Topic description:
\nIn what ways can economic inequality undermine the proper functioning of democracy? Are carbon taxes morally desirable\, also in non-ideal circumstances? How can green industrial policy be designed to respect\, or even further\, egalitarian goals? What is the value of economic growth? What are the moral harms and benefits of (labor) market competition? \; \;
\nQuestions at the intersection of ethics and economics are hotly debated both in academic philosophy and in public policy circles. The aim of this summer school is to bring together graduate students and recently completed PhDs working on economic ethics and take a deep-dive into philosophical debates about climate change\, labor markets\, and taxation\, with some of the leading researchers on these issues. \; \;
\nLeaning goals:
\nThe goals of the course are threefold: \;
\nCosts:
\nHow to register:
\nThe registration deadline is March 31 2026. \;If registration has been closed because the maximum amount of participants has been reached\, you can submit your name to the waiting list by sending an email to \;secretariaat@ozsw.nl. Please also indicate whether you are a ReMA student\, PhD student\, or early career researcher and/or another research school in the humanities (LOGOS) or not.
ORGANIZER;CN=Huub Brouwer;CN=Daniel Halliday: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260417T072905Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260625T090000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260626T170000 SUMMARY:Monist special issue workshop: Philosophy of Taxation UID:20260417T150517Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@philevents-web-f5d4878dd-g4ggw TZID:Europe/Brussels LOCATION:Burgemeester Oudlaan 50\, Rotterdam\, Netherlands DESCRIPTION:*Confirmed speakers*
\n*Topic*
\nTaxation was largely overlooked in 20th \;century political philosophy. This is a shame\, because taxes are a powerful driver of human behaviour and mould the world around us. Think only of the window taxes that shaped architecture in European countries in ways still visible hundreds of years onwards. In the 21st \;century\, philosophers have fortunately started to engage with questions of taxation again. However\, an important and normatively significant issue that has not received sufficient attention yet is the choice of tax base: what should be taxed?
\nMany countries predominantly tax labour income and consumption. Developments in the real economy &ndash\; including slower economic growth\, labour market polarisation\, and the growing concentration of wealth &ndash\; have put a strain on fiscal policy formed largely in the years just after 1945. Moreover\, even though taxation has strong effects on human behaviour\, governments have so far only used it sparsely to address contemporary challenges such as climate change\, disruptive technological development\, and demographic ageing. These changes and challenges suggest a need to reform the tax base for it to be fit for purpose.
\nThe aim of the workshop\, and the special issue that will result from it\, is to contribute to the cutting-edge of philosophical inquiry into taxation by studying which tax bases can help address 21st \;century challenges.
\n*Special issue of the Monist*
\nParticipants in the workshop need to submit a full draft to the organizers by 31 May 2026. All papers presented at the workshop will be considered for inclusion in a special issue of the Monist\, that will be published in April 2028 (volume 111\, issue 2).
\n*Location*
\nThe workshop takes place on the Erasmus University Rotterdam campus.
\n*Questions*
\nAny questions about the workshop and the special issue should be addressed to Huub Brouwer (h.m.brouwer@tilburguniversity.edu). \;
ORGANIZER;CN=Huub Brouwer;CN=Daniel Halliday: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260417T072905Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260702T090000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260703T170000 SUMMARY:LLMs as Mirror\, Colleague\, Rival UID:20260417T150518Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@philevents-web-f5d4878dd-g4ggw TZID:Europe/Brussels LOCATION:Locomotiefboulevard 101\, Tilburg\, Netherlands\, 5041 SE DESCRIPTION:CFA &ndash\; LLMs as Mirror\, Colleague\, Rival
\n5th TSHD Digital Humanities Symposium Tilburg School of Humanities &\; Digital Sciences\, Tilburg University
\n2 &\; 3 July\, 2026
\nLarge language models (LLMs) have quickly become a prominent feature of contemporary intellectual and cultural life\, raising distinctive questions for scholars across the digital humanities and related disciplines. We are interested in the multi faceted role of LLMs in academic research. LLMs process and generate language in a way that is both familiar and uncanny\, revealing and opaque. They can write\, translate\, argue\, and create\, but also lead us astray. In their complexity\, they hold up a strange mirror to human thought and culture (to borrow Shannon Vallor&rsquo\;s metaphor).
