Flickers of Freedom

CFP: Free Will, Moral Responsibility, and Agency Conference

The Philosophy Graduate Student Association (PGSA) of Florida State University is now accepting submissions for their graduate conference on free will, moral responsibility, and agency.

The conference will take place at Florida State University on October 11 and 12, 2013. Keynote speakers will be:

• John Martin Fischer, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Riverside
• Randolph Clarke, Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University

Those interested in submitting high quality papers related to free will, moral responsibility, or the wider notion of agency should email their submissions to fsupgsa@gmail.com. Papers addressing the relationship between scientific developments and free will are also welcome. Papers should fulfill the following criteria:

• Prepared for blind review
• No more than 4,000 words
• Suitable for 25-minute presentation
• Preceded by an abstract of 150-250 words

Along with the paper, please also submit a cover page with the following information:

• Presenter’s name
• Institutional affiliation
• Contact information (email address or phone number)
• Title of paper
• Abstract of the paper
• Word count

The deadline for submissions is August 15. We will notify those whose papers have been accepted by September 13.

For questions or further information, please contact Kyle Fritz (kgf10@fsu.edu), Dan Miller (djm09@fsu.edu), or Robyn Waller (rar09h@fsu.edu).  

LAST CALL: APRIL 15 deadline for submissions to FW Conference* in SF

Final call for abstracts 

Reference, Conceptual Change, and Free Will

August 9-11, 2013

University of San Francisco

Organizer: Manuel Vargas

•

Keynote Speaker:

Shaun Nichols (Arizona) "Free Will and Error"

•

Deadline for abstracts: April 15, 2013.

Decisions announced by May 15, 2013. 

   

The aim of this conference* is to assemble a small group of philosophers to discuss in-progress work on issues connected to reference and/or conceptual change as it pertains to free will and moral responsibility. (A 'conference*' is something very much like a conference, but not necessarily corresponding to all the significant or even the essential features of widespread conceptions of a conference.) The aspiration is to have a small, workshopy event.

    Potential topics could include, for example: whether one's theory of reference makes a difference to how one thinks about free will and moral responsibility; whether the meaning of free will or responsibility has changed; what constraints determine whether we should accept an error theory of free will; whether cross-cultural or other empirical data suggest that free will or moral responsibility are conceptually fragmented or significantly variegated across societies and times; whether philosophical on free will and moral responsibility should largely preserve folk notions and/or the extent to which they can depart from such notions; how we might settle disputes about what is conceptually essential or not for free will, and so on.

    Anticipated length of papers should be either 20 minutes or 45 minutes. Proposals from early career faculty are especially encouraged. However, philosophers of all career stages, including (advanced) graduate students and not-early-career professors are encouraged to submit an abstract or otherwise participate. 

    Abstracts should be sent to <mrvargas@usfca.edu> with the subject line indicating "USF FW Event" and either "20 minute" or "45 minute" (as applicable). Abstracts should be roughly 200-500 words.

    Seating will be limited, so if you are interested in attending but not presenting, please contact the organizer in advance.

Libertarian Free Will: Problems and Prospects

Call for Abstracts

Libertarian Free Will: Problems and Prospects

Second Annual Tennessee Value and Agency (TVA) Conference

November 15-17, 2013 // The University of Tennessee – Knoxville

Keynote Speakers: Robert Kane (University Distinguished Teaching Professor, University of Texas) and Michael McKenna (Keith Lehrer Chair of Philosophy, University of Arizona)

Abstracts (of 2-3 double-spaced pages prepared for blind review) due by June 15, 2013 by e-mail to EJ Coffman (ecoffma1@utk.edu)

If libertarianism about freedom and moral responsibility is true, then people sometimes act freely and accountably without being causally determined to do so.  Frequently maligned within the history of philosophy, this view has gained increasingly sympathetic attention among philosophers.  But many stark questions remain, including:

- How plausible is this view? 

- If our actions are not causally determined, how can we have control over them? 

- Why should we want our actions to be breaks in the deterministic causal chain?

Abstracts that engage these and similar issues relevant to the assessment of libertarian approaches to freedom and responsibility will be considered for the 2013 TVA Conference.  Sessions will be approximately one hour long, with 30-35 minutes for the presentation and 20-25 minutes for group discussion.

The TVA conference (http://web.utk.edu/~acureto1/tva/) is an annual event aimed at encouraging philosophical conversation about topics pursued by established research clusters at the University of Tennessee Department of Philosophy. 

The website for the 2013 TVA conference can be found here. 

REMINDER: CFA for Conference* in SF on things Free Will-ish

Call for abstracts 

Reference, Conceptual Change, and Free Will

August 9-11, 2013

University of San Francisco

Organizer: Manuel Vargas

•

Keynote Speaker:

Shaun Nichols (Arizona) "Free Will and Error"

•

Deadline for abstracts: April 15, 2013.

Decisions announced by May 15, 2013. 

