Philosophy calls for papers / meetings & conferences

Call for Abstracts: Science in Culture Project: Neuroscience and the Law – Free Will, Responsibility and Punishment

Workshop 18-19th June, 2012

Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London

This workshop aims to bring together early-career researchers in law, philosophy, neuroscience, and psychology to explore in what way, if any, recent findings in neuroscience (broadly construed) can inform debates on the source of voluntary action and the related notions of moral and criminal responsibility.

Issues that might be addressed are: Should we hold criminals diagnosed with psychopathy less accountable for their crimes given that studies show that psychopaths have reduced moral judgment and/or empathy? Does evidence from neuroscience and behavioral genetics have any implications for the scope of circumstances that are understood as “mitigating”? Does such evidence have any bearing on whether the purpose of punishment for criminal acts should be conceived as a matter of retribution or rehabilitation? Do the “timing experiments” by Benjamin Libet and others fundamentally undermine the voluntary control condition that many compatibilists claim is a condition for moral accountability? If so, does it in turn also undermine the condition for criminal responsibility?

Abstract submission: We invite PhD students and early-career researchers from philosophy, law, neuroscience and psychology to submit abstracts for presentation. We welcome any submission that addresses responsibility in the three-way intersection between law, neuroscience, and philosophy. All extended abstract submissions should be no more than 1000 words and in PDF-format. They should also be properly prepared for blind refereeing. The abstract should state the primary discipline of your paper (e.g. philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, or law) and be sent to Marion Godman, marion.godman@sas.ac.uk by May 28th (***Note approaching deadline ***).

Successful applicants will be sent an invitation to attend by May 31st. We will pay speakers’ travel (within the UK) and accommodation costs. Anyone who applies but is not selected to present will be welcome to attend the event free of charge, but we cannot subsidize travel and accommodation.

Organization committee: Marion Godman (Institute of Philosophy) and Helen Beebee (University of Birmingham and Institute of Philosophy London)

Call for Papers: 19th-20th C. Austrian Thought and its Legacy

Department of Philosophy and Humanities, University of Texas at Arlington
November 1-3, 2012

We invite contributions for a conference on Austrian Thought at the turn of the 20th Century. Philosophers of this period of the Austro-Hungarian Empire—led by Franz Brentano—advanced myriad areas of philosophy and innovative psychological research (e.g., Gestalt theory, the Graz School of experimental psychology). Additionally, economists—led by Carl Menger—set forth the theory of subjective value, which prepared the ground for a new conceptual framework for economics. Together, Austrian philosophers and economists collaborated on applications of the notion of intentionality, value theoretical investigations, and the description of social and psychological phenomena.

We seek innovative contributions that draw from or deepen our understanding of the legacy of Austrian philosophy, Austrian economics, or Austrian psychology and, preferably, show the interdisciplinary links that connect the different subject matters that belong to the Brentanian and Mengerian traditions. For the purposes of this conference, we are demarcating the Brentanian tradition as that which starts with Brentano and culminates in the work of the students of his students, such as Stein, Reinach, Ingarden, Witasek, Leśniewski, Łukasiewicz. Similarly, for the purposes of this conference we are demarcating the Mengerian tradition as that which starts with Menger and culminates in the contributions of the last generation of economists of this School who are Austrian nationals. Suggested categories for papers are:

The Austrian tradition of psychology and philosophy of mind (e.g., Brentano, intentionality, idea, feeling, and desire, Gestalt, experimental psychology, apriorism, inner consciousness, Hayek’s theory of memory and the emergence of mind) and their influence in later developments in philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience

Social objects (e.g., law, music, literary works of art, fiction, value, Reinach, Meinong, Menger, Hayek)

Stein and her description of empathy, and corroborating findings in science, including research in neuroethics and neurophenomenology

Phenomenology (e.g., Husserl, mereology, intersubjectivity, constitution, the Göttingen Circle)

Aesthetics (e.g., Musil, Kafka, Ingarden)

Polish philosophy and the Lvov-Warsaw School (e.g., Twardowski and his students, semantics and truth)

The social ontology of the Austrian School of economics (e.g., Menger, Hayek, apriorism, spontaneous orders)

Relations between the Brentano School (or the Austrian School of economics) and the Vienna Circle

Relations between the Brentano School (or the Austrian School of economics) and Wittgenstein

Relations between the Brentano School (or the Austrian School of economics) and Freud

Deadline for Submissions: July 2, 2012

Abstracts may not be longer than 500 words and prepared for blind reviewing by a selection committee. Enclose a separate file indicating name, affiliation, and title of abstract. These files should be Word documents only. Please send submissions to Gloria Zúñiga y Postigo (gloria.zunigaypostigo@uta.edu).