CFP: Perceptual Experience in Kant and German Idealism

CFP for Postgraduate workshop on perceptual experience in Kant and German Idealism
At the University of Warwick, on 19th of March 2016; Social Sciences Building, Cowling Room

The deadline for submitting your work is the 31st of January 2016.

In contemporary philosophy of Mind and epistemology, accounts of perceptual experience, which take as their starting point insights from Kant as well as Hegel, have played an important role. Notably, McDowell explicitly identifies Kant’s account of perceptual experience, developed in the first Critique, as an inspiration for his own account. But, arguably, his account also bears resemblance to that of Hegel. Given this resurgence of interest in the accounts of perceptual experience developed by Kant and Hegel, our postgraduate workshop is intended to bring together the most recent and promising research by graduate students on accounts of perceptual experience in Kant, Hegel, and German Idealism more generally. A special focus will be on the account of perceptual experience developed by Kant, the ways in which German Idealists, first and foremost Hegel, challenge it, and the relation between these accounts and contemporary debates in the philosophy of perception.

Confirmed keynote speakers:
Dr. Anil Gomes (University of Oxford)
Prof. Andrea Kern (Universität Leipzig)

Papers or abstracts are invited from graduate students working on Kant and/or German Idealism. Possible topics include but are not limited to:
• What does Kant identify as the necessary conditions of perceptual experience? In particular, is the transcendental deduction meant to establish truths about perceptual experience, or just about how we think about the objects we encounter in it?
• Is Kant a representationalist or a relationalist? If the former, then to what kind of perceptual content is Kant committed? If the latter, how are we to think of the objects we are related to in intuition?
• What roles do the schematism and the principles, in particular, the analogies, play in Kant’s account of perceptual experience?
• Does Hegel’s account of perceptual experience differ from that offered by Kant? If so, in what way? Does it improve upon Kant’s account?
• Do the accounts of perceptual experience developed by Kant and the German Idealists have anything to offer contemporary debates? If so, what lessons should we learn from their accounts?

Submissions should be suitable for presentation in 30 to 40 minutes (typically 3,000 to 4,500 words). Papers or abstracts must be prepared for blind review. If you want to present your paper at this workshop please send your paper, or an abstract of no more than 500 words, to [email protected]. The deadline for submitting your paper or abstract is the 31st of January 2016.

Please Note: Pending a successful application for funding, we may be able to offer bursaries to cover the travel expenses for graduate speakers.
We strongly encourage submissions from women and other under-represented groups.


Supported by:

Warwick Philosophy Department
The Aristotelian Society