Aktuellt 2015

On the Conceptual History of the Good (CHG)

Third Workshop

Self-interest and Other-regard

 

University of Iceland, Reykjavik.

November 27-28, 2015

The project On the Conceptual History of the Good organises its third and last exploratory workshop, which pertains to the emergence of the idea that self-interest conflicts with other-regard. As Julia Annas has shown in her seminal Morality and Happiness (1993), a supposition of such a conflict was by no means central in the ancient discussions. Ancient ethics simply does not build on a supposition that self-interest conflicts with other-regard. By contrast, in early modern discussions such a conflict is often (though not without exception) assumed.

The workshop Self-interest and Other-regard takes this as its theme and asks: When and why did philosophers start to assume that self-interest conflicts with other-regard and that it is the latter rather than the former that pairs with morality? Did medieval distinctions between various kinds of goods (especially between pleasure and justice) lead to the idea that the former is merely a self-interested good as opposed to an other-regarding and moral one? If so, was this idea immediately accepted by later generations? If the idea of such a distinction was new, were there some compelling arguments that prompted other philosophers to endorse a new idea? Or was it rather some contingent development that led to the early modern discussions?

Together with this discussion, the third workshop raises the question of how we should in fact understand morality. A simple distinction between self-interest and other-regard has already become subject to criticism as the basis of morally praiseworthy action. If the subject needs to write his or her own interests out from the calculations concerning what actions to perform, does this lead to a credible picture of moral agency? How can morality retain its motivational force that so effortlessly combines with a notion that takes morality to contribute to a good life? We maintain that the historical discussions as such cannot be taken as the basis of a new moral theory. Rather, our conviction is that contemporary theories of virtue ethics cannot be successful in introducing an alternative to modern moral theories without understanding the complicated history through which the conceptual distinctions studied in this series of workshops developed. In our third workshop we also explore into the ways in which such an understanding could be utilised in envisaging new ethical viewpoints that combine some of the historical insights with the current theories.

The workshop is open for all interested.

 

Program

Friday, November 27

Ancient Philosophy

9.15–10.45

Eirikur S. Sigurdarsson: Antiphon and Aristotle's animals: On nature and selfishness

Svavar H. Svavarsson: Happiness, other people, and god

11.00-12.15

Eyjólfur K. Emilsson: Self-interest and other-regard in Plotinus

 

From Medieval to Early Modern Philosophy

13.45-15.00

Matthew Kempshall: The common good in late medieval political thought

15.15-16.30

Juhana Toivanen: Is Socrates permitted to kill Plato? Nicholas of Vaudémont on the relation between private and common good

16.45-18.00

Anna Becker: Oeconomics and the common good in early modern Aristotelianism

 

Saturday, November 28

Early Modern Philosophy

9.15-10.30

Frans Svensson: The possibility of living well: Value, virtue and knowledge in Descartes’s ethical philosophy

10.45-12.00

Ville Paukkonen: Shaftesbury’s moral internalism and Berkeley’s heteronomous critique

13.30-14.45

Peter Myrdal: The form of Leibniz´s perfectionism

15-16.15

Valtteri Viljanen: Kant and Schopenhauer on self-interest and other-regard

Closing Panel

16.30-17.45

Dominic O’Meara: Remarks on the terminology and conceptual field of 'Concern for self and for Others’

General discussion (chair Miira Tuominen)

Finnish Workshop in Medieval Philosophy

 

University of Jyväskylä, 20 November 2015

Main campus, lecture hall D 209.

The Finnish Workshop in Medieval Philosophy provides a chance for young and advanced scholars alike to present and test the results of their latest research. It welcomes contributions from any area of philosophy in the broad and long Middle Ages, including Arabic/Islamic, Byzantine, Jewish and Latin philosophy, and encompassing the transitions from antiquity and to early modernity. This inaugural meeting is intended to launch a series of annual events.

The workshop is open for all interested.

 

Program

9.00 Opening words

9.15 Fedor Benevich (Munich): The Analytic/Synthetic Distinction in Avicenna

10.40 Andreas Lammer (Munich): A Troubled Account of Place: Everyone against Aristotle and Avicenna against Everyone

13.00 Anselm Oelze (Berlin): Do Animals Grasp Universals? Some Medieval Views on Universal Cognition in Nonhuman Animals

14.25 Véronique Decaix (Paris): On Categorical Constitution: Dietrich of Freiberg

16.15 Sonja Schierbaum (Hamburg): Varieties of Voluntarism: Ockham and Crusius

                              

Organisers:

Jari Kaukua & Juhana Toivanen

Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir: Reading Irigaray and Butler in the Light of Nietzsche´s Philosophy of the Body

Lecture at Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, meeting room second floor, Thursday October 29, 16.15-18.

Luce Irigaray claims that the question of sexual difference is the most important question of our times. The pertinent problems of our  global world are for her based in this question. Judith Butler has been an influential thinker for the politics of difference that have been especially central for contemporary leftist, liberal politics. Both Butler and Irigaray have the body as a focal point of their philosophies, and both are influenced by Nietzsche's philosophy of the body. In her lecture Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir will raise and discuss the following questions: How is Nietzsche´s philosophy of the body and sexual difference reflected in the works of Irigaray and Butler? How does their Nietzschean philosophical background make apparent the tension between Irigarays difference feminism and Butler´s queer theory? Is Butler´s theory in effect not good for women, like Nussbaum argues? Or basically mostly important for human rights battles? And is Irigaray´s difference feminism outdated essentialism or the most radical feminist position within contemporary philosophy? Is her idea of the love of the sexes a viable vision for feminist philosophy and politics?

 

Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir is professor of philosophy at the University of Iceland who held the Erkko Professorship at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies in 2014-2015.

