Calendar

As work on the nature of understanding has expanded in recent years, there has been increasing interest in the question of what might be distinctive about our understanding of other people, or humane understanding.

Our conference will explore this question, and consider how recent debates might be enriched by insights from areas such as epistemology, the philosophy of science, the philosophy of social science, the hermeneutical tradition, and the “verstehen” tradition in Continental philosophy.

Confirmed Speakers:

Olivia Bailey (Tulane)

Kristin Gjesdal (Temple)

Stephen R. Grimm (Fordham)

Kareem Khalifa (Middlebury)

Michael Strevens (NYU)

Karsten Stueber (Holy Cross)

Call for Abstracts:

3-4 spots on the program will be filled via a call for abstracts. Submitted abstracts should be no longer than 500 words, and should be emailed to sgrimm@fordham.edu by December 1, 2018. Meals at the conference will be covered, but scholars whose abstracts are selected will cover their own travel and lodging costs. Abstracts should try to engage with the following questions:

How does understanding people differ from other kinds of understanding, such as the understanding of concepts, language, or natural phenomena? Do these various types of understanding bring different cognitive resources to bear, or have different epistemic profiles?

Is there a deep unity among these types of understanding, or not?

What are the distinctive ways in which the study of literature or art or history enhance our understanding of other people?

What role does the reenactment of another’s perspective play in humane understanding? Is it merely a heuristic for discovering a person’s mental states (as Hempel seemed to think) or does it play a more epistemically robust role? Is reenactment of this sort indispensable to intentional-action explanation?

How does recent research on social cognition and mindreading bear on older debates about Verstehen?

How does the hermeneutical tradition shed light on these issues? Is it engaged with different questions, or does it pursue them from a distinctively different angle?

How do we adjudicate between competing interpretations of people’s actions?

What contribution does memory make to humane understanding?

We all find ourselves already subject to some educational program and routinely invited into learning and teaching relationships with one another. We are inviting papers that engage philosophy and education from a wide range of perspectives. We welcome both papers that focus on philosophies of education as well as projects which engage the practice of teaching philosophy. Our conference aims to bring together graduate students that work in different areas of philosophy in order to think together about teaching and learning in a warm and convivial environment.

Possible topics may include, but are in no way limited to:

o   How views of education affect how we conceive of what philosophy is

o   The relation between philosophical wonder and learning

o   Normative questions of what role the teacher ought to play in the student’s education

o   How to best approach teaching texts from in and outside the canon

o   Innovative teaching ideas or activities you have used in the classroom

o   Earnest convictions about why we should teach philosophy

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words in a doc file with name and affiliation in the header to Fordhamgradconference@gmail.com no later than Monday, December 2, 2019. Authors of selected papers will be notified by Monday, December 30, 2019.

The workshop, which is now in its 10th 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 “Mind, Body, Passion” in Early Modern Philosophy (roughly the period from 1600-1800).

We welcome submissions on the conference topic, which may be broadly construed to include mind-body identity, mind-body interaction, embodiment, philosophy of emotion, aesthetics, etc. For consideration, please submit abstracts of 250-300 words to newyorkcityearlymodern@gmail.com no later than December 31, 2019.

Keynote speakers:

Organisers:

The Long Island Philosophical Society is seeking submissions for its Spring 2020 conference which will be held Saturday, April 18th 2020 on the attractive campus of Molloy College, located in Rockville Centre, NY. 

The Long Island Philosophical Society has been a dynamic forum for the exchange of ideas since 1964.  LIPS is an internationally recognized organization that is a valuable philosophical resource for the Greater New York area. Its conferences have drawn scholars from over 30 states and from the international community, including Brazil, Canada, Ukraine, Israel, and Egypt.

Papers can be on any topic of philosophical interest. Presentations are limited to 25-30 minutes, to be followed by a 10-15 minute discussion period. Both professional philosophers (full-time, part-time, unaffiliated) and graduate students are welcome to submit.  Paper submissions are also welcome from those in different disciplines who have an interest in philosophical issues.