   

The aim of this conference* is to assemble a small group of philosophers to discuss in-progress work on issues connected to reference and/or conceptual change as it pertains to free will and moral responsibility. (A 'conference*' is something very much like a conference, but not necessarily corresponding to all the significant or even the essential features of widespread conceptions of a conference.) The aspiration is to have a small, workshopy event.

    Potential topics could include, for example: whether one's theory of reference makes a difference to how one thinks about free will and moral responsibility; whether the meaning of free will or responsibility has changed; what constraints determine whether we should accept an error theory of free will; whether cross-cultural or other empirical data suggest that free will or moral responsibility are conceptually fragmented or significantly variegated across societies and times; whether philosophical on free will and moral responsibility should largely preserve folk notions and/or the extent to which they can depart from such notions; how we might settle disputes about what is conceptually essential or not for free will, and so on.

    Anticipated length of papers should be either 20 minutes or 45 minutes. Proposals from early career faculty are especially encouraged. However, philosophers of all career stages, including (advanced) graduate students and not-early-career professors are encouraged to participate. 

    Abstracts should be sent to <mrvargas@usfca.edu> with the subject line indicating "USF FW Event" and either "20 minute" or "45 minute" (as applicable). Abstracts should be roughly 200-500 words.

    Seating will be limited, so if you are interested in attending but not presenting, please contact the organizer in advance.

CFP: Special Issue of Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the publication of P. F. Strawson’s essay, "Freedom and Resentment" (Proceedings of the British Academy, 1962), the philosophy department at The College of William & Mary hosted a two-day conference last fall. Papers from that conference will make up the bulk of a special issue of Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility to be published next year, with contributions from Lucy Allais, John Martin Fischer, Bennett Helm, Margaret Holmgren, Michelle Mason, Victoria McGeer, Galen Strawson, R. Jay Wallace, and Gary Watson.

However, the editors of this supplemental volume, Neal Tognazzini and David Shoemaker, are looking for one more excellent essay to round out the volume, and are thus issuing this general call for papers.

CFA: USF Free Will Event 2013

Call for abstracts 

Reference, Conceptual Change, and Free Will

August 9-11, 2012

University of San Francisco

Organizer: Manuel Vargas

•

Keynote Speaker:

Shaun Nichols (Arizona) "Free Will and Error"

•

Deadline for abstracts: April 15, 2013.

Decisions announced by May 15, 2013. 

    The aim of this conference* is to assemble a small group of philosophers to discuss in-progress work on issues connected to reference and/or conceptual change as it pertains to free will and moral responsibility. (A 'conference*' is something very much like a conference, but not necessarily corresponding to all the significant or even the essential features of widespread conceptions of a conference.) The aspiration is to have a small, workshopy event.

    Potential topics could include, for example: whether one's theory of reference makes a difference to how one thinks about free will and moral responsibility; whether the meaning of free will or responsibility has changed; what constraints determine whether we should accept an error theory of free will; whether cross-cultural or empirical data suggest that free will or moral responsibility are conceptually fragmented or significantly variegated across societies and times; whether philosophical on free will and moral responsibility should largely preserve folk notions and/or the extent to which they can depart from such notions; how we might settle disputes about what is conceptually essential or not for free will, and so on.

    Anticipated length of papers should be either 20 minutes or 45 minutes. Proposals from early career faculty are especially encouraged. However, program slots are open to philosophers of all career stages, including (advanced) graduate students and not-early-career professors. 

    Abstracts should be sent to <mrvargas@usfca.edu> with the subject line indicating "USF FW Event" and either "20 minute" or "45 minute" (as applicable). 

    Seating will be limited, so if you are interested in attending but not presenting, please contact the organizer in advance.

CFP: Graduate Conference on Free Will

* EXTENDED DEADLINE: JULY 15, 2012*

The Philosophy Graduate Student Association (PGSA) of Florida State University is now accepting submissions for their graduate conference on free will, moral responsibility, and agency.

The conference will take place at Florida State University on September 28 and 29, 2012. Keynote speakers will be:

• Robert H. Kane, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin

• Alfred R. Mele, William H. and Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University

Those interested in submitting high quality papers related to free will, moral responsibility, or the wider notion of agency should email their submissions to fsupgsa@gmail.com. Papers addressing the relationship between scientific developments (especially in psychology, neuroscience, or physics) and free will are also welcome. Papers should fulfill the following criteria:

• Prepared for blind review

• No more than 4,000 words

• Suitable for 25-minute presentation

• Preceded by an abstract of 150-250 words

Along with the paper, please also submit a cover page with the following information:

• Presenter’s name

• Institutional affiliation

• Contact information (email address or phone number)

• Title of paper

• Abstract of the paper

• Word count

The deadline for submissions is July 15. We will notify those whose papers have been accepted by August 12.  

For questions or further information, please contact Kyle Fritz (kgf10@fsu.edu), Dan Miller (djm09@fsu.edu), or Robyn Waller (rar09h@fsu.edu). 