She has published on Nietzsche, Beauvoir, Arendt, feminist philosophy, philosophy of the body and nature, and women in the history of philosophy. She is one of the founders of the United Nations University Program on Gender Equality Training and Studies, and chair of the gender committee of FISP.

Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir belongs to a group of feminist philosophers from the Universities of Jyväskylä, Iceland, Oslo and Aalborg who will be running four summer schools in feminist philosophy in 2016-2017 (with a grant from Erasmus). This group was also involved in the organization of the recent conference on Women in the History of Philosophy last June at the University of Helsinki, http://blogs.helsinki.fi/shc-helsinki/2015/03/27/women-in-the-history-of-philosophy-june-15-16-2015/

Väitöstilaisuus/Disputation 18.9
Åbo Akademi

Kl0. 12.15, Arken, Armfelt
Tehtaankatu 2/Fabriksgatan 2

FL Yrsa Neuman: Standing Before a Sentence. Moore's paradox and a perspective from within language
http://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/113681

Vastaväittelijä/Opponent: Kevin Cahill, Universitetet i Bergen
Kustos: Prof. Martin Gustafsson, Åbo Akademi

A renowned philosopher, professor Michael Devitt (City University of New York) will give a talk: "Justifying Scientific Realism". Mon 14.9.2015 14.15-16.00 Pinni B4115

http://www.uta.fi/yky/fil/ilmoitus.html?id=108793

Väitös: 5.9. YTM Saana Jukola (Yhteiskuntatieteellinen tiedekunta, filosofia)

Alkamisaika: lauantai 05. syyskuuta 2015, 12.00

Paikka: Seminaarinmäki, Vanha juhlasali, S212

 

YTM Saana Jukolan filosofian väitöskirjan ”On the conditions for objectivity: How to avoid bias in socially relevant research” tarkastustilaisuus. Vastaväittäjänä PhD, apulaisprofessori Endla Lohkivi (Tarton yliopisto) ja kustoksena akatemiatutkija Miira Tuominen(Jyväskylän yliopisto). Väitöstilaisuus on englanninkielinen.

Mitä lääketieteellisen tutkimuksen, ravitsemustieteen tai ilmastotieteen objektiivisuus oikeastaan on ja mitkä ovat sen saavuttamisen ehdot? Näitä kysymyksiä Jukola tarkastelee tieteenfilosofian alan väitöskirjassaan.

Lisätietoa: https://www.jyu.fi/ajankohtaista/arkisto/2015/08/tapahtuma-2015-08-07-11-00-38-655815

*** Filosoficafé i Åbo hösten 2015 ***

13.9 Filosof Ylva Gustafsson, Åbo Akademi
Tema: "Vad är en kropp? Tankar om kroppens filosofi."

11.10 Filosof Hans Ruin, professor i filosofi vid Södertörns högskola (Stockholm)
Tema: ”Livet efter döden: Patocka, Derrida, Heidegger”

Synopsis:  Mot slutet av sitt liv skisserar den tjeckiske fenomenologen och människorättsaktivisten Jan Patocka på en text om ”Livet efter döden”. Han ställer sig där frågan om hur vi som sekulära filosofer kan tala om de dödas efter- eller kvarlevnad. Utifrån hans fråga visar jag hur tematiken har både en föregångare och en efterföljare i Heidegger och Derrida. Den förre talade om ett särskilt sätt att ”vara-med-de-döda” och den senare skisserade möjligheten av ”det spektralas/spökligas fenomenologi”. Framställningen är en del av en större studie under arbete, med den preliminära titeln: Being with the dead: burial, ancestrality, and the origin of historical consciousness”. Under måndagen presenteras ytterligare ett delkapitel, som berör anfäderskult vid ämnet filosofi vid Åbo Akademi (Arken) kl. 18.

25.10 Journalist Fredrik Edin, kulturredatör på tidningen Arbetaren (Malmö)
Tema: "En partisk journalists bekännelser." Läs Edins blogg här.

22.11 Teolog Jayne Svenungsson, professor i systematisk teologi med kompetens i religionsfilosofi vid Lunds universitet
Tema: "Drömmen om en annan värld: Teologiska motiv inom samtida politisk filosofi."

Synopsis: Ett av de mer remarkabla dragen i det sena 1900-talets och tidiga 2000-talets filosofi är det förnyade intresset för teologiska tankefigurer. Detta gäller i synnerhet den politiska filosofin som hämtar näring ur den visionär potential som ibland annat det bibliska arvet rymmer. Men utgångspunkt i sin nyligen publicerade studie Den gudomliga historien: Om profetism, messianism och andens utveckling diskuterar Jayne Svenungsson några av dessa utvecklingar. Med anknytning till tänkare som Jacques Derrida, Gianni Vattimo, Giorgio Agamben och Alain Badiou belyser hon en debatt som återaktualiserar det bibliska arvets spann mellan utopiska risker och profetiska möjligheter – en debatt som också speglar filosofernas sinsemellan olika syn på lag, rättvisa och parlamentarismens möjligheter.

29.11 Författare, historiker och kulturskribent Åsa Linderborg, kulturchef för tidningen Aftonbladet (Stockholm)
Tema: "Negerboll och nättroll."

Synopsis: Identitetspolitiken ritar om det offentliga samtalet. Maktstrukturer kring kön, ras och sexualitet avslöjas och friläggs när underordande grupper får en egen ideologi och terminologi – och energi! Men vad är egentligen identitetspolitik? Är den ett vänsterprojekt eller splittrar den de kulturradikala krafterna? Vad skiljer HBTQ-rörelsens identitetspolitiska projekt från högerextremisternas nationalism? Åsa Linderborg delar med sig av sina svenska erfarenheter av den svenska debatten om Tintin, svenskheten och rätten att älska vem man vill.

