Feb
22
Thu
“Holding On and Letting Go: The Ethics of Grief” Oded Na’aman (Stanford) @ Wolff Conference Room, D1103
Feb 22 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Drawing on literary accounts of grief, I argue that by paying close attention to the phenomenology of grief we can arrive at a better understanding of the ethical significance of our emotions. We find, I argue, that the rationality of a person’s state of mind is partly determined by its place in the person’s life considered over time. More specifically, I argue that grief is a stage in a fitting process of repair and I show that various disagreements about the normal, healthy, or fitting duration of grief reflect underlying ethical disagreements about what process of repair is fitting in response to the loss of a loved person. Thus, by attending to grief philosophically we find a new space of ethical reflection that has not been acknowledged, namely, reflection about fitting processes of repair.

Feb
23
Fri
“On the Dialectics of Democracy Promotion. A Critical Republican Approach” Dorothea Gädeke (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt) @ Wolff Conference Room, D1103
Feb 23 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Democratization has become a battle cry in contemporary political discourse: Celebrated and promoted for spreading the only legitimate form of government by some, criticized and rejected for serving as the core of a neo-imperial world order by others.

Drawing on republicanism and critical theory, the lecture proposes a theory of domination that transcends this dichotomous view. It links a critique of power with an account of democracy and shows why both the defense and the critique of democracy promotion bear the risk of reverting from a fight against domination into a politics of domination.

Feb
25
Sun
Meeting 51: Philosophy of Language @ Justine's apartment
Feb 25 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Philosophy-in-Manhattan
Sunday, February 25 at 2:00 PM

Columbia philosophy PhD candidate Jake McNulty will lead this meeting. ] Reading: Austin “Performatives”…

Price: 12.00 USD

Meeting 51: Philosophy of Language

Sunday, Feb 25, 2018, 2:00 PM

Justine’s apartment
47 East 88th Street New York, NY

18 Members Went

Columbia philosophy PhD candidate Jake McNulty will lead this meeting. ]Reading: Austin “Performatives” http://www.uvm.edu/~lderosse/courses/lang/Austin(1979).pdf The topic of this session is the philosophy of language in the Anglophone Analytical tradition. We will focus on the pioneering work of J.L. Austin, whose famous book _How To Do Things …

Check out this Meetup →

Feb
26
Mon
A Dynamic Solution to the Liar Paradox – Martin Pleitz (Muenster) @ CUNY Grad Center, rm 3309
Feb 26 @ 4:15 pm – 6:15 pm

The Liar paradox arises when we combine the assumption that a sentence can refer to itself with our naïve notion of truth and apply our unrevised logic. Most current approaches to the Liar paradox focus on revising our notion of truth and logic because nowadays almost everyone is convinced that there are self-referential sentences. I will argue against this conviction. My argument starts from observations about the metaphysics of expressions: A meaningful expression is based in a syntactic expression which in turn is based in a non-semiotic object, and these are pairwise distinct. As all objects of this three-fold ontology exist only relative to contexts, we can import ideas from tense logic about how existence and reference can interact in a contextualist metaphysics. Semantico-metaphysical reasoning then shows that in this dynamic setting, an object can be referred to only after it has started to exist. Hence the self-reference needed in the Liar paradox cannot occur, after all. As this solution is contextualist, it evades the expressibility problems of other proposals.

Logic & Metaphysics Workshop:

Feb 26 Martin Pleitz, Muenster
Mar 5 Vera Flocke, NYU
Mar 12 Roy Sorensen, WUSTL
Mar 19 Alex Citkin, Private Researcher
Mar 26 Chris Scambler, NYU
Apr 2 SPRING RECESS. NO MEETING
Apr 9 Greg Restall, Melbourne
Apr 16 Daniel Nolan, Notre Dame
Apr 23 Mel Fitting, CUNY
Apr 30 Sungil Han, Seoul National
May 7 Andreas Ditter, NYU
May14 Rohit Parikh

Making Our Thoughts Clear: The Role of Language in the Pursuit of Self-Knowledge – Eli Alshanetsky (Stanford) @ Orozco Room, A712
Feb 26 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

We often make our thoughts clear to ourselves in the process of putting them into words. In this lecture I introduce a new puzzle about this process—one that’s reminiscent of the famous paradox about inquiry in Plato’s Meno. The puzzle is that, on the one hand, coming to know what we’re thinking seems to require finding words that would express our thought; yet, on the other hand, finding such words seems to require already knowing what we’re thinking.

