CFP: RIP conference: Philosophical Aesthetics and the Sciences of Art?

Call for papers: Royal Institute of Philosophy Conference Philosophical Aesthetics and the Sciences of Art?

28th to 30th of June 2012

University of Leeds

Submissions of papers are invited for an international conference in aesthetics ‘Philosophical Aesthetics and the Sciences of Art?’ to be held at the University of Leeds, on the 28th to 30th of June 2012. The conference is organised by the AHRC funded research project ‘Method in Philosophical Aesthetics: The Challenge from the Sciences’ http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/humanities/aesthetics/index.html in association with the University of Leeds, the University of Nottingham and the Royal Institute of Philosophy.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers Include:

• Whitney Davis (UC Berkeley)
• Stacie Friend (Heythrop)
• Berys Gaut (St Andrews)
• Jonathan Gilmore (Yale)
• Gordon Graham (Princeton Theological Seminary)
• Jenefer Robinson (Cincinnati)
• Roger Scruton (Oxford, St Andrews, and American Enterprise Institute)
• Deena Skolnick Weisberg (Temple)

Philosophers are now used to paying close attention to the results of theoretical and experimental work in the sciences. This has been long-standing practice in the philosophy of the sciences, and it is now common in the philosophy of mind. The practice is growing in the philosophy of language and in ethics, where there is controversy over the authority of linguistic and moral intuitions. The practice is less common in aesthetics, but it is beginning to develop, most notably in appeals to theories of vision in disputes about pictorial perception, and reference to empirical work on the emotions and imagination in the discussion of our engagement with fiction. Such interventions are controversial in some quarters; more controversial still are claims that work in the neurosciences and in evolutionary psychology can deepen, perhaps even revolutionise, our philosophical conceptions of the arts. Some argue that such studies will not make any positive contribution to understanding the nature and value of artistic experiences; the most we can hope for from them is that light be shed on empirical side-constraints.

Papers should address one or more of the following topics:

• whether empirical and/or naturalistic approaches can shed light on the value(s) of art (a subject that may seem especially difficult to get empirical traction on);
• whether empirical/psychological accounts of creativity have any potential to shed light on the profound significance of artistic creativity;
• whether naturalistic approaches to the imagination fail to address the deep issues raised by the paradox of fiction;
• whether empirical approaches have, in fact, anything serious to say about beauty or, rather, confuse the beautiful with the merely agreeable.

Papers should take between 40 and 45 minutes to present and be submitted in a form suitable for blind review. Our aim is to involve speakers with a variety of perspectives, ranging from those with a good deal of enthusiasm for “empirical philosophy” to those more inclined to favour traditional, a priori approaches. It is intended that papers presented at the conference should be suitable for publication as a special supplementary volume of Philosophy. It is a condition of accepting the invitation to participate in the conference that we would have the first right of refusal on a final version of any paper delivered at the conference for the volume.

Deadline for submissions is 17th February 2012. Conference fee will be waived for accepted speakers and two nights’ accommodation provided.

Papers should be submitted, and enquiries addressed, to Dr. Jon Robson ([email protected])