Throughout the history of philosophy as an academic discipline\, \;scholars have tended to focus almost exclusively on the content or \;meaning of philosophical works\, with very little attention to the form \;or style that philosophers have adopted to articulate their ideas. \;Although the major philosophical traditions of the world \;(Euro-American\, Indian\, Chinese\, Islamic&hellip\;) all include a variety of \;styles that have changed according to different historical periods and \;cultural contexts\, there has been relatively little attention to \;analyzing these different literary forms: Why do philosophers use the \;styles that they do? In what ways do philosophers employ the styles \;they use as a way of conveying their message? What is the relationship \;between form and content in philosophy?
In our small-scale two-day workshop\, we will explore these questions \;with a particular focus on the use of dialogue in philosophical works. \;A number of the world&rsquo\;s major philosophical texts &ndash\; including the \;works of Plato\, the Upanishads\, Boetheus&rsquo\;s The Consolations of \;Philosophy\, the Buddhist Nikayas\, the Zhuangzi\, David Hume&rsquo\;s Dialogues \;Concerning Natural Religion\, George Berkeley&rsquo\;s Three Dialogues Between \;Hylas &\; Philonous\, and the Mumonkan &ndash\; have been composed in the form \;of a dialogue. But only recently have scholars begun to investigate \;how the dialogue form is used in these texts\, and what implications \;the dialogue form has for the interpretation of these works.
Contact: Sam Clark\, \;sam.clark@lancs.ac.uk.
ORGANIZER;CN=Sam Clark: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR