Humane Philosophy and Human Nature Workshop

Mgr Samuel Hughes (Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford), Line Ryberg-Ingerslev (Aarhus University), Anthony Steinbock (Southern Illinois University), Kenneth Stikkers (Southern Illinois University), Mr. Ralph Weir (Oxford University, Cambridge University), Ralph Weir

The Humane Philosophy Project will hold a three day workshop following the Humane Philosophy and Human Nature conference. The workshop will begin on Monday the 28th of September and finish on Wednesday the 30th of September. Sessions will begin at 10:30 am and finish at 3.45 pm including two coffee breaks. All sessions will take place at the Institute of Philosophy at Warsaw University (Krakowskie Przedmiescie 3) in room 108. Participation is free of charge, however registration is required in order to secure a place.

To register please visit www.humanephilosophy.pl

The aim of the workshop is to allow participants to discuss selected conference themes in a more intimate seminar format. Sessions will be convened by invited keynote speakers from the conference and Humane Philosophy Project organisers. Topics covered will include: personal identity; intersubjectivity (its ontical and ethical dimensions); the relationship between economic growth and human growth; and the ethical and cognitive aspects of human emotions.

Sessions will be conducted by Prof. Anthony Steinbock, Prof. Kenneth Stikkers, Dr Line Ryberg-Ingerslev, Ralph Weir, and Samuel Hughes 

Session schedule and session themes:

1.    Monday 28.09 – 10:30 – 12:00

Being with others: answerability and responsiveness, part I, lecturer: Line Ryberg-Ingerslev (Aarhus University)

The workshop will be devoted to the detailed and critical analysis of the concept of Mitsein derived from Heidegger’s philosophy and revisited in the perspective of the work by S. Crowell and S. Darwall. Being with others commits us to dialogical accountability in such a way that we must answer for our doings and can be held responsible for our actions. It means that prior to our orientation towards norms and our capacity for empathy, the responsiveness of being with others tells us something about how we exist as human beings. The proposed reading of responsive Mitsein, will partially rely on Nancy, Waldenfels and Levinas.

Suggested Reading:

Crowell, S. (2013) Being answerable: reason-giving and the ontological meaning of discourse, in: Normativity and Phenomenology in Husserl and Heidegger, Cambridge University Press

Darwall, S. (2011) Being With, in “The Southern Journal of Philosophy”, vol 49, pp. 4-24

Heidegger, M. (1927) Sein und Zeit, §§ 56-8, Niemeyer Verlag

2.    Monday 28.09 – 12:30 – 15:45 (including 15 minute break)

Naturalism and the Self: The Metaphysics of Human Persons, lecturers: Ralph Stefan Weir, Samuel Hughes (University of Oxford)

This class will discuss what considerations legitimately bear on the metaphysics of human persons. In particular, it will focus on whether our metaphysical views in this area are subject to considerations beyond those standardly adduced in the recent literature. Discussion topics will include Daniel Dennett’s claim that dualists are motivated by a desire ‘to keep science at bay’, and Joshua Greene’s claim that neuroscientists are motivated by a wish to witness ‘the demise of the soul’. The class will discuss whether putative ulterior motives for metaphysical positions concerning human persons are illegitimate, or whether they are of genuine philosophical interest. Attention will be paid to ethical arguments for naturalist and non-naturalist perspectives on human persons adduced by Joshua Greene and Thomas Nagel respectively.

The class will take the form of a presentation followed by discussion. Quotations from relevant works will be provided and no prior reading is required. Interested participants may wish to look at Joshua Greene, ‘Social Neuroscience and the Soul's Last Stand’ in A. Todorov, S. Fiske, and D. Prentice, Eds. Social Neuroscience: Toward Understanding the Underpinnings of the Social Mind, Oxford University Press.

3.    Tuesday 29.09 – 10:30 – 12:00

Being with others: answerability and responsiveness, part II lecturer: Line Ryberg-Ingerslev (Aarhus University)

4.    Tuesday 29.09 – 12:30 – 15:45 (including 15 minute break)

Growth and Well-Being, Economic and Human, lecturer: Kenneth W. Stikkers (Southern Illinois University Carbondale)

What is the relationship between economic growth and well-being, on the one hand, and human growth and well-being, on the other? Orthodox economic thinking has assumed the two to be the same, but the work of economists such as Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz has made clear that the two are not necessarily related. The workshop will explore how orthodox economics arrived at its assumption and why the relationship between economic wealth and human well-being needs to be rethought.

5.    Wednesday 30.09 – 10:30 – 13:45 (including 15 minute break)

The distinctive structure of moral emotions, lecturer: Anthony Steinbock (Southern Illinois University Carbondale)

The aim of the workshop will be to re-examine the immanent to the moral emotions kind of cognition and evidence, which help to clarify the meaning of personhood as well as to reveal novel concepts of freedom, critique and normativity. The subject of the workshop will be also how and in what ways moral emotions engage into our contemporary social imaginaries.

Suggested Reading:

Steinbock, A. (2014), Introduction: The Distinctiveness of Moral Emotions, in: Moral Emotions. Reclaiming the Evidence of the Heart, Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Illinois,

6.    Wednesday 30.09 – 14:15 – 15:45

Summary session, Panel discussion lead by Miko?aj S?awkowski-Rode (University of Warsaw, University of Oxford), and Jonathan Price (University of Oxford, University of Oxford)