Sep
16
Sat
Ancient and Contemporary Epistemology: Epistêmê and Doxa, Knowledge and Belief, Understanding and Opinion @ NYU Silver Center, rm 503
Sep 16 – Sep 17 all-day

The full program can be viewed here.

The workshop will bring together philosophers working in ancient epistemology with those working in contemporary epistemology to discuss issues relevant to the debates in both fields.

It was assumed until recently that the distinction between doxa and epistêmê, key players in ancient epistemology, maps directly onto the contemporary distinction between knowledge and belief. Recent interpreters of Plato and Aristotle have challenged this assumption.  Some argue that epistêmê is closer to understanding than to knowledge because (for example) it requires explanation rather than justification, cannot be transmitted by testimony, is hard to come by, and can only be had of a restricted range of objects. Others argue that doxa is narrower than belief, perhaps closer to opinion, because (for example) doxa is excluded by epistêmê while belief is entailed by knowledge, doxa is imprecise and unclear while these are not essential features of belief, and doxa too has a restricted range of objects.

Contemporary epistemology tackles issues that are related to the debates above. Is knowledge to be distinguished from understanding and if so, which one should be seen as the proper goal of inquiry? Does understanding have value over and above the value of knowledge? Much like Plato and Aristotle, epistemologists aim to elucidate the conceptual relations between knowledge, understanding, justification, explanation, epistemic authority, and testimony. In addition, contemporary epistemologists sometimes produce fictional genealogies of epistemic concepts to arrive at an improved understanding of our epistemic practices. If epistêmê and doxa are distinct from knowledge and belief in a way indicated above, then it seems appropriate to raise the question whether the actual history of epistemic concepts can help to improve these fictional genealogies.

The presentations are followed by a response and a general discussion.Papers by speakers who specialize in Ancient epistemology will be assigned to commentators who specialize in contemporary epistemology and vice versa.

Presenters: Gail Fine (Cornell), Richard Foley (NYU), Jane Friedman (NYU), Allison Hills (Oxford), Robert Pasnau (Colorado), Whitney Schwab (Baltimore/NYU), Katja Vogt (Columbia), Ralph Wedgwood (USC).

Respondents: John Bengson (Harvard), Hugh Benson (Oklahoma), Paul Boghossian (NYU), Toomas Lott (NYU/Tartu), Jessica Moss (NYU), James Pryor (NYU), Michael Strevens (NYU).

Organisers:

Toomas Lott, NYU/Tartu
Jessica Moss, NYU

September 7, 2017, 7:00pm EST

email tl1972 at nyu

Sep
27
Wed
Beauty: How to Make It Safe for the 21st Century, Dominic McIver Lopes @ Lang Recital Hall, 4th flr., Hunter College
Sep 27 @ 6:00 pm

Critiques of beauty in art and in everyday life assume the traditional idea that aesthetic value is a kind of power to please. An entirely new picture comes from a close look at intricately structured networks of agents who interact with each other in aesthetic enterprises. Aesthetic values give us reasons to act in the context of social practices. The “network theory” explains why, despite the critiques, beauty never disappeared from art, why it’s as humanly important as ever, and how it can be harnessed to address pressing social problems.

Introduction by Noël Carroll, CUNY Graduate Center

a lecture by Dominic McIver Lopes
Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, the author of Understanding Pictures, Sight and Sensibility,  Computer Art, Beyond Art, Four Arts of Photography, and Being for Beauty (in progress).

6pm, Wednesday, 27 September
Lang Recital Hall, Hunter College
(North Building, 4th Floor)

Sponsored by the departments of
Art and Philosophy

Feb
20
Tue
Minorities and Philosophy Spring Workshop Series @ Various Locations around NYC
Feb 20 @ 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm

The Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) Chapters of Columbia, The New School, Rutgers, CUNY, NYU, and Princeton invite submissions from graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from underrepresented groups for a workshop series (NY-MAPWorks) in spring 2018.

Dates: Jan 30th (NYU), Feb. 20th (New School), March 6th (CUNY), April 17th (Columbia), May 8th (NYU), 7-9:30pm.

Submission Guidelines:

To apply, please compete the following by December 15th, 2017:

  1. Send an extended abstract of 750-1,000 words (.pdf or .doc), prepared for blind review, suitable for a 25-30 minute presentation to a general philosophical audience to nymapshop@gmail.com.
  2. Provide your contact information by completing this google form.

Applications will only be accepted from individuals from groups underrepresented in academic philosophy.

Accepted participants will be notified by January 14th. For further details, see our philpapers posting at https://philevents.org/event/show/37294.

Mar
6
Tue
Minorities and Philosophy Spring Workshop Series @ Various Locations around NYC
Mar 6 @ 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm

The Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) Chapters of Columbia, The New School, Rutgers, CUNY, NYU, and Princeton invite submissions from graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from underrepresented groups for a workshop series (NY-MAPWorks) in spring 2018.

Dates: Jan 30th (NYU), Feb. 20th (New School), March 6th (CUNY), April 17th (Columbia), May 8th (NYU), 7-9:30pm.

Submission Guidelines:

To apply, please compete the following by December 15th, 2017:

  1. Send an extended abstract of 750-1,000 words (.pdf or .doc), prepared for blind review, suitable for a 25-30 minute presentation to a general philosophical audience to nymapshop@gmail.com.
  2. Provide your contact information by completing this google form.

Applications will only be accepted from individuals from groups underrepresented in academic philosophy.

Accepted participants will be notified by January 14th. For further details, see our philpapers posting at https://philevents.org/event/show/37294.

Mar
23
Fri
21st Annual CUNY Graduate Philosophy Conference: Self and Other @ CUNY Grad Center, rm 9206
Mar 23 all-day

The 21st Annual CUNY Graduate Philosophy Conference will take place on March 23rd, 2018 at the CUNY Graduate Center (365 5th Avenue). This year’s theme is “Self and Other”, broadly construed. The program below features Dr. Akeel Bilgrami (Columbia) and Dr. Daniel Kolak (William Paterson University) as keynote speakers. Eight graduate students from departments across the U.S. and abroad will give 30-minute talks spanning a broad array of philosophical research areas.

Click the links to download PDFs of the the conference flyer and schedule of talks.

Time / Title / Speaker / Affiliation

8:30-9 AM / BREAKFAST

9-9:30 AM / Embedded Love: What it Means for / Love to Structure Your Will / Hunter Gentry / University of Houston

9:30-10 AM / Animal Intimacy: Intra-Species connectivity and care in the Touch / Stephanie Mieko Struble / Western Connecticut State University

10-10:30 AM / BREAK

10:30-11AM / Foundations of Loyalty: Transcending Self and Other / Sara Pope / Fordham University

11-11:30 AM / Self as Other: On the Interpretation of Mirror Self-Recognition / Pengbo Liu / University of Massachusetts

11:30 AM -12:30 PM / LUNCH

12:30-1:30 PM / Keynote

Inquiry and Academic Freedom: Philosophical Reflections on Current Controversies on Campuses

Akeel Bilgrami

Columbia University

1:30-1:45 PM / BREAK

1:45-2:15 PM / Other Minds in Other Traditions: The Problem of Other Minds in Plantinga and Heidegger / Ben Koons / Oxford University, Oriel College

2:15-2:45 PM / The intrinsic epistemic value of primitive introspection / Anna Giustina / Institut Jean Nicod/Ecole Normale Supérieure/PSL Research University

2:45-3 PM / BREAK

3-3:30 PM / Who Do You Speak For? And How? The Management of Identities in Online Abuse / Michael Barnes / Georgetown University

3:30-4 PM / Hospitality and the Political Economy of Care / Lisa M. Madura / Vanderbilt University

4-4:30 PM / BREAK

4:30-5.30 PM / Keynote

Open Individualism: the Five Ways

Daniel Kolak

William Paterson University

5:30 PM / RECEPTION

Mar
27
Tue
Naturalized Aesthetics of Film Workshop @ CUNY Grad Center, rm 5307
Mar 27 @ 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Two CUNY Philosophy professors (Noël Carroll and Jesse Prinz) will present research alongside PhD student Zoe Cunliffe and alumna Laura Di Summa-Knoop in the upcoming Workshop on “Naturalized Aesthetics of Film”, taking place March 27th from 2-6pm in GC Room 5307. Additional presenters include Joerg Fingerhut (postdoc, Berlin School of Mind and Brain) and Murray Smith (University of Kent). The workshop celebrates Smith’s new monograph Film, Art, and the Third Culture, which defends an interdisciplinary approach to film studies.

See the poster below for additional details (including the workshop schedule).
Click here to download it as a PDF.

Apr
17
Tue
Minorities and Philosophy Spring Workshop Series @ Various Locations around NYC
Apr 17 @ 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm

The Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) Chapters of Columbia, The New School, Rutgers, CUNY, NYU, and Princeton invite submissions from graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from underrepresented groups for a workshop series (NY-MAPWorks) in spring 2018.

Dates: Jan 30th (NYU), Feb. 20th (New School), March 6th (CUNY), April 17th (Columbia), May 8th (NYU), 7-9:30pm.

Submission Guidelines:

To apply, please compete the following by December 15th, 2017:

  1. Send an extended abstract of 750-1,000 words (.pdf or .doc), prepared for blind review, suitable for a 25-30 minute presentation to a general philosophical audience to nymapshop@gmail.com.
  2. Provide your contact information by completing this google form.

Applications will only be accepted from individuals from groups underrepresented in academic philosophy.

Accepted participants will be notified by January 14th. For further details, see our philpapers posting at https://philevents.org/event/show/37294.

Apr
20
Fri
CUNY Undergraduate Philosophy Conference @ La Guardia Philosophy Dept.
Apr 20 all-day

This is a Call for Papers for the 8th Annual CUNY Undergraduate Philosophy Conference.  Submissions from any area of philosophy are welcome, but the primary author must be an undergraduate. Papers should be no more than 10 pages in length and should be suitable for 15–20 minute presentations. Electronic submissions should be in Word or PDF format and should ready for blind review.  In your submission email, please include your name, the title of your paper, your institutional affiliation, and your preferred email address for correspondence.

Please send your submissions to lagccphilosophy@gmail.com.

May
8
Tue
Minorities and Philosophy Spring Workshop Series @ Various Locations around NYC
May 8 @ 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm

The Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) Chapters of Columbia, The New School, Rutgers, CUNY, NYU, and Princeton invite submissions from graduate students and postdoctoral fellows from underrepresented groups for a workshop series (NY-MAPWorks) in spring 2018.

Dates: Jan 30th (NYU), Feb. 20th (New School), March 6th (CUNY), April 17th (Columbia), May 8th (NYU), 7-9:30pm.

Submission Guidelines:

To apply, please compete the following by December 15th, 2017:

  1. Send an extended abstract of 750-1,000 words (.pdf or .doc), prepared for blind review, suitable for a 25-30 minute presentation to a general philosophical audience to nymapshop@gmail.com.
  2. Provide your contact information by completing this google form.

Applications will only be accepted from individuals from groups underrepresented in academic philosophy.

Accepted participants will be notified by January 14th. For further details, see our philpapers posting at https://philevents.org/event/show/37294.

Sep
14
Fri
The Foundations of Conceptual Engineering @ NYU Philosophy Dept. rm 202
Sep 14 – Sep 15 all-day

One dimension of cognitive success is getting it right, i.e gaining knowledge of facts. Another dimension of cognitive success is using the right concept, i.e. framing a topic in the right way. This view, if correct, tasks inquirers with critically examining the concepts they are using and perhaps replacing those concepts with new and better ones. This task is often known as “conceptual engineering”.

The idea that conceptual engineering is an important task for inquirers in and outside philosophy has recently gained traction. Some philosophers think conceptual engineering is an important task for inquirers to pursue.  The conference is focused on foundational issues in connection with conceptual engineering. Topics to be addressed include the following:

  • What are the semantic mechanisms that underlie conceptual engineering?
  • What are concepts, and which role (if any) do they play in conceptual engineering?
  • How can a theory of conceptual engineering be integrated with large-scale semantic theories? 
  • Which precise changes does a language undergo when its speakers engineer concepts?
  • Is conceptual engineering something that speakers can ever purposefully bring about?
  • What is the relation between changing concepts and changing reality? 

The planned conference will focus especially on the semantic foundations of conceptual engineering and push towards a better understanding of the process.

The conference is organized collaboratively by members of NYU (Vera Flocke and David Chalmers) and members of the research project ConceptLab, located at the University of Oslo (Herman Cappelen and Andrew Peet).

The conference is funded by the New York Institute of Philosophy and ConceptLab.

To attend, please register by following this link no later than August 31, 2018.