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News and Events
Philosophy Research Seminars
2011-2012
| Spring Term 2011 | Venue: RLT 2 | Tuesdays 12 - 2pm |
|---|---|---|
| 4th October | Simon Kirchin (UKC) |
The Appraisive Nature of Essentially Contested Concepts |
| 11th October | Laurence Goldstein (UKC) |
An Exceptional Logic |
| 25th October | Michael Newall (HPA) | Philosophies of the Art School |
| 8th November | Martin Gough (UELT) | The importance of the tacit dimension for research: realism and irrealism about skills, discovery and the limits of thought, with lessons for the Researcher Development Framework and the Impact Agenda |
| 15th November | Iain MacKenzie (Pol&IR) | Events and the Critique of Ideology |
| 29th November | Graham Oddie (Colorado) | TBA |
| 6th December | Bert Leuridan (Ghent) | |
| 13th December | Lorenzo Casini | |
| Unless otherwise specified, term 2 meetings are in Grimond LT3. | ||
| 17th January | George Darby | Metaphysical Indeterminacy and Metaphysical Methodology |
| 31st January | Julien Murzi | Harmony and separability in classical logic |
| 7th February | David Corfield | Michael Friedman’s ‘Dynamics of Reason’ |
| 14th February | Matt Whittingham | Identity and Social Criticism |
| 21st February | Edward Kanterian | Judging and the Judgement-stroke in Frege’s Logic. |
| 28th February | Todd Mei | On the Relationship between Analytic and Continental Philosophy. |
| 6th March | Eleanor Curran (Law) | Modern Rights, Hobbes (and perhaps some Locke!) |
| 13th March | Sean Sayers | Ethics as Immanent Critique in Marx |
| 20th March | David Davies (McGill) | Visiting for the whole week, Aesthetics Research Group |
| 3rd April | Mauricio Suarez (UCM Madrid) | Propensities and Pragmatism |
| Unless otherwise specified, term 3 meetings are in Darwin LT3. | ||
| 15th May | Frank Jackson (ANU / Princeton) | |
2010-2011
| Spring Term 2011 | Venue: RLT 2 | Tuesdays 12 - 2pm |
|---|---|---|
| 25 January | Robin Taylor (UKC) | "There are some matters of fact (pace Hume) which we may know a priori" |
| 1 February | David Menne (UKC) | 'Intelligence, Relevance, Perception and Action' |
| 8 February | Phyllis McKay Illari (UKC) | "On the fragmentation of metaphysics" |
| 22 February | Martin Gough (UKC) | "What Are We Trying to Do in the University?: The Definition of Academic Practice (drawing from the philosophies both of Art and of Science)" |
| 8 March | David Corfield (UKC) | "What kind of a thing is duality, and what should philosophy make of it?" |
| 15 March | Graham Oddie (Colorado) | TBA |
| 22 March | Laurence Goldstein (UKC) | "Conditions on Letting" |
| 29 March | Helen Frowe (UKC) | "On some objections to attacking non-combatants" |
| Autumn Term 2010 | Venue: COLT 3 | Tuesdays 12 - 2pm |
|---|---|---|
| 5th October | Jon Williamson (UKC) | "Models for prediction, explanation and control in cancer science" |
| 12th October | Claudia Jansen (UKC) | 'Ethics and the limits objectivity' |
| 19th October | Todd Mei (UKC) | "Phenomenological and Ontological Approaches to Land in Political Economy" |
| 9th November | Margrethe Bruun Vaage | "Fictional reliefs and reality checks" |
| 16th November | David Majoribanks (UKC) | "Ideology critique after the poststructuralist turn" |
| 23rd November | David Corfield and Julia Tanney (UKC) | "What we learned from Wittgenstein's Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics" |
| 30th November | George Darby (UKC) | "Counterfactuals and Transitivity" |
| 7th December | Andreas De Block | "Superstimuli, evolution, and the arts" |
2009 - 2010
| Spring Term 2010 | CNW 8 | Tuesdays 12 - 2pm |
|---|---|---|
| 2 February | Ken Westphal (UKC) | 'Kant's cognitive semantics, Newton's Rule Four of Philosophy and Scientific Reason.' |
| 9 February | Federica Russo (UKC) | 'On Extrapolation.' |
| 16 February | Sean Sayers (UKC) | 'The division of labour and its overcoming' |
| 23 February | Julia Tanney (UKC) | 'Some thoughts on Normativity and Language' |