13.12 Historiker och författare Rasmus Fleischer, Stockholm
Tema: Meddelas senare. Läs Fleischers blogg här.
OBS!! Start kl. 17.30 denna gång!

Plats: Varje filosoficafé ordnas vid restaurang Skolan (Historiesalen), Eriksgatan 18, Åbo. Kl. 17-19.

Fritt inträde & alla välkomna!

Arrangör:

--  Folkets Bildningsförbund rf Hagsgatan 12 20540 Åbo tel 050 5147297 e-mail fbf (@) kaapeli.fi www.fbf.fi  

EPISTEMOLOGY WORKSHOP

University of Helsinki

August, 11 -12, 2015

Venue: Unioninkatu 40, room 4

 

Program

 

Tuesday 11/8

9:15 - 10:15 Jennifer Lackey (Northwestern University), TBA

10:15  - 11:15 Alan Millar (University of Stirling),  "Social Dimensions of Knowledge"

11:15  - 12:30 Lunch break

12:30 - 13:30 Ram Neta (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), TBA

13:30 - 14:30 Michael Hannon (Fordham University), "Knowledge Ascriptions: A User's Guide"

14:30 - 14:45 Coffee break

14:45 - 15:45 Markus Lammenranta (University of Helsinki), "How to Be a Disjunctivist?

 

Wednesday 12/8

9:15 - 10:15 Baron Reed (Northwestern University),  "Norms of Doubt"

10:15 - 11:15 Benoit Gaultier (University of Helsinki), "There Are No Authoritative Epistemic Reasons to Believe"

11:15 - 12:30 Lunch break

12:30 - 13:30 Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa (University of British Columbia), "Basic Knowledge First"

13:30 - 14:30 Maria Lasonen-Aarnio (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), “Victims of deceit and the virtue of reasonableness"

14:30 - 14:45 Coffee break

14:45 - 15:45 Jaakko Hirvelä (University of Helsinki), "Knowledge, Virtue and Safety"

 

Organized by Markus Lammenranta’s Academy Project The Sociality of Knowledge.

The 46th Annual Meeting of the Husserl Circle

Time: June 9-12, 2015, Helsinki

Venue: The House of Science and Letters, Kirkkokatu 6, 5th floor, room 505

 

Organizers:

Subjectivity, Historicity, Communality (SHC) Research Network (University of Jyväskylä, University of Helsinki) and the Philosophical Society of Finland

 

Tentative program

 

Tuesday, June 9

Epistemology

10:00-10:15   Opening words by Mirja Hartimo and Sara Heinämaa

10:15–11:30 Thomas Hansberger (Marquette University): Two Arguments on Husserl and Externalism: Husserl’s Transcendental Critique of the Subject/Object Distinction

Commentator: Philipp Berghofer (University of Graz)

Chair: Mirja Hartimo

11:30–12:45 Lunch

12:45–14:00 Julia Jansen (University of Leuven): Husserl’s Notion of Deckungssynthese: A Radical Departure from Kant

Commentator: Rosemary Rizo-Patrón de Lerner (Pontifical Catholic University of Peru)

Chair: Jussi Backman

14:00–15:15 Hanna Trindade Gonçalves (University of Minas Gerais): Temporality and Phantasy: The Role of Time in the Constitution of Imaginary Objects

Commentator: Ronald Bruzina (University of Kentucky)

Chair: Jussi Backman

15:15–15:45 Coffee

15:45-17:00   Virginie Palette (CNRS/ Ecole Normale Supérieure): The Normative Role of Types Perception: A Husserlian Proposal

Commentator:  Gediminas Karoblis (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

Chair: Fredrik Westerlund

17:00-19:00   Reception at the House of Sciences and Letters (sponsored by the SHC and the University of Helsinki)

 

Wednesday, June 10

Consciousness, Understanding, Historicity

09:00–10:15 Invited Nordic Keynote

Dan Zahavi (University of Copenhagen): Communication and self-alienation

Chair: Sara Heinämaa

10:15–11:30 Michele Averchi (The Catholic University of America): Appropriation and Assimilation in Communication

Commentator: Witold Plotka (University of Gdansk)

Chair: Erika Ruonakoski

11:30–12:45 Lunch

12:45–14:00 Joona Taipale (University of Jyväskylä): Empathy and Typification

Commentator: Zachary Joachim (Boston University)

Chair: Mirja Hartimo

14:00–15:15 Dimitris Apostolopoulous (University of Notre Dame): Ricoeur, Husserl, And Poetic History

Commentator: Timo Miettinen (University of Helsinki)

Chair: Mirja Hartimo

15:15–15:45 Coffee

15:45–17:00 Lilian Allweiss (Trinity College Dublin): Self-Consciousness without an I

Commentator: Sara Heinämaa (University of Jyväskylä)

Chair: Joona Taipale

 

Thursday, June 11

Truth and Logic

09:00–10:15 Bernhard Obsieger (Complutence University of Madrid): Husserl’s

Transcendental Reduction and the Realm of Ontology

Commentator: Wenjing Cai (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

Chair: Joona Taipale

10:15–11:30  Thomas III Byrne (University of Leuven): The Significance of the Hinweistendenz for Husserl’s Philosophy: Expression and Truth

Commentator: Simo Pulkkinen (University of Helsinki)

Chair: Joona Taipale

11:30–12:30 Lunch

12:30–13:45 Matteo Bianchin (University of Milano-Bicocca): Husserl on Meaning and Grammar

Commentator: Andrea Borsato (Independent Scholar)

Chair: Sara Heinämaa

13:45–15:00 Stefania Centrone (University of Oldenburg): On the Shoulders of Leibniz and Bolzano: Early Husserl on the Mathesis Universalis

Commentator: Mirja Hartimo (University of Jyväskylä) / Jairo da Silva (São Paulo State University)

Chair: Sara Heinämaa

(Coffee served during the discussion)

15:00–17:00 Book Session

Essays on Gödel's Reception of Leibniz, Husserl, and Brouwer (Springer, 2015).

