In Conversation: Exploring the Philosophy of Money and Finance
2024-10-01 12:00 - 2026-10-26 17:00 (Europe/London)
In Conversation: Exploring the Philosophy of Money and Finance – Series III

A series of interviews with contributors to The Philosophy of Money and Finance (Hardcover, OUP 2024; Paperback, fall 2025)

Schedule

"Truth in Financial Accounting"
Author: Christopher J. Cowton (Emeritus, University of Huddersfield)
Interviewer: Lisa Warenski (CUNY Graduate Center)
Date and Time: 15 January 2026, 18:00 CET

"Green Central Banking"
Authors: Peter Dietsch (University of Victoria); Clément Fontan (University of Louvain)
Interviewer: Jens van't Klooster
Date and Time: 25 March 2026, 18:00 CET

"On the Wrongfulness of Bank Contributions to Financial Crises"
Author: Richard Endörfer (University of Gothenburg)
Interviewer: Kobi Finestone (Univeresity of San Diego)
Date and Time: 01 June 2026, 18:00 CET

"Bitcoins Left and Right: A Normative Assessment of a Digital Currency"
Authors: Lars Lindblom and Joakim Sandberg
Interviewer: TBA
Date and Time: September (TBA) 2026, 18:00 CET

The Value of Consciousness
2025-09-02 11:00 - 2026-05-05 17:00 (Europe/London)
This is a zoom series on the value of consciousness, taking place every first Tuesday of the month at noon Eastern time in the US/6pm in Europe. The program is below. The zoom link is this:

https://riceuniversity.zoom.us/j/93096236283?pwd=[REDACTED]

Program:

Sept. 2: Takuya Niikawa, “Consciousness Aesthetics”

Oct. 7: Anna Giustina, “Prospects for an Aesthetics of Consciousness”

Nov. 11: Emad Atiq, ""Agency, Normativity, and Acquaintance"

Dec. 2: Léa Salje, “Feeling Like Oneself”

Jan. 6: David Builes, “Four Views of the First Person”

Feb. 3: Adrià Moret, “No Welfare without Sentience”

Mar. 3: Gwen Bradford, “Dreams and Incommunicable Aesthetic Value”

Apr. 7: Enrico Terrone, "The Type-Token Dilemma for the Aesthetics of Consciousness"

May 5: Leonard Dung, “Varieties of Sentientism About Moral Standing”

STAL Seminar
2025-10-01 00:00 - 2026-06-30 17:00 (Europe/London)
Slurring Terms Across Languages (STAL) is an international and interdisciplinary network whose primary aim is to promote work on slurs, pejoratives, expressives and evaluative terms in general, from languages that have been seldom discussed in the recent philosophical and semantic literature, and in particular, from sign languages and non-Indo-European languages. Its main aim is to bring to light new empirical data and uncover novel interesting phenomena that may have the potential to challenge current theories. Empirical studies of the expressions mentioned from such languages, comparisons with English slurs, as well as wider cross-linguistic approaches and developments of extant theories in application to the new data or previously neglected phenomena are encouraged too.

The network's coordinators are Isidora Stojanovic (Pompeu Fabra University/CNRS-Institut Jean Nicod) & Dan Zeman (University of Porto). More information about the network and its activities can be found at https://sites.google.com/view/stalnetwork. To contact the network coordinators, please write to stalnetwork@gmail.com.

The STAL Seminar features monthly, online talks by researchers tackling issues related to the study of slurs, pejoratives, expressives and evaluative terms in general, from less studied languages. The meetings in the 2025-2026 academic year take place on MONDAYS, 14:30-16:00 Central European Time (CET). The list of speakers is the following (exact dates to be provided soon):

- OCTOBER 2025: Luvell Anderson (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)

- NOVEMBER 2025: Claire Horisk (University of Missouri)

- DECEMBER 2025: Xavier Villalba (Autonomous University of Barcelona)

- JANUARY 2026: Daisy Dixon (Cardiff University)

- FEBRUARY 2026: Elisabeth Camp (Rutgers University)

- MARCH 2026: Leopold Hess (Jagiellonian University)

- APRIL 2026: Robin Jeshion (University of Southern California)

- MAY 2026: Yim Binh Felix Sze (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

- JUNE 2026: Mingya Liu (Humboldt University of Berlin)

Polysemy in the Evaluative Sphere
2025-10-01 09:00 - 2026-06-30 17:00 (Europe/Lisbon) | Faculty of Letters, University of Porto, Via Panorâmica s/n, Porto, Portugal
POLYSEMY IN THE EVALUATIVE SPHERE

In-person: Faculty of Letters, University of Porto, Via Panorâmica s/n

Online: Zoom

This is a biweekly seminar pertaining to the project Slurs and the Lexicon: A Rich-Lexicon Approach to Slurs and Other Evaluative Expressions - LEXISLUR (2023.05952.CEECIND; PI: Dan Zeman). The main aim of the project is to offer a polysemy account fit for evaluative expressions and to assess to what extent a unified approach to the entire evaluative sphere is feasible. Much work on polysemy can be found in lexical semantics - the branch of semantics that studies the meaning of words, their internal structure and interrelations, etc. However, while the debate about polysemy of various expressions has produced an impressive amount of work, not much material on the polysemy of evaluative expressions exists in that area. The purpose of this seminar is twofold: first, to get acquainted with the essential literature on polysemy (via in-person sessions dedicated to reading and discussing the relevant papers); second, to feature current work on polysemy as applied to evaluative expressions (via online talks by invited speakers). In this way, participants will both acquire knowledge about polysemy in general and see how the discussions in lexical semantics can be applied to the evaluative sphere.

In-person meetings

Next meeting: NOVEMBER 5, 15:00-16:30 WET: Marina Ortega Andrés & Agustin Vicente, "Polysemy and co-predication", Glossa 4(1), 2019.

Past meetings: OCTOBER 15, 16.30-18.00 WET: Michelle Liu, "Polysemy and Philosophy", Philosophy Compass 20: e70040, 2025.

Future readings:

Nicholas Asher, Lexical Meaning in Context: A Web of Words, Cambridge University Press, 2011 (excerpts).

Robyn Carston, "Polysemy: pragmatics and sense conventions", Mind & Language 36(1): 108-133, 2021.

John Collins, "Copredication as illusion", Journal of Semantics 40(2-3): 359-389, 2023.

Steven Frisson, "Semantic underspecification in language processing", Language and Linguistics Compass 3(1): 111-127, 2009.

Lotte Hogeweg & Agustin Vicente, "On the nature of the lexicon", Journal of Linguistics 56(4): 865-891, 2020.

Ray Jackendoff, Semantic Structures, MIT Press, 1990 (excerpts).

Ingrid Lossius Falkum & Agustin Vicente, "Polysemy", Oxford Bibliographies Online, 2020.

James Pustejovsky, The Generative Lexicon, MIT Press, 1995 (excerpts).

Petra Schumacher, "When combinatorial processing results in reconceptualization: Towards a new approach of compositionality", Frontiers of Psychology 4: 677, 2013.

Agustin Vicente, "Polysemy and word meaning", Philosophical Studies, 175(4): 947-968, 2018.

Agustin Vicente, "Approaches to co-predication", Journal of Pragmatics 182: 348-357, 2021.

Online talks

Next talk: NOVEMBER 21, 11:00-12.30 WET: Marina Ortega-Andrés (University of the Basque Country), "When this chef says pot: The importance of the speaker's identity in understanding ambiguous words"

Past talks: OCTOBER 31, 11:00-12:30 WET: Michelle Liu (Monash University), "Ad Hoc Concepts, Polysemy, and Verbal Disputes"

Future talks (schedule and titles TBA): John Collins & Agustin Vicente, Tamara Dobler, Jessica Keiser, Michelle Liu, Ingrid Lossius Falkum, Emanuel Viebahn

UK XPHI Online
2025-10-01 09:00 - 2026-06-30 17:00 (Europe/London)
We are delighted to announce the next series of our monthly online workshop devoted to discussion of work in progress in experimental philosophy. The workshop is usually held via Teams, the second Wednesday of each month, 16:00-18:00 UK time. Details of 2025/26 season TBC

Sign, Language, Reality Seminar 2025/26
2025-10-09 17:00 - 2026-06-04 17:00 (Europe/London)
Sign. Language, Reality (SLR) Seminar Series 2025/26

We are pleased to announce the program for the upcoming academic year of the Sign. Language, Reality (SLR) Seminar, hosted by the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Warsaw and the Polish Semiotic Society. The series brings together scholars working on philosophy of language, logic, philosophy of linguistics, theoretical semiotics, and related areas.

Program 2025/26:

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9 October 2025 — François Recanati (Collège de France)
Mental files, concepts, and modes of presentation

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23 October 2025 — Antonina Jamrozik (University of Warsaw)
Why do we need the notion of a lie? Considerations from the case of presuppositional lies

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6 November 2025 — Edward Zalta (Stanford University)
How to Ground Semantics in Higher-Order Metaphysics

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4 December 2025 — Thomas Hodgson (University of Gdansk / Shanxi University)
The act-type theory of propositions as a theory of empty names

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22 January 2026 — Hannes Leitgeb (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
The Additive Logic of Epistemic Reasons. An Axiomatic Account

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19 February 2026 — Piotr Stalmaszczyk (University of Lodz)
Conceptual Engineering, Semiotics and Metalinguistics

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19 March 2026 — Merel Semeijn (University of Groningen)
Common ground in non-face-to-face settings

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16 April 2026 — Louis Rouillé (University of Liège)
The dynamics of fictional names: an antirealist perspective

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21 May 2026 — Diego Feinmann (IPI PAN)
Theories of Relevance

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4 June 2026 — Antonio Negro & Salvatore Pistoia-Reda (Università degli Studi di Siena)
The contradiction puzzle for logicality

Participation is free and open to all scholars.

Zoom information:
The seminar will be held online. To join the meeting, please use the Zoom information below:

https://uw-edu-pl.zoom.us/j/92716044372?pwd=[REDACTED]

ID: 927 1604 4372
Code: 697648

Monthly Phenomenology 2025–2026
2025-10-24 09:00 - 2026-05-08 17:00 (Europe/London)
––––––

We are very pleased to announce the 6th season (2025–2026) of:

MONTHLY PHENOMENOLOGY
An online forum of discussion on recent work in phenomenology

Description: This series of talks gathers together scholars interested in phenomenology and its relation to contemporary issues in philosophy, especially in the philosophy of mind. It establishes a forum of discussion where people can meet on a regular basis and present their work-in-progress or recent publications. The topics addressed will stretch from the history of early phenomenology to the systematic application of phenomenological insights in recent debates in analytic philosophy.

Schedule: The talks will take place once a month on a Friday from October to May. Time: 10:15am ET, 3:15pm GMT/GMT+1, 4:15pm CET. Talks last 90 minutes, including a 45 minutes Q&A.

Participation: Talks are held on zoom (http://zoom.us/). To participate, please send an email to hamid.taieb@hu-berlin.de with the heading "Registration Monthly Phenomenology". A zoom link will be sent to you the day preceding each talk.

Programme:

Francesca Forlè (Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele)
Embodied Affectivity. A Phenomenological Account of the Connection between Affective Phenomena and Bodily Expressions
Friday, 24 October 2025

James Kinkaid (Bilkent University)
Husserlian Idealism and the Identity Theory of Truth
28 November 2025

Maryam Ebrahimi Dinani (University of Neuchâtel)
Adolf Reinach's Theory of Social Acts: Illuminating Debates on Joint and Collective Intentionality
5 December 2025

Pascale Roure (Yildiz Technical University)
Phenomenology in Turkey
16 January 2026

Benoit Guilielmo (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Exploring the Essence of Bullshit through Early Phenomenology (Kolnai and Hildebrand)
20 February 2026

Lorenza D'Angelo (Pompeu Fabra University)
Pleasure, Pain and Introspection
6 March 2026

Mohammed Saleh Zarepour (University of Manchester)
The Flying Man and the Transparency of (Self-)Knowledge
24 April 2026

Sebastian Watzl (University of Oslo)
Attention Norms and Frames. On the Social Organisation of Experience
8 May 2026

Convenors:
Guillaume Fréchette (University of Geneva)
Marta Jorba (Pompeu Fabra University)
Alessandro Salice (University College Cork)
Hamid Taieb (Humboldt University Berlin)
Íngrid Vendrell-Ferran (Philipps University Marburg)

Organized on behalf of the Network for Phenomenological Research (https://netw-phenom-research.wixsite.com/nfpr)

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DFT-CELFIS research seminar, University of Bucharest
2025-10-28 09:00 - 2026-09-30 17:00 (Europe/Bucharest) | Splaiul Independenţei nr. 204, Bucharest, Romania, 060024
We're delighted to invite you to the research seminar of the Department of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Bucharest. These are organized in partnership with CELFIS, the Center for Logic, Philosophy and History of Science at UB. Here are talks scheduled so far:

Fall 2025:

October 28, 5pm: Alexandru Dragomir & Andrei Mărăşoiu (University of Bucharest, f2f), "The Inconstant Moral Expert: the case of LLMs"

November 25, 4pm: Nicholas Rimell (Chinese University of Hong Kong, hybrid via Zoom), "A Metaphysics of Despair"

November 28, 2pm: Micah Thomas Pimaro, Jr. (University of Calabar, f2f), "Placide Tempels’s Metaphysics: A challenge or a trap for African philosophy?"