The submission deadline is Friday, March 13, 2020. 

Please submit papers, including contact information and affiliation (if any) to Dr. Glenn Statile at StatileG@stjohns.eduor Dr. Leslie Aarons at  laarons@lipsociety.org.

Since its inception, phenomenology has been understood as a method of philosophizing or philosophical attitude rather than a system of philosophy. Husserl encouraged his students to apply this method to all types of philosophical questions and across all fields of research. As a result, phenomenological analysis was used by a wide range of disciplines, from philosophy and psychology to literature, history, sociology, mathematics, cosmology, and religious studies. The phenomenological method itself has been refined according to the insights achieved as a result of its interdisciplinary nature. However, the core tenets of this method and characterization of this attitude have long been a point of debate among phenomenologists.

This conference will explore the nature of the phenomenological method, its interdisciplinary applications, and how research in parallel fields informed the work of the early phenomenologists.

As always, we encourage submissions dealing with the thought of the full spectrum of early phenomenologists (including Edmund Husserl, Franz Brentano, Carl Stumpf, Theodor Lipps, Alexander Pfänder, Max Scheler, Moritz Geiger, Hedwig Conrad-Martius, Eugen Fink, Roman Ingarden, Edith Stein, Dietrich Von Hildebrand, Adolf Reinach, Martin Heidegger, Maximilian Beck, Jean Hering, et al.) as well as figures who were in conversation with the early phenomenological movement.

Abstracts should be 400-600 words, and include a short bibliography. Abstracts must be prepared for blind review and sent to Charlene Elsby (elsbyc@pfw.edu)

EXTENDED Deadline for submissions is 26 January 2020.

Decisions will be sent out no later than 7 February 2020.

Click here to download this call

https://philevents.org/event/show/79866

THE MAX SCHELER SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA

IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE

NORTH AMERICA SOCIETY FOR EARLY PHENOMENOLOGY

Theme:
Phenomenology as Attitude and/or Method
St. John’s University — New York, NY
(Queens and/or Manhattan campus)
April 22-24, 2020

The Max Scheler Society of North America (MSSNA) invites members of the international community of scholars to participate in their biannual meeting. The 2020 meeting will take place in conjunction with the North American Society for Early Phenomenology (NASEP), with sessions from each society running concurrently. Each society is having an independent call for papers. Papers and abstracts submitted for the MSSNA should be sent to the contact information below. All submissions for NASEP should be directed to the attention of Dr. Rodney Parker (rodney.k.b.parker@gmail.com).

Broadly construed, the general theme of the meeting is the distinctiveness of Scheler’s phenomenological approach. We are seeking papers that explore the development of Scheler’s understanding of phenomenology and how this development enabled Scheler to test the limits of phenomenology in examining such experiences as religious experiences, aging and death, other “minds” and persons, reality, and the emotions. The MSSNA is particularly interested in papers examining Max Scheler’s contribution to recent investigations related to the continued development of phenomenology.

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 January 15, 2020.

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.

The Eastern Study Group invites submissions for its 17th annual meeting to take place at Fordham University on Saturday and Sunday, May 2-3, 2020. Our host this year is Reed Winegar.

Keynote Speakers: Patricia Kitcher (Columbia)

Please send all abstracts electronically to Kate Moran, kmoran@brandeis.edu

Please submit a detailed abstract (1,000–1,200 words) with a select bibliography. Submissions should be prepared for blind review and include a word count. Please supply contact information in a separate file. If you are a graduate student, please indicate this in your contact information.

The selection committee welcomes contributions on all topics of Kantian scholarship (contemporary or historically oriented), including discussions of Kant’s immediate predecessors and successors. Presentation time is limited to 30 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of discussion.

