The Fact-Value Distinction: Contemporary and Classical Perspectives

The Fact/Value Distinction: Contemporary and Classical Perspectives

16-17 January 2015, University of Kent, Canterbury Campus

Organisers: Lubomira Radoilska and Kelli Rudolph

Overview: The distinction between facts and values has animated significant debates about the nature and scope of inquiry in contemporary analytic philosophy and more widely in the social, natural, and medical sciences. In particular, the fact-value distinction clarifies the ultimate ambitions of a theory by asking whether it is an explanatory or a normative project. At the same time, however, we must also address the extent to which explanatory and normative objectives should be conceived as mutually exclusive, as the initial question implies or, alternatively, as intimately and helpfully intertwined. Classical approaches to the scope and nature of inquiry, although closely related to the concerns addressed in contemporary philosophy, conceive the relationship between facts and values in a distinctive way, thus, providing a fresh perspective on contemporary debates. By employing complementary systematic and historical approaches to this central yet elusive issue, the conference offers a new framework for constructive dialogue and fruitful exploration of the fact-value distinction across disciplinary boundaries, bringing together experts from philosophy of mind, ethics, metaphysics, aesthetics, legal and political philosophy, and the history of philosophy. In so doing, the event will aim to stimulate critical discussion of and further inquiry into philosophical methodology and, in particular, the possible interactions between explanatory and normative aspects of theoretical reasoning.    

The conference has received generous support from the Aristotelian Society, the Kent Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (KIASH) and the Centre for Reasoning at the University of Kent.

Conference programme:

16 January 2015, Eliot College, Lecture Theatre 2 (ELT2), University of Kent at Canterbury

8.45 – 9.15 Registration and Refreshments

9.15 – 9.30 Welcome: Lubomira Radoilska and Kelli Rudolph (Kent University)

9.30 – 11.00 Session 1: Fact/Value – a Confused and Confusing Distinction

Speaker: Jane Heal (Cambridge University)

Respondent: Carolyn Price (Open University)

11.00 – 11.30 – Coffee break

11.30 – 13.00 Session 2: Thick Concepts, Evaluation and the Fact/Value Dichotomy

Speaker: Simon Kirchin (Kent University)

Respondent: Veli Mitova (Vienna University)

13.00 – 14.30 Lunch

14.30 – 16.00 Session 3: How Did Plato and Aristotle Confront the Threat that Moral Values are Merely Conventional?

Speaker: Lesley Brown (Oxford University)

Respondent: Frisbee Sheffield (Cambridge University)

16.00 – 16.30 Coffee break

16.30 – 18.00 Session 4: Aristotle and Contemporary Metaethics: the Connection between Theories of Motivation and Realist Construals of Value

Speaker: Giles Pearson (Bristol University)

Respondent: Fiona Leigh (UCL)

18.00 – Conference Reception

19.30 – Conference Dinner

17 January 2015, Eliot College, Lecture Theatre 2 (ELT2), University of Kent at Canterbury

9.30 – 11.00 Session 5: Do We Encounter Value?

Speaker: Derek Matravers (Open University)

Respondent: Murray Smith (Kent University)

11.30   – 13.00 Session 6: Value-Independence versus Value-Neutrality in Political Philosophy

Speaker: Matthew Kramer (Cambridge University)

Respondent: Lubomira Radoilska (Kent University)

13.00 – 14.30 Lunch

14.30 – 16.00 Session 7: Aristotle on the Good for Humans as Animals

Speaker: Sophia Connell (Cambridge University)

Respondent: David Corfield (Kent University)

16.00 – 16.30 Coffee break

16.30 – 18.00 Session 8: Defending Plato’s Defence of Socratic Inquiry

Speaker: David Lee (Oxford University)

Respondent: Kelli Rudolph (Kent University)

18.00 – 18.15 Concluding Remarks: Lubomira Radoilska and Kelli Rudolph (Kent University)

Conference website and registration: http://ow.ly/Cr2Ak

Contact: Lubomira Radoilska, [email protected]

Maps and directions: http://www.kent.ac.uk/maps/canterbury/

Accommodation in Canterbury: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotels-g186311-Canterbury_Kent_England-Hotels.html

B&Bs and Hotels close to the Kent University Campus include: Magnolia House, York Lodge, The City of Canterbury B&B and The Falstaff Hotel.