We discuss two approaches to life: presentism and futurism. The first one, which we are identifying with the Buddha, is to live in the present and not to allow the future to hinder us from living in the ever present now. The second one, which we will identify with Karl Popper, is to think before we act, and act now for a better future. We will discuss various aspects of presentism and futurism, such as Ruth Millikan’s Popperian animal, the psychologist Howard Rachlin’s social and temporal discounting, and even the popular but controversial idea, YOLO (you live only once). The purpose of this talk is to contrast one with the other. The central question of ethics is: How should one live? Our variation on that question is: When should one live? We conjecture that the notion of flow, developed by Csikszentmihalyi, may be a better optimal choice between these two positions.
This work, which is joint with Jongjin Kim, is to appear in the Journal of Buddhist Ethics.
Logic and Metaphysics Workshop:
September 2 GC Closed NO MEETING
September 9 Yael Sharvit, UCLA
September 16 Ole Hjortland and Ben Martin, Bergen
September 23 Alessandro Rossi, StAndrews
September 30 GC Closed NO MEETING
October 7 Dongwoo Kim, GC
October 14 GC Closed NO MEETING
October 21 Rohit Parikh, GC
October 28 Barbara Montero, GC
November 4 Sergei Aretmov, GC
November 11 Martin Pleitz, Muenster
November 18
November 25
December 2 Jessica Wilson, Toronto
December 9 Mark Colyvan, Sydney
December 16 MAYBE A MEETING; MAYBE NOT
Please R.S.V.P.
The City University of New York, Graduate Center, is hosting its second Emotion Workshop. This semester, we are profiling the work of local scholars and visitors to New York. Topics relate to mind, social philosophy, epistemology, aesthetics, experimental philosophy, and psychology. The workshop will be 1 day long. Participants should not feel obligated to attend every session, but we do ask you to RSVP (this is to make sure everyone is allowed Saturday building access). If you think there is a chance you will join us for any part of the day, please send your name to Sarah Arnaud, postdoc in the Philosophy Program and co-organizer: sarnaud@gc.cuny.edu
PROGRAM
10:00-10:15 Introduction
10:15-11:00 Jesse Prinz (CUNY, Philosophy), “Are emotions socially constructed?”
11:00-11:15 Break
11:15-12:00 Rodrigo Díaz (Bern, Philosophy), “Folk emotion concepts”
12:00-12:45 Juliette Vazard (NYU / Institut Jean Nicod, Paris / University of Geneva), “Epistemic anxiety”
12:45-2:15 Break (lunch)
2:15-3:00 S. Arnaud & K. Pendoley (CUNY, Philosophy), “Intentionalism and the understanding of emotion experience”
3:00-3:15 Break
3:15-4:00 Jonathan Gilmore (CUNY, Philosophy), “Emotion, absorption, and experiential imagining”
4:00-4:45 Jordan Wylie (CUNY, Psychology), “Investigating the influences of emotion on object recognition”
4:45-6:00 Reception
Presented by Metro Area Philosophers of Science
Spring 2020 Schedule:
Anthony Aguirre (UCSC) – “Entropy in long-lived genuinely closed quantum systems”
6:30-8:30pm Tuesday Feb 4; NYU Philosophy Department (5 Washington Place), 3rd floor seminar room.
David Papineau (King’s College London & CUNY) – “The Nature of Representation”
4:30-6:30pm Tuesday March 3; CUNY Graduate Center (365 5th Ave, NYC), room 5307.
Jim Holt (Author of Why Does the World Exist?) – “Here, Now, Photon: Why Newton was closer to EM than Maudlin is”
4:30-6:30pm Tuesday April 7; CUNY Graduate Center (365 5th Ave, NYC), room 5307.
Deborah Mayo (Virginia Tech)
4:30-6:30pm Tuesday April 28; CUNY Graduate Center (365 5th Ave, NYC), room 5307.
The speaker will be Prof. Lewis Gordon of the University of Connecticut, on “From Harlem to the World: Philosophy from a Center of the Black World with Questions for the 21st Century.” Gordon will talk about worldliness and public aspects of philosophy, placing them in the context of Harlem both at City College and the public world of Africana philosophy from Du Bois to Malcolm X to contemporaries such as Nathalie Etoke. He will conclude with a set of questions for 21st century philosophy to consider.