The best graduate student paper will receive a $200 stipend and be eligible for the Markus Herz Prize. Women, minorities, and graduate students are encouraged to submit. Papers submitted for the Herz prize should not exceed 6,000 words.

Papers already read or accepted at other NAKS study groups or meetings may not be submitted. Presenters must be members of NAKS in good standing.

ENAKS receives support from NAKS and host universities.

For questions about ENAKS or the upcoming meeting, please contact Kate Moran (kmoran@brandeis.edu) or consult the ENAKS website at www.enaks.net.

Conference Begins 8:00 am
Breakfast/Registration: 8:00 am – 9:00 am (Kellenberg Hall – Reception Room)
Morning Sessions – (9:00 am – Noon) (Kellenberg Hall = K)

Session 1: (Philosophy and the Catholic Novel)
Chairperson: Glenn Statile (St. John’s University)
Room = K006
1. Father Robert Lauder (Saint John’s University) – “[Maritain, Marcel, Haught]: Philosophical
Resources for Analyzing the Catholic Novels of Graham Greene”
2. Brother Owen Sadlier O.S.F. (Cathedral Seminary; Saint Francis College – emeritus) –
“Philosophical Reflections on Diary of a Country Priest”
3. Glenn Statile (Saint John’s University) – “Brideshead Revisited: Aesthetic, Theological, and
Philosophical Reflections”

Session 2: (Ancient Philosophy)
Chairperson: Chryssoula Gitsoulis (Baruch College – CUNY)
Room = K015
1. Chryssoula Gitsoulis (Baruch College – CUNY) – “The Individual vs the State”: A Study of
Socrates and Antigone”
2. Eric Wickey (Saint Peter’s College) – “A Change of Mind”
3. Mark Zelcer (Queensborough Community College) – “Socrates and the Demos”
4. Alan Kim (Stony Brook University) – “Animal Farm”

Session 3: (Epistemology, Logic, and the Nature of Philosophy)
Chairperson: Christopher French (SUNY Farmingdale)
Room = K020
1. Joseph Biehl (Saint John’s University) – “Selling Truth Short”
2. Jason Costanzo (Conception Seminary College) – “The Fourth Observer: Philosophy and its
Epistemic Paths”
3. Partha Das (Saint John’s University) – “On Double Negation”

Session 4: (Modern Philosophy, Descartes, Hume)
Chairperson: Robert Delfino (Saint John’s University)
Room – K021
1. Sophie Berman (Saint Francis College) – “Descartes on the Infinite Freedom of the Finite
Mind”
2. Rocco Astore (Saint John’s University) – “Devotion Begins in Freedom: An Analysis of the
Relation Between True Love and Freedom in Descartes’s Principles of Philosophy and Passions
of the Soul”
3. Robert Devall (Independent Scholar) – “Hume, the Ideal Critic, and the Problem of Taste”

Session 5: (Political Philosophy, Cities, Confucius, Dasein, Boredom)
Chairperson: Margaret Cuonzo (LIU Brooklyn)
Room – K202
1. Margaret Cuonzo (LIU Brooklyn) – “A Somewhat Paradoxical Argument for the Rights of
Cities”
2. Peter Li (Saint John’s University) – “Political Confucianism and Global Justice”
3. Brandon Kaiser (Boston College) – “Of Dasein and Discourse: Examining the Everydayness
of the Political”
4) Henry Curcio (Western Michigan University) – “Boredom”

Session 6: (Cancer and Brain Death)
Chairperson: John DeCarlo (Hofstra University)
Room = K211
1. Paul Rezkalla (Hillsdale College) – “Elizabeth Anscombe on Brain Death”
2. John DeCarlo (Hofstra University) – “Consciousness and Cancer: An Interdisciplinary
Dialogue”
3. Seth Goldwasser (University of Pittsburgh) – “Finding Normality in Abnormality: On the
Ascription of Normal Functions to Parts of Cancers”