December 2, 3pm: Nora Grigore (Romanian Academy, Institute of Philosophy and Psychology, f2f), "Worthiness and Expediency: a Distinction without a Difference?"

December 19, 2pm: Alin Olteanu (Shanghai International Studies University, ICUB, f2f), "Iconic Imagination in Modeling: A Semiotic Approach to Scientific Inquiry"

January 16, 2pm: Marco Facchin (University of Antwerp, hybrid via Zoom), "Is mental content an illusion?"

January 22, 12pm: Sandra Brânzaru (University of Bucharest, CELFIS, FPSE, f2f), "Conceptualising Empathy"

February 10, 4pm: Marian Călborean (OPTI Software & University of Bucharest, f2f), "The minimal ontology of time"

Spring 2026:

March: Constantin Stoenescu (University of Bucharest, CELFIS, f2f), "Revisiting 'The Normative Structure of Science' "

March 27, 2pm: Erik Myin (University of Antwerp, hybrid via Zoom), “Of a Different Mind”

March 30: Mariona Eiren Miyata-Sturm (University of Oxford, f2f)

April 3: René van Woudenberg (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, hybrid via Zoom), 'Are LLMs Authors?'

April: Alexandru Nicolae (University of Bucharest, Faculty of Letters; Romanian Academy, Institute of Linguistics, f2f)

April: Cătălin Teoharie (University of Bucharest, CELFIS, f2f)

April: Paula Tomi (National University of Science and Technology 'Politehnica' Bucharest, f2f)

April: Daian Bica (Heinrich Heine University, hybrid)

May: Andrei Moldovan (University of Salamanca)

May: Ioan Muntean (UT Rio Grande Valley, UI Urbana, f2f)

July: Mihai Rusu (Babeş Bolyai University, ICUB, hybrid)

September: Oana Şerban (University of Bucharest, CCIIF, f2f)

Previous events in the series are available at:

2021-22: https://philevents.org/event/show/93365

2022-23: https://philevents.org/event/show/105249

https://filosofie.unibuc.ro/category/seminar-cercetare-dft/

https://icub.unibuc.ro/2022/06/14/workshop-semantic-cognition-and-truth/

For those of you who would like to join some of the meetings but have overlapping commitments, we will do our best to record the meetings whenever everyone in attendance consents to it, and to then upload the recordings on the Department's YouTube channel. Previous talks are available here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOgUq3dN8CXI4L6DhZT1f_Q

Inquiry Network WIP Talks (Spring 2026)
2026-02-01 09:00 - 2026-06-30 17:00 (Europe/London)
The Inquiry Network WIP Talks feature presentations of work in progress related to inquiry, broadly understood. For example, presentations might discuss (but are not limited to): the epistemology of inquiry, the metaphysics of inquiry, ethical norms of inquiry, historical perspectives on inquiry, or the structure of scientific inquiry.

We aim to foster the sharing of ideas in an inclusive, welcoming and low-pressure environment. Papers that are already accepted for publication will not be accepted. We aim to be sensitive to the needs of early-career scholars.

The group meets biweekly on Zoom during each of the Fall and Spring semesters. Meeting times are determined shortly before the beginning of each semester with the goal of finding a time that works for as many members as possible. Special consideration is given to finding a meeting time that works for presenters of accepted papers.

Reconstructing Carnap Webinar Series 2026
2026-02-18 09:00 - 2026-12-09 17:00 (Europe/London)
I am excited to share that the Reconstructing Carnap Webinar Series will resume in February 2026! Please find the official flyer attached. All talks will take place from 4:30 PM to 6:30 PM CET (10:30 AM–12:30 PM EST).
The webinar can be accessed via the following link: https://meet.google.com/uaq-jqpf-mwr
Schedule of speakers:

- Gila Sher — February 18, 2026
Carnap’s and Quine’s Models of Knowledge: A Critical Reconstruction

- Matti Eklund — March 25, 2026
Carnap, Metaontology and the Aufbau

- Huw Price — May 13, 2026
From Non-cognitivism to Global Expressivism: Carnap’s Unfinished Journey?

- Pierre Wagner — June 3, 2026
Carnap on Definition

- Hannes Leitgeb — October 7, 2026
Reviving Logical Empiricism

- Thomas Hofweber — November 11, 2026
Carnap on Internal and External Questions

- Amie Thomasson — December 9, 2026
Title TBA

The series is organized in collaboration with Carnap in Context IV (ÖAW, FWF Grant PAT7905424) and Rudolf Carnap Digital (MCMP, LMU Munich).

Online Bayle Seminar 2026 : Education and Pedagogy in the Philosopher of Rotterdam
2026-02-20 14:00 - 2026-05-22 17:00 (Europe/London)
The Online Bayle Seminar is a study and research group devoted to the figure of Pierre Bayle. In the very spirit of the “Republic of Letters” so dear to Bayle, it seeks to be both international and interdisciplinary, and aims—thanks to the possibilities offered by online communication—to overcome the divisions between schools and approaches that have sometimes characterized Bayle scholarship. Founded in 2025, the seminar hosted in its first year a series of talks on various themes in Bayle, such as atheism, tolerance, and the Dictionary. It thus provided an opportunity to discover the most recent research on Bayle carried out in Europe as well as in the Americas and Asia.

For this second year, we have chosen to develop the seminar’s format around a concrete theme through which Bayle’s work and thought—and the context in which he evolved—will be analyzed. The objective of this new format is to examine the production of the philosopher of Rotterdam in a more systematic way. Sessions will alternate between reading workshops devoted to the study of selected passages circulated beforehand, and talks on specific topics. The theme for this second year is “Education and Pedagogy in Bayle.” The seminar will begin in 2026.

Whether from a biographical or a philosophical perspective, the question touches closely upon Bayle’s life and writings. As a child, Bayle himself suffered from an irregular schooling, which he recalls in his correspondence and from which he draws lessons in the advice he gives to his brother Joseph. Later, Bayle served as a teacher for almost his entire adult life. As is well known, he first worked as a tutor, in Coppet and Rouen, and then as a professor at Sedan and Rotterdam. His philosophy courses, included among the Miscellaneous Works, are well known. His work as a writer and philosopher is marked by questions of education. The prefaces and forewords of his works not only provide information on the author’s status and his relationship to an ideal reader; they also contain pedagogical reflections that fit more broadly within the theme of education. Likewise, the project of a Journal of the Republic of Letters, based on reviewing recent publications, not only demonstrates an interest in erudition but also affirms the possibility of a learned public and the importance of its education. One should not forget the Reformed context in which Bayle pursued his schooling and his teaching: can one detect confessional markers in his reflections on education?

On a political and theological level, royal legislation concerning the children of the Huguenots raised the issue of the right to educate one’s children according to one’s own religious convictions. Religious controversy during the revocation of the Edict of Nantes also raises the question of the purpose and means of education: should one not “instruct” erring consciences rather than persecute them? At what point can one judge that the other has been sufficiently taught and that his error stems from culpable obstinacy? Can religious truth be taught in the same way to all minds? This question of “pedagogical differentiation” must be correlated in Bayle with his moral anthropology—namely, attention to the place and role of temperament and passions in the psychic and intellectual life of the individual. And this is directly linked to the “prejudices of childhood and education,” where Bayle explicitly equates childhood and education with those factors that hinder the formation and exercise of a critical mind. Although the secondary literature has at times examined these issues in Bayle, the question of education as such has been little studied in his work.

Programme:

Friday 20 February, 2:00 pm: Andy Serin (EPHE-PSL and Paris 1 University): “Text analysis: education and tolerance in the Supplement to the Philosophical Commentary”

Friday 20 March, 2:00 pm: Isabelle Moreau (ENS de Lyon): “Bayle: education and religious identity”

Friday 24 April, 2:00 pm: Ana Carmona (University of Geneva): “Text analysis: the power of prejudices”

Friday 22 May, 2:00 pm: Chiara Musolino (Paris 1 University): “How to read philosophy? The pedagogy of doubt at work in Pierre Bayle”

Practical information:

The sessions will take place online on Fridays at 2:00 pm (French time). The language used is French, but it is possible to participate in English. The videoconference link and the texts can be obtained by sending an email to bayle.seminar@hotmail.com.

Wittgenstein's Lecture on Ethics: Online Lecture Series
2026-03-17 17:00 - 2026-11-17 17:00 (Europe/London)
- 17/3/2026 17:00 CET Reshef Agam-Segal (VMI): How to Be Morally Resolute: Diamond vs. Conant

- 28/4/2026 17:00 CET Samuel Pedziwiatr (Hagen): Echoes of Euthyphro. Wittgenstein and Schlick on the (Im-)possibility of Scientific Ethics

- 18/6/2026 17:00 CET Duncan Richter (VMI): Ethics and the Supernatural

- 17/11/2026 17:00 CET Maria Balaska (Åbo): Wittgenstein (and Heidegger) on the Wonder at Being

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Please note the lectures start at 5pm CET (Central European Time).

Thinking about Philosophical Counselling and Philosophy as a Way of Life from a South African Place
2026-04-05 17:00 (Africa/Johannesburg) | Ryneveld and Andringa Street, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Call for Abstracts

11-12th June 2026

Stellenbosch University, South Africa (and Hybrid/MS Teams)

Philosophical counselling and philosophy as a way of life are experiencing a period of renewed interest, marked by several significant forthcoming publications and the emergence of new scholarly societies internationally. Within this broader international context, a growing and sustained conversation has begun to take shape in South Africa, one that asks what these practices mean when thought from a South African place, and what such situated reflection might contribute to the wider field.

This symposium, Thinking about Philosophical Counselling and Philosophy as a Way of Life from a South African Place, is a direct response to this conversation. It aims to bring together philosophers, practitioners, postgraduate students, and those with a shared interest in these questions to foster a space for sustained and open dialogue.

Themes and Scope/Possible topics

The aim of the symposium is to think about philosophical counselling and philosophy as a way of life from within South African contexts. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

Situatedness, lifeworlds, and the question of place

· How South African lifeworlds shape/transform the theory and practice of these practices.

· The plurality of South African contexts and their philosophical significance.

· Historical/cultural situatedness in philosophical practice.

African philosophy and decolonial orientations

· Decolonial perspectives on philosophical counselling and philosophy as a way of life.

· Rethinking these practices from African philosophical perspectives.

Practice, experience, and ethical field

· Ethical challenges of practicing philosophical counselling in South African contexts.

· Lived experiences of practicing philosophical counselling in South Africa.

· Case reflections/studies and practitioner narratives.

· Community-based and group approaches to philosophical counselling.

Language, access, and inclusion

· Language, translation, and multilingual philosophical practice.

· Questions of accessibility and inclusivity in philosophical practice.

Intersections, method, and future directions

· Intersections between these practices and other disciplines.

· Methodological questions in relation to practice.

· Challenges and opportunities these practices in South African and beyond.

Open category

· Other contributions that engage broadly with the symposium theme.

Abstract Details

Please send 300-500 word abstracts to: philosophicalcounsellingza@gmail.com

Submissions must include:

· the author’s name, email address, and institutional affiliation (if applicable), and

· if you will attend in-person or virtually.

Important Dates

· Deadline for abstract submissions: 5th April 2026.

· Notice of acceptance: 12th April 2026.

· Symposium dates: 11-12th June 2026.