 

Intellectual Humility: A Call for Proposals

Thanks to Ian Church for sending along the following Call for Proposals:

IH: Overview

This program will provide up to $4.0 million in research support for empirical work on the virtue Intellectual Humility. “How little we know, how eager to learn” is the slogan of the intellectually humble. Unfortunately, the vice of intellectual pride is commonly displayed by both the ignorant (who know little and don’t care that they don’t) and the knowledgeable (who know enough to presume to know it all). In areas where public discourse is shot through with intellectual pride at so many different levels, the topic of intellectual humility is of crucial practical importance.Although humility has received significant attention, its distinctively intellectual side needs much further exploration. Intellectual humility concerns how we come to hold and retain our beliefs. It is constituted by a state of openness to new ideas, receptivity to new sources of evidence and the implications of that evidence, and willingness to revise even deeply held beliefs in the face of compelling reasons.

This project thus seeks to:

1. Support research on some under-explored areas in the psychology and evolution of intellectual humility/arrogance;
2. Foster critical engagement between those who work in the cognitive and evolutionary sides of this topic;
3. Digest the results of work in the field in order to advance its philosophical and theological significance;
4. Assess the relevance of the results to determine the impediments to intellectual humility, and to identify concrete strategies for overcoming these native tendencies.

Investigators (individual or teams) from the psychological sciences and other relevant empirical sciences are invited to request from $50,000 up to $270,000 for a research project of up to two years in length. We anticipate making 16 awards. Award semi-finalists will be invited to participate in a “virtual” workshop in November 2012. Award winners will be invited to two conferences, one mid-project conference in May 2014 in Princeton, NJ, and one capstone conference in May 2015 in Los Angeles, CA. Inquiries should be directed to Rebecca Sok, at intellectualhumility@fuller.edu.

The complete call for proposals can be found here.  Note, the deadline for the 1,000 word LOI is July 1s5, 2012.!

Grad Student Conference on Free Will and Responsibility at FSU

The Philosophy Graduate Student Association (PGSA) of Florida State University is now accepting submissions for their graduate conference on free will and moral responsibility.

The conference will take place at Florida State University on September 28 and 29, 2012. Keynote speakers will be:

• Robert H. Kane, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin
• Alfred R. Mele, William H. and Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University

Those interested in submitting high quality papers related to free will and moral responsibility (including papers on the wider notion of agency) should email their submissions to fsupgsa@gmail.com. Papers should fulfill the following criteria:

• Prepared for blind review
• No more than 4,000 words
• Suitable for 25-minute presentation
• Preceded by an abstract of 150-250 words

Along with the paper, please also submit a cover page with the following information:

• Presenter’s name
• Institutional affiliation
• Contact information (email address or phone number)
• Title of paper
• Abstract of the paper
• Word count

The deadline for submissions is July 1. We will notify those whose papers have been accepted by August 12.

For questions or further information, please contact Kyle Fritz (kgf10@fsu.edu), Dan Miller (djm09@fsu.edu), or Robyn Waller (rar09h@fsu.edu).  

 

Intentions: Philosophical and Empirical Issues

Call for papers: Topoi conference and special issue 
Intentions: Philosophical and Empirical Issues 
Rome, Italy, 29-30 November 2012

We are proud to announce that the first Topoi Conference will be held in Rome in November 2012. This will be the first in a series of conferences, to be held every 2 years, sponsored by Topoi: An International Journal of Philosophy (http://www.springer.com/philosophy/journal/11245).

In analogy with the journal format, each conference will focus on a specific theme (topos), and contributions presented to the conference will later appear in an issue of the journal dedicated to the same topic.

INVITED SPEAKERS 
Marcel Brass (Ghent) 
Cristiano Castelfranchi (Rome) 
Elisabeth Pacherie (Paris) 
Corrado Sinigaglia (Milan)

SUBMITTED PAPERS 
Submissions of unpublished papers are welcome on any topic relevant to the conference theme (see below). Submitted articles should be in English, not exceed 5.000 words in length (including references), and be prepared for blind reviewing. Only original papers (i.e., not published or submitted for publication elsewhere) will be considered, since the authors of accepted contributions will be invited to submit a revised longer version of their papers for a special issue of Topoi, edited by Markus Schlosser (Leiden) and Fabio Paglieri (Rome).

Submission of papers by e-mail to: Fabio Paglieri (fabio.paglieri@istc.cnr.it) 
Accepted file formats: .doc, .rtf., .odp, .pdf 
Deadline for submission (full papers): 31 August 2012

RATIONALE AND THEME 
Theorizing about human action has a long history in philosophy, and the nature of intention and intentional action has received a lot of attention in recent analytic philosophy. At the same time, intentional action has become an empirically studied phenomenon in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and robotics. Many results obtained in these areas have been incorporated within the current philosophical debate, while at the same time scientists have often adopted in their experiments and models philosophical assumptions on the nature of intention and intentional action. As a result, the study of intentions is nowadays a thriving enterprise, where both conceptual and empirical issues are discussed in a dialogue across disciplines.