Session 7: (Healing and the Pandemic)
Chairperson: Jennifer Scuro (Molloy College)
Room – K211A
1. Jennifer Scuro (Molloy College) – “Re–narrating Care Work in the Wake of a Pandemic”
2. Keith Bannerman (Stony Brook University) – “An Ancient Approach to the Pandemic
Problem”
3. Cara Cummings (Johns Hopkins University) – “Healing Akrasia and Vice”

Session 8: (Mental Illness, Humor, Unconscious Morality, Moral Nihilism)
Chairperson: Lewis Williams (Oxford University)
Room – K204
1. Heather Rivera (LSU, Shreveport) – “America’s Cruel Treatment of the Mentally Ill and
Criminally Insane”
2. Maksim Vak (Saint John’s University) – “To Genealogy of Jokes or on the Dialectic of
Ressentiment”
3. Sabina Schrynemakers (Independent Scholar) – “Unconscious Moral Choices”
4. Lewis Williams (Oxford University) – “Rehabilitating Moral Nihilism”

Session 9: (Ethics 1)
Chairperson: David Kaspar (Saint John’s University)
Room = K319
1. Clayton Shoppa (Saint Francis College) – “Second–Guessing the Good: Discernment and
Moral Realism”
2. Charles Duke (University of South Florida) – “Purposive Evil?: Experience, Virtue, and the
Prospects of Human Flourishing”
3. Joe Shin (University of Michigan) – “Must Blame: Self vs Others”
4. Rob Lovering (CUNY College of Staten Island) – “A Case for Legalizing Recreational Drug
Use”

Session 10: (The Sublime and Plasticity)
Chairperson: Leslie Aarons (CUNY Laguardia Community College)
Room – K319A
1. Addison Hinton (Stony Brook University) – “The Function of the Sublime in Spirit’s Pursuit
of the Ethical”
2. Wenshu Zheng (Stony Brook University) – “Subjectivity and Alterity: Reconciling Derrida’s
Mourning and the Sublime”
3. Michael Barr (Stony Brook University) – “The Goal of Plasticity: Affects, Signifiers and the
Infinite Judgement from Hegel to Johnston”

Afternoon Sessions – (2:30 pm –5:00 pm) (Kellenberg Hall)

Session 11: (Science and Modern Philosophy)
Chairperson: Glenn Statile (St. John’s University)
Room = K006
1. Yual Chiek (Saint John’s University) – “Leibniz on the Contingency of the Laws of Motion:
The Transference Thesis”
2. Joel Alvarez (University of South Florida) – “Interpreting Leibniz Counterpart Theory or
Transworld Identity”
3. Glenn Statile (Saint John’s University) – “Analogy and the Integrity of Science”

Session 12: (Darwinism, Evolutionary Psychology, and Autopoiesis)
Chairperson: Lowell Kleiman (SUNY Suffolk Community College)
Room = K015
1. Christopher Petersen (Florida State University) – “Is Evolutionary Psychology Impossible in
Principle? A Reply to S.E. Smith’s Matching Problem Argument”
2. Jacob Koval (Florida State University) – “In Defense of Distortion: A Reply to Shafer–Landau
and Vanova”

3. Matthew Menchaca (CUNY Graduate Center) – “Enactive Autopoiesis and the Future of
Dynamic Affective Science”

Session 13: (Aesthetics and Philosophy of Literature)
Chairperson = Margaret Cuonzo (LIU Brooklyn)
Room = K020
1. Brother Owen Sadlier O.S.F. (Cathedral Seminary; Saint Francis College – Emeritus) –
“The Anatomy of an Artificial Body: Aesthetic Reflections on Hobbes’ Leviathan”
2. Alexia Papigiotis (CUNY Graduate Center) – “Rooting for the Devil: Relatability Approach
for Sympathy for Immoral Characters”
3. Joseph Jordan (Holy Apostles College and Seminary) – “A Boethian Response to
Machiavelli, Marx, and Jordan Peterson”

Session 14: (Indian Philosophy, Rhetoric, Borges)
Chairperson: John F. DeCarlo (Hofstra University)
Room = K021
1. Basilio Monteiro (Saint John’s University) – “Sadharanikaran: Exploring Indian
Communicative Philosophy”
2. Meaghan Dunn (Saint John’s University) – “ Philosophy and Rhetoric: A Curious
Ontological Coupling that Once Was? Or Still Is?”
3. Bartholomew Slaninka (University of Massachusetts, Boston) – “Borges’ “The Aleph” and
Problems in Representing Totality”

Session 15: (Ethics 2)
Chairperson: Lewis Williams (Oxford University)
Room = K202
1. Paul Gyllenhammer (Saint John’s University) – “Mill and Sartre on Oppression,
Individuality, and Virtue”
2. Daniel Doviak (Muhlenberg College) – “Moral Pluralism and the Problem Weight of
Determination for Conflicting Duties”
3. Miriam Ambrosino (Stony Brook University) – “Scheler’s Notion of (Inter) Personal Agency
Founded in Loving”
4. John Park (California State University, Sacramento) – “The Mental and Physical Health
Argument Against Hate Speech”

Session 16 : (Holism, Metaphysics, Heidegger)
Chairperson: Henry Curcio (Western Michigan University)
Room = K211
1. Partha Das (Saint John’s University) – “Holism: A Comparative Study”

2. Jake Khawaja (Rutgers University) – “Actualism, Presentism, and Ontological Commitment”
3. Weian Ding (Loyola Marymount University) – “Become the Becoming: A Heideggerian
Lesson from the Embers and the Stars”

Session 17: (Silence, Ethics, Education, Philanthropy)
Chairperson: Christine Salboudis (Saint John’s University)
Room – K211A
1. Christine Salboudis (Saint John’s University) – “On Silence”
2. Alina Anjum Ahmed (University of Georgia) – “DeCentering Power: Arguing for a
Mandatory Undergraduate Course that Teaches Anti–Oppressive Allyship”
3. Lorenzo Francesco Manuali (Stanford University) – “The Normative Importance of Donor
Self–Legitimation in Philanthropy”
4. Josue Miguel Pineiro (University of Georgia) – “Audiential Injustice and Epistemic
Exclusion”

Session 18: (Theism, Aquinas, Rahner. Ecclesiastes, Scotus)
Chairperson: Seth Goldwasser (University of Pittsburgh)
Room – K204
1. David Kovacs (Loyola Marymount University) – “Toward a New Approach to Theism”
2. Kevin McShane (Saint John’s University) – “Aquinas and Rahner”
3. Vincent Alexis Peluce (CUNY Graduate Center) – “Nothing New Under the Sun:
Ecclesiastian Optimism”
4. Jay Park (Independent Scholar) – “Will and Necessity: Reading Scotus Between Ontological
Priority and Ontological Order”

Session 19: (Ethics, Boethius, Human Dignity)
Chairperson: Alec Koppers (Western Michigan University)
Room – K319
1. Stephen Morris (CUNY College of Staten Island) – “On the Moral Status of Historic Figures
and the Removal of Public Monuments”
2. Matthew Konig (SUNY Suffolk County Community College) – “The Nature of Moral Facts”
3. Arich Hluch (Ohio State University) – “Human Dignity, Autonomy, and Altruism: Reframing
the Debate on Organ Markets”

Session 20: Room – K319A: This room is reserved as a discussion lounge for conference participants

Our 12th annual workshop will take place entirely on-line. The workshop will focus on the topic of “Expanding the Early Modern Canon.” We are calling for papers on figures, topics, texts, and genres that have been standardly neglected within the study of early modern philosophy; e.g., women philosophers, philosophy of education, letters, and novels.

Please submit anonymized abstracts of 250-500 words to newyorkcityearlymodern@gmail.com by April 1st, 2022.

Speakers:

Organisers: