Will close attention to the beauty and ugliness of life make us better people? The philosopher David Kaspar believes it does, and that the unaesthetic life, like the unexamined one, is not worth living. Join us as Kaspar discusses how a good life includes not only acting rightly and choosing wisely, but living with style.
Wednesday, March 23, 6pm. This event is part of the Philosophy Series at The Cornelia Street Café, located at 29 Cornelia Street, New York, NY 10014 (near Sixth Avenue and West 4th St.). Admission is $9, which includes the price of one drink. Reservations are recommended (212. 989.9319)
David Kaspar is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University. He works primarily in ethics and in social and political philosophy. His book Intuitionism was published in 2012.
On Wednesday, April 27th at 7:00 P.M., Michael Brownstein is coming to Brooklyn Public Philosophers to introduce you to (and maybe help exorcise) your inner bigot. He’ll be talking about implicit bias – what it is, its place in the mind, and its relation to moral responsibility and self-trust. Here’s a bit more about the talk, in Dr. Brownstein’s own words:
The Psychology and Philosophy of Implicit Bias
“Implicit Bias” is in the headlines. Bestselling books like Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and Shankar Vedantam’s The Hidden Brain suggest that implicit biases explain a lot about everyday social interaction. In his National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice, former US Attorney General Eric Holder prioritized reducing implicit bias in the justice system, specifically in police departments. Even US Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy suggested—in writing for the majority in the 2015 Inclusive Communities case—that implicit bias may be a factor in assessing disparate impact in housing discrimination cases.
But what is implicit bias? How does it affect people? And what can we do about it? The existence and pervasiveness of implicit bias also raises philosophical questions: am I responsible for my implicit biases? Should I be distrustful of myself because I am likely to be biased in some situations (for example, when grading student papers)?
This talk introduces the concept of implicit bias and covers the psychological measurement of “implicit attitudes,” evidence for the effects of implicit biases on most people’s judgment and behavior, and strategies anyone can adopt to become less biased. The focus will be on the effects of implicit bias in the justice system, including questions about responsibility for implicit bias and the relationship between implicit bias and explicit prejudice, particularly in the new Age of Trump.
As usual, we meet at 7:00 P.M. at the Grand Army Plaza branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.
Tell your friends/students/strangers! Bring a date! Bring someone with whom you disagree about racism and the police!
See you there, I hope!
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Brooklyn Public Philosophers Spring Lineup:
5/18 – Ian Olasov
(CUNY)
{moral talk in everyday life}
Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation & Nietzsche Circle present
Nietzsche and Dance
An Affirmation of Life: Friedrich Nietzsche, Isadora Duncan, and the Making of Modern Dance
Nietzsche inspired many modern dancers, none more so than Isadora Duncan. With this event on Nietzsche and Duncan we bring dancers and thinkers together to explore the dynamic relationship between dancing and thinking.
Followed by a wine and cheese reception
Performances and lectures by
Lori Belilove
Geoffrey Gee
Krista Johansson
Kimerer LaMothe
Yunus Tuncel
The North American Society for Early Phenomenology
in conjunction with
The Max Scheler Society of North America
Presents
Feeling, Valuing, and Judging: Phenomenological Investigations in Axiology
May 19th-21st, 2016
St. John’s University – Manhattan Campus
Invited Speakers
- Anthony Steinbock (Southern Illinois University – Carbondale)
- John Drummond (Fordham University)
- James Dodd (New School for Social Research)
Call for Abstracts
Feelings, values, and judgements all played central roles in the philosophical writings of the early phenomenologists – from their discussions of formalism in ethics, to social ontology, the phenomenology of moods and emotions, and even the phenomenology of religion. Though heavily inspired by the work of Edmund Husserl, Max Scheler and the Munich phenomenologists conceived phenomenology as less a method and more an attitude, and developed their phenomenological investigations accordingly. With the phenomenological attitude, the meaning of the object of cognition is revealed. Doxic, volitional, and affective intentional attitudes gives rise to phenomenological descriptions of the world in terms of its meaning and value. Understood in this way, the early phenomenologists saw questions of value as arising alongside questions of ontology.
The theme of this conference will be phenomenological studies in axiology (ethics and aesthetics), and will look at the relationship of intuition, the emotions, and intersubjectivity to acts of feeling, valuing, and judging. Topics include phenomenological theories of valuation, the departure of later phenomenologists from Husserl’s and Brentano’s distinctions of types of mental phenomena, axiological properties of intentional objects, the self as a member of a community, sympathy and empathy, criteria for correct and incorrect value judgments, the difference between axiological and ontic characteristics and fact-value differentiation, axiology in universals and particulars, judgments of value and the role of implicit beliefs, phenomenological descriptions of striving, volition, emotions, moods, the beautiful and the sublime, etc. We encourage papers on the work of Franz Brentano, Edmund Husserl, Theodor Lipps, Max Scheler, Alexander Pfänder, Moritz Geiger, Josef Geyser, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Siegfried Hamburger, Nicolai Hartmann, Waldemar Conrad, Aurel Kolnai, Roman Ingarden, Edith Stein, Emmanuel Levinas, Hans Reiner, and others. We are also interested in papers proposing original phenomenological descriptions of emotions, feelings, volition, and judgments that follow the phenomenological tradition, and build upon these historical antecedents in new and interesting ways.
