4th Colloquium on the Modalities of the Good

Institute of Philosophy, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic &

Department of Philosophy, University of Pardubice

are pleased to announce

4th Colloquium on the Modalities of the Good

23rd – 25th July 2014

Prague, Czech Republic

The fourth Colloquium on the Modalities of the Good continues the effort began in 2009: to create space for conversation between thinkers of broadly speaking Platonic tradition in ethics, and to open it to the philosophical public. The tradition, with its commitment to absolute value and to the irreducibility of the central ethical concepts, is marked also by the belief that their recognition involves a complex cooperation between thought and emotions such as love, joy or remorse. Internal to these concerns, and thus to the tradition itself, is the problem of how to approach them: of the relation between the what and the how in philosophical, particularly ethical, thinking. Reflection about the give-and-take between the substance and the method goes back to Socrates’ and Plato’s exploration of the philosophical dialogue. It characterises not only thinkers who acknowledge their kinship to Plato, such as Kierkegaard or Simone Weil, but also some who do not, such as Wittgenstein. Contemporary ‘Platonic’ tradition, associated in English-speaking philosophy with the names of Roy Holland, Iris Murdoch, Peter Winch, Rai Gaita or Cora Diamond, is marked by this dual concern, and the Colloquium thematises to an equal extent the problem(s) of ethics, of thinking about ethics and of ethical thinking. For those same reasons, the Colloquium is emphatically a col-loquium: not a forum for presenting ‘finished’ results, but a conversation about issues of shared interest, offered for discussion by the speakers.

Speakers and respondents:

Marina Barabas (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic): Possibilities of the Will

Anne-Marie Christensen (University of Southern Denmark): Ethics, Self-reflection and Moral Context

Christopher Cordner (University of Melbourne): Talbot Brewer and the Meaning of Tenderness

Christopher Cowley (University College Dublin):Thank Goodness I Failed

Nora Hämäläinen (University of Helsinki): The Roots of Morality in ‘Ordinary Life’

David Levy (University of Edinburgh): Inner Good and External Good

Kamila Pacovská (University of Pardubice): Dmitrij Karamazov Is Not a Murderer. The Significance of Action

David Robjant: Iris Murdoch, Kafka, and ‘Messing About’

Samantha Vice (Rhodes University): Pessimism and the Force of Ideals

Organisers: Marina Barabas, Kamila Pacovská

Venue: Academic Conference Centre, Husova 4A, Praha 1.

Web: http://filosofie.upce.cz/en/191-colloquium-on-the-modalities-of-the-good/

For registration please e-mail Kamila Pacovská ([email protected]) as soon as possible since capacities are limited. Final date of registration is 7th July 2014.

Attendance is free of charge.

Colloquium language: English