Philosophy and Nature

The relation between nomos and physis has occupied a central place in the history of philosophy, from Aristotelian Physics to contemporary analytic debates on the philosophy of mind. Moreover, nature, as both an object of knowledge and a public resource, has taken on increasingly urgent social and political import: the distribution of resources and the impact of climate change have become central issues in public policy; and, as in the cases of race, sexual difference, and sexual orientation, legal and social status is often determined in accordance with an appeal to their supposedly biological bases, or, that is, to a commonplace conception of “the natural.”  Thus the very identity of the human itself is intimately connected to the ways in which nature operates either on or for us.  This conference invites submissions from all areas of philosophy that are concerned to investigate the ontological, ethical, political, and epistemological status of nature.

Schedule:

9:00 am – 10:20 am            Phenomenology & Nature

Greek Light: Nature between Phenomenology and Science. Samuel Galson, Princeton University, Department of Classics.

Towards an Integration of the Life-World and the World of Science: Measurement and the Promise of Hermeneutics. Ryan Shea, Catholic University, Department of Philosophy.

10:30 am – 11:50 am            Nature in Itself, Nature for Us

Nature as an Epistemic Shift and a Challenge to Enlightenment: How the Environmental Struggle Became World Historical. Robert Windle, University of Colorado Denver, Master of Humanities/Master of Social Science.

The Newest Oldest Philosophical Problem. Clayton Shoppa, The New School for Social Research, Department of Philosophy.

12:00 – 1:30 pm            Lunch Break

1:30 pm – 2:50 pm            Nature in Ancient Philosophy

The Poetic Madness of Truth: Sophistry and Philosophy Revealed by Phaedrus and Physis. Michelle Falcetano, Villanova University, Department of Philosophy.

Lucretius’ Poetic Natura: Metamorphosis, Mortality, and Conflict. Nicholas Guardiano, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Department of Philosophy.

3:00 pm – 4:20 pm            Contemporary Ontological Perspectives on Nature

A ‘Meillassouxian’ Approach to Kant’s First Antinomy of Pure Reason and the Big Bang David Milliern, Indiana University Bloomington, Department of History & Philosophy of Science 

Creating Creative Nature: Whitehead’s Panpsychism as a Cosmology of Contingent Order and a Cosmogony of Valuation. Patrick McHugh, University of Guelph, Department of Philosophy.

4:30 pm                        Keynote Speaker: Adrian Johnston, University of New Mexico

Reflections of a Rotten Nature: Hegel, Lacan, and Material Negativity.

Contact: [email protected].