Lewis R. Gordon is Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy at UCONN-Storrs; Honorary President of the Global Center for Advanced Studies; Honorary Professor in the Unit for the Humanities at Rhodes University, South Africa; and Distinguished Scholar at The Most Honourable PJ Patterson Centre for Africa-Caribbean Advocacy at The University of the West Indies, Mona. He co-edits the journal Philosophy and Global Affairs, the Rowman & Littlefield book series Global Critical Caribbean Thought, and the Routledge-India book series Academics, Politics and Society in the Post-Covid World. He is the author of many books, including, most recently, Freedom, Justice, and Decolonization (Routledge, 2021) and Fear of Black Consciousness (hardcover, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022; in the UK, London: Penguin Books, 2022), Picador paperback 2023. He is the 2022 recipient of the Eminent Scholar Award from the Global Development Studies division of the International Studies Association.
September 4 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Alfredo Vernazzani (Ruhr University, Bochum)
Urban Aesthetics, Capabilities, and The Pursuit of Well-Being
September 18 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Antony Aumann (Northern Michigan University)
On Being Transformed by Literature: from Inspiration to Conversion
October 2 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Alex King (Simon Fraser University)
Exquisite Feeling
October 16 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Joe Han (New York University)
Games, Art and The Magic Circle (provisional title)
October 30 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Vanda Metzger (Bergen Community College)
Aesthetics of Ornament
November 6 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Jeffrey Strayer (Purdue University Fort Wayne)
Art and Identity: Nothing, Something, and Everything
November 13 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Laura Di Summa (William Paterson University)
Who’s Reading? Children’s Aesthetics and an Epistemology of Parenting Through Picture Books (provisional title)
November 27 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Francesco Campana (University of Padua – The New School)
Artistic Space as Political Space
—
Upon entering the building, non-CUNY attendants will need to show an ordinary ID at the front desk.
—
Elisa Caldarola
Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
RTDb
Department of Philosophy and Education Sciences, University of Turin
September 4 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Alfredo Vernazzani (Ruhr University, Bochum)
Urban Aesthetics, Capabilities, and The Pursuit of Well-Being
September 18 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Antony Aumann (Northern Michigan University)
On Being Transformed by Literature: from Inspiration to Conversion
October 2 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Alex King (Simon Fraser University)
Exquisite Feeling
October 16 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Joe Han (New York University)
Games, Art and The Magic Circle (provisional title)
October 30 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Vanda Metzger (Bergen Community College)
Aesthetics of Ornament
November 6 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Jeffrey Strayer (Purdue University Fort Wayne)
Art and Identity: Nothing, Something, and Everything
November 13 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Laura Di Summa (William Paterson University)
Who’s Reading? Children’s Aesthetics and an Epistemology of Parenting Through Picture Books (provisional title)
November 27 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Francesco Campana (University of Padua – The New School)
Artistic Space as Political Space
—
Upon entering the building, non-CUNY attendants will need to show an ordinary ID at the front desk.
—
Elisa Caldarola
Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
RTDb
Department of Philosophy and Education Sciences, University of Turin
September 4 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Alfredo Vernazzani (Ruhr University, Bochum)
Urban Aesthetics, Capabilities, and The Pursuit of Well-Being
September 18 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Antony Aumann (Northern Michigan University)
On Being Transformed by Literature: from Inspiration to Conversion
October 2 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Alex King (Simon Fraser University)
Exquisite Feeling
October 16 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Joe Han (New York University)
Games, Art and The Magic Circle (provisional title)
October 30 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Vanda Metzger (Bergen Community College)
Aesthetics of Ornament
November 6 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Jeffrey Strayer (Purdue University Fort Wayne)
Art and Identity: Nothing, Something, and Everything
November 13 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Laura Di Summa (William Paterson University)
Who’s Reading? Children’s Aesthetics and an Epistemology of Parenting Through Picture Books (provisional title)
November 27 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Francesco Campana (University of Padua – The New School)
Artistic Space as Political Space
—
Upon entering the building, non-CUNY attendants will need to show an ordinary ID at the front desk.
