Colloquia, Conferences, & Workshops
2012-2013 |
Below is the schedule of colloquia for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 academic years.
All talks take place in Emerson 305, at 4 PM, and are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted.
The
schedule is subject to change, so please check back often. |
|
September 2012 |
| 6 September 2012 |
Eudaimonia in Plato’s Republic |
Eric Brown
Washington University |
Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy
|
Location: Emerson 305
4 PM |
| 13 September 2012 |
The Crazyist Metaphysics of Mind |
Eric Schwitzgebel
University of California, Riverside |
| Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy |
| Abstract: Crazyism about X is the view that something that it would be crazy to believe must be among the core truths about X. In this essay, I argue that crazyism is true of the metaphysics of mind. A position is “crazy” in the intended sense if it is contrary to common sense and we are not epistemically compelled to believe it. Views crazy in the intended sense include that there is no mind-independent material world, that the United States has a stream of conscious experience distinct from the experiences of the individuals composing it, that chimps or hypothetical intelligent-seeming aliens of science fiction fantasy entirely lack conscious experience, that mental events are causally inefficacious. This is by no means a complete list. Well developed metaphysical theories will inevitably violate common sense, I argue, because common sense is incoherent in matters of metaphysics. No coherent and detailed view could respect it all. Common sense is thus impaired as a ground of choice. Nor can scientific evidence or abstract theoretical virtue compellingly favor any one metaphysical approach over all competitors. Something bizarre must be true about the mind, but which bizarre propositions are the true ones, we are in no good position to know. |
Location: Emerson 305
4 PM |
| 15 September 2012 |
Workshop on Belief |
Jane Friedman
Oxford/NYU
Maria Lasonen-Aarnio
University of Michigan
Lisa Bortolotti
University of
Birmingham
Lara Buchak
University of California, Berkeley |
Commentators:
Richard Holton (MIT)
Declan Smithies (The Ohio State University)
Sarah Paul (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
Jennifer Nagel (University of Toronto)
Chairs:
Susanna Siegel (Harvard University)
Anna-Sara Malmgren (Stanford University)
Scott Sturgeon (Wadham College, Oxford)
David Chalmers (ANU/NYU) |
| Location: Thompson Room, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge -- please note the change in venue. |
| 27 September 2012 |
Why We Need a Political Theory of Animal Rights |
Will Kymlicka
Queen's University, Kingston, Canada |
| Co-sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and the Kennedy School of Government. |
Location: Emerson 305
Time: 4 PM |
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October 2012 |
| 25 October 2012 |
Discrimination and Freedom
Philosophy & Law Speaker Series |
Sophia Reibetanz Moreau
Univeristy of
Toronto
|
| Co-sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and Harvard Law School |
| Abstract: Equality-based conceptions of wrongful discrimination are said to allow courts to decide cases without having to make judgments about persons' entitlements to certain goods, or about the purposes or boundaries of certain institutions, such as marriage. In defending a liberty-based conception of discrimination, Professor Moreau argues that this claim about equality-based conceptions is mistaken, and that the apparent contrast between the two conceptions is misleading. |
Location: Harvard Law School, Hauser Hall, Room 105
4 PM |
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November 2012 |
| 1 November 2012 |
Is There a Reason to Keep a Promise? |
Joseph Raz
Oxford University/Columbia University
|
| Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy |
Location: Emerson 305
4 PM |
| 2 November 2012 |
Workshop: Self, Knowledge, Expression |
Valérie Aucouturier
Center Leo Apostel, Vrije Universiteit Brussels
Matthew Boyle
Harvard University
Sophie Djigo
CURAPP, Amiens
David Finkelstein
University of Chicago
Berislav Marušić
Brandeis University
Richard Moran
Harvard University |
| Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy |
Description: The notion of ‘expression’ plays a distinctive role, or a number of distinctive roles, in a tradition of thought associated with Wittgenstein, Elizabeth Anscombe, Stanley Cavell, and others. Wittgenstein accords a crucial role to the expression of sensations in establishing the meaning of sensation terms, and he appeals to the notion of expression to defuse difficulties about how we know our own minds. Anscombe gives a special importance to the expression of intention in understanding the unity of the concept of intention. And in his discussion of knowledge of other minds, Cavell connects the possession of knowledge of the other to its expressibility in acknowledgment. The notion also figures suggestively in the work of a variety of philosophers not grounded in this Wittgensteinian tradition, notably Herder, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Sartre.
