and a collection, edited with Damien Freeman, entitled Figuring Out Figurative Art (Routledge: 2014). Derek Matravers is on the Executive Committee of the Royal Music Association Music and Philosophy Study Group, and a founder-member of the International Network of Sympathy, Empathy, and the Imagination. For more information: http://www.open.ac.uk/people/dcm4.

 

Additional information: The lecture will be followed by a dinner with our speaker. If you would like to attend the dinner, please contact the organisers by Friday, 3 March.

*** There are limited funds to cover dinner expenses for two students, offered on a first-come-first-served basis. ***

 

• To contact the organisers: scottishaestheticsforum@gmail.com.

• For more information: http://www.saf.ppls.ed.ac.uk

• Or find us and like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottishaestheticsforum

 

SAF is generously supported by the

British Society of Aesthetics & the Scots Philosophical Association.

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PHILOSOPHERS AND THE PHILOSOPHICAL LIFE, St Andrews, 10 Feb

PHILOSOPHERS AND THE PHILOSOPHICAL LIFE

 

Lecture Room 3, The Gateway, University of St. Andrews

 

All welcome

 

—

 

Thomas Stern (UCL) 1.30-2.00 “‘We asked a philosopher if it’s okay to punch Nazis in the face'”

 

Beth Lord (Aberdeen) 2.00-2.30 “Philosophy and Allegiance”

 

Ben Colburn (Glasgow) 2.30-3.00 “Pathological Aspects of the Philosophical Ideal of Autonomy”

 

BREAK 3.00-3.20

 

Sarah Broadie (St Andrews) 3.20-3.40

 

Dory Scaltsas (Edinburgh) 3.40-4.00

 

Patrick Greenough (St Andrews) 4.00-4.20

 

Theron Pummer (St Andrews) 4.20-4.40

 

Alex Douglas (St Andrews) 4.40-5.00

 

BREAK 5.00-5.15

 

Justin Smith (Paris 7) 5.15-5.45 “Can One Be a Philosopher Without Knowing It?”

 

Concluding discussion 5.45-6.15

 

—

 

For further information, contact James Harris (jah15) or Tom Jones (tej1)

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Call for Registration; Synchronising the Senses: The Temporal Structure of Multisensory Experience on 17th and 18th of February at the University of Glasgow.

Call for Registration
A limited number of places are available to attend a two-day research-intensive interdisciplinary workshop on the topic of Synchronising the Senses: The Temporal Structure of Multisensory Experience on 17th and 18th of February at the University of Glasgow.
The workshop is part of the AHRC-funded Rethinking the Senses: Uniting the Philosophy and Neuroscience of Perception project and will examine how some of the latest research on multisensory integration and the perception of temporal order and simultaneity bears upon philosophical questions concerning the fundamental nature of experience. It will also form the basis of a follow-up project on Synchronising the Senses, funded by the John Templeton Foundation via the University of Cambridge’s New Directions in the Study of the Mind initiative.
Speakers
Vanessa Harrar (Montréal)
Christoph Hoerl (Warwick)
Lars Muckli (Glasgow)
Simon Prosser (St Andrews)
Charles Spence (Oxford)
Jean Vroomen (Tilburg)
Further information
Registration is via Eventbrite at:
For further information, please refer to the workshop webpage at:
or email the workshop organiser, keith.wilson@glasgow.ac.uk.
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John Stuart Mill lecture, St Andrews, 3 Feb 2016

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of John Stuart Mill’s inaugural address as Rector of the University of St Andrews:
A lecture by Prof. Helen Small (Oxford): ‘The Liberal University and its Enemies’
Response by Catherine Stihler MEP, the current Rector.
5pm, Friday 3 February 2017
School 3, St. Salvator’s Quad, North Street, St. Andrews
All welcome.
For further information, please contact James Harris at jah15@st-and.ac.uk
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Dudley Knowles Memorial Lecture in Political Philosophy: Victor Tadros, Glasgow 25 January

THE STEVENSON TRUST FOR CITIZENSHIP

Dudley Knowles Memorial Lecture in Political Philosophy

 

 

Professor Victor Tadros

Professor of Criminal Law and Legal Theory

University of Warwick

 

‘A Moral Law for War’

 

Wednesday, January 25th 2017 at 6 p.m.

 

 

Sir Charles Wilson Lecture Theatre

(Corner of Gibson Street and University Avenue)

 

 

A substantial body of recent work in just war theory claims that the moral considerations that determine whether acts of individual combatants during a war are permissible or wrong are not reflected in the laws of armed conflict. Whereas morality prohibits the killing of combatants on the just side of a war, the law does not. And whereas morality sometimes permits the killing of non-combatants on the unjust side, again the law does not. Many also defend these divergences between law and morality. I will offer a cautious case for revising the law to achieve greater convergence between morality and the laws of war.

 

 

Professor Dudley Ross Knowles (1947 – 2014) was a renowned political philosopher who taught at Glasgow University from 1973 to 2011.  He was a staunch supporter of the Stevenson Trust and insisted that the Trust’s commitment to public education must include the contribution of political philosophy to examining issues of contemporary relevance in a manner accessible to all citizens.  In 2015 the Stevenson committee endorsed his view by instigating an annual public lecture on political philosophy in his memory.  

 

 

 

The lecture will be followed by discussion and a drinks reception at 7.30 p.m.  All staff, students, and members of the public are welcome.  No advance booking is necessary.  For further information contact: stevensontrust@glasgow.ac.uk

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Scottish Aesthetics Forum: Aaron Meskin (31 January, Univ. of Edinburgh)

The Scottish Aesthetics Forum is delighted to announce its next lecture:

 

Dr Aaron Meskin (Leeds)

“Aesthetic Testimony: An Experimental Investigation”

(written with Dr Shen-yi Liao (Puget Sound) & Dr James Andow (Reading))

Tuesday, 31 January, 2017, 4:15 – 6:00pm

Room G04, 50 George Square,

University of Edinburgh

 

The lecture is free and open to all!

 

Abstract: Ordinary testimony transmits knowledge. But aestheticians have been sceptical of whether aesthetic testimony transmits aesthetic knowledge. Although the debate in the philosophical literature focuses largely on normative and conceptual questions, empirical claims about folk resistance to aesthetic testimony play a significant role in that debate. Our studies explore folk attitudes towards aesthetic testimony. We argue that experimental results do not support pessimism about the epistemic value of aesthetic testimony.

 

About the speaker: Aaron Meskin is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Leeds. His current research interests include experimental aesthetics, the philosophy of food, and the aesthetic issues raised by comics, graphic novels and improvisational dance. In addition to the foregoing topics, Aaron Meskin’s publications span aesthetic testimony, bad art, the definition of art, the imagination, and video games. He is former Treasurer and Officer of the British Society of Aesthetics and a former Trustee of the American Society for Aesthetics. From 2009-2013 he was co-investigator on the AHRC project “Method in philosophical aesthetics: the challenge from the sciences”. More information on Aaron Meskin, including a complete list of his publications, can be found on his website: https://aaron-meskin.org.

 

Additional information: The lecture will be followed by a dinner with our speaker. If you would like to attend the dinner, please contact the organisers by Wednesday, 25 January.

*** There are limited funds to cover dinner expenses for two students, offered on a first-come-first-served basis. ***

 

• To contact the organisers: scottishaestheticsforum@gmail.com.

• For more information: http://www.saf.ppls.ed.ac.uk

• Or find us and like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scottishaestheticsforum

 

SAF is generously supported by the

British Society of Aesthetics & the Scots Philosophical Association.

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Workshop: Philosophers and the philosophical life, St Andrews, 10 Feb: Final call for submissions

Tom Jones (English, St Andrews)  and James Harris (Philosophy, St Andrews) are running a series of workshops in St Andrews on the nature of the philosophical life, supported by the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
On Friday 10 February the final workshop of the series will consider whether, and how, professional philosophers think that being a philosopher makes a difference to their everyday lives. Has philosophy turned itself into a profession like any other, with little or no bearing on one’s family life, one’s friendships, one’s social and political allegiances, and so on? Or is there still some truth to the ancient idea that philosophy is a way of living that manifests itself in every significant choice that one makes? Is there a middle-way between these extremes?
We invite philosophers working in Scotland to take part in this discussion. If you are interested, please send a brief indication of how you’d like to approach the issue to:
We will find room on the programme for as many contributions as space and funding permit.
Participants will include Ben Colburn (Glasgow), Alex Douglas (St Andrews), Beth Lord (Aberdeen), Theron Pummer (St Andrews), Dory Scaltsas (Edinburgh), Justin Smith (Paris VII) and Thomas Stern (UCL).