Disorder: A Graduate Student Conference

Disorder: A Graduate Student Conference

April 7th, 2018

Keynote: Dr. Ginger Hoffman (St. Joseph’s University)

Does the concept of order necessarily imply disorder? What does an exception say about the rule? Is rationality a feasible virtue for admittedly irrational beings? Philosophy often sees itself as an attempt at ordering things. Yet, as much as philosophical thinking tries to ‘carve nature at its joints’, life does not bend readily to the will of systematic critique. Every attempt at philosophical order runs aground on outliers, counterexamples, and disorder. This one-day graduate student conference looks to the interrelation between ordering and disorder. We are seeking papers from any area of philosophy that discuss broadly-construed questions of disorder, imperfection, dysfunction, disarray, and disobedience. We welcome papers on the philosophy of race, gender, and/or disability.

Possible suggested topics

-         - Notions of the absurd

-         - The concept of medical and psychiatric disorders

-         - Idealism in a non-ideal world

-         - The irreducibility and disunity of the sciences

-         - The limits of systematic thinking

-         - The interrelation between reason and emotion in decision-making

-         - The failure of respectability politics

-         - The aesthetics of imperfection

-         - Ethical disobedience and moral exceptions

The conference committee is looking for full papers of roughly 3000 words, meant for roughly 25 minutes per presentation with additional time for questions and answers. We are looking for 4-6 presentations. Full paper submissions should be prepared for anonymous review and attached to an email that separately includes Name, Title of Paper, Paper’s Area in Philosophy, an Abstract up to 100 words, and Institutional Affiliation/Program to [email protected] by January 15th, 2018 with the subject line “Disorder Submission”. Authors will be notified by mid-February.