Category Archives: news events publications

Role Ethics Network (March 22 workshop)

Alex Barber and Sean Cordell are running an AHRC funded project, the Role Ethics Network, with a number of events over 18 months involving academics from across the globe. The rationale of the project is that social roles – our occupancy and performance of them – shape our ethical lives in ways that have not been fully appreciated or understood. Full details are on the project website.

The next is a workshop in Manchester on March 22, at which Alex will deliver a paper on a puzzle about wellbeing: wellbeing is an individualist notion (it equates to that which is good for a particular person), and achievement is an ingredient of wellbeing, but achievement is often collective rather than individual (just think about orchestral performance). Alex argues that thinking about the fulfillingness of role occupancy and role performance can help dissolve the tension.

Upcoming talks and a publication by Cristina Chimisso

Cristina Chimisso will be a keynote speaker at the conference on ‘Bachelard today: Bachelard and contemporary philosophy’ at Leuven University (Belgium), 24-25 April 2017 . The title of her talk is ‘History, chemistry and knowledge’.

She is also talking at the annual conference of the British Society for the History of Philosophy (University of Sheffield, 6-8 April 2017), contributing a paper called ‘Philosophy and history of science: Hélène Metzger on anachronism’ as part of the panel that she organised on ‘History, philosophy and science in French epistemology’.

In March she’ll be giving a graduate seminar at the University of Milan, as she has recently done at the Universities of Cambridge and of Paris I (Sorbonne).

The second edition of the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, for which she has written a new entry ‘Bachelard, Gaston’, is now on-line. Her OU page has more on her research and publications.

Research seminar, 1 March 2017: Kant on race

The seminar will be held at the Open University’s campus at Walton Hall, in meeting room 5, Wilson A, from 2pm – 4pm, Wed 1 March 2017.

Professor Stella Sandford (Kingston University) ‘Kant, Teleology and Natural History: “Race” in the Critique of Pure Reason’

Abstract: As the fact and the nature of Kant’s controversial essays on race become better known, the question of their relationship to his major philosophical works is extremely vexing. Starting with the critical philosophy, and recognising the application of aspects of it in the essays on race, still allows, in principle, for their separation, isolating and marginalizing the topic of ‘race’ in Kant’s oeuvre. Starting instead with Kant’s ‘natural history of the human races’, this talk will suggest that there are ways in which Kant’s work on race may be more tightly woven into the critical philosophy that has hitherto been recognized, giving aspects of the critical philosophy – specifically Kant’s philosophical claims concerning the necessity of teleological judgement in both the Critique of Pure Reason and the Critique of the Power of Judgement – its lead, and perhaps even its practical motivation. Although this does not mean that the critical philosophy is hopelessly compromised (study of it will remain important and productive), this does mean that the place of ‘race’ in Kant’s oeuvre will need to be reconsidered.

All welcome. Contact: Cristina Chimisso

Derek Matravers’s new book is out!

All you need to know about empathy can be found in Derek Matravers‘s new book — entitled, appropriately enough, Empathy (Polity, 2017). Heather Battally (of Cal State, Fullerton) describes it as ‘A terrific introduction to the concept of empathy’. Karsten Stueber (who wrote an excellent book on the subject, called Rediscovering Empathy) describes it as ‘very enjoyable, highly nuanced, and historically astute…a first rate introduction.’ Further information, including a table of contents are available here.

Derek Matravers’s Empathy (Polity 2017)

The book is out in the same series as Carolyn Price‘s excellent book, Emotion, which was published by Polity in 2015.

Leverhulme Research Fellowship for Sophie Grace Chappell

OU Philosophy is pleased to announce that Sophie Grace Chappell has been awarded a three-year Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship (2017-2020, £142,000). She will use this to write her new book, provisionally entitled Epiphanies: an ethics and metaethics of experience.

More details of the project can be found on Professor Chappell’s department webpage.

Metaphysics Day

OU Philosophy welcomed guest speaker Phillip Meadows from the United Arab Emirates University to a one-off Metaphysics Day on November 30 2016. He talked about the puzzle of absences, which seem to be both vital to causal explanations (‘It happened because there were no electron’) and yet incapable of causing anything (‘How can absent electrons, or absent anything elses for that matter, have causal properties?’)