Commentator: Dermot Moran (University College Dublin)

Author’s response: Mark van Atten (CNRS, Paris-Sorbonne University)

The Origin of the Logic of Symbolic Mathematics, Edmund Husserl and Jacob Klein (Indiana, 2011).

Commentator: Claudio Majolino (University of Lille)

Author’s response: Burt Hopkins (Seattle University)

Chair: Mirja Hartimo

17:30–19:00 Rector’s Reception (sponsored by the University of Helsinki)

 

Friday June 12

Modes of Intentionality and the Kantian Background

9:00–10:45    Intentionality and Significance

George Heffernan (Merrimack College): Thinking of Jupiter: An Essay on the Phenomenological Concept of Intentionality in Husserl's Fifth Logical Investigation 

Dermot Moran (University College Dublin): Human Beings as Sense-Givers and Apprehenders in a Significant World

Chair: Sara Heinämaa

10:45–12:00 Corijn Van Mazijk (University of Groningen): Between Perception and Judgment: Husserl’s Type and Kant’s Schema

Commentator: Carlos Lobo (College International de Philosophie)

Chair: Simo Pulkkinen

12:00–13:15 Lunch

13:15–14:30 Andrea Cimino (Boston College): Reality Beyond Illusion: A Phenomenological Account of  Veridical and Deceptive Perceptions

Commentator: Fredrik Westerlund (University of Helsinki)

Chair: Simo Pulkkinen

14:30–15:00 Coffee

15:00–16:15 John Drummond (Fordham University): Husserl, Buck-Passing, and Fitting-Attitude Theories of Value

Commentator:  Molly Flynn (Assumption College)

Chair: Mirja Hartimo

16:15–17:00 Business Meeting

17:30–20:00  Buffet at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (sponsored by the SHC and the University of Jyväskylä)

 

 

Organization committee: Mirja Hartimo, Sara Heinämaa, Joona Taipale, Simo Oinas, and Tuukka Brunila

"The Good, the One, and the Many"

 

1st Conference of the Nordic Network for the History of Philosophy,

University of Jyväskylä, 5-7 June 2015

 

The conference pertains to the relationship between the common good and the private good; to metaphysical unity and plurality; and to the metaphysical underpinnings that affect the discussions concerning the good of an individual and the good of social, political, or religious communities.

The program can be found here: https://nhpnordic.wordpress.com/events/conferences-and-workshops/

 

Organizers: Nordic Network for the History of Philosophy; On the Conceptual History of the Good (NOS-HS); Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy (University of Jyväskylä); and Centre of Excellence in Reason and Religious Recognition (Academy of Finland).

Organizing Committee: Juhana Toivanen, Miira Tuominen, Mikko Yrjönsuuri.

For more information, please contact juhana.toivanen[at]jyu.fi

Time: 3-4 June 2015

Venue: Tieteiden talo (House of Science and Letters), Kirkkokatu 6, Helsinki

 

Speakers:

Rachel Condry

Sari Kivistö

Avishai Margalit

Martha Nussbaum

Sami Pihlström

Risto Saarinen

Naoko Saito

Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir

 

The symposium is free for all but pre-registration is required. Please register online at  https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/61118/lomake.html by May 28.

 

Further information including symposium programme is available at: http://www.helsinki.fi/collegium/events/reconciliation/index.html

Ryle: Intelligence, Practice, Skill
Ņbo Akademi University, June 8-9, 2015

This workshop is dedicated to themes in Ryle's philosophy with particular focus on re-evaluating his potential in the debate about whether there is a fundamental distinction between practical knowledge (knowing-how) and propositional knowledge (knowing-that).

Speakers
Michael Kremer (University of Chicago)
Valérie Aucouturier (Université Paris Descartes)
Martin Gustafsson and Stina Bäckström (Ņbo Akademi University)
Rowland Stout (University College, Dublin)
Roger Teichmann (St Hilda's College, Oxford)
Will Small (University of Illinois, Chicago)
Julia Tanney (University of Kent)

All interested are welcome! If you wish to attend, please send an e-mail to Stina Bäckström, stina.m.backstrom(a)gmail.com.

This workshop is organized within the project "€œThe Philosophical Import of Ordinary Language"€, funded by the Academy of Finland.

Möten med filosofi och konst i vardagen

 

Är filosofi och konst någonting invecklat och världsfrånvänt? Är det enbart en fråga för professionella filosofer och konstnärer? Men tänk om det istället är så att bägge har en avgörande roll i den enskildes liv och kulturen som helhet, och att båda är oumbärliga för vår förståelse av oss själva och världen.

Kom och diskutera filosofins och konstens plats i vardagen vid Café Ritz i Vasa 27.5! Vi får höra två anföranden om varför och hur sådant som kallas filosofi och konst gör en skillnad i våra liv - därefter följer öppen diskussion med publiken om de frågor som väckts.

 

Alla välkomna & inträdet fritt!

 

Program

kl. 18 Filosof och konstnär Göran Torrkulla - "Att få syn på vardagen. Konsten och filosofin som former av förståelse"

kl. 19.20 -19.30 Kaffepaus

Kl. 19.30 - 21.00 Filosof Joel Backström - "Moraliska värderingar som ideologisk teater"

 

Plats: Café Ritz, Kyrkoesplanaden 22 A, Vasa

Tid: Onsdagen 27.5 kl. 18 - 21.