The purpose of the present workshop is to consider the importance of the notion of expression and related notions (transparency, making manifest, telling, etc.) for a variety of areas of philosophical inquiry and dispute. Our aim will be to reflect on questions such as the following: What is the notion of expression, and what, if anything, is its significance for the philosophy of mind, and for epistemology? In what way might it be relevant to the understanding of human communication, and more generally, to our knowledge of the thoughts and feelings of other persons? What light can it shed on our capacity to know our own minds? What is its bearing on the understanding of human action? |
Location: Plimpton Seminar Room, Barker Center 133, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Time: Morning Session: 10 AM - 12:30 PM; Afternoon Session: 2 PM - 6:30 PM |
| 3 November 2012 |
Aristotle on Taste
Harvard History of Philosophy Workshop |
David Charles
Oriel College, Oxford |
| UPDATE: Sabrina Ebbersmeyer (University of Munich), originally scheduled to present at this workshop, will be unable to attend. |
Location: Emerson 310
10 AM - 11:30 AM |
| 15 November 2012 |
In Defense of Right Reason |
Michael Titelbaum
University of Wisconsin, Madison
|
| Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy |
Location: Emerson 305
4 PM |
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December 2012 |
7 December 2012
|
4th Annual Harvard European Philosophy Workshop: "The Discourse of Philosophy" |
Matt Boyle
Harvard University
Byron Davies
Harvard University
Eckart Förster
Johns Hopkins University
Tae-Yeoun Keum
Harvard University
Richard Moran
Harvard University
Michael Rosen
Harvard University |
Location: CGIS South Building, 1730 Cambridge Street, Belfer Case Study Room (Mezzanine)
10 AM - 6 PM
|
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January 2013 |
| 22-24 January 2013 |
Political Philosophy for 21st Century Europe: A Workshop with Philippe Van Parijs |
Eric Beerbohm
Harvard University
Charles Beitz
Princeton University
Glyn Morgan
Syracuse University
Yascha Mounk
Harvard University
Dani Rodrik
Harvard University
Michael Rosen
Harvard University
T.M. Scanlon
Harvard University
Lucas Stanczyk
MIT
Philippe Van Parijs
Université Catholique de Louvain |
Location: CGIS South Building, 1730 Cambridge Street, Belfer Case Study Room (Mezzanine)
Time: 2 PM - 4:30 PM (each day) |
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February 2013 |
| 23 Feburary 2013 |
Reidian Moral Perception
(Copenhaver)
Hume's Tensions in Fictions
(Inukai)
Late Hume: Between Authority and Liberty
(Harris)
Harvard History of Philosophy Workshop |
Becko Copenhaver
Lewis and Clarke College
Yumiko Inukai
University of Massachusetts, Boston
James Harris
University of St. Andrew |
Location: Emerson 310
12:30 PM - 1:45 PM (Professor Copenhaver)
2:00 PM - 3:15 PM (Professor Inukai)
3:30 PM - 4:45 PM (Professor Harris)
|
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March 2013 |
| 7 March 2013 |
Scientific Properties, and How Tools in Metaphysics Matter |
Ted Sider
Cornell University |
| Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy |
Location: Emerson 305
4 PM |
| 14 March 2013 |
Symmetric Dependence |
Elizabeth Barnes
University of Leeds |
| Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy |
Location: Emerson 305
4 PM |
| 26 March 2013 |
From Descartes's True and Immutable Natures to Kant's Transcendental Deduction
Harvard History of Philosophy Workshop |
Olli Koistinen
University of Turku |
Location: Emerson 310
4 PM |
| Back to top |
April 2013 |
| 5 April 2013 |
The Real Distinction -- CANCELLED
Harvard History of Philosophy Workshop |
Dan Kaufman
University of Colorado, Boulder |
| This talk has been cancelled and will not be offered. |
| 11 April 2013 |
Reconsidering Intentions |
Sergio Tenenbaum
University of Toronto |
| Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy |
Location: Emerson 305
4 PM |
| 12 April 2013 |
From Thought to Action
Harvard Review of Philosophy Lecture |
Jonathan Dancy
University of Texas, Austin |
| Sponsored by the Harvard Review of Philosophy |
| Abstract: I will show how to make sense of Aristotle’s apparent suggestion that action can be the conclusion of reasoning. The supposed difficulties here stem partly from thinking of reasoning as inference and then wondering how an action can possibly be the conclusion of an inference; but there are other sources of doubt. I offer a simple account under which an action can stand in just the same relation to 'considerations adduced' as can belief. I then turn to beat off the main principled objections to my account. The first of these objections claims that only belief can be the conclusion of reasoning; the second claims that reasoning can take us only to intention, and never to the action intended. |
Location: Emerson 210
4 PM |
| 18 & 19 April 2013 |
Series Title: Pleasure, Knowledge and the Good in Plato's Philebus
Lecture One: 'The goodness of idle pleasure'
Lecture Two: 'In search of useless knowledge'.
