Graduate Conference: The Legacy of Donald Davidson

In 2017 it will be 100 years since the birth of Donald Davidson (1917-2003), one of the most prominent philosophers of the twentieth century. The graduate students in the Department of Philosophy at York University (Toronto) are organizing a graduate conference in celebration of his thoroughly systematic and deeply original work, whose influence on, and relevance for, current ways of addressing many philosophical questions, including questions about action, knowledge, language, mind, reasons, and so on, would be hard to overstate.

Thursday (27 April)

9:15-9:30

Coffee & registration

9:35-10:35

Opening address

Claudine Verheggen (York University):

The Continuity of Davidson’s Thought

10:45-11:35

Devin Curry (University of Pennsylvania):

Davidson’s Theory of Mind is Normative. Should it be?

Commentator: Ben Winokur

11:45-12:35

Pedro Abreu (New University of Lisbon &

The Nova Institute of Philosophy):

The Constitutive Interpretability of Thoughts and Meanings:

A Defense Against Two Objections

Commentator: Olivia Sultanescu

13:45-14:35

Quitterie Gounot (Cornell University):

Why should I care about the person I want to become?

Reasons Internalists and Proleptic Reasons

Commentator: Alex Leferman

15.00-17.00

Keynote address

Bjørn Ramberg (University of Oslo):

Working Disagreement:                                          

On Davidson’s Dynamic Conception of Content

Friday (28 April)

10:00-12:00

Keynote address

Robert Myers (York University):

Holism in Action

12:10-13:00

Griffin Klemick (University of Toronto):

Davidson’s Promise for Metaethical Naturalism

Commentator: David Rocheleau-Houle

14:10-15:00

Nathan Howard (University of Southern California):

Buck-Passing and the Quasi-Davidsonian

Conception of Normative Reasons

Commentator: Sam Steadman

15:30-17:30

Keynote address

Sarah Stroud (McGill University):


Irrationality and Inconsistency, or, How is Self-Deception Possible?