 

Göran Torrkulla är bosatt i Åbo. Han är verksam som bildkonstnär i Åbo och som filosof vid Åbo Akademi. Torrkulla är aktuell med boken Stiglöshet: 3 essäer om uppmärksamhetens former (Lejd 2014) av Kate Larson, Göran Torrkulla och Babis Carabeidis . Läs en intervju med Torrkulla i anslutning till temat 'vardagen' här.

 

Joel Backström är bosatt i Helsingfors. Han är verksam som forskare vid Helsingfors universitet. Backström disputerade i filosofi vid Åbo Akademi 2007 med avhandlingen The Fear of Openness. An Essay on Friendship and the Root of Morality. Backström är även timlärare i utbildningsprogrammet för skådespelarkonst (Teaterhögskolan). Han är aktiv skribent i bland annat Ny Tid och fungerar som side-kick i Radio Vegas program Eftersnack.

 

Arrangör:

Folkets Bildningsförbund r.f.

Hagsgatan 12

20540 Åbo

www.fbf.fi

tel +358505147297

e-mail fbf (@) kaapeli.fi

Möten med filosofi och konst i vardagen

Är filosofi och konst någonting invecklat och världsfrånvänt? Är det enbart en fråga för professionella filosofer och konstnärer? Men tänk om det istället är så att bägge har en avgörande roll i den enskildes liv och kulturen som helhet, och att båda är oumbärliga för vår förståelse av oss själva och världen.

Kom och diskutera filosofins och konstens plats i vardagen vid Café Ritz i Vasa 27.5! Vi får höra två anföranden om varför och hur sådant som kallas filosofi och konst gör en skillnad i våra liv - därefter följer öppen diskussion med publiken om de frågor som väckts.

Alla välkomna & inträdet fritt!

Program

kl. 18 Filosof och konstnär Göran Torrkulla - "Att få syn på vardagen. Konsten och filosofin som former av förståelse"

kl. 19.20 -19.30 Kaffepaus

Kl. 19.30 - 21.00 Filosof Joel Backström - "Moraliska värderingar som ideologisk teater"

Plats: Café Ritz, Kyrkoesplanaden 22 A, Vasa
Tid: Onsdagen 27.5 kl. 18 - 21.

Göran Torrkulla är bosatt i Åbo. Han är verksam som bildkonstnär i Åbo och som filosof vid Åbo Akademi. Torrkulla är aktuell med boken Stiglöshet: 3 essäer om uppmärksamhetens former (Lejd 2014) av Kate Larson, Göran Torrkulla och Babis Carabeidis . Läs en intervju med Torrkulla i anslutning till temat 'vardagen' här.

Joel Backström är bosatt i Helsingfors. Han är verksam som forskare vid Helsingfors universitet. Backström disputerade i filosofi vid Åbo Akademi 2007 med avhandlingen The Fear of Openness. An Essay on Friendship and the Root of Morality. Backström är även timlärare i utbildningsprogrammet för skådespelarkonst (Teaterhögskolan). Han är aktiv skribent i bland annat Ny Tid och fungerar som side-kick i Radio Vegas program Eftersnack.

Arrangör:
Folkets Bildningsförbund r.f.
Hagsgatan 12
20540 Åbo
www.fbf.fi
tel +358505147297
e-mail fbf (@) kaapeli.fi

26.4 Filosoficafé i Åbo - Fem myter om ekonomi

Inledare: Nationalekonom Christer Lindholm, Åbo
Tema: Fem myter om ekonomi
Tid: Söndag 26.4. kl. 17-19
Plats: Historiesalen, Restaurang Skolan, Eriksgatan 18, Åbo.

Inträdet är fritt och alla är välkomna!

Synopsis

Under de senaste 30-35 åren har det demokratiska inflytandet över den ekonomiska politiken försvagats kraftigt, både i Finland och i andra demokratier. Även om den här avdemokratiseringen till en del kan försvaras med ekonomiska argument är den huvudsakligen en direkt följd av medvetna ideologiska val som i den offentliga debatten kamouflerats till ekonomiska fakta. I sitt föredrag "Fem myter om ekonomi", som baserar sig på e-boken med samma namn, granskar Christer Lindholm fem ekonomiska "sanningar" som i själva verket är ideologiska ställningstaganden, och som på ett avgörande sätt bidragit till den ekonomiska demokratins reträtt och marknadsfundamentalismens frammarsch.
Evenemanget på Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/359700677557573/

Arrangör:
--
Folkets Bildningsförbund r.f.
Hagsgatan 12
FIN-20540 Åbo
tel 050 5147297
e-post fbf (@) kaapeli.fi
www.fbf.fi

"Human nature concepts and explaining human behavior"

 

DISCUSSED BY:

Alexander Bird (University of Bristol)

Stephen Downes (University of Utah)

Moderated by Academy professor Uskali Mäki

 

TIME AND PLACE:

Monday 13 April, 16:15-18:00

Metsätalo / Forestry Building, Unioninkatu 40, room 6, 3rd floor

http://www.helsinki.fi/teknos/opetustilat/keskusta/u40/ls6.htm

 

AID is the forum for interdisciplinary conversation coordinated by the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences, University of Helsinki. For the very idea and the programme, see www.helsinki.fi/tint/aid.htm [1]. For further information, please contact Pekka Mäkelä, pekka.a.makela at helsinki.fi.