| 9 March | Tom Angier (UKC) | 'Aristotle and Modern Politics' |
| 16 March | MM McCabe (King's College London) | TBA |
| 23 March | Tim Lewens (Cambridge) | 'Essence of Tiger' |
| 6 April | Phyllis Illari (UKC) | 'On the methodology of philosophy' |
| Autumn Term 2009 | CNW 8 | Tuesdays 12 - 2pm |
|---|---|---|
| 29 September | George Darby (UKC) | 'Quantum Mechanics and metaphysical indeterminacy.' |
| 13 October | Jon Williamson (UKC) | 'An Objective Bayesian account of confirmation.' |
| 27 October | Laurence Goldstein (UKC) | 'The Abbrvty function of Prpr Names' |
| 3rd November | Mark Schroeder (University of Southern California) | 'The Ubiquity of State-Given Reasons' |
| 17 November | Will Bynoe (Institute of Philosophy) | 'Against the compositional view of facts' |
| 24 November | Mathias Frisch (University of Maryland) | 'Causes in Physics: Projection or Discovery?' |
| 1 December | Robin Taylor (UKC) | 'Gettier and the problem of Induction' |
| 15 December | Tom Angier (UKC) | 'Plato, Aristotle and Situationism' |
2008 - 2009
| Spring Term 2009 | CNW 6 | Tuesdays 12-2pm |
|---|---|---|
| 20 January | Paul Coates (Hertfordshire) | 'The Multiple Contents of Experience' |
| 3 February |
Nils Kurbis (UCL/Kent) | 'Aristotle on Non-Contradiction' |
| 10 February | Katrien Schaubroeck (Leuven) | title tbc |
| 17 February | Susan Haack (Miami) | title tbc |
| 3 March | Helen Beebee (Birmingham) | "Free Will and Agent Probabilities" |
| 10 March | Todd Mei (Kent) | 'The Question of Land and a Hermeneutics of Political Economy' |
| 24 March |
David Corfield (Kent) | 'Normative Naturalism' |
| 7 April | Valerie Aucouturier (Kent) | title tbc |
| Autumn Term 2008 | CNW 6 | Tuesdays 12-2pm |
|---|---|---|
| 14 October | Richard Norman (UKC) | 'What Do Religious Believers Believe?' |
| 28 October | Josh Johnstone (UBC) | 'Aesthetic and Ethical Narration' |
| 11 November | Helen Frowe (Sheffield) | 'A Practical Account of Self-Defence' |
| 18 November | Jon Williamson (UKC) | 'Mechanistic Theories of Causality' |
| 25 November | Jerry Levinson | |
| 2 December | Laurence Goldstein (UKC) | 'Opacity and Vagueness' |
| 9 December | Alan Thomas (UKC) | 'Another Particularism: Reason, Status and Defaults' |
2007 - 2008
| Summer Term 2008 | Darwin Seminar Rm 1 | Tuesdays 12-2 pm |
|---|---|---|
| 20 May | Dr Alan Thomas |
'Liberalism, Republicanism and the Idea of an Egalitarian Ethos'
ABSTRACT:
This paper extends a project of embedding Rawls's political liberalism in the wider framework of republican political theory. It does so by arguing that the most secure basis for the content of Rawls's two principles begins from the republican emphasis on securing the conditions for effective political agency. G. A. Cohen has, over a series of publications, presented a strong challenge to Rawls's egalitarianism. He has argued that the collective solidarity required for the adoption of the two principles is undermined by the special incentives permitted by the difference principle: those better off under a given distribution make it the case that they have to be incentivised to market their labour, tainting the resultant inequality as it arises solely from their anti-social preferences. It is argued that this critique can be deflected only by noting that a restricted scope of application for the theory of justice (the basic structure) is compatible with pervasive effects at the level of social relations. Properly understood there are no "justice free zones" in a Rawlsian society where exploitative bargaining is tolerated in such a way as to undermine an ethos of justice. The specific form of implementation of Rawls's egalitarianism, the ideal of a property owning democracy (adapted from the work of James Meade) illustrates this line of response to Cohen: markets are neither fair nor unfair, but the effects of market transactions are made fair by restructuring the distribution of capital and changing labour supply and demand. The most direct route to this solution is the overall point of reflection on economic justice: to secure freedom under law and effective political agency for all citizens of a republic. |
