USC/UCLA Grad. Conference

The graduate students of the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles, invite graduate students to submit papers in all areas of contemporary philosophy to be considered for presentation at the fifth annual USC/UCLA graduate student conference.

Keynote Speaker: Prof. Pamela Hieronymi

Submission Guidelines:

The deadline for submitting papers is November 1, 2009. Papers should be suitable for a 25-30 minute presentation (less than 4,500 words). Submissions should be suitable for blind review and include a cover letter and one-paragraph abstract. Please email papers as .doc or .pdf attachments to: uclausc.conference@gmail.com

For more information, please contact Alida Liberman at aliberma@usc.edu.

Notice of acceptance will be sent by December 20, 2009.

If electronic submission is impossible,please mail submissions to:

USC Mudd Hall of Philosophy
c/o A. Liberman
3709 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles, CA 90089

http://uscucla.conference.googlepages.com/2010callforpapers

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The Place of Psyche (Villanova University)

"The Place of Psyche: Politics, Art, Nature"
April 23-24, 2010
Philosophy Graduate Student Union at Villanova University

Every spring we host a conference here in Philadelphia. This will be
our 15th annual conference. In previous years, we have drawn
participants internationally (including individuals from Wales and
Australia and a delegation of students and faculty from Canada last
year); recent keynote speakers have included Bernard Stiegler, David
Wood, Alphonso Lingis, and Jay Bernstein.

Keynote Speaker:
Jonathan Lear
Department of Philosophy, University of Chicago

The Greek concept of “psyche,” often translated as “soul,” “mind,”
“ego,” or “unconscious,” has played a central role in philosophical
interrogations of the self, nature, community, and creation. We
invite submissions that, from either a contemporary or a traditional
perspective, address the following metaphilosophical question: What
can the concept of “psyche” do for us today, as we think about
politics, art, and nature?

Professor Lear works primarily on philosophical conceptions of the
human psyche from Socrates to the present with an emphasis on health,
happiness, and therapeutic action. He is also a trained psychoanalyst
and his two most recent books are Freud (2005) and Radical Hope:
Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation (2006).

Submission Guidelines:
We encourage submissions from faculty and graduate students of
abstracts (300-500 words) and/or papers (3,000 to 5,000 words).
Please format these for blind review—personal information, such as
name, institutional affiliation, and contact information, should be
either in the body of your email or on a page separate from the rest
of your paper, and not in the paper itself.

Please email your submissions (and any questions you may have) to
vuphilconf@gmail.com by February 1, 2009.
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Society for Applied Philosophy Annual Conf. (2010)

SOCIETY FOR APPLIED PHILOSOPHY
Annual Conference 2010
St Anne's College, Oxford, 2-4 July

CALL for PAPERS
The Society for Applied Philosophy (UK) was founded in 1982 with the aim of promoting philosophical study and research that has a direct bearing on areas of practical concern. It arose from an increasing awareness that many topics of public debate are capable of being illuminated by the critical, analytic approach characteristic of philosophy, and by direct consideration of questions of value. These topics come from a number of different areas of social life - law, politics, economics, science, technology, medicine and education are among the most obvious. The purpose of the SAP is to foster and promote philosophical work that is intended to make a constructive contribution to problems in these areas. It does so through events, conferences, and lecture programmes.

Open themed event

The Annual Conference 2010 will be an open themed applied philosophy conference (papers will be considered from the full range of topics in applied philosophy). Plenary speakers include Professor Thomas Pogge (Yale), Professor Judith Lichtenberg (Georgetown), Professor Catherine Lu (McGill), and Professor Ingmar Persson (Gothenburg).

The conference will also host a sub-theme on the methods of applied philosophy.

Sub-theme

Applied philosophy is now (roughly) 35 years old and it is appropriate to consider questions such as:

• What is applied philosophy and how might it differ from other areas of philosophy?
• What, if anything, might be distinctive about this area of inquiry?
• Is it possible to discern distinctive forms of reasoning that are characteristic of applied philosophy?
• Has applied philosophy made any real difference?
  