 

The event on the University of Helsinki's intranet Flamma:

https://hy.etapahtuma.fi/Default.aspx?tabid=419&id=13277 [2]

 

DESCRIPTION OF TOPIC:

Philosophers of biology and evolutionary biologists have expressed skepticism about human nature concepts. David Hull summarized some of these concerns and elaborated on them in his 1986 paper “On Human Nature”. Hull argues here that human nature is an essentialist notion and has no explanatory use. Human nature is still appealed to by anthropologists and psychologists and several philosophers have recently re-examined the notions of human nature appealed to in these fields. Philosophers such as Edouard Machery and Richard Samuels defend the notions of human nature that they find appealed to by social scientists. Both philosophers maintain that the notions of human nature that they delineate avoid the charge of essentialism presented by Hull and others. Some, such as Timothy Lewens and Grant Ramsey, still maintain that these recently delineated notions of human nature are flawed. They point out that these new human nature concepts do not do well in the face of human variation. Ramsey, along with Paul Griffiths and Elizabeth Cashdan, proposes a concept of human nature that is supposed to encompass human variation. Ramsey proposes and defends a highly encompassing notion of human nature, which is that human nature consists of all the possible life histories of all humans. There is still room for much discussion on the viability of human nature concepts. In this session we will introduce some of the challenges the various human nature concepts confront and guide discussion on these topics.

 

QUESTIONS:

 

1. Are there defensible human nature concepts? / Is there a defensible human nature concept?

2. Are human nature concepts explanatorily useful?

3. Do human nature concepts adequately confront human variation?

4. Can any human nature concepts help explain human variation?

 

READINGS:

 

Bird, A. and E. Tobin "Natural Kinds" Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy

<http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/natural-kinds/>

Bird, A. "Human Kinds, Interactive Kinds, and Realism about Kinds."

(Unpublished.)

<http://hdl.handle.net/1983/dfbbf9af-6058-428a-91e1-ae00f9048d6e>

Cashdan, E. (2013). "What is a human universal?" Human behavioral ecology and human nature. Arguing About Human Nature. S. M. Downes and E. Machery. New York, Routledge: 71-80.

Griffiths, P. E. (2011). "Our Plastic Nature." Transformations of Lamarckism: From subtle fluids to Molecular Biology. S. B. Gissis and E. Jablonka. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press: 319-330.

Henrich, J., S. Heine, et al. (2010). "The weirdest people in the world."

Behavioral and Brain Sciences 33: 61-83.

Hull, D. L. (1986). "On Human Nature." PSA:Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association 2: 3-13.

Kronfeldner, M., N. Roughley and G. Toepfer (2014). "Recent work on human nature: Beyond traditional essences." Philosophy Compass 9: 642-652.

Machery, E. (2008). "A Plea for Human Nature." Philosophical Psychology 21: 321-329.

Ramsey, G. (2013). "Human nature in a post-essentialist world." Philosophy of Science 80: 983-993.

Samuels, R. (2012). "Science and Human Nature." Royal Institute of

Philosophy Supplement 70: 1-28.

Call for papers:

IDEALIZED DEATHS – an international multidisciplinary symposium

 

University of Jyväskylä, 11th – 12th February 2016

 

Why are some deaths more admirable than others? Are some causes of death more likely to create a beautiful memory? Do people need the idea of a beautiful death even in the 21st century? What is the meaning of martyrdom in our time? Is the death of a pop star always idealized?

 

Death studies have a long tradition of mapping various cultures of death and also tracing the changes modernization has caused in our understanding of good death. The idea that death has somehow “disappeared” from Western cultures has been dismissed as outdated: death is everywhere, deaths sells newspapers and internet sites, even if people still have problems talking about it in their own lives. Throughout history deaths have been interesting and important: the way people have died may have been decisive for their fate in the afterlife, not to mention their posthumous reputation. Some causes of death may be considered more beautiful than others; some give the dying person more time to prepare for their death. Tragic deaths touch people’s hearts and may raise the popularity of an artist to new heights.

 

In this symposium we intend to bring together scholars from various academic disciplines to discuss the topic of idealized death. What makes a death exemplary? Does a certain kind of death add to the legend of an already legendary person? Is dying young always beautiful and idealized? Are all good and beautiful deaths somehow sacrificial? Have some people tried to become immortal, one way or another, by seeking special kind of death?

 

Possible topics and ideas for abstracts:

Martyrs and martyrdom in religions

Death in war

Sacrificial ideals and death

Political deaths and martyrs

Causes of death: tuberculosis, cancer, AIDS

Suicide and past memorialization

Rock’n’roll lifestyle and death

Fandom and memorialization

 

Keynote speakers will be Dr Paul Middleton, University of Chester, UK and prof. Marja-Liisa Honkasalo, University of Turku, Finland.

 

The symposium is organized by the Finnish Death Studies Association and the Department of History and Ethnology in association with the Nordic Network of Thanatology.

 

The symposium fee is 100 euros, covering conference materials and all meals mentioned in the programme (forthcoming). We wish to receive abstracts no more than 300 words by the 15 August to the address ilona.pajari(at)jyu.fi. All inquiries concerning the symposium should also be sent to this address.

The second Georg Henrik von Wright Lecture: Professor Jaakko Hintikka on “The Logical Problems of Induction”, May 20th 2015, Helsinki

Venue: University of Helsinki, Main building/Small Hall (Pieni juhlasali\Lilla festsalen),

Fabianinkatu 33, 4th floor, May 20th 2015, 16-18 (4-6 pm). 

 

“I have often thought that to have reared one such pupil is reward enough for a whole career as an academic teacher”. (G.H. von Wright about Jaakko Hintikka).