| 3 June | Todd Mei | 'Insurance in between: A critique of liability insurance and its principles' (click on title for link to paper) |
| Spring Term 2008 | CNW 6 | Tuesdays 12-2 pm |
|---|---|---|
| 29 January | John Hyman |
'Art and Reality'
When we survey the main theoretical writings about art from the twentieth century, both by art historians and by philosophers, one of the dominant themes is a kind of scepticism about representation in art, or at least about the idea that representation in art can reveal the world to us, as it is in reality, independently of the conventions and local perspectives that limit and control art, as they limit and control the whole of human life. I shall examine how changing ideas about the relationship between art and reality have affected the historical understanding of a particular episode in the history of art, the transformation of Greek art from the mid-sixth to the mid-fourth century BC.
|
| 12 February | Diarmuid Costello | 'Danto and Kant, Together at Last?' |
| 18 March | Kathy Butterworth | 'The Possibility of an Autonomous Decentred Subject' |
| Autumn Term 2007 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 4 December | Robin Taylor | `Three forms of necessity - a response to Prof. Edgington' |
| 27 November | Steve Pethick | 'How to Solve the Problem(s) of Coherence' |
| 20 November | Federica Russo | 'Empirical Generalisations in Social Science' |
| 30 October | Ken Westphal | 'Gauthier, Kant & Basic Obligations' |
| 16 October | Laurence Goldstein | 'A consistent way with the Liar' |
| 2 October | Jon Williamson | 'Objective Bayesian Epistemology' |
12-2pm in Cornwallis Seminar Room 8 unless otherwise stated.
For further details contact: D.Corfield@kent.ac.uk
See the web site of the Centre for Reasoning for further research seminars
News
Dr Jan Lemeire 'Causal inference'
Dr Jan Lemeire (Electronics and Informatics, Brussels) is visiting the Centre from February to April 2010. He is working on causal inference.
Stephen McLaughlin awarded the first Pipa Miller Award.
Stephen McLaughlin, a joint honours Philosophy-Comparative Literature student, was awarded this prize in recognition of his outstanding results in 2008/09. This marks the new award in honour of Pipa Miller, a student who sadly passed away. The annual fund has been created thanks to support from her family, friends, Philosophy staff and fellow students.
New staff
We are very pleased to welcome to the department:
- Tom Angier, who will be teaching aesthetics and political philosophy this year
- George Darby, a philosopher of science who joins us as a lecturer for the teaching year
- Federica Russo who returns to Kent to work on the BA-funded project causality across the levels: biomedical mechanisms and public health policies
We are also pleased to welcome two new Centre for Reasoning Research Fellows:
- Federica Alberti, who will work on the project reasoning in coordination games with Edward Cartwright (Economics)
- Alberto Moraglio, who will work on the project reasoning about evolving computer programs with Colin Johnson (Computing)
Phillippa 'Pipa' Miller
August 2008
It is with great sadness that the Philosophy Section announces the death of one of its first year students, Philippa 'Pipa' Miller. Pipa died on the morning on Monday 11th August following a traffic accident near her home in Bedfordshire.
Pipa was a very popular student. She had successfully completed her first year with us and was looking forward to her second year. We send our deepest sympathy to her family and friends. She was a student at Rutherford College, and the flag will be flown at half mast as a memorial to her.
Jon Williamson wins Times Higher Education Young Researcher of the Year award.
