Congratulations to doctoral student Christopher Yorke, who submitted his dissertation on the work of the philosopher Bernard Suits at the end of September. He will also be presenting a paper on Suits to the Atlantic Region Philosophers Association conference hosted by St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. His title: ‘A Suitsian Critique of Pike’s Account of Sport’ (that is to say, Jon Pike).
Category Archives: news events publications
Transgender debate in Scotland
Our very own Sophie-Grace Chappell has published a letter in The Herald giving a trenchant response to an earlier article by Stuart Waiton that complained of ‘the state pushing a harmful transgender agenda’. You can read her letter at https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/16956659.letters-were-transgender-because-thats-the-way-we-are-made/.
Visiting speaker: talk on AI and poetry (Oct 3rd 2018)
Philosopher Jonathan Phelan will be a guest speaker on Wednesday October 3rd 2018, at 2pm-4pm in Room 006 of Gardiner Building 1. Everyone interested is very welcome to attend.
Title: ‘A. I. Richards’: can artificial intelligence appreciate poetry?
Abstract: Artificial intelligence (artificial eloquence) ‘writes’ poetry but can A. I. critically appreciate poetry? This talk looks at the prospect of ‘artificial interpretation’. By ‘interpretation’ I have close reading in mind, which, in broad terms, can be divided into four stages: first reading, close analysis, the forming of an overall interpretation of a work and a final evaluative judgement. I shall argue, along with Lamarque, that emotional responses to poetry are not integral to literary critical interpretation and so not crucial in any debate about artificial interpretation. On the positive side, A.I. can detect patterns such as rhyme schemes and repeated words, as well as make illuminating links to etymology, allusion and historical context. Artificial interpretation may also be able to register self-reference, guess at neologisms and identify absent detail through comparison with similar poems. The problem is that A. I. has no way of detecting what matters in a poetic work i.e. a sense of significance is lacking. I offer this by way of an answer to the question ‘Can A. I. appreciate poetry’ and by way of a challenge.
Please contact Sheree Barbateau for information if intending to come (e.g. in case of an unexpected change to schedule).
‘Brilliant Darkness’ in Hanover, 9th October 2018
David Roden (Associate Lecturer on several philosophy modules, as well as a global figure in thinking about posthumanity) will be giving at talk in the Sprengel Museum in Hanover on October 9th. The event, entitled ‘Brilliant Darkness’ will involve David’s talk, a performance and a multimedia presentation. The theme will involve ‘different aspects of darkness in terms of things inaccessible for our thinking or possible strategies of thinking the unthinkable’. David’s talk will explore posthuman theory as an experimental practice, as opposed to a metaphysical theory of posthumans.
Inaugural lecture: Professor Derek Matravers (July 17 2018)
Open University Inaugural Lecture
(A live video-link to this event is now available via the official event page.)
Heritage in War: Protecting Cultural Property and Human Harm
Derek Matravers, Professor of Philosophy
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Tuesday 17 July
6:00 – 7:00 pm
The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA
We are delighted to invite you to Professor Derek Matraver’s inaugural lecture on: Heritage in War: Protecting Cultural Property and Human Harm.
Derek Matravers is Professor of Philosophy at The Open University. Before joining the OU, he was a research fellow at Darwin College Cambridge. He is the author of Art and Emotion (OUP: 1998), Introducing Philosophy of Art In Eight Case Studies (Routledge: 2012), Fiction and Narrative (OUP: 2014), and Empathy (Polity: 2017). He has also published on aesthetics, ethics, mind, and politics.
In his inaugural lecture, Professor Matravers, will explore whether we should risk lives to protect historical buildings. He will go on to assess the values of buildings and our deeper obligation to not kill human beings. As the UK recently ratified the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, the UK Military are now bound by the articles of this convention. As a result, failing to protect cultural property, or damaging it unless there is a military necessity to do so, is a war crime. Professor Matravers will explore the ethical dilemma around this which is bound up with ‘just war theory’, which goes back at least to medieval times.
Event programme:
18:00-18:45 Heritage in War: Protecting Cultural Property and Human Harm
18:45-19:00 Q&A
19:00-19:45 Drinks and canapes
Can’t join in person? Watch the event live online (link will be live before the event). If you are viewing the event by livestream, please do take the opportunity to have your questions answered by our speakers LIVE during the event by posting in the COMMENTS BOX
There will be time for questions and comments. We very much hope you will be able to attend what promises to be an inspiring event and have your say.
In a perfect world, what would we do?
Open University Philosophy PhD student Christopher Yorke was interviewed recently by the blogsite Philosophical Disquisitions. You can hear him in an interview with John Danaher, in which he talks about utopias, games, and the relation between the utopias and games. If we lived in a world in which all our instrumental needs were met – a world in which we had no need to do anything describable as ‘work’ – what would we do? Play games, perhaps? Chris is not convinced…
Luca Sciortino’s book
Luca completed a PhD in the philosophy of science with us in 2014. As well as being a philosopher he is a journalist and writer. And, it turns out, a traveller. He has just published a book, Oltre e un cielo in più. This documents his four-month journey from Skye to Japan. It is in Italian (he is Sicilian) but you can read a google-translated review from the newspaper La Repubblica here (original review here).
Jon Pike at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
Congrats to our Jon Pike who will be a Visiting Scholar at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at Oxford in 2018.
More information about the activities of the centre can be found here: http://www.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/home
New edition of Bachelard’s Dialectic of Duration
Gaston Bachelard’s Dialectic of Duration, first published in French in 1950, has been published again in English translation by a new publisher, Rowman & Littlefield. It comes with an updated Introduction to the first English translation by our own Cristina Chimisso.
Royal Music Association Conference
We are pleased to announce that registration is now open for the Royal Musical Association Music and Philosophy Study Group Conference 2017 (our own Derek Matravers is one of the organisers). Please see the message below for details about this exciting event, including the programme and registration. The conference is conceived as a hub of interaction for scholars and students working in the area of music and philosophy: you are warmly welcome, regardless of whether you are giving a paper. Please also note that the early-bird registration offer closes on Wednesday 31st May.
2017 Biennial Conference of the Royal Musical Association Music and Philosophy Study Group
Department of Music and Department of Philosophy, King’s College London
13-14 July 2017