This sub-theme will address these questions by considering the methods and modes of argument used in applied philosophy. Relevant questions include:

• Are there modes of argument specific to applied philosophy?
• Does the practical importance of the issues that applied philosophers address make any difference to the forms of argument used? Should it do so?
• Are there any grounds for thinking that the ‘applied turn’ was a mistake?
• What influence has applied philosophy had on the development of philosophy?
• How should empirical data be incorporated into the theoretical work of applied philosophers?
• What role should appeal to general abstract principles perform in applied philosophy?
• Should imaginary cases have a part to play in applied philosophy?
• Does recent work in experimental philosophy have any implications for applied philosophy?
• Is applied philosophy an historically distinct form of inquiry?
  

The sub-theme will include papers that explore questions such as these about the methods used by applied philosophers and the place of applied philosophy within philosophy as a whole.

The plenary speakers for the conference sub-theme will be Professor Hans-Johann Glock (University of Zurich) and Professor Shaun Nichols (University of Arizona).

The sub-theme will be partnered with a Special Issue of the Journal of Applied Philosophy. Presenters to the conference sub-theme will be invited to submit their papers to the journal for consideration in the special issue.

SUBMIT your ABSTRACT submit abstract online at:

http://www.appliedphil.org/AnnualConference2010.shtml#subab

by the deadline, Friday 9 January 2010

POSTGRADUATE essay PRIZE

A prize will be awarded to the best postgraduate essay submission (awarded in advance of the conference on the basis of the full version of the paper after acceptance of the abstract). The winning student will receive free registration and accommodation at the conference as well as reimbursement for any travel expenses incurred within the United Kingdom. When you submit your abstract, please indicate whether you would like to be considered for this prize by checking the appropriate circle on the form.

KEYNOTE speakers

Thomas Pogge
(Yale)

Judith Lichtenberg
(Georgetown)

Catherine Lu
(McGill)

Ingmar Persson
(Gothenburg)


Methods of Applied Philosophy (sub-theme)

Hans-Johann Glock
(Reading)

Shaun Nichols
(Arizona)

CONFERENCE website

http://www.appliedphil.org/AnnualConference2010.shtml

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Society for Applied Philosophy
admin@appliedphil.org
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Social/Political Philosophy Conference in Illinois

Attention all faculty, gradaute students, and undergraduates ...

We are encouraging the submission of abstracts/papers on ALL topics in social/political philosophy for a conference being held in celebration of the 150 year anniversary of the publication of John Stuart Mill's 'On Liberty.' The conference will be held on *April 24th, 2010* at Eastern Illinois University. The keynote address will be given by Jo Ellen Jacobs (Millikin University) and is titled "Who Really Wrote John Stuart Mill's 'On Liberty'?"

The conference papers will be organized into two categories. Category I for undergraduate papers and Category II for faculty and graduate student papers. An award and a $250 cash prize will be awarded to the best paper in each category as judged by a blind review committee.

Please email your abstracts/papers in electronic format to Jason Waller at jwaller@eiu.edu. Please mention in your email if you are submitting the paper for Category I or Category II. Abstracts are due no later than January 15th, 2010 and those whose papers have been accepted will be notified by email no later than February, 15th 2010.

If you have any questions, please email Jason Waller at jwaller@eiu.edu.
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Brain-Body-Environment Fellowships at IU

The Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University invites
applications from outstanding students for its NSF-funded graduate
training program in the dynamics of brain-body-environment systems
in behavior and cognition. Students trained in philosophy are
within the target population for this program.

The goal of the program is to train graduate students to think
across traditional levels of analysis in the cognitive, behavioral
and brain sciences. In order to accomplish this goal, we have
developed new courses in situated, embodied and dynamical cognitive
science, a professional development seminar, summer research
internships, an annual research showcase and a colloquium series
offering extended opportunities for trainees to interact with
visiting speakers.

Benefits for students entering this program include a $30,000 annual
stipend, full tuition, and coverage of additional fees and health
insurance.

Our interdisciplinary training group includes cognitive science
faculty from the Departments of Psychological and Brain Sciences,
Physics, and History & Philosophy of Science, as well as from the
School of Informatics and Computing. In addition, we have strong
partnerships with top researchers in the fields of dynamical,
embodied and situated approaches to behavior and cognition, both
nationally and internationally.