 

Professor Jaakko Hintikka

Jaakko Hintikka has been professor of philosophy at Boston University and the University of Helsinki. He was a student of  G.H. von Wright in the late 1940s and the early 1950s. Hintikka has done pioneering work in mathematical logic, philosophical logic, the philosophy of mathematics, epistemology, the philosophy of language, the philosophy of science and the history of philosophy, and published over 30 books. He is also known as the inventor of possible-worlds semantics and independence friendly (IF) logic. Besides G.H. von Wright Jaakko Hintikka is the only Nordic philosopher who has been honoured with a volume in the Library of Living Philosophers series.

In his lecture Professor Hintikka revisites the subject of G.H. von Wright’s dissertation from 1941 by discussing what he sees as the true logical problem of induction,  to understand the nature of the orderliness of the world that is required by inductive reasoning – an enterprise to which significant contributions have been made by Finnish thinkers, including G.H. von Wright, his students and their students.

 

The Georg Henrik von Wright Lecture

The Georg Henrik von Wright Lecture is funded by a donation to the University of Helsinki made by the von Wright family 2013. It is intended as a recurring event with the purpose of promoting research and debate relating to the philosophical work of the Finnish philosopher Georg Henrik von Wright (1916–2003).

Additional information is provided by Bernt Österman, curator of the von Wright and Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Helsinki (WWA).

Bernt.Osterman at helsinki.fi

Lisa Adkins, Professor Newcastle University Australia / FiDiPro professor, University of Tampere & University of Turku

 

Time: 24.3.2015 14-16

Place: University of Helsinki, Topelia building, lecture hall D112

Street address: Unioninkatu 38

Title of presentation: What Can Money Do? Feminist Theory in Austere Times

 

What can money do? Can it be put to work to address deepening forms of social and economic inequality associated with the financial crisis, recession and still unfolding politics of austerity? Can we have faith in money as an injustice remedying substance in a crisis ridden and yet still thoroughly financialized reality? While the latter scenario is implied in recent feminist calls to redistribute resources to redress widening socio-economic inequalities under austerity, in this talk I suggest that such a redistributive logic fails to account for the shifting capacities of resources, including the capacities of money. To track these shifting capacities, I revisit the demands of the 1970s women’s liberation movement and especially the assumptions at play in these demands that money both measure and distribute justice. While these assumptions were arguably politically efficacious in that moment, in the contemporary present pervasive financialization has involved a material transformation to the capacities of money, a transformation which, I will suggest, leaves its justice distributing potential in doubt. This talk therefore not only calls for careful exploration of the capacities of resources in analyses of crisis, recession and austerity but also for feminist theory to rethink redistributive justice in the light of such transformations. Central to these considerations is money in the wages form.

More information and upcoming lectures:

http://www.helsinki.fi/genderstudies/christinaresearchseminar.html

Guest lecture by Robert Leventhal

 

Welcome to the guest lecture by Associate Professor Robert Leventhal (The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, USA)

 

“Making the Case: Psychological Case Histories and German Literature, 1750-1830” on Friday 27 March 2015 at 12-14, Jäntere seminar room (E121), Minerva, 1st floor, Kaivokatu 12, Turku.

 

The lecture is organised by The Romantic Era Research Group (RERG) http://www.utu.fi/en/units/hum/units/culturalhistory/research/Pages/rerg.aspx and the Department of Cultural History.

 

Robert Leventhal received his Ph.D. in German Literature and Thought from Stanford University. He has taught at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Virginia prior to William and Mary. His research is currently focused on the emergence of the psychological case history at the crossroads between literature and medicine 1750-1830, on which he is completing a book Making the Case: Psychological Case Histories and the Emergence of Modern German Literature. His other project concerns the Spinoza-Renaissance in Germany, 1750-1800, in which he is focused on Herder's early Spinoza reception and studies 1768-1778, a transcription of the "Blue Notebooks," and Herder's Gott, einige Gespraeche (1787). He has written on G.E. Lessing, J.G. Herder, F. Schlegel, Kant,  Karl Philipp Moritz, Marcus Herz, Kafka, Thomas Bernhard, Wim Wenders, Jewish Identity and Community in Munich, and, most recently, the birth of Kriegsarzneywissenschaft (War Medicine) in Germany, 1700-1763 in Stefanie Stockhorst, ed., Krieg und Frieden (Wehrhahn, 2014). Forthcoming articles include "The Jew as Respondent, Confidant, and Proxy: Marcus Herz and Immanuel Kant, 1770-1797" in a volume entitled On the Word of a Jew: Oaths, Testimonies, and the Nature of Trust (Oxford: The Littman Library,  2016)  and "Friedrich Schlegel's Lessing and the Enlightenment," in Johannes Endres, ed., Friedrich-Schlegel-Handbuch (Stuttgart: Metzler, 2015).

HELSINKI SEMINAR FOR GOVERNANCE AND INSTITUTIONS

Dr. Oliver Belcher (University of Oulu)

"Objective Violence: War and the World Viewed"

 

On Wednesday, 25 March 2015, 15:00-16:30

Metsätalo (Unioninkatu 40), Sali 13

The discussant is Dr. Sergei Prozorov (Department of Political and Economic Studies).

Abstract:

This paper examines how U.S. military visual epistemologies shifted when computational maps were introduced in the Vietnam War. Computational mapping enabled not only a movement away from traditional forms of manual cartography, but marked the emergence of novel forms of interpretation into the U.S. military due to the "higher resolution" images, namely a reifying discourse of "precision," as well as ontological claims that Vietnamese and military social space was "networked." I look closely at the U.S. military's Hamlet Evaluation System (HES), an ambitious automated data collection system launched in January 1967 that was used to geographically survey, catalogue, calculate, and measure population patterns and trends in the villages and hamlets of South Vietnam. During its time (1967-1975), the HES was the largest geographical information systems (GIS) database ever compiled. My focus in the presentation is on the techno-material practices that made the HES and its attendant ways of seeing possible, specifically the rise of new post-war disciplines of the body that became integral for automation machine use (e.g., anthropometrics, ergonomics, and human factors research). Following the work of philosopher Theodore Schatzki, the operating principle in the paper is that techno-material practices are the site where understanding is structured and intelligibility articulated. Thus, the paper concludes with the claim that it is impossible to understand late-modern modes of violence and biopolitics without accounting for the paradigmatic shifts inaugurated by mid-century computation, as well as its accompanying machine-body arrangements.

