Aktuellt februari 2012

AN ECOLOGY OF MIND: A DAUGHTER'S PORTRAIT OF GREGORY BATESON
8th March 2012,  18.00-21.00, Aalto University

Many people regard the anthropologist, biologist and systems thinker Gregory Bateson (1904–1980) as one of the 20th century’s most important thinkers. His youngest daughter, Nora Bateson, will come to present the film An Ecology of Mind at Aalto University.

Nora Bateson, who is a media producer and educator, will personally introduce the film she has made about her father, and be available for questions and discussion afterwards.

The film provides a unique personal view on Gregory Bateson’s original and interdisciplinary angles of research: from cybernetics to communication among dolphins, and from schizophrenia to ecology and the sacred.

The trailer of the film can be seen at www.anecologyofmind.com.
And here is the latest news: www.facebook.com/anecologyofmind
PDF of flyer is downloadable here: http://www.naturearteducation.org/AEOM.htm

Free entrance.

Enter the Arabia factory from the south end (through the glass tube) and walk past the café on the right. Here you find the stairs up and there the bridge to Media Factory.

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

On behalf of the Academy of Finland research project Knowledge Formation and Epistemic Connections it is my great pleasure to invite you to attend the International Symposium Life, Process and Philosophy to be held in Helsinki 11–12 May 2012. The aim of the symposium is both to develop contemporary analyses of the work of A. N. Whitehead (1861–1947) and to introduce his philosophy to a wider academic and
intellectual audience in Finland. Some of the most creative developments in e.g. metaphysics, philosophy of science, aesthetics and social theory in recent years have been inspired by Whitehead’s work, and hence this “introduction” is very timely.

You are warmly welcome to listen to the six internationally acclaimed authorities on Whitehead’s philosophy (Isabelle Stengers, Steven Shaviro...) and their expert commentators (Sami Pihlström, Turo-Kimmo Lehtonen...), and to contribute to the discussions.

Please go to our website to register:

http://congress.utu.fi/lpp2012/index.php

Yours sincerely, Seppo Poutanen

12th International Summer School and Symposium on Humour and Laughter, 2-7th July 2012

Endorsed by the International Society for Humous Studies (ISHS)

Location: University of Eastern Finland, Savonlinna

Interest in both research on humour and practical applications of humour has increased sharply in the past decade. For new research students just beginning their research careers or those already-trained researchers considering a first research project on humour, this course will ensure that they enter the field with a strong foundation in existing theoretical and methodological issues, and are well versed in the pitfalls confronting the scientific study of humour. For those interested in practical applications of humour in a variety of applied settings, the course will introduce them to the kinds of approaches that are being used around the world to put humour to work and to deliver the benefits of humour and laughter.

More information ang programme on website: http://www.humoursummerschool.org/12/index.shtml

Announcement & Call for Papers

The Third International Conference of the Nordic Wittgenstein Society:

Wittgenstein, the Philosophy of Education and the Education of Philosophy

The general theme of the conference is to explore a Wittgensteinian approach to the interplay between philosophical method, pedagogy in general and philosophy of education.

Teaching and various forms of instruction, training and learning are recurrent themes in the writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein, making his philosophy a rich source for our understanding of the relationship between education and learning. Moreover, Wittgenstein’s work is an increasing influence in debates within the philosophy of education, especially in questions concerning the pedagogies of philosophy, therapeutic and dialogical methods in education, the role of practice for learning and discussions of the respective contribution to education from philosophy and empirical research.

 The conference will include three invited speakers as well as a number of smaller presentations organised in sessions according to theme. See below for the Call for Papers.

PhD Session
At least one of the sessions (depending on number of participants) will be reserved for presentations from PHD students. Prof. Paul Standish will participate in the discussions of the presentations.

Invited Speakers
Steinar Bøyum, Associate Professor, University of Bergen, Norway (confirmed)
Anniken Greve, Professor, University of Tromsø (confirmed)
Paul Standish, Professor, University of London, UK (confirmed)

Time: Friday, June 8th, 14-19, and Saturday June 9th, 9-16.30, 2012.
The final programme will be announced later.

Place: Institute of Philosophy, Education and the Study of Religions (IFPR), University of Southern Denmark (SDU), Odense.

More information:
To come on http://www.nordicwittgensteinsociety.org

Organisers: IFPR, SDU and The Nordic Wittgenstein Society.


Call for Papers
We invite researchers and PhD-students, inside and outside of philosophy (e.g. education and pedagogy) to submit abstracts on Wittgenstein-inspired inquiries into questions related to the theme of the conference (max 400 words). All submissions will be subject to a peer review. Each speaker will be allotted 20 minutes for presentation and 20 minutes for discussion.

Possible topics include: The relevance of Wittgenstein’s philosophy for...
-        The pedagogies of philosophy
-        The philosophy of education
-        The role of training and initiation into a practice in education
-        The relationship between education and therapy
-        Moral education
-        Educating for critical thinking
-        Methods in education
-        The distinction between empirical and philosophical research in education

 In case of adequate funding, the conference will reimburse part of the travel expenses for speakers whose papers are accepted.