Abstracts should be 500-700 words, and include a short bibliography of primary and secondary sources. All abstracts must be prepared for blind review and sent via email in .doc or .docx format to Dr. Rodney Parker at: (rodney.k.b.parker@gmail.com).
Both senior researchers and graduate students are encouraged to submit.
Deadline for submissions is: December 15, 2015.
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http://philevents.org/event/show/18534
The Max Scheler Society of North America (MSSNA) invites members of the international community of scholars to participate in their biannual meeting, which will be held at St. John’s University, Manhattan Campus. The 2016 meeting will take place in conjunction with the North American Society for Early Phenomenology (NASEP), with sessions from each society running concurrently.
Broadly conceived, the general theme of the meeting is the phenomenology of value or axiology. The MSSNA is particularly interested in papers examining Max Scheler’s contribution to the study of value and the relevance of his work to recent investigations. Papers examining the significance of value in Scheler’s thought are not restricted to his ethics and may concern any aspect of his work. For this meeting, the intent is to have a program that reflects the tremendous diversity of Scheler’s thought and relevance of value in human existence.
Participants will have approximately 35 minutes to present their work. Though completed papers are preferred, abstracts of at least 500 words in length will also be considered. Deadline for submission is December 15, 2015.
All submissions should be sent electronically to Dr. Zachary Davis (davisz@stjohns.edu). Because all submissions will be reviewed blindly by the selection committee, submissions should have a separate cover sheet with name and contact information. Notification of acceptance will be sent out by January 31.
Beneath tattoos are the meanings they have for the people wearing them. A philosophy of tattoos must recognize the personal and particular identities, values and ideals of those who wear them. Although meaning lies invisibly on the other side of the skin, it is crucial to understanding tattoos as an art form. A “human canvas” is not a two-dimensional surface. What does it mean when art is intrinsically connected to living persons? The “art” in question is charged with evolving social and personal histories. In this talk, Maureen Eckert will discuss how this invisible side of the tattoo arts plays a role in its popularity and commercialization while it paradoxically resists full commercialization and challenges the traditional fine arts. There is something radical about tattoos, although it is not anything obvious.
Thursday, October 18 at 6pm. This event is part of the Philosophy Series at The Cornelia Street Café, located at 29 Cornelia Street, New York, NY 10014 (near Sixth Avenue and West 4th St.). Admission is $10, which includes the price of one drink. Reservations are recommended (212. 989.9319)
Maureen Eckert is a philosopher at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. She works in the areas of Ancient Greek philosophy, metaphysics and logic. On the side, she is a tattoo photographer, running her website tattoomacro.com, a project focusing on the narratives of tattoo clients and the characters of their tattoos captured in macro photography.
Nietzsche Circle Presents: An Evening with Music and Philosophy
Speakers:
- Michael Teinmann
- Yunus Tuncel
Pianist:
- Aysegul Durakoglu
RSVP required!
Refreshments will be served. If you like to attend, Please RSVP by sending email to Luke Trusso at trussol@nietzschecircle.com
It has been said that there are not different “types” or categories of music, only good music and bad music. How can we know the difference between good and bad music however? Well, on some accounts, there are indeed different types (‘low’ vs ‘high’ art), some of which are by definition bad, others good. Yet, on other accounts, music is music – there are no essential differences in kind, and it is simply each listener’s favorable or unfavorable reaction to any given song or piece of music that decides its quality. In very broad strokes, these two contrasting orientations represent attitudes common in modernist and postmodernist theories, respectively. In the former, Western classical music was privileged (unjustly, in some respects) above all other kinds. However, the latter orientation, which is currently in fashion, seems to reduce all musical meaning and appraisal to little more than our own mental projections. In this presentation, a third, alternative way to identify musical “types” is proposed, one that seeks to illuminate meaningful musical distinctions in the natures and functions of three musical kinds (folk, mass, and art music), with some surprising results. A brief piano performance will precede the talk.
