Postgraduate workshop: liberal naturalism

LIBERAL NATURALISM STUDENT WORKSHOP

21 November 1pm – 3pm

Deakin University, Burwood Campus, Room C2.05

Liberal naturalism, like other forms of naturalism, denies the existence of supernatural objects and causes. It is unique, however, in allowing for the existence of objects and causes that are not a matter for scientific study. In addition to scientific descriptions and explanations of reality, liberal naturalism accepts the irreducible existence of person-level phenomena such as reasons, self-consciousness, values, artworks, ordinary objects and much else.

The view was inspired by the writings of H. Putnam and J. McDowell, and may be ascribed to Jennifer Hornsby, Barry Stroud, P. F. Strawson, R. Rorty, J. Rawls, T. Scanlon and others. It has been explored in detail in the collections edited by Mario de Caro and David Macarthur: Naturalism in Question (Harvard University Press, 2004) and Naturalism and Normativity (Columbia University Press, 2010).

The workshop will be run by Mario de Caro (Roma Tre) and David Macarthur (Sydeny), who will briefly present the main commitments of Liberal Naturalism and the manner in which those may impact the humanities self-conception, in particular philosophy. Their presentation will be followed by a group discussion.

Immediately after the workshop, Mario de Caro will give a philosophy seminar “Testing Liberal Naturalism: the case of political anthropology.”https://philevents.org/event/show/37770

The workshop can be seen as an introduction to the Liberal Naturalism conference later that week https://philevents.org/event/show/35926.

Please email to reserve a spot: [email protected]