Format

To encourage sustained engagement, the final presentations (in-person and hybrid) should span 25-30 minutes, followed by 25-30 minutes of discussion and/or dialogue. The focus will be on having open conversations and dialogue. There will be no parallel sessions.

In keeping with the dialogical orientation of the symposium, practice-based, reflective, and experimental formats are welcomed and encouraged. These may include co-presented contributions, dialogical or conversational presentations, structured case reflections, reports from practice, and other forms that open a space for shared thinking.

A special issue in Philosophical Practice is planned as a continuation of the conversations initiated at the symposium. A separate Call for Papers (CFP) will be circulated after the event, inviting contributions that have emerged from, or been transformed through, the conversations at the Stellenbosch symposium.

For any further inquiries please email: philosophicalcounsellingza@gmail.com

Sven Neth - Induction and Indifference
2026-04-07 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | University of Pittsburgh, 4200 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, United States, 15260
The Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh invites you to join us for our Lunch Time Talk. Attend in person at 1117 Cathedral of Learning or visit our live stream on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.

Lunch Time Talk: Sven Neth

Tuesday, April 7th @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EST

Title: Induction and Indifference

Abstract:

The principle of indifference says that if you don’t know which possibility obtains, you should assign equal credences to all possibilities. There are different ways to make this precise, but even sophisticated versions of the principle of indifference fail to vindicate inductive reasoning. I illustrate this point by discussing Carnap’s work on the foundations of inductive logic and the No Free Lunch theorem from machine learning and draw some philosophical lessons.

This talk will be available online:

Zoom: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/92589572462

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg

Remaking Liberalism
2026-04-08 05:00 - 06:30 (Europe/London)
2026 PPE Distinguished Public Lecture with Nobel Prize Winner Daron Acemoglu (Virtual)

Co-winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics, Professor Daron Acemoglu, will deliver the 2026 PPE Distinguished Public Lecture at Virginia Tech.

Daron Acemoglu (https://economics.mit.edu/people/faculty/daron-acemoglu)is Institute Professor in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Acemoglu’s research spans a wide array of topics in political economy, development economics, economic growth, technological change, and inequality, exploring the deep historical and institutional foundations of prosperity and poverty.

Professor Acemoglu has received numerous awards, including the John Bates Clark Medal in 2005 and the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in 2018. In 2024, together with Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson, he won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his pioneering work on the interplay between technological progress, labor markets, and democratic institutions, highlighting how institutional choices and technology shape societal outcomes.

At Virginia Tech, Professor Acemoglu will speak about his forthcoming book on remaking liberalism, which is scheduled to appear in the summer of 2026.

The virtual lecture will take place on April 8, 2026, from 5-6:30pm (Eastern Time). Advance registration is required for this event. Here is more information (https://ppe.liberalarts.vt.edu/category/ppe-distinguished-public-lecture/).

All faculty, students, and members of the public are cordially invited to attend.

Pacific APA - Democracy at the Crossroads: Concerned Philosophers for Peace
2026-04-08 09:00 - 2026-04-12 17:00 (Europe/London)

Nietzsche on Love & Asceticism (2026 NANS @ P-APA)
2026-04-08 09:00 - 2026-04-12 17:00 (Europe/London)
Nietzsche on Love and Asceticism

Speakers: Samuel Filby: The New Ascetic Ideal Joel van Fossen: Nietzsche on love Melanie Shepherd: Meanings of Love in Nietzsche Commentator: Zoe Anthony (Univ. Tampa)

Philosophy of Time Society at the 2026 Pacific APA
2026-04-08 09:00 - 2026-04-12 17:00 (Europe/London)

North American Society for Social Philosophy at the 2026 APA Pacific
2026-04-08 09:00 - 2026-04-12 17:00 (Europe/London)
North American Society for Social Philosophy at the 2026 APA Pacific

Children and an Uncertain Future

Sponsored by the North American Society for Social Philosophy

April 8-12, 2026

All-Online Meeting

NASSP plans to host two affiliated group sessions during the APA Pacific Division Meeting on April 8-12, 2026. The theme for these sessions is Children and an Uncertain Future. This year's theme invites presentations on the future given challenges and opportunities presented by recent developments such as those in artificial intelligence, climate change, domestic and international conflicts, trade wars, and mass migration. Presentations may address these applied issues or engage theoretical topics such as longtermism and our responsibilities to future generations. Proposals for presentations in all areas of social philosophy (broadly construed) are welcome. Please see call for abstracts for more information.

SoPheRE at APA Pacific 2026
2026-04-08 09:00 - 2026-04-12 17:00 (Europe/London)
The Society for the Phenomenology of Religious Experience invites submissions of abstracts (300–500 words, not including references) for its group meeting at the Pacific APA (online, April 8–12, 2026). Accepted submissions will be given a 25-minute presentation time, with up to 15 minutes for Q&A. The topic of the panel should be approached within the frame of classical and contemporary phenomenology (e.g., Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Schutz, Gurwitsch, Hopp, D.W. Smith, and others), postfoundational phenomenology (e.g., Mensch, Salis), and post-Brentanian scholarship.

To submit, please fill out the following form by September 29. If your abstract contains characters or equations not easily expressible in the abstract text box below, please indicate this in that field, attach your abstract as a PDF, and email it to ols@sophere.org. Send questions to Olga Louchakova-Schwartz at ols@sophere.org, olouch@ucdavis.edu

Philosophy of Physics Society at the Pacific APA (2026)
2026-04-09 08:00 - 2026-04-12 17:00 (Europe/London)
The Philosophy of Physics Society invites submissions of abstracts (300–500 words, not including references) for its group meeting at the Pacific APA, which will be held online from April 8–12, 2026. Accepted submissions will be given a 25-minute presentation time, with 15 minutes for Q&A.

To submit, please fill out the form at the below link by September 26, 2025. Send questions to Sam Fletcher at scfletch@umn.edu.

https://forms.gle/xV4cNVTApTK987ZB9

ISEE at the Pacific APA Climate Hub
2026-04-09 09:00 - 2026-04-12 17:00 (Europe/London)
The American Philosophical Association’s 2026 Pacific Division meeting will be the second APA conference to be held virtually without a pandemic, for reasons of environmental sustainability and accessibility.

The Philosophers for Sustainability Climate Hub, which will have a similar structure to the ‘Teaching Hub’ at recent APA conferences, aims to make progress in practice toward addressing the climate crisis through research, teaching, curriculum development, event organizing, public philosophy, and institutional change. We anticipate including invited and submitted sessions on a range of topics connected to both philosophy and climate change, and will update this event page with details shortly.

See the associated call for papers here:

Philosophy in Technology Conference – 5th Edition: AI, Human Uniqueness, and Emerging Forms of Agency
2026-04-10 09:00 - 2026-04-11 17:00 (Europe/Warsaw) | Wrocław, Poland
Call for Contributions

Philosophy in Technology Conference – 5th Edition: AI, Human Uniqueness, and Emerging Forms of Agency.
10–11 April 2026

We invite contributions to the 5th edition of the annual event – Philosophy in Technology Conference. The overall objective of this conference is to reflect on the role of philosophy in technology and engineering. We seek studies of salient philosophical dimensions or underpinnings of technology that demonstrate how philosophical insights shed new light on what technology does or overlooks, and how technology is influenced by underlying philosophical assumptions.

The central topic of the 2026 conference is the evolution of AI toward human-like capacities. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved dramatically since its inception, from simple computational systems to advanced machine learning models capable of mimicking human behavior. At the same time, philosophical, ethical, and social implications concerning the nature of humanity, agency, and cognition have come to the forefront. We propose to explore two interconnected themes: the evolution of AI concepts toward human-like agents and the potential transformation or reduction of human uniqueness as AI systems advance.

The conference draws on a multidisciplinary approach, combining insights from AI research, philosophy of mind, cognitive science, ethics, and social theory. Key concepts from philosophy of technology, posthumanism, philosophy of mind, and machine ethics will be central to the analysis. Beyond these perspectives, the conference also invites participants to rethink the role of philosophy itself and the possibilities for philosophical inquiry in the context of emerging technologies.

Proposed topics may:

- Trace the historical development of AI from its initial conception to the present day, focusing on the increasing mimicry of human traits and behaviors.

- Examine the philosophical and ethical implications of creating AI systems that replicate human cognitive processes and behaviors.

- Investigate the transformation or reduction of human uniqueness in the context of AI's evolution, exploring how this affects our sense of identity, agency, and purpose.

- Provide a critical analysis of the intersection between human nature and machine intelligence as AI systems evolve.

- Explore potential futures for AI, considering the philosophical, social, and ethical challenges of creating increasingly human-like machines.

Presentation Formats

In addition to standard 20-minute presentations followed by discussion, the conference will feature a dedicated Flash Presentation & Poster Forum.

Flash presentations will consist of a 5-minute focused research talk, designed to present a clearly articulated thesis, conceptual framework, or emerging research problem. Each flash talk will be accompanied by a poster (printed or digital), enabling extended discussion during a structured poster session.

This format aims to:

- Encourage the presentation of work-in-progress and early-stage ideas,

- Foster concentrated argumentation and conceptual clarity,

- Promote informal yet rigorous scholarly exchange.

Participants are invited to indicate in their submission whether they wish to be considered for a standard presentation or for the Flash Presentation & Poster Forum.

Submission Guidelines

Presentation proposals should be between 500 and 600 words (including references -APA7 ) and submitted in PDF format. Together with the presentation proposal, please send a short CV (approximately 150words).

In the subject line, please write:
“Presentation Proposal: 5th PinT Conference.”

Proposals should be sent to:
philosophyintechnology[at]gmail.com

Conference participation is free of charge.

Conference Format

The workshop will take place:

- On 10 April 2026 in hybrid form – both on-site at Wrocław University of Science and Technology and online (Zoom platform),

- On 11 April 2026, online only (Zoom platform).

The language of the event is English.

For more information, please visit the conference homepage:
https://sites.google.com/pwr.edu.pl/pint-2026/main

Important Dates

- Submission deadline: 14 March 2026

- Notification of acceptance: 21 March 2026

- Conference schedule: 25 March 2026

- Conference dates: 10–11 April 2026

The workshop is organized by:
Wrocław University of Science and Technology;
Pontifical University of John Paul II;
Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (Commission on Philosophy of Science).

Any questions regarding the workshop may be sent to Łukasz Mściławski:
philosophyintechnology[at]gmail.com

Duquesne Philosophy Graduate Conference 2026
2026-04-10 09:00 - 2026-04-11 17:00 (America/New_York) | 600 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, United States, 15282
Philosophy Against Empire

April 10th-11th, 2026

Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA)

Department of Philosophy

A civilization that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilization. A civilization that chooses to close its eyes to its most crucial problems is a stricken civilization.

– Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism

From its inception in the slave economies of Hellenic states, Western philosophy has failed to grapple adequately with the topics of colonialism and imperialism. Even at its most “critical” – the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School, Foucauldian genealogy/archeology, Arendtian political philosophy, Western Marxists like Althusser, Bloch, Zizek, and Badiou – the colonial question and its relation(s) to imperialism have been underrepresented or neglected wholesale. To contribute meaningfully to global struggles for liberation, a rethinking and restructuring of Western thought is needed.

Some preliminary questions come to the fore. How do the material conditions of knowledge production in imperialism, in its past, present, and future forms, shape our theoretical projects? In what ways do the logics of imperialism and colonialism persist–or how have they mutated–in our contemporary moment? What positions, ideas, or preconceptions in the history of Western philosophy need to be rethought in light of the colonial question? Can these positions, ideas, and preconceptions be rehabilitated towards decolonial or anti-colonial ends?

The conference will occur April 10th to 11th, 2026 at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA. Speakers should prepare a ~20 minute presentation, with ~10 minutes of questions to follow.

Applicants should prepare anonymized abstracts for blind-review between 300-600 words, submitted via email as a .pdf or .docx document to duquesnegsipconference@gmail.com. Please additionally include a title page with the following information:

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Name

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Paper Title

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E-mail Address

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Institutional affiliation + department/program

Education, Culture, and Society
2026-04-10 09:00 - 2026-04-11 17:00 (America/New_York) | 800 Lancaster Ave, Villanova, United States, 19085
The relationship between culture, education, and politics has been a lively and enduring topic of philosophical discussion. As life-long teachers and learners, philosophers have an inherent interest in what it means to educate in academic settings and beyond. Recognizing that education does not take place in a vacuum, and in light of technological and political developments since the turn of the century, the need for a discussion of values and philosophical orientation in education has become increasingly apparent. As such, this conference seeks to investigate and reimagine the relationship between socio-political and educational systems. In doing so, we ask: how should we understand the increasing social, political, and cultural influence on the processes, institutions, and experiences of education? And conversely, what can, or should, be the role of education in shaping its broader context?

