The aim of this conference is to bring scholars from numerous disciplines into conversation across the historical timeline. Just as freedom and liberty are slippery concepts, so are ideas of debt, value, and payment. But rather than simply viewing these terms as rhetorical devices that make freedom seem worthwhile, we deploy debt, value,and payment as analytical tools for understanding how freedom works – while also keeping in mind that these are concepts that themselves demand investigation. These ideas unite the discourses of freedom and liberty, from ethical and economic discourses, which describe freedom as either physical labor or a mental activity, as well as the language of religion and science. Often our innumerable ways of assessing value bleed one into another, especially in conversations regarding individual and shared liberties.
By explicitly juxtaposing the different methodologies used in asking “what does freedom cost?” from Greco-Roman antiquity to the present, we hope to explore overlapping areas of research and help expand the existing conversations in each discipline. In addition to providing vocabularies, practices and theories of freedom that we still use today, Ancient Greece and Rome provide many examples of peoples who lacked freedom but strove to obtain it, including slaves, women and conquered peoples. By simultaneously examining the Greco-Roman antiquity and modernity, we bring to light recurrent historical patterns of the costs that people have and continue pay for freedom.
We will be offering a minimum of six bursaries of up to 500 dollars to be awarded on the basis of greatest need, taking into account access to institutional funding and the distance of the conference from the participant’s home institution.
31 October 2016 is the deadline for the submission of abstracts. Please include the following as separate files: (1) title, abstract of 300-500 words, a one page bibliography (no self identifying information please!); (2) your name, title of your proposed talk, institutional affiliation, short academic bio, and an indication of whether you’d like to be consider for a bursary, a budget for the amount requested, and any information we should take into consideration when making our bursary allocations.
Philosophers have employed two different varieties of felt necessity to explain central aspects of agency in addiction and love, respectively. In the case of addiction, the relevant felt need is often described in terms of an appetite, whereas love is characterized by necessities arising from a particular kind of caring. On Dr. Wonderly’s view, the extant literature offers an instructive, but incomplete picture of the roles of felt necessity in addiction and love. Dr. Wonderly argues that a third form of felt necessity – attachment necessity – often better captures central aspects of agency in love and addiction. Recognizing the role of attachment necessity will not only illuminate how felt necessity can impact the value of certain relationships, but it will also allow us to discern important features of addiction and love that remain obscured on extant approaches.
Monique Wonderly is the Harold T. Shapiro Postdoctoral Research Associate in Bioethics. She is primarily interested in puzzles at the intersection of ethics and the nature of emotions. She has published in the areas of applied ethics, philosophy of emotion, and history of philosophy. Her current research focuses on emotional attachment – and in particular, on questions concerning moral agency and ethical treatment that arise when considering certain attachment-related pathologies, including psychopathy and (some forms of) addiction. For more, visit here.
Reception to follow.
The Rutgers Philosophy Department, in partnership with Oxford University Press, is pleased to present the second annual Rutgers Lectures in Philosophy! This annual series brings some of the world’s greatest living philosophers to Rutgers University–New Brunswick where they present three original lectures to be published by Oxford University Press. The lectures are free and open to the public.
Last year, the inaugural series featured Kit Fine on a novel approach to the problem of vagueness. This year, Rutgers is hosting Sir Richard Sorabji[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com] for three lectures on the history of free speech. Here are the details:
Lecture I – Freedom of Speech for all: the gradual discovery, East and West.
Date/Time: Monday Oct. 30th, 2017, 3:00-5:00pm (reception to follow)
Location: Alexander Library, Teleconference Room (Room 403) (https://rumaps.rutgers.edu/location/alexander-library[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com])
Lecture II – Freedom of speech: voluntary boundaries when it stops discussion and the art of continuing discussion by other means
Date/Time: Thursday Nov. 2nd, 2017, 3:00-5:00pm (reception to follow)
Location: Alexander Library, Teleconference Room (Room 403) (https://rumaps.rutgers.edu/location/alexander-library[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com])
Lecture III – Freedom of Speech: Difficulties in framing and policing legal boundaries
Date/Time: Friday Nov. 3rd, 2017, 3:00-5:00pm (reception to follow)
Location: Rutgers Academic Building, Room 2125 (https://rumaps.rutgers.edu/location/rutgers-academic-building[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com])
All three lectures are free and open to the public. Please see the attached posters for more details. Abstracts for the talks are available here[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com].
About The Rutgers Lectures in Philosophy:
In the Fall of 2016, The Rutgers Philosophy Department in partnership with Oxford University Press were pleased to announce the launch of The Rutgers Lectures in Philosophy[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com]. This annual series brings some of the world’s greatest living philosophers [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com]to Rutgers University–New Brunswick where they present three original lectures to be published by Oxford University Press. The lecturers also hold workshops with faculty and graduate students, and meet with undergraduates. The lectures are free and open to the public.
The Rutgers Philosophy Department, in partnership with Oxford University Press, is pleased to present the second annual Rutgers Lectures in Philosophy! This annual series brings some of the world’s greatest living philosophers to Rutgers University–New Brunswick where they present three original lectures to be published by Oxford University Press. The lectures are free and open to the public.
Last year, the inaugural series featured Kit Fine on a novel approach to the problem of vagueness. This year, Rutgers is hosting Sir Richard Sorabji[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com] for three lectures on the history of free speech. Here are the details:
Lecture I – Freedom of Speech for all: the gradual discovery, East and West.
Date/Time: Monday Oct. 30th, 2017, 3:00-5:00pm (reception to follow)
Location: Alexander Library, Teleconference Room (Room 403) (https://rumaps.rutgers.edu/location/alexander-library[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com])
Lecture II – Freedom of speech: voluntary boundaries when it stops discussion and the art of continuing discussion by other means
Date/Time: Thursday Nov. 2nd, 2017, 3:00-5:00pm (reception to follow)
Location: Alexander Library, Teleconference Room (Room 403) (https://rumaps.rutgers.edu/location/alexander-library[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com])
Lecture III – Freedom of Speech: Difficulties in framing and policing legal boundaries
Date/Time: Friday Nov. 3rd, 2017, 3:00-5:00pm (reception to follow)
Location: Rutgers Academic Building, Room 2125 (https://rumaps.rutgers.edu/location/rutgers-academic-building[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com])
All three lectures are free and open to the public. Please see the attached posters for more details. Abstracts for the talks are available here[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com].
About The Rutgers Lectures in Philosophy:
In the Fall of 2016, The Rutgers Philosophy Department in partnership with Oxford University Press were pleased to announce the launch of The Rutgers Lectures in Philosophy[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com]. This annual series brings some of the world’s greatest living philosophers [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com]to Rutgers University–New Brunswick where they present three original lectures to be published by Oxford University Press. The lecturers also hold workshops with faculty and graduate students, and meet with undergraduates. The lectures are free and open to the public.
The Rutgers Philosophy Department, in partnership with Oxford University Press, is pleased to present the second annual Rutgers Lectures in Philosophy! This annual series brings some of the world’s greatest living philosophers to Rutgers University–New Brunswick where they present three original lectures to be published by Oxford University Press. The lectures are free and open to the public.
Last year, the inaugural series featured Kit Fine on a novel approach to the problem of vagueness. This year, Rutgers is hosting Sir Richard Sorabji[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com] for three lectures on the history of free speech. Here are the details:
Lecture I – Freedom of Speech for all: the gradual discovery, East and West.
Date/Time: Monday Oct. 30th, 2017, 3:00-5:00pm (reception to follow)
Location: Alexander Library, Teleconference Room (Room 403) (https://rumaps.rutgers.edu/location/alexander-library[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com])
Lecture II – Freedom of speech: voluntary boundaries when it stops discussion and the art of continuing discussion by other means
Date/Time: Thursday Nov. 2nd, 2017, 3:00-5:00pm (reception to follow)
Location: Alexander Library, Teleconference Room (Room 403) (https://rumaps.rutgers.edu/location/alexander-library[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com])
Lecture III – Freedom of Speech: Difficulties in framing and policing legal boundaries
Date/Time: Friday Nov. 3rd, 2017, 3:00-5:00pm (reception to follow)
Location: Rutgers Academic Building, Room 2125 (https://rumaps.rutgers.edu/location/rutgers-academic-building[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com])
All three lectures are free and open to the public. Please see the attached posters for more details. Abstracts for the talks are available here[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com].
About The Rutgers Lectures in Philosophy:
In the Fall of 2016, The Rutgers Philosophy Department in partnership with Oxford University Press were pleased to announce the launch of The Rutgers Lectures in Philosophy[na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com]. This annual series brings some of the world’s greatest living philosophers [na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com]to Rutgers University–New Brunswick where they present three original lectures to be published by Oxford University Press. The lecturers also hold workshops with faculty and graduate students, and meet with undergraduates. The lectures are free and open to the public.
Keynote speakers:
The Speculative Ethics Forum is a one day workshop-style event in which we’ll consider the most challenging matters of ethics. Ethical approaches of all sorts are welcomed–analytic, continental, ancient, medieval, Asian, and so on. Most papers are invited. However, there are two slots open for submissions. Any paper in ethical theory will be considered for acceptance. Bold and speculative inquiries are preferred to papers that primarily defend ground already gained or papers that are primarily scholarly. Our aim, in short, is to have a single day concentrated on expanding the horizons of ethics.
Our Invited Speakers Are:
Katja Vogt (Columbia University)
James Dodd (New School for Social Research)
Leo Zaibert (Union College)
Justin Clarke-Doane (Columbia University)
Organisers:
Register
November 17, 2017, 11:45pm EST
speculative.ethics.forum [at the host] gmail.com
The paper draws on the first sentence of Nicomachean Ethics I, but goes beyond interpretation in putting forward a new version of the Guise of the Good (GG). This proposal is Aristotelian in spirit, but defended on philosophical grounds. GG theorists tend to see their views as broadly speaking Aristotelian. And yet they address particular actions in isolation: agents, the thought goes, are motivated to perform a given action by seeing the action or its outcome as good. The paper argues that the GG is most compelling if we distinguish between three levels: the motivation of small-scale actions, the motivation of mid-scale actions or pursuits, and the desire to have one’s life go well. The paper analyzes the relation between small-, mid-, and large-scale motivation in terms of Guidance, Substance, and Motivational Dependence. In its Aristotelian version, the argument continues, the GG belongs to the theory of the human good.
Katja Maria Vogt, Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. She specializes in ancient philosophy, ethics, and normative epistemology. In her books and papers, she focuses on questions that figure both in ancient and in contemporary discussions: What are values? What kind of values are knowledge and truth? What does it mean to want one’s life to go well?
Presented by The New School for Social Research (NSSR) Philosophy Department.
Kant tried to explain how free moral action was possible. Unfortunately, he is often interpreted as explaining free choice of action in terms of the unexplained free choice of a Gesinnung by a faculty of choice. By avoiding this mistake, we can see him as offering an informative decomposition of the task of free or moral action. Further, one of Kant’s reasons for thinking that morality could not be explained by science depended on his assumptions about then current science. Since we can now reject that view of science, it is now possible to give a plausible scientific account, and so metaphysics, for Kant’s plausible account of the necessary conditions for free or moral action.
Patricia Kitcher is Roberta and William Campbell Professor of the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. She is the author of two books on Kant’s conceptions of cognition and the self, Kant’s Transcendental Psychology (Oxford University Press, 1990) and Kant’s Thinker (Oxford University Press, 2011).
Presented by The New School for Social Research (NSSR) Philosophy Department.
The paper argues that Spinoza is influenced by epicureanism. This is evident particularly in the conflict between authority—understood as the kind of figure that is impervious to argumentation—and the calculation of utility (phronesis) that is the precondition of action. This conflict is complex because in certain circumstances we may calculate that it is to our utility to allow a person in authority to calculate on our behalf.
The paper indicates, in addition, that the way Spinoza constructs the relation between authority and utility can inform our political predicament today. Spinoza may offer an alternative to populism as to why we have political figures who lack authority. And his thinking on utility could help us reconsider instrumentality in the neoliberal age.
Dimitris Vardoulakis is the debuty chair of Philosophy at Western Sydney University. He is the author of The Doppelgänger: Literature’s Philosophy (2010), Sovereignty and its Other: Toward the Dejustification of Violence (2013), Freedom from the Free Will: On Kafka’s Laughter (2016), and Stasis Before the State: Nine Theses on Agonistic Democracy (2018). He has also edited or co-edited numerous books, including Spinoza Now (2011) and Spinoza’s Authority (2018). He is the director of “Thinking Out Loud: The Sydney Lectures in Philosophy and Society,” and the co-editor of the book series “Incitements” (Edinburgh University Press).
The workshop, which is now in its 9th year, aims to foster exchange and collaboration among scholars, students, and anyone with an interest in Early Modern Philosophy. This year’s workshop will focus on the topic of “Freedom and Evil” in Early Modern Philosophy (roughly the period from 1600-1800).
We welcome submissions on the conference topic, which may be broadly construed to include the problem of free will, theodicy, political and social liberty, and evil practices and institutions. For consideration, please submit abstracts of 250-300 words to newyorkcityearlymodern@gmail.com no later than December 31, 2018.