I consider and reject two possible solutions to this puzzle. The first solution denies that language contributes to our knowledge of our thoughts. The second solution denies that we have a fully formed thought that we try to articulate in the first place. The failure of these solutions points to a positive account of the role of language in the pursuit of self-knowledge, on which language mediates between two different “formats” or modes of thought. Among the broader implications of this account is a richer conception of the aims and methods of philosophy.

Philosophy of Language Workshop @ NYU Philosophy Dept. rm 302
Feb 26 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

29 January
Gillian Russell (UNC)

5 February
Mandy Simons (CMU)

12 February
(No Workshop)

19 February
(No Workshop)

26 February
Daniel Rothschild (UCL)

5 March
Chris Kennedy (UChicago)

12 March
Rachel Sterken (Oslo)

19 March
No Workshop (NYU Spring Break)

26 March
Andreas Stokke (Uppsala)

2 April
Rebekah Baglini (Stanford)

9 April
Henry Schiller (UT Austin)

16 April
Gary Ostertag (CUNY)

23 April
Manuel Križ (Jean Nicod)

30 April
Maria Aloni (ILLC/Amsterdam)

7 May
Alexis Wellwood (USC)

Feb
27
Tue
Goldman Lecture @ Rutgers Philosophy Dept. 5th floor Seminar Rm.
Feb 27 @ 4:00 pm

The Department’s colloquium series typically meets on Thursdays in the Seminar Room at Gateway Bldg, 106 Somerset Street, 5th Floor.

  • 2/27/18 Goldman Lecture, 4pm
  • 3/1/18 Mesthene Lecture, Prof. Miranda Fricker (GC-CUNY), 3:00-6:30 pm
  • 3/22/18 RU Climate Lecture, Prof. Sally Haslanger (MIT) 3:00-5:00 pm
  • 4/8/18 Karen Bennett (Cornell University)
  • 4/12/18 Sanders Lecture, Prof. Linda Zagzebski (University of Oklahoma)
  • 4/13/18 Rutgers Chinese Philosophy Conference, 9:30 am-6:30 pm
  • 4/13-4/14/18 Marilyn McCord Adams Memorial Conference
  • 4/14-4/15/18 Rutgers-Columbia Undergraduate Philosophy Conference (held at Columbia University)
  • 4/17/18 Class of 1970’s Lecture, Prof. Jeremy Waldron (NYU), Alexander Teleconference Lecture Hall, 4:30-7:30 pm
  • 5/21-5/25/18 Metaphysical Mayhem
  • 6/8-6/9/18 Pantheism Workshop
  • 7/8-7/15/18 Summer Institute for Diversity in Philosophy (held at the Rutgers University Inn and Conference Center)
Mind and Language Research Seminar @ NYU Philosophy Dept. rm 202
Feb 27 @ 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Our topic for Spring 2018 will be Formal Frameworks for Semantics and Pragmatics. We’ll be investigating a range of questions in semantics and/or pragmatics which involve or are relevant to the choice between different kinds of overall structure for theories in these areas.

In most sessions, the members of the seminar will receive a week in advance, copies of recent work, or work in progress from a thinker at another university. After reading this work, students discuss it with one of the instructors on the day before the colloquium. Then at the Tuesday colloquium, the instructors give a summary review and raise criticisms or questions about the work. The author responds to these, and also to questions from the audience.

Meetings

The main seminar meetings are on Tuesday from 4-7, in the second floor seminar room of the Philosophy Department. Additionally, there will be a supplementary meeting open to all students participating in the seminar (whether enrolled or not) on Mondays from 4-5, in the same location in the fifth-floor seminar room.

This seminar is open to all interested parties.

There is a googlegroups mailing list for the class. If you want to receive announcements, please add yourself to that list. (To be able to access the mailing list’s web interface, you’ll need to log into Google’s systems using an identity Google recognizes, like a Gmail address, or a NYU email address because of how NYU’s authentication systems are connected to Google. But there’s no real need to see the mailing list’s web interface. You just need some email address to be added to list, then any messages we send to the list will get forwarded to all the email addresses then registered on the list. If you want us to add an address to the list that you can’t log into Google’s systems with, just send us a message with the address you want registered.)