30th November 2007
Jon Williamson was awarded the title of 'Times Higher Education Researcher of the Year' at a ceremony in London on 29th December. He saw off strong competition from five other short-listed contenders. One of the award's judges, Philip Esler, chief executive of the AHRC said 'Jon Williamson's cutting-edge philosophical research offers penetrating new understanding of causation in complex systems that have direct applications in areas ranging from healthcare to engineering'. The School of European Culture and Languages is delighted with this decision and will be taking the Vice-Chancellor up on her offer to host a party in celebration of the this amazing acheivement.
I think therefore I earn
20th November 2007
Figures show that demand for Philosophy graduates is growing. Link to Guardian article here.
Philosophy welcomes new members of staff
24th September 2007
The Philosophy department are delighted to welcome Professor Kenneth R Westphal and Dr David Corfield to the section.
New Leverhulme funded Research Project
24th September 2007
Kent Philosophy is to host a new research project, "Mechanisms and causality", from 2007-10. The aim of the project is to investigate the notion of mechanism in the sciences and to explore the connections between mechanisms and causal relationships. The project, run by Jon Williamson, brings Phyllis McKay to the department as a research associate.
Centre for Reasoning
24th September 2007
Philosophy has recently set up a Centre for Reasoning at the university, the first of its kind in the UK. See http://www.kent.ac.uk/reasoning/ for a list of forthcoming events.
Book signing
Summer 2007
David Corfield and his co-author Darian Leader signing their book "Why do People Get Ill?" at the Hay on Wye Literary Festival, Summer 2007.
Events
28-29 June 2010:
We're organising a workshop on Work in progress in causal and probabilistic reasoning at our Paris campus on 28-29 June. This workshop is supported by the Faculty of Humanities.
9-10 September 2010:
We're organising a workshop on Pluralism in the foundations of statistics.
Previous Events
9-11 September 2009:
Mechanisms and causality in the sciences (CGU4, Centre for Reasoning)
25-26 June 2009:
Multiplicity and unification in statistics and probability (CGU4, Centre for Reasoning)
23 July 2008:
Kent-UCL workshop on causality and linking mechanisms (CGU2, 1-6pm, Centre for Reasoning)
5-7 September 2007:
Progic2007: The third workshop on combining probability and logic (KLT2, 9.30-5, Centre for Reasoning)
Causality Study Fortnight
8-19 September 2008
More about this event here
BPPA (British Postgraduate Philosophy Association) conference at the University of Kent (UKC)
27th-29th of June 2008
The annual conference of the BPPA (formerly NPAPA) is one of the longest running and best attended postgraduate philosophy conferences in the UK. We aim to offer the brightest and most eager philosophy postgraduates a forum in which to present their own work and critically respond to that of others.
Philosophy Summer Talks 2012
The aim of this module is to present some of the research carried out in the Philosophy department in an interesting, exciting and accessible way. Each member of staff will give a 1h presentation on an aspect of her or his research, after which there will be a 30' Q&A time. Talks will be aimed at an undergraduate audience, although graduate students and members of staff (also from other disciplines) are also more than welcome. The module won't be assessed.
If you are interested and are planning to attend, please send an email to the module convenor, Dr Julien Murzi (j.murzi@kent.ac.uk).
The schedule will be as follows - all talks will take place in DLT1 from 10:30 to 12:00, except where otherwise stated:
Week 25
Tuesday 08-05-2012: Julia Tanney, "Why philosophy doesn't need formal logic".
Thursday 10-05-2012: George Darby, "Physics, Metaphysics and Metametaphysics".
Week 26
Tuesday 15-05-2012: Jon Williamson, "Causality is objective but not real".
Thursday 17-05-2012: Julien Murzi: "Saving logic from paradox".
Week 27
Tuesday 22-05-2012: Helen Frowe, "Defensive killing".
Thursday 24-05-2012:
10:30-12:00: David Corfield: The historical nature of scientific rationality".
17:00-19:00: Edward Kanterian, "The darkness of the poem is the darkness of death -- Celan and the limits of Heidegger's thinking about poetry".
Week 28
Tuesday 29-05-2012: Simon Kirchin, "The Epistemology of disagreement".
Thursday 31-05-2012: Laurence Goldstein: "Clambering out of the soritical bog".
Week 29
Thursday 07-06-2012: Todd Mei, "The Metaphorical Nature of Human Work".