Whitehead Lectures |
Verity Harte
Yale University |
| Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy |
Location: Emerson 210
4 PM |
| 23 April 2013 |
Hilary Putnam's Jewish Journey |
Diana Eck
Harvard University
Abigail Gilman
Boston University
Michael Morgan
Indiana University
Hilary Putnam
Harvard University |
| Sponsored by Harvard Hillel & The Center for Jewish Studies |
| Abstract: An exploration of the Jewish strands in the thinking of Hilary Putnam, Harvard Professor Emeritus and Rolf Schock Prize Laureate in Philosophy. |
Location: Beren Hall, Harvard Hillel
7 PM |
| 24 April 2013 |
Aristotle's Right Reason |
Jessica Moss
Oxford University |
| Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy |
Location: Emerson 310 (Please note the change in location)
4 PM |
| 30 April 2013 |
Epistemic & Ontological Problems Concerning Mathematics |
Haim Gaifman
Columbia University |
| Sponsored by the Harvard/MIT Logic Seminar & the Department of Philosophy |
Abstract: Philosophy of mathematics is confronted with two major questions:
(i) How do we come to know mathematical propositions?
(ii) What is the nature of mathematical truth?
Attempts to give satisfactory answers to one of the questions have resulted in unsatisfactory accounts regarding the other. I shall outline an approach intended to do justice to both questions. This is an ongoing work. |
Location: Fong Auditorium, Boylston Hall
4:15 PM - 5:15 PM |
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May 2013 |
| 9 May 2013 |
Lecture Two: 'In search of useless knowledge'
(Rescheduled from 19 April)
Whitehead Lectures |
Verity Harte
Yale University |
| Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy |
Location: Emerson 210
4 PM |
| Back to top |
September 2013 |
| 19 September 2013 |
TBA |
Sharon Street
NYU |
| Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy |
Location: Emerson 305
4 PM |
| 21 & 22 September 2013 |
Workshop on Mind & Attention in Indian Philosophy |
| |
| Location: Thompson Room, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge |
| 26 September 2013 |
TBA |
Taylor Carman
Columbia University |
| Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy |
Location: Emerson 305
4 PM |
| Back to top |
October 2013 |
| 17 October 2013 |
TBA |
Jonathan Shaffer
Rutgers University |
| Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy |
Location: Emerson 305
4 PM |
| Back to top |
November 2013 |
| 7 November 2013 |
TBA |
Jamie Dreier
Brown University |
| Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy |
Location: Emerson 305
4 PM |
| Back to top |
February 2014 |
| 20 February 2014 |
TBA |
Rachana Kamtekar
University of Arizona |
| Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy |
Location: Emerson 305
4 PM |
| Back to top |
March 2014 |
| 6 March 2014 |
TBA |
Jennifer Saul
University of Sheffield |
| Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy |
Location: Emerson 305
4 PM |
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April 2014 |
| 3 April 2014 |
TBA |
Jeff McMahan
Rutgers University |
| Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy |
Location: Emerson 305
4 PM |
| 17 & 18 April 2014 |
TBA
Whitehead Lectures |
Michael Della Rocca
Yale University |
| Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy |
Location: Emerson 210
4 PM |
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