Schedule and Papers

Papers will be posted here as they become available. Some may be password-protected; the password will be distributed in class.

23 Jan
Introductory session (no meeting on Monday 22 Jan), Jim’s handoutSome people asked for more background reading. Here are two useful textbooks: Heim & Kratzer, then von Fintel & Heim. Here is a survey article about different treatments of pronoun anaphora. Here is a course page with links to more reading.
30 Jan
Jim Pryor (NYU, web, mail), “De Jure Codesignation
6 Feb
Mandy Simons (CMU, web, mail), “Convention, Intention, and the Conversational Record” and (with Kevin Zollman) “Natural Conventions and the Semantics/Pragmatics Divide“(Mandy is also speaking in the NYPL on Monday 5 Feb at 6:30.)
13 Feb
Paul Pietroski (Rutgers, mail), “Semantic Typology and Composition
20 Feb
Karen Lewis (Columbia/Barnard, web, mail)
27 Feb
Daniel Rothschild (UCL, web, mail)(Daniel is also speaking in the NYPL on Monday 26 Feb at 6:30.)
6 Mar
John Hawthorne (USC, mail)
13 Mar
Spring Break
20 Mar
Lucas Champollion (NYU, web, mail)
27 Mar
Matthew Mandelkern (Oxford, web, mail)
3 Apr
Paolo Santorio (UC-San Diego, web, mail)
10 Apr
Una Stojnić (Columbia, web, mail)
17 Apr
Seth Yalcin (UC-Berkeley, web, mail)
24 Apr
Stephen Schiffer (NYU, web, mail)
1 May
Maria Aloni (ILLC and Philosophy/Amsterdam, web, mail)(Maria is also speaking in the NYPL on Monday 30 Apr at 6:30.)
Epistemology and Ethics Workshop @ Plaza View Room, 12th Flr, Lowenstein
Feb 27 @ 5:30 pm – 6:45 pm

The Epistemology and Ethics group is composed of faculty and graduate students at Fordham and other nearby universities. Papers are read in advance, so the majority of the time is devoted to questions and discussion. If interested in attending, email dheney[at]fordham[dot]edu.

September 19th  Kate Manne (Cornell)

October 17th  Sandy Goldberg (Northwestern)

November 14th  Eden Lin (Ohio State)

February 27th  Nathan Ballantyne (Fordham)

March 20th  Sophie Horowitz (UMass, Amherst)

April 24th  Nomy Arpaly (Brown)

Feb
28
Wed
CUNY Colloquium @ CUNY Grad Center, rm 9204/5
Feb 28 @ 4:15 pm

Each colloquium is held on Wednesday at 4:15 P.M. All colloquia will take place at the Graduate Center in rooms 9204/9205 except as otherwise noted. Please call (212) 817-8615 for further information.

February 7th • Jerrold Katz Memorial Lecture
David Papineau (CUNY Graduate Center | King’s College London)
“Kinds and Essences: Taming Metaphysical Modality”

February 14th
Jane Friedman (NYU)
“The Epistemic and the Zetetic”

February 21st
Muhammad Ali Khalidi (York U)
“Are Sexes Natural Kinds?”

February 28th
Laurie Paul (UNC)
“De Se Truth and Epistemic Revolution”

March 7th • Marx Wartofsky Memorial Lecture
Steven Lukes (NYU)
Title TBD

March 14th
Collin O’Neill (CUNY Lehman College)
“Consent and Third-Party Coercion in Medicine and Research”

March 21st
Edouard Machery (Pittsburgh)
TBD

March 28th
Greg Restall (Melbourne)
“Accommodation, Inference, Generics and Pejoratives”

April 4th: No Colloquium (Spring Recess)

April 11th: No Colloquium (CUNY Friday Schedule) 

April 18th
Shaun Nichols (Arizona)
“The Wrong and the Bad: On the Rational Acquisition of Moral Rules”

April 25th
Quayshawn Spencer (UPenn)
“A Radical Solution to the Race Problem”

May 2nd
Tim Crane (CEU)
“Putnam’s Ant: On the Reduction of Meaning and Intentionality”

May 9
Kathryn Tabb (Columbia)
“Locke on the Complexity of Ideas and the Ethics of Belief”


Download an interactive PDF version of the schedule here.