Monday, December 11, 2017 at 6pm. This event is part of the Philosophy Series at The Cornelia Street Café, located at 29 Cornelia Street, New York, NY 10014 (near Sixth Avenue and West 4th St.). Admission is $10, which includes the price of one drink. Reservations are recommended (212. 989.9319)
Jason Cutmore is a concert pianist, teacher, and the founder and director of the Canadian music festival, Alberta Pianofest. He has performed solo piano and collaborative recitals across much of North America, Europe, and India, and has published articles in peer review journals and trade magazines. Mr Cutmore lives in New York City, and is currently completing a Master’s degree in Philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo is a brilliant, suspenseful mystery exploring the often dangerous intimacy between love, compulsion, and death. It is also a profound meditation on the power of art. While it invites us to go on seeing art as a mimesis – a “representation,” or “imitation” of life – it also cryptically asks whether art objects might do more than merely represent life, even whether they might exercise power over death. James Stewart’s Scotty has been compared to Orpheus in quest of Eurydice; I suggest that he’s worth comparing to Admetus, who wished he could be Orpheus, and who imagines clinging to a statue to recapture his lost wife. The spell cast by Hitchcock in Vertigo shows us just how bewitching art can be when it has us under its sway.
Monday, March 19, 2018 at 6pm. This event is part of the Philosophy Series at The Cornelia Street Café, located at 29 Cornelia Street, New York, NY 10014 (near Sixth Avenue and West 4th St.). Admission is $10, which includes the price of one drink. Reservations are recommended (212. 989.9319)
Nickolas Pappas is Professor of Philosophy at City College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, where he has taught since 1993. He is the author of several books and around 40 articles, mostly on topics in ancient philosophy. His books include the Routledge Philosophical Guidebook to Plato’s Republic, now in its third edition; and most recently The Philosopher’s New Clothes (Routledge, 2016).
You probably know the Lucas Brothers from their Netflix comedy special On Drugs or their appearances in TV shows and movies like Lady Dynamite and 22 Jump Street. You might not know that they are serious students of philosophy. Join us on Wednesday, November 28th at 7:30 PM in the Strand Bookstore’s 2nd Floor Art Department as Kenny and Keith Lucas join Michael Brownstein (Associate Professor of Philosophy at John Jay College and author of The Implicit Mind) to discuss how philosophy shapes their comedy, how comedy works, the weirdly popular idea that comedians are today’s philosophers, and more.
The price of admission is a $5 gift certificate to the Strand. (You were probably going to spend $5 at the Strand some time soon, anyway.) Please purchase tickets here and share the Facebook event. I will take all the help I can get in spreading the word.
Stay tuned for more info about Kwame Anthony Appiah’s December 4th talk about identity at Philosophy in the Library!
Professor Barbara Gail Montero is the director of (and a performer in) the upcoming multimedia, interdisciplinary event Curved Spacetimes: Where Friedrich Nietzsche Meets Virginia Woolf. Prof. Nickolas Pappas will also perform (reading spoken word as Friedrich Nietzsche), and Prof. Jonathan Gilmore is a member of the team that brought the project to fruition.
According to the American Society for Aesthetics (who partially funded this project with a $7,000 grant), Curved Spacetimes is “multisensory event focused on the Physics, Aesthetics, and Metaphysics of Time. . . .[T]he evening will commence with a Nietzsche-Woolf-curved-spacetime-inspired reception that will allow you to test your knowledge of our central figures. Following the reception, you will experience Nietzsche, Woolf and curved spacetime coming to life on the stage (through dance, live music and the spoken word), and then listen to a panel discussion that will take you more deeply into the ideas guiding the performance.”
When: Sunday, March 17, 2019: 6-9 pm
Where: The Tank, 312 W. 36th St. 1st floor, New York City.
Schedule of Events
- 6 PM: Pre-performance catered reception—pass the Woolf/Nietzsche pre-test for a free drink!
- 7 PM: Performance
- 8 PM: Panel discussion on the physics, aesthetics, and metaphysics of time
Choreography: Logos Dance Collective (Barbara Gail Montero, Theresa Duhon, Patra Jongjitirat, and Gregory Kollarus)
Performers: Elise Crull, Theresa Duhon, Maxine Flasher-Duzgunes, Patra Jongjitirat, Gregory Kollarus, Barbara Gail Montero, and Nickolas Pappas
Music: Selections from Bach’s Cello Suites, performed live by cellist Ivan Luza
Text: excerpts from Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Gay Science, Mrs. Dalloway, and The Diary of Virginia Woolf
Panelists for the after-performance discussion:
- Jeff Friedman, Associate Professor of Dance Rutgers University
- Kathleen Higgins, Professor of Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin
- Timothy Maudlin, Professor of Philosophy, New York University
- Heather Whitney, JD, Harvard Law School & PhD Candidate, New York University
Moderator: Rebecca Ariel Porte, Writer and member of the Core Faculty at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research.
Free tickets for students in philosophy, literature, dance and physics are supported by the ASA grant and are available from bmontero@gc.cuny.edu
For all others, tickets are on sale now on-line at The Tank
Project Team:
- Barbara Gail Montero (Project Director), Professor of Philosophy, CUNY and Founder and member of the Logos Dance Collective
- Jonathan Gilmore, Professor of Philosophy, CUNY
- Maxine Flasher-Duzgunes, BFA student in Dance at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and member of the Logos Dance Collective
- Cliff Mak, Assistant Professor of English, Queens College, CUNY