\nThis symposium takes as its organizing metaphor three roles that LLMs play in (digital) humanities research: as mirror\, colleague\, and rival. As a mirror\, LLMs reflect the values and biases encoded in training data drawn from a large corpus of human-generated text. Studying the output of LLMs (and how it falls short) can teach us about ourselves as well as the technology itself. As a colleague\, LLMs can serve as research tools or co-authors\, raising questions about collaboration\, authorship\, research integrity\, and the evolving nature of scholarly work. As a rival\, LLMs can disrupt and confound\, challenging the epistemic foundations of academic research\, by undermining replicability and evaluation\, and flattening the research landscape.
\nThese three roles are not mutually exclusive\, and the tensions between them are precisely what makes LLMs a productive object of study for digital humanists\, philosophers\, communication scholars\, cultural theorists\, cognitive scientists\, and others working adjacent to the digital humanities alike.
\nGuiding Questions
\nThis symposium aims to deepen our understanding of the role of LLMs in (digital) humanities research\, focusing on questions such as:
\n What can LLMs teach us about human language\, cultural heritage\, knowledge\, and creativity?
\n In what ways do LLMs encode or distort cultural values\, biases\, and worldviews? How can our disciplines help us identify and critique these?
\n How can scholars productively collaborate with LLMs as research tools? What methodological and ethical issues does this raise?
\n What does the rise of LLMs mean for domain expertise and the division of cognitive labor in the (digital) humanities?
\n What normative and political questions are raised by the delegation of linguistic and cognitive tasks to LLMs?
\n How do LLMs functoon as rivals or obstacles in (digital) humanites research? In what ways can they undermine traditional research methods and standards?
\n How do the geopolitics of LLM development and deployment affect their use in academic research (e.g.\, in terms of academic freedom\, conflicts of interest)?
\nWe aim to answer these questions from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. We welcome theoretical\, empirical\, and methodological contributions. We invite speakers to present on a broad range of topics including\, but not limited to the cognitive and AI (e.g.\, modelling of individual and collective cognition\, LLMs as human subjects\, the nature of LLMs more broadly construed)\, arts and media (e.g.\, shifting definitions of authorship\; the potential dispossession of artists from creative industries)\, philosophical (e.g.\, LLMs and value-sensitive design\, cognitive deskilling\, chatbot epistemology and ethics)\, linguistic (e.g.\, modeling language acquisition and processing\, corpus annota on and analysis)\, and communication and information studies (e.g.\, the role and risks of chatbots in domains of health\, information\, and well-being\; the contributioon of LLMs to social and digital inequalities\; the integration of LLMs into communication science methodologies). Submitied abstracts ideally (but not necessarily) feature digital humanities methods or reflect on digital media and technologies.
\nThis 2-day\, hybrid symposium - part on-site in Tilburg\, part online - brings together scholars from a range of disciplines (all represented in the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences) to engage in a cross-disciplinary dialogue on these matters.
\nKeynote speakers to be confirmed.
\nSubmission Guidelines
\nWe invite interested speakers to submit (i) an anonymized abstract of max. 300 words\, and (ii) a cover sheet including your name\, institutional affiliation\, and whether you would prefer to give a talk in person or online to DHsymposium@lburguniversity.edu by May 1st\, 2026. You&rsquo\;ll be no fied on May the 22nd. \; \;
\nOrganisers: Barend de Rooij\, Mirella De Sisto\, Richard Heersmink\, William Marler\, Sean Smith\, Federico Zamberlan
ORGANIZER: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260417T072906Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260819T093000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20260821T170000 SUMMARY:Individualism and Oppression UID:20260417T150519Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@philevents-web-f5d4878dd-g4ggw TZID:Europe/Brussels LOCATION:Locomotiefboulevard 101\, Tilburg\, Netherlands\, 5041 SE DESCRIPTION:The 10th \;Descartes \;Lectures Tilburg University (The Netherlands)
\nAugust 19-21\, 2026
\n*****
\nEvery other year\, a distinguished philosopher visits \;Tilburg University \;to deliver the René\; \;Descartes \;Lectures. We are happy \;to announce that the \;2026 \;Descartes \;Lectures \;will be delivered by \;Prof. Serene Khader (CUNY) \;on the topic of &lsquo\;Individualism and Oppression&rsquo\;.
\nEach of Prof. Khader&rsquo\;s \;three lectures \;will be followed by an invited commentary from our \;panel of respondents:
\nParallel to the \;lectures \;&\; invited commentaries\, Tilburg University will host a workshop on the topic of \;Individualism and Oppression. \;
\nFor more information about the \;Lectures \;and workshop\, please contact the organizers via email at \;descarteslectures2026@outlook.com. \; \;
ORGANIZER: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR