The literary critic Raymond Williams said of nature that it was &ldquo\;perhaps the \;most complex word in the language.&rdquo\; Certainly it has figured ambiguously in the philosophical tradition: sometimes identified with everything\, sometimes \;nothing. In Enlightenment\, as 'natural philosophy' was gradually transformed \;into or replaced by mathematical natural science\, nature became \;disenchanted\, controlled\, ravaged by a humanity who could no longer quite \;understand how they had a place in it. This itself has had a vast impact on \;the philosophical tradition: from the early German Romantics to Adorno &\; \;Horkheimer and\, more recently\, John McDowell.
Can we appeal to nature to defeat skepticism? What is nature\, is it a useful \;category? Is there room for any notion of the 'supernatural' (as in: \;something beyond nature) in philosophy? How should we respond to the ways in \;which nature has been controlled in Enlightenment? Is humanity meaningfully \;a part of nature? Is all history also natural-history\, or is nature \;something that we should attempt to supersede? These are just some of the \;questions that confront us when we attempt to engage with the idea of nature \;philosophically.
In this conference\, we seek to explore these sorts of questions relating to
the philosophy of nature understood in the broadest possible sense. We
invite abstracts of around 500 words for presentations of 20 minutes on any
topic related to nature.
Submissions from graduate students working within all traditions of
philosophy are encouraged. Possible questions and topics include\, but are in
no means limited to:
Please send all submissions to \;pygradc@essex.ac.uk \;by 1st February 2013. \;Successful applicants will be notified shortly afterwards.
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