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We invite papers from all traditions that reflect on the relationship between culture, politics, and education from a philosophical perspective, including (but not limited to) submissions that address:

•History of philosophy of education

•Comparative educational philosophies across cultures and societies

•The aesthetic dimensions of education

•Cultural differences and tensions in educational contexts

•Educational inequalities, freedom, and liberation

•Perspectives on public-facing or political education

•Theoretical approaches to technical knowledge and skill acquisition

•The role of ethics and social justice in education

•Alternative and decentralized pedagogical movements

•Indigenous and non-western approaches to education

•Reflections on teaching philosophy

•The ongoing relationship of emerging technologies (such as A.I.) to learning and teaching

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To apply, please submit abstracts of no more than 800 words on this form (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd_DTYjxQxPSerlvD5nU0rlQp1EJEWw7k3VUQINjcfBlErsyA/viewform) by December 21st, 2025. Decisions will be communicated by early March, 2026. Papers should be prepared for 30-minute talks with a Q&A session. A limited number of online submissions will be accepted. Sessions will be held in Eastern Standard time (GMT-5).

Any further questions may be directed to mpolin02@villanova.edu or gschendl@villanova.edu.

LTT: Simon DeDeo - Alien Proofs
2026-04-10 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | University of Pittsburgh, 4200 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, United States, 15260
The Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh invites you to join us for our Lunch Time Talk. Attend in person at 1117 Cathedral of Learning or visit our live stream on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.

Lunch Time Talk - Simon DeDeo

Carnegie Mellon University & the Santa Fe Institute https://proofsandreasons.io

Friday April 10th @ Noon

Join us in person in room 1117 on the 11th floor of the Cathedral of Learning.

Title: Alien Proofs

Abstract:

It is now possible to write verifiably-correct proofs of sophisticated mathematical theorems in computer programming languages such as Lean. Coupled with recent developments in Generative Artificial Intelligence, this means we are now able to explore, for the first time, the space of mathematical proofs in ways that go beyond human intuition, capacity, and patience, and to answer, in new ways and through empirical study, questions that were previously the realm of science fiction and philosophical speculation: how do humans carve the space of mathematics? What regions do we leave unexplored and what lies beyond our ken? How do our cognitive limitations constrain us or, conversely, lead us to explanatory and fertile ground? I will present the first results from the Proofs and Reasons Project, a multidisciplinary collaboration between philosophers, cognitive scientists, mathematicians, and computer scientists. I will present the first statistical studies of artificially-generated proofs, constructed with, and without, human guidance; our first results on so-called "ablation" studies that demonstrate the existence of what we refer to as generative constraints; and the first results that probe the often misaligned preferences of humans and machines in cyborg proofs. These results challenge basic orthodoxies in the philosophy of mathematics, and provide new problems for philosophers of science, mathematics, and AI.

Joint work with Zephyr Fan, Bálint Gyevnár, and Eamon Duede, supported by Grant 63750 from the John Templeton Foundation.

This talk will be available online: Zoom: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/97095624890 and

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg

APA Pacific Public Session: Being Trans in Philosophy Zine Reading + Launch Party
2026-04-11 12:00 - 17:00 (Europe/London)
BEING TRANS IN PHILOSOPHY ZINE READING + LAUNCH PARTY @ APA Pacific

Free-to-Stream Public Session | No Registration Required

Saturday, April 11, 2026, noon–2pm PT (https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html) (click for your local time)

Zoom link (https://www.apaonline.org/mpage/2026pacific) (to be posted under “Public Sessions”)

Chair:

Naomi Scheman (University of Minnesota)

Speakers:

Ding (Barnard College) and Willow Starr (Cornell University), “Binding It Together: Collages of Philosophy in Transition,” editors’ introduction

Imogen Sullivan (Independent Scholar), “In Philosophy but Outside the University: Another Trans Philosopher Leaves the Ivory Tower”

Alex Adamson (Babson College), “Teaching while Trans”

Erin Beeghly (University of Utah), “A Parent’s Lament”

Emmie Malone (San José State University), “A Phenomenology of Lions”

Amy Marvin (Hamilton College), “Hack Philosophy”

roshni junia thangavelu truax (University of California, Berkeley), “Problem Case”

Perry Zurn (American University), “Dis/orientations”

Our thanks to Jenn Wang for organizing the session!

Kant’s Mature Cosmopolitanism in the Anthropocene
2026-04-14 08:00 - 09:30 (Europe/London)
I would like to draw your attention to the following online philosophy seminar series, hosting by the Center for International Philosophy at Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai this semester.

On April 14th, 8am China Standard Time, Lisa Ellis (Otago) will be presenting a talk titled "Kant’s Mature Cosmopolitanism in the Anthropocene." The respondent is YIN Shoufu (University of British Columbia).

Attendance is free.

Please register for the event by sending an email to:

m.dentith@bnu.edu.cn

for the Zoom link and password.

Abstract: Among political philosophers, Kant is known for a social contract theory that features the imperative to submit to the rule of law, administered by a state. The pure statist reading of Kant’s political philosophy emerges naturally from the following two ideas: first, for Kant the only innate right is to freedom from determination by another’s will; and, second, as dwellers on the surface of a watery globe, we cannot avoid affecting one another (for example, when we claim some property as our own, we are expecting everyone else to respect that). From these two ideas it follows that the only way to avoid wronging each other all the time--by imposing unilateral determinations on them--would be for everyone to submit to what Kant calls omnilateral determination in the civil condition, that is, to the rule of law. However, despite its clear attractions, the exclusively statist reading encounters difficulties both within Kant’s corpus and outside it. As early as 1784, Kant worried about the injustice of efforts to constrain the choices of future people; by 1797, his worries have multiplied, including problems of colonial injustice, the shortcomings of global concentration of power, and relations among pastoralists and more settled peoples. Following recent promising trends in the interpretation of the Metaphysics of Morals, I read Kant’s mature cosmopolitanism as demanding accountability among people whose actions affect each other, even when they cannot share a civil condition (and, especially, across generations). Humanity under Anthropocene conditions constrains the freedom of future generations in much the same way that the would-be intergenerationally tyrannical church synod criticised by Kant in 1784 sought to constrain the freedom of future generations to inquire into the truth of their religious commitments. Early social contract theory aimed to resolve problems of coordination and legitimacy for humans whose decisions were much less broadly consequential than our decisions today. I argue that Kant’s mature cosmopolitan social contract theory suits our Anthropocene circumstances, clarifying our obligations to one another while offering orientation for individuals and groups seeking principled courses of action as members of a species which has (among other things) already permanently altered the geological record.

Bio: Lisa Ellis is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Otago. Her current project, “the politics of planetary boundaries,” investigates how we can make environmental policy decisions that serve our interests in flourishing now and in the future. She has also written about the political philosophy of Immanuel Kant, social contract theory, Thomas Hobbes’s political theory, just transitions, climate adaptation, biodiversity management, the collective ethics of flying, and many other topics.

The meeting time is the 14th of April, 8am China Standard Time [12am GMT, April 14th]

Meeting time in other timezones:

- 10am Australian Eastern Standard Time

- 12pm New Zealand Standard Time

- 1am, British Standard Time - 5pm the previous day, Pacific Daylight Time

Mind-at-Large: A new Dawn
2026-04-15 09:00 - 2026-04-17 17:00 (Europe/London)
The Mind-at-Large is a three-year conference series, with associated film and other media, that investigates consciousness and its role in reality. The project seeks to challenge the common yet unnecessarily-restrictive worldview that posits that brains alone are required for consciousness. We seek to expand to a broader ‘mind-at-large’ set of theories by exploring mind’s presence across various scales, from quantum physics to ecosystems to the cosmos as a whole. This is a multidisciplinary project though anchored in Philosophy, looking at ideas including panpsychism, pantheism, 4E cognition, questions of AI and plant sentience, animism, perspectivism, idealism—as well as certain associated extraordinary phenomenologies such as those found in psychedelic states or paranormal phenomena. Prepare for the new paradigm.

JIS Symposium 2026: The Future of Democracy: Renewing Ordered Liberty
2026-04-15 09:00 (Europe/London)
CONFERENCE STRUCTURE:

Main Conference Program via Zoom: Saturday, 17 October 2026.

Format: Multidisciplinary panels and papers. Suggest PowerPoint presentations.

Keynote: TBA

Leitmotif: In search of virtues (the Tao) in the American Experiment.

Sponsors: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, International Christian Studies Association.

Hosted By: Omega Graduate School. Dr. David C. Ward, Zoom Coordinator.

Registration: Required (tax-deductible). Online Option via PayPal: Use PayPal Donate Button on JIS Symposium 2026 web: https://www.jis3.org/symposium2026.

REGISTRATION FEE *:

By April 15, 2026: Regular: $50, Student: $35.

After April 15, 2026: Regular: $75, Student: $50.

After May 15, 2026: Regular: $100, Student: $50.

* Registration Fee includes subscription to Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies.

Money Order/Travelers Check in U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank, payable to: ICSA. Mail Form & Payment to: Dr. O. Gruenwald, 1065 Pine Bluff Drive, Pasadena, CA 91107, USA.

For Credit Card: Use PayPal Donate Button on JIS Web: https://www.jis3.org/symposium2026.

Mind-at-Large
2026-04-15 14:00 - 2026-04-17 17:00 (Europe/London)

«Transcendental Turn in Contemporary Philosophy – 11: the "Problem of Method" and the Specificity of the Transcendental Research (Philosophy), Transcendentalism and Epistemology Cognitive Science, Artificial Intelligence»
2026-04-15 23:45 (Europe/Moscow) | H.26 Maronovsky lane, Moscow, Russia, 119049
STATE ACADEMIC UNIVERSITY OF THE HUMANITIES (https://www.linkedin.com/edu/russian-orthodox-institute-of-st.-john-theologian-16795)

RUSSIAN STATE UNIVERSITY FOR THE HUMANITIES

RUDN university

Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University

Scientific Council on the Methodology of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Foundation for the Humanities

XI INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIС WORKSHOP (conference)

Transcendental Turn in Contemporary Philosophy – 11: the «Problem of the Method» and the Specificity of the Transcendental Research, Transcendentalism and Epistemology Cognitive Science, and Artificial Intelligence

Dear Colleagues,

From April 23 to April 25, 2026, the XI Moscow international conference (workshop) «Transcendental Turn in Contemporary Philosophy – 11: the "Problem of Method" and the Specificity of the Transcendental Research (Philosophy), Transcendentalism and Epistemology Cognitive Science, Artificial Intelligence» will be held.

Faculty of Philosophy of the SAUH, Faculty of Philosophy of the RSUH, Faculty of philosophy of the RUDN university, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, SCMAI RAS and Foundation for the Humanities invite you to participate in the XI Moscow’s International Transcendental Workshop.

The workshop–2026 continues the series of thematic workshops “Transcendental Turn in Contemporary Philosophy” which were held in April 2016 (proceedings: https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=29024766), April 2017 (proceedings: https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=30560011), April 2018 (abstracts: https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=35240888), April 2019 (abstracts: https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=39452678, proceedings: https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=41494716), April/October 2020 (abstracts: https://elibrary.ru/item.asp? id=44404439), April 2021 (abstracts: https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=47196636; proceedings: https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=48458596); April 2022 (abstracts: https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=49505613; proceedings: https://www.academia.edu/93905826/); April 2023 (abstracts: https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=65509620; proceedings: https://www.academia.edu/110312071/); April 2024 (proceedings: https://www.academia.edu/117335170/); April 2025 (proceedings: https://www.academia.edu/128980080/)

Problematics / scope of the conference. In his definition of transcendental philosophy Kant postulates a shift (turn) from studying of objects to studying of [aprioristic] mode of cognition [CPR, B25]. On the one hand, such transcendental turn defines “the altered method of our thinking” [CPR, BVXIII] and leads to the “Copernican revolution” in metaphysics; on the other hand, the transcendental shift to studying of “mode of our cognition” predetermines the influence of a transcendentalism on contemporary development of epistemology, cognitive sciences and artificial intelligence.

The goal of the workshops is to discuss the transcendental turn in modern philosophy and its development in three main transcendental traditions: Kantian Transcendentalism, neo-Kantianism, Phenomenology.