OU philosophers rounded out the day with contributions on the metaphysics of sports (Jon Pike), moral refutations of metaphysics (Alex Barber) and the objectivity of ordinary life (Sophie Grace Chappell).

Open University Branch of the Royal Institute of Philosophy

Dr Henry Taylor (Cambridge University): What Can Zombies Teach Us About Consciousness?
Where: Newnham Terrace Seminar Room, Darwin College, Cambridge (enter by the main door on Silver Street).
When: 5.00pm to 7.00pm, Monday 5th December.

Entry is free and open to everybody.

For all enquires, email Derek Matravers (derek.matravers@open.ac.uk)

Consciousness is simultaneously the most intimate, and the most mysterious aspect of our lives. In one sense, we know a lot about consciousness because we are conscious beings. We know what it’s like to look at a beautiful sunset, to have a dream, to think about politics, to taste a lemon tart, or to listen to music. These are all elements of our conscious lives that we are intimately familiar with, and we know a lot about consciousness from a first person point of view.
In another sense, we know almost nothing about consciousness. We have no idea where it comes from, which animals have it, how it is related to the brain, and whether or not it is part of the normal physical world.
In this lecture, Dr Taylor will outline the phenomenon of consciousness, and why it has struck so many as so mysterious. Then he will look at the famous ‘zombie’ argument, which aims to show that consciousness is not a physical phenomenon. He will also suggest some ways we might make progress about this issue in the future.

Award for OU documentary

A documentary film commissioned jointly by the Open University and the BBC, and for which Derek Matravers was Academic Adviser, has won the Best Documentary on a Contemporary Theme (Domestic) at the prestigious Grierson Trust awards. The jury chair described How To Die: Simon’s Choice as ‘a deeply moving’ film that made ‘a valuable contribution to the debates surrounding these big issues’. The film was shown on BBC2 earlier this year.

Call for papers on Video Games and Virtual Ethics

Video Games and Virtual Ethics

Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London
July 21-22, 2017

Is it morally wrong to play violent video games? Academics across numerous disciplines have taken an interest in these issues. Excellent work can be found in philosophy, psychology, media studies, sociology, and literary studies. However academics within these disciplines often do not talk to each other about their shared interest in games. With this conference, our aim is to promote cross-disciplinary dialogue on these issues.

Papers are invited that deal with issues relating to the ethics of video games. Topics may include (but not limited to) the role of imagination in our engagement with video games, the nature of fiction and the status of games as works of fiction, foundational questions about the moral framework needed to critique video games, or specific analyses of games and virtual actions within games.

Attendance at the conference is free, as is the conference dinner. All other costs will need to be met by the speakers themselves.

Essays should be no longer than 3,000 words (allowing for a 30 minute presentation). Submitted essays should be prepared for blind review. All contact information (including the author’s name, institutional affiliation, essay title, and email address) should be included in the email accompanying the submission. Essay submissions are due by 1 March 2017. Successful authors will be notified by early May. Submit essays in Word or PDF format to bartelcj@appstate.edu. Please include ‘VGVE2017 Submission’ in the subject line.

Invited speakers:
Christopher Bartel (Philosophy, Appalachian State University)
Morgan Luck (Philosophy, Charles Sturt University)
Esther MacCallum-Stewart (Media Studies, University of the West of England)
Stephanie Patridge (Philosophy, Otterbein University)
Miguel Sicart (Game Studies, IT, University of Copenhagen)
Garry Young (Philosophy and Psychology, Nottingham Trent University)

Inquiries can be addressed to Christopher Bartel (bartelcj@appstate.edu) or Derek Matravers (derek.matravers@open.ac.uk). Please use ‘VGVE 2017’ in the subject line.

This conference is being generously supported by the British Society of Aesthetics and the Institute of Philosophy. The conference organizers value inclusivity and are committed to organizing this conference in accordance with BPA/SWiP guidelines.

Derek Matravers to be 2017 Wollheim Lecturer

The American Society for Aesthetics is pleased to announce that Derek Matravers will be the Wollheim Lecturer at the 75th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA, November 15-18, 2017.

The Richard Wollheim Lecture is jointly sponsored by the British Society of Aesthetics. The ASA nominates a lecturer to speak at the BSA annual meeting in even years and the BSA nominates a lecturer to speak at the ASA annual meeting in odd years.

For more information about the 2017 meeting:
http://aesthetics-online.org/events/EventDetails.aspx

PHILOSOPHY

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