Submission should be send to Anne-Marie S. Christensen, amsc@ifpr.sdu.dk

Deadlines
Submission of abstracts: April 2nd 2012
Announcement of the result of the peer review: April 16th 2012
For PhD students: Deadline for submission of papers: May 14th 2012

Bedste hilsner
Anne-Marie Søndergaard Christensen
Lektor, Institut for Filosofi, Pædagogik og Religionsstudier, Syddansk Universitet, Odense

SPINOZA IN SOVIET THOUGHT - an international symposium 18th - 19th May 2012

Spinoza is one of the figures who have played a key role in the formation of the Soviet Marxism, and even later many thinkers critical of the official Diamat have repeatedly recurred to Spinozistic arguments.

The Aleksanteri Institute organizes an international symposium on the theme of "Spinoza in Soviet thought" in 18. —19. May, 2012. Keynote speakers will be Prof. Daniela Steila (University of Turin) and Prof. Andrey Maidansky (Institute of Management and Economy, Taganrog). In addition, the anthology Spinoza — pro et contra (in Russian), edited by Prof. Maidansky and published in the beginning of 2012, will be presented and discussed.

VENUE: Aleksanteri Institute meeting room, 2nd floor, entrance via the inner courtyard.

More information and seminar programme: http://www.helsinki.fi/aleksanteri/english/news/events/2012/spinoza.html

*** Filosoficafé i Åbo 19.2 - Populism - Hot eller löfte?  ***

Tid: Söndag 19.2.2012 kl. 17.00
Plats: Restaurang skolan (Historiesalen), Eriksgatan 18, Åbo
Inledare: Statsvetare Ann-Cathrine Jungar, Södertörns högskola, Stockholm
Tema: Populism - Hot eller löfte?

Fritt inträde & alla välkomna!

Synopsis

Populismens framgångar speglar den representativa demokratins och partidemokratins problem. Populismens livsluft är en känsla av utanförskap och ett upplevt avstånd mellan medborgare och deras politiska representanter. Populismens frammarsch är även en reaktion på de omfattade omvandlingar som präglat våra samhällen under den senaste decennierna: globaliseringens och den europeiska integrationens öppnare gränser med fri rörlighet, ökad konkurrens och immigration. De politiska, sociala och ekonomiska skeendena är den mylla där populismen hämtar sin näring, men populismens idémässiga tankegods kan sägas vara demokratins konstanta följeslagare, eller i en mer pessimistisk tolkning dess skuggsida.
    Populismen kan å ena sidan i sina appeller utropa ett demokratins evangelium om mer makt till folket och ett beslutsfattande som ligger närmare det folket önskar. Med sin närvaro kan populismen blottlägga sprickor och tillkortakommanden i de politiska systemen. Populismen kan på så sätt vara ett korrektiv och bidra till en förbättring. Å andra sidan drar populismen upp nya särskiljande gränser i upprätthållandet av majoritetsprincipen och tanken om ett homogent folk. Populismens skuggsida representeras av den bristande tolerans för minoriteter och grundläggande demokratiska värden som kan följa i den vulgära och obegränsade folkmajoritetens spår.
    I vilken utsträckning populismens blir ett hot mot demokratiska värden är beroende av om populistiska partier har tillgång till maktpositioner, samt hur övriga politiska partier agerar. Sist och slutligen är det en öppen fråga om populismen är ett hot eller ett löfte?

Ann-Cathrine Jungar är docent och högskolelektor i statsvetenskap vid Södertörns högskola och är verksam vid Centrum för Östersjö- och Östeuropastudier, CBEES. Hon deltar aktivt i diskussionen om den nordiska populismen som samhällsfenomen. Se dessa länkar för ett urval av hennes senaste artiklar med detta tema:

http://www.svd.se/kultur/understrecket/soini-rider-pa-nordens-tredje-vag-av-populism_6099539.svd

http://www.magma.fi/tema/populismen-en-motkraft-i-finska-konsensuskulturen

http://www.svd.se/kultur/understrecket/med-nationen-och-kulturen-som-retorisk-ide_6668292.svd

Arrangör
--
Folkets Bildningsförbund r.f.
Hagsgatan 12
20540 Åbo
tel 050 5147297
e-mail fbf (at) kaapeli.fi
www.fbf.fi

TRANSCENDING EUROPE

A conference organised by the "University of Helsinki Network for European Studies" project "Rethinking Cultural Diversity in Europe"

Date: 12. - 13. april 2012
Venue: University of Helsinki

Europe, today, is at pains with its universality. On the one hand, it appears as a universal construction that cannot satisfy particularistic passions within, and on the other hand, it appears as only a particular culture that cannot match the universality of the global world.

But what is European universality? In the conference "Transcending Europe" it will be studied as a philosophical concept: as the paradox of a "situated universality". Maybe European universality cannot be understood as a model that could be used as a source of identification, but rather as a regulative principle with ethical and political dimensions? Maybe Europe is not a particular idea imposing itself on a global framework of thought, but a desire of universality that can only be realöoised as a constant self-transgression and openness towards what is other to it?