Time: April 23 – 25, 2026

Venue: Russian Federation, Moscow: SAUH, RSUH, RUDN, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University

Format: there will be several thematic sessions in the hybrid format (in-person and online (hybrid)).

Participation forms: Thematic (section) talks (20 – 30 min.).

Deadline of order taking (theses) for participation — April 15, 2026.

To participate in the workshop it is necessary to send the entry (see ann.1 in att.) and abstracts (or theses of report for the Proceedings) (up to 160 / 2000 words; see ann.2/sample in att.) to e-mail transcendental2016@gmail.com. Theses must be provided with an abstract (160 words) and background information about the author (full name, degree, place of employment, contacts).

Organizing & Program Committee: Chairman – member of Russian Academy of Sciences V. Lektorsky, co-chairman PhD S. Katrechko, Prof. V. Belov, Dr. A. Alekseev, Dr. M. Zagirnyak, PhD А. Shiyan

Main themes (sessions) of the workshop:

23.04.2026 (SAUH)

Ø 1.1. The “altered method of our thinking” and “Copernican revolution” in Metaphysics;

Ø 1.2. Epistemology, Cognitive Science, and Artificial Intelligence: A Transcendental Approach;

24.04.2026 (RSHU)

Ø 2.1. The Problem of the Phenomenological Method;

Ø 2.2. Roundtable (Discussion): "What is Phenomenology?";

25.04.2025 (RUDN // Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University)

Ø 3.1. The problem of [transcendental] method in the neo-Kantianism – 1;

Ø 3.2. The problem of [transcendental] method in the neo-Kantianism – 2;

Conditions for participants: organizing committee does not cover travelling and living expenses, but willing to give necessary informational support.

Background information: e-mail transcendental2016@gmail.com

For additional information contact Katrechko Sergey (skatrechko@gmail.com; +7 (977)3824070) and Shiyan Anna (annasamoikina@yandex.ru; +7 (916)0511324).

Address of steering committee: room 225, H.26, Maronovsky Lane, Moscow, 119049, Russian Federation; +7 (499) 238-47-04.

The collection of abstracts is planned to be electronic published before the workshop start (Russian Science Citation Index). The Proceedings of the workshop is planned to be published. Chosen papers of the contributors will be published in “Studies in Transcendental Philosophy” (https://transcendental.su/; https://ras.jes.su/transcendental-en).

Yours respectfully, Conference Organizing Committee

Measuring the Mind - Conceptual Issues in Scientific Psychology
2026-04-15 23:00 (Europe/Bucharest) | Faculty of Philosophy, Splaiul Independentei, 204, Romania
Scientific questions in psychology are often framed under the assumption that constructs such as emotion, memory, intelligence, and disorder are stable, measurable entities. Yet growing empirical evidence challenges the assumption that these categories correspond to mind-independent ‘natural kinds’. Instead, they are heterogeneous, complex, dynamically emerging, context-sensitive, and ad-hoc instantiated; they are not tokens of fixed types but situated constructions that emerge from interactions among neural, bodily, and environmental factors. Variation across individuals, contexts, and times is therefore not noise or error, but a structural feature of psychological phenomena. Significant questions are raised about what psychology can meaningfully measure, explain, and replicate. What ontological commitments are implicit in contemporary psychological measurement practices? Does measurement discover psychological phenomena, partially constitute them, or merely stabilize patterns of variation for pragmatic purposes? To what extent do replication failures reflect construct instability rather than methodological error? If psychological categories are populations of variable instances rather than fixed types, how should this modify explanation, generalization, and theory-building? Are constructs better understood as tracking processes, patterns of variation, or situational regularities rather than latent entities? Would a conceptual shift, making variation the ‘default ontology’ in psychology, solve the problem of measurement?

The conference is organised by the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, and is open to PhD and MA students, as well as junior researchers (postdoc).

Date: May 29-30

Format: mixed

Contact email:measuringthemind@gmail.com

Organizers:

Drd. Daniela Nica

Drd. Sandra Branzaru

Measuring the Mind - Conceptual Issues in Psychology, Psychiatry and Cognitive Science
2026-04-15 23:00 (Europe/Bucharest) | Faculty of Philosophy, Splaiul Independentei, 204, Romania
Psychology, psychiatry, and cognitive science increasingly rely on sophisticated measurement technologies while remaining tied to inherited assumptions about what is being measured. Many constructs—emotion, memory, attention, intelligence, disorder—are still treated as if they were stable, homogeneous, mind‑independent natural kinds with latent quantitative essences, even as empirical work reveals pervasive heterogeneity, context‑sensitivity, and replication failure across domains such as affective neuroscience, psychopathology, and social cognition. At the same time, related debates in the philosophy of biology, metaphysics, and cognitive ontology emphasize conceptual relativity and the need to re‑engineer scientific categories in light of concept‑laden evidence.

This conference asks what follows for measurement and classification if psychological and psychiatric categories are better understood as populations of variable, situated instances or relational patterns in high‑dimensional spaces, rather than as tokens of fixed types. How should we think about constructs, latent variables, and diagnostic entities if variation is ontologically primary and averages are statistical abstractions? When do our instruments partially constitute the phenomena they purport to detect? To what extent do replication “failures” reveal construct instability or ontological mismatch rather than methodological error?

We invite contributions from philosophy of psychology and psychiatry, philosophy of cognitive science, philosophy of biology, metaphysics and metametaphysics, as well as empirically oriented work in psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience that engages these conceptual issues. Topics include, but are not limited to: cognitive and psychiatric ontology; natural kinds, homeostatic property clusters and relational or internal realism; measurement theory, psychometrics and the “quantitative imperative”; classification and re‑classification in psychiatry and cognitive science (e.g., RDoC, HiTOP); construct instability and the replication crisis; predictive processing and constructionist theories of mind and emotion; and the concept‑ladenness of evidence and data‑driven ontology re‑engineering.

Our aim is to articulate and critically assess conceptual frameworks that could underpin a “variation‑first” science of mind, in which explanation, generalization, and measurement are explicitly aligned with the heterogeneous, context‑bound phenomena they target.

The conference is organized by the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, and is open to MA and PhD students, early PhDs and postdocs, as well as established researchers in philosophy of psychology, psychiatry, cognitive science, philosophy of biology, and related empirical fields.

Submission of abstracts up to 300 words is welcome via email: measuringthemind@gmail.com

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Email subject line: “abstract submission”

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Anonymity: Please include identifying information (name, affiliation, contact email) in the body of the email and submit an anonymized abstract as attachment.

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Deadline for submissions: 15 April 2026

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Notification of acceptance: on or before 10 May 2026

Date: May 29-30

Format: mixed (in‑person and online)

Contact email:measuringthemind@gmail.com

Organizers:

Drd. Daniela Nica

Drd. Sandra Branzaru

Mythical Archipelagos: Islands, Narratives, and Imaginaries Across Cultures and Media International Interdisciplinary Seminar
2026-04-15 23:00 (Europe/Madrid) | Campus Obelisco , Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, 35004
Across cultures, historical periods, and media, islands have functioned as privileged sites of myth-making and imagination. Often perceived as bounded worlds, islands have generated narratives of origin and apocalypse, utopia and dystopia, exile and belonging, isolation and connection. From ancient mythologies to contemporary cultural production, from oral traditions to visual and digital media, and from colonial imaginaries to ecological discourses, islands have operated as narrative laboratories in which cultural anxieties, desires, and transformations are articulated.

The international seminar Mythical Archipelagos: Islands, Narratives, and Imaginaries Across Cultures and Media invites scholars to explore islands as mythical, symbolic, and narrative spaces. Myths are understood here in a broad sense: as foundational stories, cultural imaginaries, symbolic systems, and narrative frameworks that are inherited, transformed, reimagined, or contested in relation to insular spaces.

Rather than treating islands as merely geographic entities, this seminar approaches them as dynamic sites where overlapping temporalities, negotiated identities, and human and more-than-human relations converge. Particular attention will be given to environmental humanities, indigenous and postcolonial perspectives, and intermedial approaches, while remaining open to comparative, historical, theoretical, and interdisciplinary contributions.

Institutional Framework

This seminar is organised within the framework of the ANDRÓMEDA Project (Ref. PHS-2024/PH-HUM-76) and results from the collaboration between:

- Discourse, Communication and Society (DiCoS) – Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

- Studies on Intermediality and Intercultural Mediation (SIIM) – Universidad Complutense de Madrid

The event is hosted by the Department of Modern Philology, Translation and Interpreting (DFMTI) at ULPGC.

Topics of Interest

The seminar welcomes proposals from literary studies, cultural studies, linguistics, visual studies, environmental humanities, education, anthropology, history, media studies, and related disciplines. Contributions may address (but are not limited to) the following thematic areas:

A. Myth, Folklore, and Cultural Memory

- Reinterpretations and adaptations of myths and folklore in insular cultures

- Mythical islands (Atlantis, Avalon, Hy-Brasil, the Fortunate Isles, San Borondón, Antillia, etc.)

- Islands as repositories of collective memory, ancestral knowledge, and cosmological worldviews

- Syncretism, Christianisation, and transformation of indigenous mythologies

- Myth as resistance, survival, and cultural continuity in insular contexts

B. Islands, Childhood, and Pedagogy

- Islands in children’s and young adult literature as spaces of initiation, adventure, danger, or refuge

- Mythical geographies in fantasy narratives for young readers

- Environmental storytelling and eco-myths

- Ethical narratives of stewardship, activism, and sustainability

- Indigenous storytelling and publishing for children and adolescents

C. Environmental and More-than-Human Humanities

- Oceans and seas as mythic and more-than-human realms

- Island ecosystems, biodiversity, and ecological fragility

- Climate change, rising seas, and environmental precarity

- Mythic framings of catastrophe, resilience, and regeneration

- Human–nonhuman entanglements in island imaginaries

D. Isolation, Confinement, and Liminality

- Islands as sites of quarantine, psychiatric confinement, or penal colonies

- Mythic and symbolic dimensions of exile and enforced separation

- Islands as liminal or heterotopic spaces

- Solitude, alienation, and psychological thresholds

E. Migration, Belonging, and Contested Spaces

- Islands as contested or multiply occupied territories

- Imperial, colonial, and postcolonial island narratives

- Refugee detention, migratory control, and border regimes

- Diaspora, mobility, and insular identities

- Myths of origin, return, and home

F. Visual, Intermedial, and Nonfiction Representations

- Picture books and the iconography of islands

- Island myths in film, illustration, comics, and digital media

- Nonfiction narratives (history, memoir, science, travel writing) and myth

- Intermedial reconfigurations of island imaginaries

G. Mobility, Tourism, and Connectivity

- Travel systems to, from, and around islands

- Water as a medium of connection and separation

- Mythologies of exploration and discovery

- Tourism imaginaries and their cultural and environmental impact

H. Linguistic, Religious, and Ethnographic Insularity

- Preservation, erosion, or reinvention of insular identities

- Oral traditions and myth transmission

- Islands as contact zones: multilingualism, translation, code-switching, and cultural mediation

- Insular memory and trauma: disaster narratives, displacement, loss, and cultural resilience

Submission Guidelines

Languages: English or Spanish (other languages may be considered).

Abstracts: 250–300 words, including title, research question(s), methodology, and relevance to the seminar theme.

Presentation format: Please indicate whether you wish to propose an oral paper or a poster.

Author information: A brief biographical note (approx. 100 words), institutional affiliation, and contact details.

File format: One single Word document, using the official event template (available on the website).

