What is Canadian Philosophy?

In honour of the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University will host, at Fredericton, New Brunswick, the first international conference dedicated to exploring the meanings of a uniquely Canadian philosophy. The November 23-25, 2017 conference, “What is Canadian Philosophy? Reflections on the 150th Anniversary of Confederation,” in collaboration with interdisciplinary scholars from departments of Catholic Studies, English, Humanities, Native Studies, Philosophy, and Political Science, will result in a book that will be the first collection to explore, from a diversity of perspectives, the meanings of Canadian philosophy. The conference and volume will include contributions on the sense in which there can be said to be distinctively Canadian philosophy, on influential Canadian philosophers, on underrepresented tendencies in Canadian philosophy, and on world philosophical movements that have found unique expression in Canada. This event will help to rectify a significant lacuna in scholarship: while intellectuals now have a clear idea of central figures and themes involved in various national philosophical traditions-- for instance, of American pragmatic philosophy, German philosophy from Kant to phenomenology and Critical Theory, of French philosophy from Descartes to Derrida and Foucault, and of British empiricism -- Canadian philosophy has not yet entered into a broadly shared intellectual understanding. Now there is an important moment in which there is an intense international and national interest in the Canadian intellectual landscape, in which scholars and an interested public are intensely curious in Canadian intellectual life both in itself and as a bridge between North American and European thought. This conference will thus make important grounding contributions to the understanding of the meaning of Canadian philosophy, of value for contemporary and future scholars of Canadian and world philosophy, and to the broad public appreciation of a unique philosophy shaped by the combination of Aboriginal, Catholic, English, French, and other sources of philosophical inquiry.