Social Categories: Aesthetics and Metaphysics. British Society of Aesthetics Connections Conference

This conference aims to bring into dialogue philosophers working on the metaphysics of social categories and philosophers working on or with such categories within aesthetics. By “social categories”, we mean sortal kinds, such as races, genders, disabilities, and socio-economic classes, which organise groups of people. Social metaphysicians aim to work out what social categories are made of, how they are made, how membership is determined, and how their deleterious effects may be ameliorated. Aestheticians have also recently been thinking about the ways in which things they are interested in relate to, and perhaps even are constituted by, social practices; and, somewhat separately, about social categories and their aesthetic relevance.

This suggests significant confluence between recent work in social metaphysics and aesthetics when it comes to thinking about social categories. The thought to be explored at this conference is that the metaphysics of social categories may be a topic for aesthetics. The practices in which such categories are grounded may be aesthetic in nature; the contents of the categories, their membership conditions, and their effects, may all be substantively aesthetic; and the ways in which categories are constructed may be influenced by aesthetic considerations.

The conference will explore these possibilities, and in so doing deepen our understanding both of the nature and significance of social categories, and of the nature and significance of the aesthetic aspects of their metaphysics. We hope that the conference will establish new, collaborative research agendas for further investigation of these topics and their interactions.

Confirmed speakers are Alice Harberd, Daniel James, Katharine Jenkins, Robbie Kubala, Nils-Hennes Stear, Naomi Thompson, and Rosa Vince.

The conference is organised by Jade Fletcher and Nick Wiltsher, and is generously funded by a Connections grant from the British Society of Aesthetics.

The conference will adhere to BPA and SWIP conference guidelines.

There are three places on the programme for submitted papers. Please see the separate Call For Papers (link up at the top there).