Oliver Belcher (PhD, University of British Columbia, 2013) is a postdoctoral researcher at the RELATE Center of Excellence, Department of Geography, University of Oulu. His research examines the interrelationships between late-modern war, experience, aesthetics, and technology. He has written widely on the U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam, as well as contemporary conflicts in the Middle East. He is currently writing a book manuscript titled “Contortions: Designing the Military Body for Machine Use, 1945-1971”.

For further information on this seminar series, please refer to the seminar website: http://blogs.helsinki.fi/governanceandinstitutions/

 

If you would like to be added to the seminar mailing list, please contact the seminar coordinator: Caroline Werner, caroline.werner at helsinki.fi

Erasmus-opettaja Dan O'Brien (Oxford Brookes) pitää torstaina esitelmän filosofian tutkijaseminaarissa klo 14 (Pinni B4141), Tampereen yliopiston Pinni B-rakennus. Danin otsikko on "Hume on Education". Abstrakti on seuraava:

Hume claims early in the Treatise that “education . . . [is] disclaim’d by philosophy, as a fallacious ground of assent to any opinion” (THN 1.3.10.1) and that it is “never…recognized by philosophers” (1.3.9.19). These, on the face of it, are odd claims. Surely education is a good way of acquiring beliefs. This paper offers an interpretation of these intriguing claims. Two key questions concern what exactly Hume is referring to when he talks of “education”, and of “philosophy” and “philosophers”.

Esitelmän jälkeen on normaalisti vastaanotto kahvihuoneessa.

Tervetuloa! Tilaisuus on avoin kaikille kiinnostuneille!

Väitös: Jussi A. Saarinen, "A Conceptual Analysis of the Oceanic Feeling - With a Special Note on Painterly Aesthetics", 7.3. Jyväskylä

 

Lauantaina 7. maaliskuuta 2015 kello 12 esitetään Jyväskylän yliopistossa julkisesti tarkastettavaksi PsM Jussi A. Saarisen filosofian väitöskirja "A Conceptual Analysis of the Oceanic Feeling - With a Special Note on Painterly Aesthetics" (Valtamerellisen tunnetilan käsite ja sen soveltaminen estetiikassa). Virallisena vastaväittäjänä toimii FT, dosentti Joona Taipale (University of Copenhagen) ja kustoksena professori Jussi Kotkavirta (Jyväskylän yliopisto).

Lisätietoja osoitteesta:

https://www.jyu.fi/ajankohtaista/arkisto/2015/02/tiedote-2015-02-25-08-20-05-770421

HELSINKI SEMINAR FOR GOVERNANCE AND INSTITUTIONS

 

You are cordially invited to attend our next seminar session with Prof. John Meyer (Stanford University) "Global Diffusion"

 

On Tuesday, 3 March 2015, 14:15-15:45 (refreshments from 14:00)

University main building (Unioninkatu 34), Auditorium XIV

The discussant is Prof. Henri Vogt (University of Turku).

 

Abstract:

Changes in world culture create contextual conditions increasing cross-national diffusion and structuring its character. Scientization disciplines the natural and social environments. Human empowerment and rights norms create a population of actors with much (standardized) agency. And an expanded (and standardized) educational system now at the center of social stratification everywhere links empowered humans with a common action frame. As a consequence, collective mobilizations of attitudes, opinions, and actions occur on an increasingly global scale. Institutionalized, this turns into a global expansion of formal organization in both domestic and international society. Both conflict and cooperation can readily shift to a global scale.

John W. Meyer is Professor of Sociology (and, by courtesy, Education), emeritus, at Stanford. He has contributed to organizational theory, comparative education, and the sociology of education, developing sociological institutional theory. Since the 1970s, he has studied the impact of global society on national states and societies. More recently, he completed a collaborative study of worldwide science and its national effects and a project on the impact of globalization on organizational structures. He now studies the world human rights regime, world curricula in mass and higher education, and the worldwide expansion of formal organization.

Please see the seminar website for the full biography of Prof. Meyer: http://blogs.helsinki.fi/governanceandinstitutions/schedule/

 

As refreshment will be served, we kindly ask you to confirm your participation by sending an email to the seminar coordinator: Caroline Werner, caroline.werner at helsinki.

Väitös: Beyond Germany Fragmented. The Idea of the Golden Age in Friedrich Schlegel’s Early Romantic Philosophy of History

Turku, Kaivokatu 12

28.3.2015 klo 12:00

Lauantaina 28. maaliskuuta 2015 kello 12 esitetään Turun yliopistossa julkisesti tarkastettavaksi FM Asko Nivalan väitöskirja ”Beyond Germany Fragmented. The Idea of the Golden Age in Friedrich Schlegel’s Early Romantic Philosophy of History” (Hajanaisen Saksan tuolla puolla. Kulta-ajan idea Friedrich Schlegelin varhaisromanttisessa  historianfilosofiassa).Virallisena vastaväittäjänä toimii Associate Professor Robert S. Leventhal The College of William & Mary -yliopistosta Virginiasta Yhdysvalloista ja kustoksena professori Hannu Salmi Turun yliopistosta.