—
Elisa Caldarola
Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
RTDb
Department of Philosophy and Education Sciences, University of Turin
The philosophy of art, as practiced in the western world, has tended to have two divided homes: in analytic philosophy and continental philosophy. Within the analytic tradition, the philosophy of art has recently undergone a revival with the emphasis on perception. This has more closely aligned art theory to science and questions of biology as well as to issues within psychology. The continental tradition has traditionally drawn upon phenomenology’s first-person experience with its ties to embodied perception as well as the social and historical concerns of the social aspect of art. In the realm itself of visual art, the state of (so-called) post-post modernism has resulted in both the dissolution of belief in progress and even, according to some art critics, a lamentable stagnation. But many philosophers of the last century, beginning with Walter Benjamin, Adorno, Nelson Goodman, etc., have suggested that art needs to be thought of within its social, pragmatic, or epistemological functions, suggesting perhaps a need to think of art outside the confines of modernism’s stylistic revolutions and formalist issues. Relatedly, the pluralism within science could be accessed as model for this enterprise. Multiple views on a phenomenon are required due to the complexity of the enterprise, and the practice of both making art and of perceiving it might be in that category. This conference seeks to bring these strands, the analytical and the continental ones, together and evaluate how to move forward with art theory in an age of globalization.
We welcome submissions on these possible questions:
1. Should we value a diversity of perspectives in art theory? If so, what is the value? If not, why not?
2. Are there aspects of art that we presume to be universal that are, in fact, culturally situated?
3. How should different ways of experiencing art be characterized?
4. What is the epistemological function of art?
5. How does the monetary role in art affect both the artist and the perceiver of art?
6. How do the mechanics of seeing (e.g., gist perception, peripheral vision, etc.) affect how we experience art?
7. How does the practice of making art relate to the first-person experience?
8. What role does Husserl’s “bracketing” have in the viewing or making of art?
9. Are there specific non-western traditions that provide a better explanatory solution for the role of art than have the competing paradigms of continental and analytic?
We welcome your participation and look forward to your contributions. Papers should not extend over 45 minutes. Q & A are 15 minutes.
To submit anonymized abstract BY JULY 15, 2024: papers: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe5c9bmoBYb3hCAb0YWWfzV0BLWbhig2PD5VeKU358VA3RKGw/viewform?usp=sf_link
September 4 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Alfredo Vernazzani (Ruhr University, Bochum)
Urban Aesthetics, Capabilities, and The Pursuit of Well-Being
September 18 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Antony Aumann (Northern Michigan University)
On Being Transformed by Literature: from Inspiration to Conversion
October 2 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Alex King (Simon Fraser University)
Exquisite Feeling
October 16 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Joe Han (New York University)
Games, Art and The Magic Circle (provisional title)
October 30 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Vanda Metzger (Bergen Community College)
Aesthetics of Ornament
November 6 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Jeffrey Strayer (Purdue University Fort Wayne)
Art and Identity: Nothing, Something, and Everything
November 13 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Laura Di Summa (William Paterson University)
Who’s Reading? Children’s Aesthetics and an Epistemology of Parenting Through Picture Books (provisional title)
November 27 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Francesco Campana (University of Padua – The New School)
Artistic Space as Political Space
—
Upon entering the building, non-CUNY attendants will need to show an ordinary ID at the front desk.
—
Elisa Caldarola
Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
RTDb
Department of Philosophy and Education Sciences, University of Turin
September 4 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Alfredo Vernazzani (Ruhr University, Bochum)
Urban Aesthetics, Capabilities, and The Pursuit of Well-Being
September 18 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Antony Aumann (Northern Michigan University)
On Being Transformed by Literature: from Inspiration to Conversion
October 2 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Alex King (Simon Fraser University)
Exquisite Feeling
October 16 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Joe Han (New York University)
Games, Art and The Magic Circle (provisional title)
October 30 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Vanda Metzger (Bergen Community College)
Aesthetics of Ornament
November 6 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Jeffrey Strayer (Purdue University Fort Wayne)
Art and Identity: Nothing, Something, and Everything
November 13 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Laura Di Summa (William Paterson University)
Who’s Reading? Children’s Aesthetics and an Epistemology of Parenting Through Picture Books (provisional title)
November 27 (Wed), 11.45 – 1.15
Francesco Campana (University of Padua – The New School)
Artistic Space as Political Space
—
Upon entering the building, non-CUNY attendants will need to show an ordinary ID at the front desk.
—
Elisa Caldarola
Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
RTDb
Department of Philosophy and Education Sciences, University of Turin