Applications are due January 15, 2009. For more information, contact Dr.
Randall Beer at rdbeer@indiana.edu or visit
http://igert.cogs.indiana.edu

Our program promotes and values a diverse scientific community.

CrossCurrents Graduate Philosophy Conf. (2010)

2010 CrossCurrents Graduate Philosophy Conference
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

March 18th - 19, 2010

Submission Deadline: January 5, 2010

The Uehiro CrossCurrents Philosophy Conference is dedicated to showcasing exceptional work by graduate and advanced undergraduate students in comparative philosophy broadly construed (not limited to East-West comparisons).

We welcome the submission of papers of high quality in any area of philosophy. Papers of a comparative nature are of particular interest, however often comparative panels include papers addressing a common issue from the perspective of individual traditions.

Submissions guidelines:

Email papers to psa@hawaii.edu

In the body of the email include:
* Author name
* Title of the paper
* Institutional Affiliation
* Contact information (email, phone number, mailing address)

Send papers as an attachment in word format with no identifying information. Papers should be suitable for a 20 minute presentation. The reading of papers is discouraged. Audio/visual equipment is available.

Notification of acceptance will be sent no later than January 18, 2010.

Conference website: http://www.hawaii.edu/phil/
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The Philosophy of JJ Abrams

The Philosophy of J. J. Abrams
Edited by Patricia Brace and Robert Arp

University Press of Kentucky’s The Philosophy of Popular Culture
Series: http://www.kentuckypress.com/newsite/pages/series/series_philosophy.html

Abrams’ filmography from the Internet Movie Database can be found here:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0009190/

Please send these two things to Patricia Brace at: pat.brace@smsu.edu,
by January 1, 2010:

(1) A short, no more than 100 word abstract of a chapter you would
like to write for the book. In the abstract, you could simply say
something like, “In this paper I will argue X. First, I will do A…
Then, I will do B… Finally, I will do C…”

(2) A short CV that has your contact info (email, phone), affiliation, and a few publications, if you have any.

Again, send these two things to Patricia Brace at: pat.brace@smsu.edu, by January
1, 2010

Here are possible topics, but any related topic will be considered:

LOGIC
• The Logic Daniel Faraday Utilizes to understand the Island
• Fallacious Reasoning Utilized by Abrams’ Characters
• Feminist Logic Utilized by Abrams’ Characters

METAPHYSICS
• Eastern Philosophical Themes in Abrams’ Work
• The Place of God in Abrams’ Work
• Lost, Inadvertent Actions, and Fate/Determinism
• Lost and Time Travel
• Alias, Personal Identity, and Identity over Time
• Benjamin on Lost and the Distinction between Psychopathology and a
Healthy Personality
• Fringe and the Definition of Conscious States
• Felicity and Philosophies of Love and Friendship
• Catharsis in the Human Psyche and Abrams’ Characters
• Cloverfield, First-Person Perspectives, and the Nature of Consciousness
• Cloverfield and the Conditions and Criteria for Living Things

EPISTEMOLOGY
• Lost and the Nature of Deception
• The Belief Systems of Paranoid People
• There are Two Spocks: Perceiver and Perception in Abrams’ Works
• Conflicting Testimony and Justification for Claims in Abrams’ Works
• Sydney Bristow, Alias, Sense, and Reference
• Locke’s Empiricism and the Island as Tabula Rasa on Lost

ETHICS
• Sayid and the Ethics of Torture on Lost
• Felicity, Virtue Ethics, and Parental Role Models
• Sawyer, Juliet, Kate and Jack: Free Love, and the Ethics of Sex on Lost
• Fringe and “If Science Can Do It, Then Science Ought To Do It”
• Jacob and the Idea that Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
• Why Daniel Faraday had to Die: Utilitarian Reasons for Maintaining
the Fabric of Time
• Utilitarian vs. Deontological Approaches in Abrams’ Work

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
• Film as an Essential Medium for Public Discussion
• Sydney Bristow and the Public’s Obsession with Superheroes
• Massive Dynamics and the Nature of Law on Fringe
• The Nature of Justice in Abram’s Star Trek
• Different Types of Freedom Espoused by Abrams’ Characters
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