Flickers of Freedom

NOWAR 2 Program

The program for the second New Orleans Workshop in Agency and Responsibility is now available here.  Registration is free; e-mail dshoemakATtulaneDOTedu to do so.

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.

Reminder: Society for Philosophy of Agency 2013 Pacific APA Group Meeting

For those of you who will be at the Pacific Division Meeting of the APA next week, don't forget to attend the SPA group session. The session is on themes from Donald Davidson's "Actions, Reasons, and Causes" (the fiftieth anniversary of this essay's publication is this year).

If you are thinking "I work on free will, why should I care about issues from a paper that was primarily focused on presenting and defending a causal theory of reason-explanations of action?," then you should probably read section 1.2 of this. In any case, information about the session is below. I hope to see many of you there. It should be a great session. (Incidentally, the smoker with free beer is after this session.)

2013 Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association Meeting, March 27-31, Westin St. Francis, San Francisco, CA.

Group Session: 

Topic: Davidsonian Causalism: Themes from Davidson's "Actions, Reasons, and Causes"

Thursday, March 28, 2013, 6:00-9:00 PM

Chair: Michael Brent (Carthage College)

Speaker: Sarah Paul (University of Wisconsin, Madison)

"The Force of the 'Because'"

Commentator: George Wilson (University of Southern California)

Speakers: Scott Sehon (Bowdoin College) & Guido Löhrer (University of Erfurt)

"Davidson's Challenge to the Non-causalist"

Commentator: Alfred Mele (Florida State University)

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.

More Agency at the Pacific APA, March 27-30

For those attending the Pacific APA, there are loads of sessions on agency apart from the one mentioned by Joe that should be of interest to readers of this blog. Also, apart from the main program, the Experimental Philosophy Society group session (Wednesday, 6:00-9:00) includes papers on agency and there will be a Society for Philosophy of Agency group session on Thursday evening (details on the latter will be posted soon) 

For now, Roman Altshuler was kind enough to compile a list of sessions in the main program that deal with agency broadly (and not just the free will debate) or include papers on agency. I have pasted the list below. (Apologies to anyone whose session was overlooked.)

The fun commences with the session on free will Joe mentioned and ends with a session on "Agency and Pathologies of the Self" featuring Al Mele, Walter Sinnot-Armstrong, Jesse Summers, and David Shoemaker.

 

Free Will at the 2013 Pacific APA

If you haven't made your travel plans yet, try to get to the Pacific APA early this year because there is a terrific session on free will with papers by me, Chris Franklin, and Alex Grzankowski and commentaries by Michael Robinson, Rebekah Rice, and Mark Balaguer. BUT it starts 9am on Wednesday, March 27.

Final CfA: NOWAR 2 (Due March 1, 2013)

This is the final call for abstracts for the second biennial New Orleans Workshop on Agency and Responsibility (NOWAR), to be held in New Orleans, LA at the Intercontinental Hotel on November 7-9, 2013.  Abstracts are welcome on any topic having to do with agency and/or responsibility.  Perspectives beyond just those from moral philosophy (e.g., psychology, legal theory, neuroscience, economics, metaphysics, and more) are welcome.  (To see more about the workshop’s general aims and other details, follow this link.)  More info below the fold.

Rationality + Consciousness = Free Will

Rationality + Consciousness = Free Will: Legal and Philosophical Reflections

4 May 2013

Registrations open shortly

David Hodgson's final book, Rationality + Consciousness = Free Will (Oxford University Press 2012), published in the year of his death, focuses on two of his most significant philosophical interests, consciousness and free will, but it also considers the significance of these topics for the law. On Saturday 4 May 2013, a conference will be held at Sydney Law School at the University of Sydney, which sadly must mark his passing, but on a more positive note will critically analyse legal and philosophical themes in the book.

Often the topics of consciousness and free will have been treated in separate literatures and one of the interesting features of this book (and this conference) is the bringing together of these two areas of philosophy. However, the book and David Hodgson's work more generally is unusual in that it benefits from his work as a philosopher and his career as a legal scholar, legal practitioner and ultimately a Judge of Appeal of the New South Wales Supreme Court.

The conference will be of interest not just to philosophers and legal scholars, but to solicitors, barristers and judges, as the sections of book that consider the implications of Hodgson's view for law will be a significant part of the conference. Other presentations will focus on the themes of consciousness and free will.

Workshop on FW and MR at Arizona

Michael McKenna has put together an outstanding lineup of folks working on agency and responsibility for an upcoming workshop at Arizona.  Here are the details:

Workshop on Free Will & Moral Responsibility

Department of Philosophy and Center for the Philosophy of Freedom

University of Arizona

Social Sciences Building, Room 224

February 15-16, 2013

Friday, February 15

3:00 - 5:00          

Dana Kay Nelkin, University of California, San Diego

"Psychopaths, Incorrigible Racists, and Kinds of Responsibility"

Chair:  Chad van Schoelandt

Saturday, February 16

9:30 – 11:30        

Derk Pereboom, Cornell University

"Free Will Skepticism, Blame, and Obligation"

Chair:  Yael Lowenstein

11:30 – 1:00        Lunch

1:00 – 3:00            

Gunnar Bjornsson, Umea University, University of Gothenburg

“Ignorance, responsibility, and the attraction of conscious control”

Chair: Hannah Tierney

3:15 – 5:15            

Manuel Vargas, University of San Francisco                        

“Negligence, Reasons, Responsibility”

Chair: Brandon Warmke

For questions, contact the conference organizer, Michael McKenna, at msmckenna63@gmail.com.

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.