CFP: "Kinds - in Philosophy and Its History"

We invite submissions of abstracts from graduate students willing to make a presentation at the

4th Lake Geneva Graduate Conference (LG2C)

Kinds in Philosophy and Its History

Thursday, October 31, 2019 – University of Geneva

Keynote Speakers:

Nick Zangwill (University of Hull)

Paolo Crivelli (University of Geneva)

Submission Guidelines

Deadline for submissions:      Friday, September 27, 2019

Prospective talks may for example deal with some of the following questions:

• What is a (natural, artificial, social, physical, biological, moral, aesthetic, …) kind? Are there any kinds?
• Are kinds properties of a special type? If so, what makes them distinct from other types of properties? What relations do they bear to them? Do we need them?
• Are there different types of kinds?
• What is it to belong to a kind? Is it a primitive feature of entities?
• Is the identity or difference between an object x and an object y relative to the kind to which x and y belong?
• What types of predicates express kinds (if any but not all do)?
• Are there both fundamental and non-fundamental kinds? If so, how are the ones related to the others?
• Is the existence of kinds independent of our classifications and conceptualizations, or not?
• Can questions about the definition of an object be exhaustively answered by indicating the kind to which that object belongs?
• Is the kind to which something belongs identical with its essence?
• Is kind-membership relative to time?
• Any of the above questions as tackled by a philosopher of the past having interesting views on the matter, which the prospective contributor will engage with in an original way (e.g. Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Scotus, Locke, Husserl, Ingarden, Carnap, Quine, Goodman, Putnam, Geach, Lewis, Lowe, …).

This list is not meant to be exhaustive. We are open to any other philosophical question related to the main topic.

*The abstracts should consist of a maximum of 1000 words (not including the title and the bibliography) and include a statement of the view defended by the author and a sketch of the main argument(s) supporting it.

*Submissions must be prepared for blind-reviewing.

*Only PDF files will be accepted.

*Please include a separate PDF file as a cover page with your name, the title of your submission, your current academic affiliation, and your e-mail address.

*Submissions must be sent at the latest on Friday, September 27, 2019 to the following address: [email protected]

*Submissions not satisfying the above requirements will be straightly rejected.

*Notification of acceptance/rejection will be given as soon as possible, but in any case before Sunday, October 13, 2019.

*Presentations will last 20 minutes and will be followed by 20 minutes of discussion.

*The best talk (judged by the scientific committee) will receive the new LG2C dialectica prize of 200 Swiss Francs.

Food, accommodation, and travel expenses

The lunch (buffet), coffee breaks, and apéro of October 31 will be covered by the organization. All remaining food expenses of the participants will not.

Accommodation expenses will be covered for at most two successful applicants from outside the CUSO area (Geneva, Fribourg, Neuchâtel, Lausanne) up to 240 Swiss Francs per person.

Graduate students from the CUSO area are eligible for total refunding of train fares provided they register for our event on the CUSO website.

As for non-CUSO speakers, every effort will be made to cover their travel costs at least in part, if not fully.

Registration for non-speaker participants: Registration is free of charge, but mandatory. Please e-mail us at [email protected] if you want to register.

LG2C Organization: Paolo Natali, Enrico Donato, Maria Fiorella Privitera, Alain Pe-Curto

Academic Sponsors: Laurent Cesalli (Geneva), Fabrice Correia (Geneva), Paolo Crivelli (Geneva), Katerina Ierodiakonou (Geneva), Louis de Saussure (Neuchâtel), Fabrice Teroni (Geneva & Fribourg), Marcel Weber (Geneva).

This event is generously supported by the Conférence Universitaire de Suisse Occidentale (CUSO) and by the international journal dialectica, and hosted by the University of Geneva.

Contact: For submissions and questions regarding submissions, please send us an e-mail at [email protected].

For all other questions and registration (free), please send us an e-mail at [email protected].