Submission email: mythical-2026@ulpgc.es

Email subject line: “Mythical Archipelagos 2026 - Abstract submission”

Important Dates

Abstract submission deadline: 10 April 2026

Notification of acceptance: by 15 April 2026

Registration: 15 April - 2 May

6th International Conference on Philosophy of Mind: Artificial Intelligence (6ICPH)
2026-04-15 23:45 (Europe/Lisbon) | Via Panorâmica, s/n: 4150-564, Porto, Portugal
[Call for Abstracts]

6th International Conference on Philosophy of Mind: Artificial Intelligence (6ICPH)

Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

4-8 May 2026 (4-5 May, Online | 6-8 May, in-person)

About: The 6th International Conference on Philosophy of Mind: Artificial Intelligence (6ICPH) brings together researchers, academics, and students working on central problems in philosophy of mind, with this edition placing artificial intelligence at the center of the programme. Hosted by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto (Porto, Portugal), the conference invites dialogue across philosophy of mind, philosophy of cognitive science, and adjacent fields that take AI as both an empirical phenomenon and a conceptual stress-test for our theories of mentality. The guiding aim is to examine what contemporary AI — especially language-based and multimodal systems — does (and does not) illuminate about understanding, intentionality, representation, rationality, agency, and consciousness. Alongside classic debates (e.g., functionalism, computationalism, connectionism, embodied and enactive approaches), the conference foregrounds questions that have become newly urgent: whether large language models support attributions of semantic competence or merely simulate it; how norms of reasoning and explanation should be reconceived when behaviour emerges from distributed statistical structures; whether artificial systems can participate in social cognition (coordination, trust, testimony, deception) and what this implies for mindreading and second-person interaction; and how reliance on AI tools reshapes human cognition through extended and scaffolded practices (search, writing, memory, attention, and self-interpretation).The event runs in a hybrid format: online sessions on 4–5 May 2026, followed by in-person sessions on 6–8 May 2026 at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Porto.

PHILOSOPHY OF MIND AWARD 2026 (in-person talks only): The best-submitted abstract will receive the opportunity to deliver a special Award Talk similar to a keynote talk (note: the selected author will have the fee waived).

The final deadline to submit proposals in different research topics is April 15, 2026.

KEYNOTES SPEAKERS:

· Anil Seth is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex and Director of the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science.

· Diana I. Pérez is a Full Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and the Director of the IIF–SADAF–CONICET.

· Paul Thagard is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo, where he founded and directed the Cognitive Science Program.

· Gloria Andrada is a Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Institute of Philosophy (IFS), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Madrid.

· Miguel Pais-Vieira is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Sciences at the University of Aveiro (iBiMED).

· Ângela Leite is a Researcher at the Centre for Philosophical and Humanistic Studies (CEFH) at the Catholic University of Portugal (Braga).

· Marina Trakas is an Assistant Researcher at CONICET (Argentina) and next year (2026) she will be a FCT Researcher at the Centre for Philosophy at the University of Lisbon.

Topics might include (but are not limited to):

1. Consciousness, Subjectivity, and Artificial Systems

a. Competing theories of consciousness (global workspace, higher-order, predictive processing) and what they imply for AI
b. The “hard problem” and whether AI changes (or merely rephrases) it
c. Machine consciousness: criteria, tests, and the status of “phenomenal” ascriptions to AI

2. Perception, World-Modelling, and Machine Inference

a. Perception as active construction: implications for artificial perception (vision-language models, robotics)
b. Predictive coding, Bayesian perception, and AI as “prediction machines”
c. 4E cognition and AI: embodied agents, sensorimotor contingency, and situated learning

3. Representation, Meaning, and Intentionality in Humans and AI

a. Internalism vs. externalism under contemporary AI (training data, environment, social embedding)
b. From symbols to vectors: what do embeddings represent (if anything)?
c. Artificial intentionality: original vs. derived content; can AI have aboutness or only mimic it?

4. Reasoning, Rational Agency, and Autonomy

a. Reasoning beyond correlation: inference, explanation, and “competence vs. performance” in AI
b. Agency and control in human–AI systems: who acts when decisions are AI-mediated?
c. Bias, rationality, and epistemic norms: when AI recommendations count as reasons

5. The Self, Personal Identity, and Digital Mediation

a. Minimal, narrative, and extended self under AI scaffolding (assistants, recommender systems)
b. Memory, identity, and externalised cognition (search, notes, “AI memory”)
c. Uploading, duplication, and continuity: metaphysics of identity with AI simulations

6. Mind–Brain Relations and Computational Neuroscience

a. Reductionism vs. pluralism: what computational models explain (and what they don’t

b. First-person data in an AI age: experience sampling, neurophenomenology, and modelling

c. AI in neuroscience: limits of decoding, prediction, and mechanistic explanation

7. Explainability, Understanding, and Epistemic Responsibility

a. What counts as an explanation for a mind? Contrast: mechanistic, functional, and narrative explanation
b. Interpretability vs. justification: explanations for users, clinicians, regulators, and researchers
c. Trust, opacity, and epistemic dependence: when reliance on AI is rational (or negligent)

8. Ethics of AI, Neurotechnology, and Cognitive Liberty

a. Brain–computer interfaces and AI: agency, enhancement, and responsibility gaps
b. Neuroprivacy and “mind-reading” claims: conceptual and ethical boundaries
c. Governance of human–AI cognition: auditability, contestability, and moral crumple zones

9. Emotion, Social Cognition, and Human–AI Interaction

a. Affective states and AI: recognition, simulation, and the ontology of “emotion” in machines
b. Empathy, testimony, and trust in conversational AI
c. Moral cognition with AI advisors: persuasion, manipulation, and norm-shaping

10. Extended, Embedded, and Collective Minds in the Age of AI

a. Where does cognition end? LLMs as cognitive artefacts and “thinking with tools”
b. Language as a social technology: AI-driven standardisation and normative drift
c. Collective epistemology: AI, group cognition, and the reshaping of public reason

11. Psychiatry, Classification, and Algorithmic Diagnosis

a. Mental disorder: natural kinds, social constructs, and algorithmic categories
b. Prediction vs. understanding in computational psychiatry and clinical AI
c. Identity, stigma, and self-interpretation under diagnostic AI systems

12. Evolution, Cognition, and Artificial Minds

a. Evolutionary perspectives on intelligence: what AI lacks (development, embodiment, niche construction)
b. Modularity and architectures: are LLMs “general,” or just wide?
c. Language evolution and AI language: what “fluency” shows (and what it can’t show)

13. Attention, Salience, and Control in Humans and Machines

a. What is attention? Comparative models: neural attention vs. transformer “attention”
b. Control, distraction, and optimisation: how AI systems capture and steer attention
c. Situated attention: organism–environment loops, interfaces, and cognitive ecology

Special Track I: Artificial Intelligence and the Philosophy of Mind

This track explores the philosophical implications of AI, cognitive models, and the nature of artificial cognition. Topics may include:

a. Can AI be conscious? Theories of artificial consciousness

b. Computational models of thought and mental representation

c. AI and intentionality: can machines have beliefs and desires?

d. The problem of explainability in AI

e. LLMs, ChatGPT, DeepSeek: philosophical approaches

Special Track II: Conceptualizing Polysemy

The focus of this panel is on ways of capturing polysemy at the conceptual level. Work on the nature, structure and role of concepts expressed or encoded by polysemic words is welcome. Topics may include:

a. Arguments for “rich” or “thin” theories of lexical meaning of polysemous words

b. Approaches to co-predication

c. Accounts of communication with polysemous words

d. Mechanisms of sense-selection or alternatives to it

e. Experimental studies that bear on polysemy and have impact on the debate

f. Applications of the polysemy idea to less-discussed or novel expressions

FEES (accepted speakers)

· Early Stage (until 10 April 2026)

· Professionals (posdoc, professor, tenure-track): € 160,00

· Students: (Master, PhD): € 100,00

· Later Stage (10April – 30 April 2026)

· Professionals (posdoc, professor, tenure-track): € 220,00

· Students: (Master, PhD): € 150,00

FEES (attendance)

· Online Segment (4-5 May 2026, Microsoft Teams)

· Professionals (posdoc, professor, tenure-track): € 30,00

· Students: (Master, PhD): € 20,00

· In-Person Segment (6-8 May 2026, FLUP)

· Professionals (posdoc, professor, tenure-track): € 30,00

· Students: (Master, PhD): € 20,00

· Both Segments (4-5May 2026, Microsoft Teams + 6-8 May 2025, FLUP)

· Professionals (posdoc, professor, tenure-track): € 50,00

· Students: (Master, PhD): € 30,00

Languages of the colloquium: English and Portuguese.

SUBMISSIONS:

· IMPORTANT: you should clearly state if you are submitting for the online segment (OS) (4-5 May) or the in-person segment (PS) (6-8 May). If online, you need to provide a preferred day (4 or 5 May) and time schedule (Morning: 9h30-12h30; Afternoon: 14h00 – 18h) considering the Lisbon Time Zone.

· In-person submissions have a higher chance of being accepted (more slots available) and are automatically registered for the Philosophy of Mind Award 2026.

· Proposals should include two files: (in word. format: pdf. formats will not be accepted):

o (1) a cover page with identification, clear academic affiliation (if several, choose the main)

o (2) an anonymized title and abstract (maximum 250 words, up to 10 references)

o (3) sent to interconfphilmind@gmail.com

· Paper duration: 30 minutes (20 minutes presentation + 10 minutes for discussion);

· Notification Info: in order to facilitate the request for funding of the accepted talks so speakers can prepare their travel in advance, notification of acceptance or rejection will be given in a 7-10 days period (review) after the submission;

· Publications: Some of the papers presented at the conference are expected to be published in several projects (edited volume, special issue, etc.; the publication process will be independent and optional; more details after the conference);

· Any doubts or concerns can be addressed to: interconfphilmind@gmail.com

Venue: Faculty of Humanities of the University of Porto (Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto) | Address: Via Panorâmica, s/n: 4150-564, Porto, Portugal.

Organization: Mind, Language and Action Group | Institute of Philosophy | University of Porto

Organizing Committee

Steven S. Gouveia (Chair)

Sofia Miguens

Dan Zeman

Rafael Antunes Padilha

Jéssica Azevedo

Maria Luiza llenaco

Thales Maia

Inês Silva

Support:

CEEC Project by FCT 2022.02527.CEECIND

TL Modern & Contemporary Philosophy

RG Mind, Language and Action Group (MLAG)

Instituto de Filosofia da Universidade do Porto – UID/00502

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

Thinking About God: Historical Perspectives
2026-04-16 09:00 - 2026-04-17 17:00 (Europe/London) | Edinburgh, United Kingdom
We are pleased to announce the upcoming conference ‘Thinking about God: Historical Perspectives’. We invite scholars, early career researchers, and graduate students working in philosophy, theology, and related disciplines to the University of Edinburgh to explore the views of historical philosophers on the relationship between God and the human mind. The conference will take place on the 16-17th April 2026, in room G.32, 7 George Square.

God is no ordinary entity. Historically, many philosophers have taken God to be infinite, transcendent, eternal, and simple. Such conceptions appear to demand an account of how it is possible to think of such a being. In apophatic traditions, philosophers like Plotinus argued that we cannot think about God in positive terms at all. Others, such as Aquinas, argued that the human mind can at best infer certain things about God. Others still, such as Descartes, held that the divine essence could be understood positively by pure intellection. The aim of this conference, then, is to discuss the views of various historical thinkers on the question of how, if at all, it is possible to think about God.

The conference program is as follows:

April 16

9:15 Welcome Remarks

Session 1

9:30-10:15 ‘Thinking About God in Islamic Theology: A Case for Moderate Apophaticism’, Mesfer Alhayyani (Kuwait University)

10:15-11:00 (Online) ‘Knowing God and the Limits of Human Cognition in Ibn Sīnā’, Husayn Ibrahim (LMU München)

11:00-11:15 Break

Session 2

11:15-12:00 'Philoponus on God's Power and Will to Create in Analogy to the Soul', Alfonso Herreros Besa (LMU München)

12:00-12:45 ‘Spinoza on God’s Two Kinds of Necessary but Non-essential Properties’, Antonio Salgado Borge (University of Nottingham)

12:45-14:15 Lunch Break

Session 3

14:15-15:00 ‘Spinoza on Virtue and the Knowledge of God’, Kenneth Novis (University of Oxford)

15:00-15:45 (Online) ‘Mirrors of God: Leibniz’s Understanding of the Divine’, Charles Joshua Horn (University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point)

15:45-16:15 Break

Keynote

16:15-17:15 (Online) TBC Fatima Amijee (University of British Columbia)

April 17

Session 1

9:30-10:15 ‘Thinking of God in Relational Terms in the Middle Ages: The Account of Gerald Odonis (ca. 1285/90–1349)’, Kamil Majcherek (Cambridge University/KU Leuven)

10:15-11:00 ‘Albert the Great and the Four Stages of Ethical Ascent: From Moral Virtue to Divine Intellect’, Tracy Wietecha (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science)

11:00-11:15 Break

Session 2

11:15-12:00 ‘The Lovable Idea of God for an Embodied Mind: A Phenomenology of Belief and Affectivity from a Cartesian Perspective’, Chloé Mathys (Université de Genève/ENS-Lyon)

12:00-12:45 ‘Thinking about Divine Subjectivity: Aquinas and Zagzebski’, Heather Perfect (University of York)

12:45-14:15 Lunch Break

Session 3

14:15-15:00 ‘Human Cognition and Divine Longings: Plato on God, Knowledge, and Epistemic Transcendence’, Cristiana Sessini (University of Oxford)

15:00-15:45 ‘How Can We Speak of the Ineffable? Expressing the One in Plotinus’ Philosophy’, Raminta Ignatavičiūtė (Vilnius University)

15:45-16:15 Break

Keynote & Thomistic Institute Lecture

16:15-17:15 ‘Raising the Mind to God: Thomas Aquinas’s Triplex Via (Causality, Negation, and Eminence)’, Daniel De Haan (University of Oxford)

The conference is hybrid and can be attended online via Zoom. For the Zoom link, or other inquiries, please email Boxiang Yu (s2445351@ed.ac.uk) or Karim Shoaib (s1915203@ed.ac.uk).

This conference is supported by Edinburgh University’s School of Philosophy, Psychology, and Language Sciences, the British Society for the History of Philosophy, the Scottish Philosophical Association, and the Thomistic Institute.

Organizers: Boxiang Yu, Karim Shoaib, Emma Cohen-Edmonds

Memory, Affects and Emotions - 8th International Interdisciplinary Conference
2026-04-16 12:00 - 2026-04-17 17:00 (Europe/London)
Conference online (via Zoom)

Scientific Committee:

Professor Wojciech Owczarski – University of Gdańsk, Poland
Marzia Dessi - The European Graduate School [EGS] Saas Fee, Switzerland

Professor Ryan Habermeyer - Salisbury University, USA

CALL FOR PAPERS:

Affects, emotions and perceptions have always been at the center of philosophical discussion. Yet the so-called “Affective turn” in social studies and humanities is a relatively new phenomenon inspired by Deleuze and Guattari´s influential works among others. Affective turn challenges the still dominant representational approach in semiotics, discourse analysis and text analyses of all kinds.

Its goal is to overcome human exceptionalism together with the domination of the word-based language over the other forms of expression in the process of creating meaning and knowledge altogether. Brian Massumi in The Politics of Affect (2015) defines affect as “being right where you are – more intensely” based on the bodily experiences of the relations with the world.

He compares affect with the hope that can motivate one´s contribution to the formation of a just and more inclusive society, the urgent transformation that has to start with the changes in the ontology.

The aim of the present conference is to create an academically challenging and productive space for discussion of affect based research practices throughout disciplines. We are particularly interested in exploring the potential of affective turn in memory studies. As an interdisciplinary conference, we consider it important to discuss possible differences and similarities in the definitions of the affects as well as in the approaches to their studies and their application in research practice.

We encourage researchers from various academic fields to join the discussion: anthropology, history, psychology, psychoanalysis, psychiatry, sociology, politics, philosophy, economics, law, memory studies, consciousness studies, literary studies, theatre studies, film studies, migration studies, gender studies, postcolonial studies, medical sciences, cognitive sciences and urban studies, to name but a few.

We will be happy to hear from both experienced scholars and young academics at the start of their careers, as well as doctoral and graduate students. We also invite all persons interested in participating in the conference as listeners, without giving a presentation.

The topics for the conference include but are not limited to the following suggestions:

-

Affects, emotions and memory

-

Corporeal experiences in memory studies

-

New materialist and feminist approach to memory studies

-

Materiality of memory

-

Corporeal experiences of everyday life

-

Affects and health

-

Affects, consciousness and dreams

-

Affects, emotions and trauma

-

Creativity as corporeal experience

-

Affects and crime

-

Affective turn in the discourse studies

-

Emotions and political thought

-

Affective turn in visual analysis

-

Affects in literature

-

Affects in film

-

Theatre as emotion and bodily practice

-

Affects and embodiment in science

Please submit abstracts (no longer than 300 words) of your proposed 20-minute presentations, together with a short biographical note, by 27 March 2026 to: conferencememory@gmail.com

For all details please visit our website: 8th "Memory, Affects and Emotions" Conference (https://www.inmindsupport.com/memory-affects-and-emotions-conference)

Varieties of Harmony in Greek and Chinese Philosophy
2026-04-16 09:00 - 2026-04-17 17:00 (America/New_York) | Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, Room C105, Ahmadieh Lecture Hall, Durham, United States
The workshop, “Varieties of Harmony in Greek and Chinese Philosophy,” will take place at Duke University on April 16–17, 2026, with sessions running 9:00 AM–5:00 PM each day. It is an interdisciplinary workshop that brings together scholars of ancient Greek philosophy and early Chinese philosophy to explore different conceptions of interpersonal harmony, including family relationships, friendship, civic cooperation, ethical cultivation, and social/political relations. The event aims to foster comparative dialogue across traditions and to highlight both convergences and important differences in how interpersonal harmony is understood and cultivated. The workshop is organized by Wenjin Liu and David Wong.

Kripke's Legacy on Fictional Names
2026-04-16 17:00 - 19:00 (Europe/London)
The next meeting of the Sign-Language-Reality seminar in the academic year 2025/26 will take place:

Thursday, the 16th of April 2026, 17.00, Central European Time

Louis Rouillé

(LanCog, University of Lisbon)

will deliver a talk:

Kripke's Legacy on Fictional Names

Abstract:

Kripke’s John Locke lectures are a seminal contribution to the
semantics of fictional names and to the metaphysics of fictional characters. In
this paper, I extensively analyse Kripke’s original proposal, in light of recent
developments in the research program that he got up and going. First, I show how
he reshaped the logical space of the semantics of names by defending the view
that the distinction between real and fictional names and the distinction
between full and empty names should be construed as orthogonal distinctions.
Second, I analyse his brand of artefactualism, which I call “dynamic”, as
articulating the metaphysical view of fictional characters as parts of fictional
works, with a semantic constraint that fictional characters act as truth-makers
for metafictional discourse. This articulation distinguishes it from “static”
artefactualism, which shares a similar metaphysical outlook without abiding by
the semantic constraint. I end up by displaying some internal tensions and
inconsistencies within Kripke’s program, thus qualifying the often proclaimed
success of dynamic artefactualism. I conclude with some speculations on the
relationship between semantics and ontology, from the vantage point of the
philosophy of fiction.

About the speaker:

Louis Rouillé is a philosopher whose work focuses on the philosophy of fiction, with particular interests in fictional names, imagination, aesthetics, logic, and metaphysical questions about fictional characters. He is the aithor of several papers published in (among other things) in Ethics and Information Technology, Topoi, Grazer Philosophische Studien, Synthesis, Ogranon F, and Argumenta.

Speaker's webiste: https://rouillel.github.io/

The seminar will be held online, to join the meeting, please use the information below:

Join Zoom Meeting https://uw-edu-pl.zoom.us/j/92716044372?pwd=[REDACTED]

Meeting ID: 927 1604 4372 Passcode: [REDACTED] The meeting opens at 4:45 pm, the talk starts at 5 pm.

https://www.pts.edu.pl/seminarium

sincerely,

Tadeusz Ciecierski

Companion Chatbots, Virtue Theatre, and Hermeneutic Harm
2026-04-17 14:00 - 15:30 (Australia/Melbourne) | Monash Clayton Campus, Melbourne, Australia
Abstract: Companion chatbots such as Replika, Pi, and Character.AI increasingly simulate and participate in emotionally rich relationships with users, provoking forms of moral and affective engagement typically reserved for human agents. While recent regulatory efforts, such as California’s SB 243, aim to mitigate deception by requiring disclosures about a chatbot’s artificial nature, these measures overlook a deeper moral risk. LLMs (such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Co-Pilot) and companion chatbots can display what we call artificial virtue: behavioural patterns that mimic the outward signs of genuine moral virtue without being grounded in the inner states necessary for true moral agency. When such systems communicate using the language of care, honesty, compassion, or remorse, they produce virtue theatre: performances that through the appearance of virtue invite users to adopt reactive attitudes such as gratitude, resentment, or forgiveness. Because AI systems are not appropriate targets of these attitudes, users cannot regulate them through the interpretive practices that normally sustain moral understanding. This mismatch generates a systematic risk of hermeneutic harm: a prolonged inability to make sense of one’s emotional responses or experiences. We argue that virtue theatre is a structural feature of companion chatbots and that its associated harms cannot be fully mitigated by transparency requirements alone. We conclude by outlining design and policy interventions to reduce the risk of hermeneutic harm.

Join Zoom meeting:

https://monash.zoom.us/j/86351045263?pwd=[REDACTED]

Meeting ID: 863 5104 5263 // Passcode: [REDACTED]

Theory and Practice after the Practice Turn – Where Social Theory and Empirical Philosophy meet
2026-04-17 09:00 - 17:00 (Europe/London)
Sociology and philosophy have always shared a close relationship. Critical Theory famously tied the two disciplines together to unravel societal phenomena, and feminist philosophers regularly borrow
sociological concepts to understand domination and power asymmetries. Similarly, sociologists often draw on philosophical concepts to sharpen their analyses. In recent years, this dialogue has gained new momentum through the so-called "practice turn" in epistemology and philosophy of science. Contemporary philosophy of science and applied epistemology increasingly incorporate empirical methods originally developed within the social sciences such as interviews and ethnographic studies. But while empirical approaches from sociology are frequently adopted, social-theoretical concepts remain rarely integrated within epistemology and philosophy of science.

It is the goal of this workshop to explore the potential of social theory for empirical approaches in philosophy of science and epistemology. What are instances of fruitful applications of social theory to philosophy of science and epistemological scholarship? How does social theory transform when it is resituated in a different disciplinary setting? What are caveats and best practices when using social theory as a philosopher of science/epistemologist?

Great Lakes Philosophy Conference: "Against the Current: Resistance in an Age of Suppression"
2026-04-17 09:00 - 2026-04-19 17:00 (Europe/London)
2026 Great Lakes Philosophy Conference

Against the Current: Resistance in an Age of Suppression

Dates: April 17-19, 2026

Location: Virtual, via Microsoft Teams

*NEW* Deadline for Submissions: February 15th, 2026

*NEW* Notification of Acceptance: February 22nd, 2026

We invite submissions for an upcoming interdisciplinary conference exploring the theme of Resistance.

Resistance takes many forms; individual, structural, cultural, epistemic, and beyond. In recent years, we have witnessed a resurgence of resistance to resistance: increasing attacks on academic freedom, book bans, the politicization of public education, the undermining of scientific and social consensus, and the erosion of democratic processes. At the same time, we have also seen powerful and creative acts of dissent, disruption, and defiance.

This conference aims to explore the complexities of resistance; its moral and political dimensions, its philosophical foundations, its practical applications, and its presence across disciplines. We welcome presentations that engage with the idea of resistance from a wide range of perspectives, including (but not limited to):

- The ethics and aesthetics of resistance

- Academic freedom, censorship, and public discourse

- Environmental and energy justice

- Embodiment, vulnerability, and radical empathy

- Race, gender, and the politics of refusal

- Histories of protest and social movements

- Civil disobedience and nonviolent action

- Political and ethical theory

- Resistance in art, literature, media, and public space

- The epistemology of dissent and silencing

Interdisciplinary approaches to systems change and disruption

This year’s keynote speakers, Dr. George Yancy (Emory University) and Dr. Tony Reames (University of Michigan), bring distinct yet complementary insights to our shared exploration of resistance: from the embodied and existential urgency of anti-racist public philosophy, to the pursuit of equity in energy access and environmental policy.

We welcome proposals from:

- High school, undergraduate, and graduate students

- Faculty and independent scholars

- Practitioners, activists, and community leaders

Researchers and students from fields such as philosophy, law, political science, history, public policy, environmental studies, religious studies, education, social science, health, the arts, and beyond.

Individual and joint presentations are welcome; however, each presenter must register separately. We are especially committed to creating a welcoming, inclusive, and intellectually rigorous space for underrepresented voices and perspectives.

**There will be a prize for the best undergraduate student paper.**

**There will be a prize for the best graduate student paper.**

**There will be a prize for the high school student paper.**

To apply, please submit an extended abstract of up to 500 words through the GLPC Abstract Submission Form (linked below).

Final papers from professionals and graduate students should be suitable for 20-minute presentations, and final papers from undergraduate and high school students should be suitable for 15-minute presentations. All presentations should aim to be accessible and lively as part of constructive, collaborative, welcoming sessions.

Keynote Speakers:

Dr. George Yancy, Samuel Dobbs Professor of Philosophy, Emory University

Dr. Tony G. Reames, Tishman Professor of Environmental Justice, University of Michigan

The Great Lakes Philosophy Conference is being hosted by the Siena Heights University philosophy department with generous support fromA2Ethics.

Send any questions about the conference toLharper3@sienaheights.edu.

Please note that there will be a small registration fee associated with participation in this conference to help cover conference costs.

PhiloSOPHIA 2026
2026-04-17 09:00 - 2026-04-18 17:00 (America/New_York) | 800 E. Lancaster Ave, Villanova, United States, 19085
Join us for philoSOPHIA 2026: Time in Feminist Philosophy, hosted at Villanova University on April 17–18, 2026. This conference features a keynote address "Temporalities of Revolt: or, how to begin an ending" by Dr. Jill Stauffer of Haverford College on Friday, April 17, at 6:30 PM in the Driscoll Auditorium. The program includes panels and workshops on topics such as the phenomenology of temporality, feminist philosophy of age and aging, crip, queer studies on time, ecofeminist thought on future, decolonial discussion of time, Black feminism and intersectional approaches to time. The conference will be hybrid. Please follow the links for registration, program, and more information. For questions, please contact Chris Ma at jingchao.ma@villanova.edu.

Inteligența artificială: perspective filosofice (Artificial Intelligence: Philosophical Perspectives)
2026-04-18 10:00 - 17:00 (Europe/Bucharest) | Bucharest, Romania
The programme and more details are going to be posted soon.

For any information, you can send a message to: paula_pompilia.tomi@upb.ro

Artificial Intelligence is a rapidly expanding field of inquiry. Philosophical engagement with AI spans multiple areas, including ethics, philosophy of mind, and epistemology. It raises fundamental questions such as: Can an AI know? Does an AI understand? What conception of truth is appropriate in the context of AI? Can an AI be considered a moral agent? Who is responsible when AI systems fail?
These questions are not merely theoretical; they have direct implications for technological development and practice. The conference aims to bring together philosophers and engineers working on AI, encouraging dialogue across fields and a deeper understanding of the conceptual and practical challenges raised by artificial intelligence.

East Tennessee Rural Biomedical Ethics Conference
2026-04-18 09:30 - 17:00 (Europe/London)
Rural contexts present unique challenges for medicine – and thus, unique challenges for biomedical ethics.

The Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at East Tennessee State University will host an inaugural virtual conference on contemporary issues in rural biomedical ethics on Saturday April 18th, 2026. The event is co-sponsored by the Center for Rural Health and Research housed in the College of Public Health at East Tennessee State University.

The conference will be held online via zoom. Each selected presenter will have 30 minutes to present followed by a 15 minute Q&A period. Presentations should focus on any contemporary or pressing issue in rural biomedical ethics, health care ethics, or public health ethics, or on any related issues in philosophical or social-epistemic approaches to rural medicine broadly construed.

Example topics may include: issues related to the social determinants of health in rural contexts, e.g., economic resources, education, resource allocation, access to services, etc., clinical considerations of confidentiality, familiarity, and blurred personal/professional boundaries, cultural and social issues arising from stigma, stereotype, and related instances of epistemic injustice, the uniqueness of rural healthcare ethics versus 'urban' healthcare ethics, issues on topics disproportionately affecting rural contexts, e.g. drug abuse, or the ethics of rural advocacy and community-based and resilience-oriented research. Interdisciplinary and case-study approaches are also very welcome.

To apply, please submit an abstract of 300-500 words to EastTNRuralBiomedEthicsConf@gmail.com by Februrary 20th, 2026. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out no later than March 6th, 2026. In your submission, please include your name, affiliation, and willingness to attend the entirety of the conference (9:30am-3:15pm EST), as preference will be given to those who are able to fully participate.

Please email EastTNRuralBiomedEthicsConf@gmail.com with any questions.

What Is Wrong with Slurs?
2026-04-20 14:30 - 16:00 (Europe/London)
The Slurring Terms Across Languages (STAL) network (https://sites.google.com/view/stalnetwork/home), an international and interdisciplinary network whose primary aim is to promote work on slurs, pejoratives, expressives and evaluative terms from less studied languages, invites you to the seventh talk of the 2025-2026 academic year. The invited speaker is Robin Jeshion (University of Southern California), who will give a talk entitled "What Is Wrong with Slurs?" (see the abstract below). The event will take place online on Monday, APRIL 20, 14:30-16:00 Central European Time (CET), and is part of the of STAL network seminar series (program here: https://sites.google.com/view/stalnetwork/seminar). If you want to participate, please write to stalnetwork@gmail.com for the Zoom link.

All welcome!

ABSTRACT:

Many forms of verbal discourse are dangerous and cause harm, yet slurs are repeatedly distinguished for special moral censure, so much so that in many liberal democracies, their use is not legally protected. What is wrong with using them? In this paper, I aim to illuminate why slurs are rightly singled out for special, deeper social censure. Such acts do typically perform wrongs and cause numerous harms: they negatively stereotypes, reductively de-individualize, create and perpetuate social hierarchies and social exclusion, and undermine the target group’s reputation, as many researchers have shown. Nevertheless, I believe none of these captures the distinctive moral wrong in slurring speech acts. To illuminate their moral dimension, I take inspiration from moral-psychological work on degradation, humiliation, and dehumanization, as well as work on the distinctive wrong in interrogational torture. Sussman, Luban, and Kramer have argued that what is distinctively wrong with interrogational torture is not the extreme pain itself – though of course it is wrong for that. What makes torture distinctively wrong is it being used as a tool to humiliate by forcing the victim via their affective experience to, effectively, collude with the torturer, and do so against their will. To torture, the torturer ensures that the victim experiences their own agency as undermined, as ‘owned’ by the torturer. Building on these ideas, I argue that a prime source of the perniciousness in weapon uses of slurs that distinguishes them from other harmful types of speech parallels a deep wrong inherent to torture: the perversion and undermining of the slur’s target’s agency by forcing them to perceive and experience themselves as lesser humans. Weapon uses of slurs in the conditions of most vulnerability are best seen as micro-linguistic acts of torture. I close this paper by addressing the moral dimension of slur-mentions. I argue that there is a foundational moral wrong in slur-mentions, one that is parasitic on the moral wrong in using slurs. Slurs, the words themselves, function as representations of the perversion and undermining of their target group’s agency, akin to the way photographic representations of torture (and lynching and rape) function. In non-legal or non-education contexts, they can be abused, with the representations serving as additional symbolic humiliations and affronts to the human dignity of the target groups.

Ajdukiewicz, Lakatos, and the Rationalization of Conventionalism
2026-04-20 15:00 - 16:30 (Europe/London)
Call for Participation
AP in V4 Lecture Series — Analytic Philosophy in Visegrad Countries

Title: Ajdukiewicz, Lakatos, and the Rationalization of Conventionalism
Speaker: Adam Grobler (University of Opole)
Date and time: 20 April 2026, 15:00–16:30 CET (3:00–4:30 p.m. CET)
Format: Online lecture (5/9 in the lecture series)

Organised by: Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica (Slovakia), University of Ostrava (Czech Republic), and University of Warsaw (Poland), with the support of the Visegrad Fund.
Project website: https://ff.osu.eu/ap-in-v4/
Lecture series page: https://ff.osu.eu/ap-in-v4/lectures/

If you are interested in joining, please contact: zuzana.rybarikova@osu.cz

Abstract

In his famous paper (1970), Lakatos described the methodology of scientic rese-
arch programmes (MSRP, henceforth) as a rationalization of conventionalism.
What he had in mind was that MSRP removes the conventionalist residues from
Popperian falsicationism while retaining its general spirit. First, Lakatos’s MSRP
and Ajdukiewicz’s concept of a conceptual apparatus will be sketched. Next, it will
be argued that Ajdukiewicz, as early as 1934, although he adopted the label of radi-
cal conventionalism for his standpoint, in many ways anticipated Lakatos’s strategy
for combating the core of conventionalism. Admittedly, the two philosophers put
forward their proposals in dierent contexts of philosophical debate—the former
aiming to generalize French conventionalism, the latter attempting to rene
Popper’s falsicationism. Still, on a liberal reading of Ajdukiewicz’s concept of
a conceptual apparatus, its constitutive meaning-rules can be interpreted as de-
nitional elements of Lakatos’s hard core of a scientic research programme, while
the evolutionary tendencies of conceptual apparatuses seem to play the role
Lakatos assigned to the criteria for classifying a programme as progressive.

About the speaker

Adam Grobler is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Opole. His research centers on epistemology and the philosophy of science, with important work on knowledge, presupposition, and, more recently, hinge epistemology. He is the author of books including Prawda a względność (Truth and Relativity), Metodologia nauk (Methodology of Science), and Epistemologia. Sandwiczowa teoria wiedzy (Epistemology: A Sandwich Theory of Knowledge), and he has published over fifty scholarly works, including papers such as “Truth, Knowledge, and Presupposition,” “The Sandwich Theory of Knowledge,” and “Radical Conventionalism and Hinge Epistemology.”

https://ff.osu.eu/ap-in-v4/

Philosophy of Psychiatry & Lived Experience Annual Workshop
2026-04-20 23:00 (Europe/London)
The Philosophy of Psychiatry & Lived Experience Network is holding its 6th annual workshop this year online on 22 June 2026 to discuss how experiences of mental illness inform our philosophical enquiry or offer insights that are of philosophical significance. We invite scholars from philosophy and other disciplines who have lived experience of mental illness, neurodiversity or other mental difference to join us for what is always a fruitful and enlightening series of discussions.

Deadline for abstract submission is 20 April.
Please submit 500 word anonymised abstracts to philpsylivedexp@gmail.com with the subject line ‘PoPLEX CFA 2026’.

We will inform successful applicants by 1 June.
The workshop will be held on Mon 22nd June. The workshop will be held online to ensure that the widest range of participants can join us.

We look forward to your submissions, and hope to see you in June. We would also be grateful if you would circulate this CFA in your networks.

To learn more about the Philosophy of Psychiatry & Lived Experience network, take a look at our website at: https://poplex.squarespace.com/

https://poplex.squarespace.com/

Grains of Sand & Stars in the Sky: Science and Theology from the microscopic to the cosmic
2026-04-20 23:00 (Europe/London)
From the moment early microscopes unveiled a hidden world of exquisite complexity in the 16th century, and the first telescopes revealed the vast splendour of the heavens in the 17th, scientific discovery has continually expanded our sense of wonder. Each new window into the natural world has brought not only advances in knowledge but also profound theological and philosophical questions.

Today, the sciences continue to push the boundaries of the observable—from the subatomic realm to the furthest edges of the cosmos. These explorations invite renewed reflection on creation, purpose, and the place of humanity within an ever‑deepening picture of reality. They also open fresh opportunities for constructive dialogue between scientific inquiry and religious thought.

This conference will explore how contemporary understandings of both the minute and the immense prompt theological engagement, shape religious imagination, and offer new possibilities for integrating scientific insight with faith traditions. Bringing together scholars from diverse disciplines, we will examine how science and religion can meaningfully converse in light of discoveries that challenge, enrich, and inspire.

Approximate running times BST (tbc):

15th May: 12noon - 5pm (conference) Gowland Lecture (7:30 tbc)

16th May: 9am - 2pm

* note whilst all papers must engage with science and religion/worldviews the Forum welcomes submissions related natural and/or social sciences.

While submissions on any relevant theme are welcome, proposals may wish to engage with one or more of the following areas:

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The Very Small: Subatomic Physics, Quantum Phenomena, and Theological Reflection
How do contemporary understandings of quantum reality, particle physics, or emergent complexity influence theological anthropology, divine action, or metaphysical models?

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The Very Large: Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Questions of Creation
What religious questions arise from current models of cosmic origins, multiverse theories, dark matter and energy, or the expanding universe?

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Aesthetics, Wonder, and the Scientific Imagination
How might the beauty, intricacy, and apparent fine‑tuning of the natural world inspire new forms of theological wonder, spirituality, or liturgical expression?

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Interdisciplinary Opportunities for Dialogue Between Science and Faith
In what ways can emerging scientific fields—such as astrobiology, AI, systems biology, or neuroscience—open fresh pathways for constructive engagement with religious traditions?