The conference 'Transcending' Europe looks for new philosophical articulations of European universality, its way of being supranational without being global and of being ideal without being merely cultural.

The keynote speakers of the conference are Rodolphe Gasché, who has recently published "Europe, or the Infinite Task. A Study of a Philosophical Concept", and Denis Guénoun, whose "Hypothèses sur l'Europe: un essai de philosophie" will soon be published in English.


Program:
thursday 12. april
·      10-12 keynote adress Denis Guénoun: Active or passive transcendence?
·      12-13 lunch
·      13-14 Sergei Prozorov, What is the Other of Europe
·      14-15 Susanna Lindberg, Uprooted Europe
·      15-15.15 coffee
·      15.15-16.15 Peter Trawny, Europe and Revolution
·      16.15-17.15 Jayne Svenungsson, Christian Europe: Borders and
Boundaries  of a Mythological Conception

friday 13. april
10-12 keynote adress Rodolphe Gasché: "Is "Europe" an Idea in the
·      Kantian Sense?"
·      12-13 lunch
·      13-14 Matthias Flatscher: Different Ways to Europe. Critical
Remarks on Habermas and Derrida
·      14-15 Timo Miettinen: Crisis and Utopia
·      15-15.15 coffee
·      15.15-16.15 Mika Ojakangas: European Union: A Polity without Sense
·      16.15 - 17.15 Ari Hirvonen


For further information, contact Susanna Lindberg
(susanna.lindberg at helsinki.fi) or Tuomas Parsio
(tuomas.parsio at gmail.com)

Metaethics as a Confusion of Tongues

Series abstract
Can fundamental normative notions expressed by words like ‘good’, ‘ought’, and ‘reason’ be analyzed and explained?  Naïve attempts to explain the normative by investigating the conceptual meaning of normative words have been widely scorned and abandoned for several decades.  But successful semantic analyses may now be possible due to developments in our understanding of language and how it is used.  Study of normative words supports the End-Relational theory that things are good, reasons, or ought to be done only in relation to some end.  Many central problems of metaethics arise out of the ways normative language is used in practical contexts in pursuit of our ends, and can be resolved through a better appreciation of these conversational pragmatics.  This includes problems about the relationship between normative judgement and motivation, and the “categorical” character of moral claims.  Special attention is paid to problems concerning the nature and extent of normative disagreement.  A pragmatic solution to these metaethical problems has the virtues of expressivist views without their vices.

Lecture 1, Metaethics: Why and How?
27 februari kl. 13.15 -15, Hörsal E
Ethics or “practical philosophy” seeks to resolve disagreement about how we ought to act.  Questions in Metaethics concerning the metaphysics and semantics of the normative have important implications for the possibility of a method for Ethics.  But what method should we employ for Metaethics?  Traditionally, philosophers offered analyses of the meaning of normative language.  Today this analytic method stands in disrepute as a hopeless failure.  This lecture responds to four challenges: Primitivist, Expressivist, Externalist, and Revisionist.  While they may reveal the analytic method to be naïve, they do not show that it is not the right method for Metaethics.  A presumptive case can be made in its favour.


Lecture 2, The Semantics of ”Ought”
28 februari kl. 13.15 -15, Hörsal F
‘Ought’ is often claimed by moral philosophers to express an irreducibly normative concept.  The correct semantic theory of the word suggests otherwise, however.  The word ‘ought’ is used in a variety of different ways, but a relative of the standard semantics for modals due to Angelika Kratzer can provide a unifying analysis.  This analysis points toward an End-Relational theory of the normative ‘ought’ in terms of comparative probability of certain ends.  Special attention is paid to the meaning of the normative ‘ought’ in instrumental conditionals, which have puzzled many philosophers.  A compositional analysis identifying the instrumental ‘ought’ with the ‘ought’ of prediction generates a plausible reduction.

Lecture 3, The Pragmatics of Normative Disagreement
29 februari kl. 13.15 -15, Hörsal E

Many central problems of metaethics arise from uses of normative language—especially in moral discourse—that appear incompatible with the kind of simple semantics advanced for ‘ought’ in Lecture 2.  The Problem of Disagreement is a conspicuous case in point.  But might these features be explicable by supplementing a simple semantic theory with the right account of conversational pragmatics?  Exploring this idea for disagreement can be motivated by observing that similar problems confront any plausible semantic theory for ‘ought’.  It is argued that when combined with a basic and intuitive Instrumental Principle of pragmatics, the End-Relational theory of ‘ought’ systematically generates correct predictions about when normative claims disagree with each other.  This solution is “quasi-expressivist” in recognizing that normative disagreement does not always consist in a conflict in belief, but it enjoys significant advantages over expressivism proper.


Arrangör:
Institutionen för Idé- och Samhällsstudier, Umeå universitet
http://www.idesam.umu.se/om/amnen/filosofi/