The rapid development of generative AI raises profound and pressing moral and theoretical questions about humanity\, mindedness\, agency\, technology\, responsibility\, and governance. The philosophy department of the Université\; de Lorraine is pleased to host this first workshop in a planned annual series\, which marks the announcement of its English-language Masters programme in Applied Philosophy\, beginning in 2027. The Philosophy of AI is one of three core themes of the Masters programme\, alongside climate and environment\, and health. The workshop will take place in English and French.
\n\nSpeakers: Carina Prunkl (INRIA)\, Henri Stephanou (Paris 1)\, Andrew Arana (Université\; de Lorraine)\, Baptise Mé\;lè\;s (CNRS)
\n\nAttendance is free and open to all but numbers are limited. To register\, please email Conor McHugh (Conor-Paul.Mc-Hugh@univ-lorraine.fr)\, using the subject line &lsquo\;AI workshop registration&rsquo\;.
\n\nVenue: Room 324\, 91 Avenue de la Libé\;ration\, Nancy Organisers: Conor McHugh and Andrew Arana\, Université\; de Lorraine We gratefully acknowledge the support of ENACT\, the Grand Est AI Cluster. \;
ORGANIZER;CN=Conor McHugh: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Lisbon:20270211T090000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Lisbon:20270213T170000 SUMMARY:The Life of Images: Death\, Materiality and Animist Cinema UID:20261017T003944Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/Lisbon LOCATION:Colégio Almada Negreiros\, Lisbon\, Portugal DESCRIPTION:The FILM AND DEATH project is organizing an international workshop on The Life of Images: Death\, Materiality and Animist Cinema at NOVA FCSH\, Lisbon\, on 11-13 February 2027.
A face that breathes beyond itself\, a maid who buries herself in the earth\, a man dissolving into the river: these are the kinds of moments this workshop takes as its starting point. What does it mean to think of a cinematic image as alive? Cinema has long been understood as a technology that gives life to what is still\, absent\, or dead. The workshop builds on a broader history of thinking about cinema as a medium in which matter becomes strangely animated. Jean Epstein's notion of photogé\;nie\, for instance\, describes the capacity of the cinematic apparatus to reveal in things something that ordinary perception leaves concealed. More recent approaches to cinematic animism have taken this question further\, towards the non- human\, materiality and the formal conditions through which films construct relations between human and non-human worlds.
The workshop asks whether animism might describe an operation of the cinematic image itself\, one that makes the continuity or coexistence of life and death perceptible\, rather than a theme or worldview represented by certain films.
This also means attending to the material conditions of cinematic images. What roles do bodies\, objects\, landscapes\, gestures\, light and movement play in producing forms of vitality and presence? And what happens to these arrangements when death enters the frame? Framing and montage build continuity\, but they can also break it. Duration holds a body in time. Projection brings an image that has already been made back into the present each time it is screened. In each of these operations\, presence and absence\, persistence and disappearance\, are brought into contact.
Seen in this way\, death is a transformation of a particular organisation of matter. What appears as a fixed\, self-identical unit is in fact part of wider material processes. Death is the moment when this becomes visible: the relations between bodies\, matter and their environments are exposed. Life and death can then be approached as different configurations within one continuous material process.
The workshop proposes animism as a possible mode of existence of the cinematic image. Here\, life and death\, human and non-human\, organic and inorganic\, transcendence and immanence are no longer separate orders but phases of the same material and temporal process. Cinema then works as a threshold where bodies and their traces\, presence and absence\, enter into relation\, and each projection does not represent this passage so much as perform it again.
We welcome contributions that explore these questions through films\, filmmakers\, periods\, theoretical traditions or forms of cinematic practice. We are especially interested in approaches that test or challenge the notion of animist cinema itself.
Possible areas of discussion include (but are not limited to):
The workshop is conceived as a space for collective discussion and conceptual exchange. It invites researchers in film studies\, philosophy\, visual culture and related fields\, including doctoral students and early-career researchers\, to a three-day programme of paper presentations\, a keynote lecture and discussion on the ways in which cinema mediates\, repeats and makes perceptible the passage between life and death.
Format
The workshop will take place over three days at NOVA FCSH - Colé\;gio Almada Negreiro
(Campus de Campolide)\, Lisbon. Each speaker will have 20 minutes to present\, followed
by 10 minutes of discussion. The workshop will be held in English.
Organisers:
Patrí\;cia Castello Branco (CineLab\, IFILNOVA)
Lucas Ferraç\;o Nassif (CineLab\, IFILNOVA)
Susana Viegas (NOVA FCSH)
Keynote speaker:
Adrian Ivakhiv (Simon Fraser University)
Special film screening:
"The Dead and the Others" (2018)\, followed by a conversation with filmmakers Joã\;o Salaviza and René\;e Nader Messora.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Please send proposals to: thelifeofimagesworkshop@gmail.com. Submissions should be sent as a single PDF file and include:
Abstracts will be used for selection and to organise the sessions thematically\, so they should clearly state the film(s)\, filmmaker(s) or theoretical question the paper will address. The deadline for submissions is 8 November 2026. Notification of acceptance will be sent by 15 November 2026.
Registration is free. Selected papers may be invited for publication in an edited volume or journal special issue.
Keynote speakers
\nGá\;bor Boros (Ká\;roli Gá\;spá\;r University\, Budapest)
\nKim Sang Ong-Van-Cung (Université\; Bordeaux Montaigne)
\nSarah Patterson (Birkbeck\, University of London)
\nAndrea Sangiacomo (Erasmus University Rotterdam / University of Groningen)
\nStephan Schmid (University of Hamburg)
\n"Descartes&rsquo\; Principles of Philosophy\, Demonstrated in the Geometric Manner" (1663\, henceforth PPC) is the only work Spinoza published under his own name during his lifetime. In it\, Spinoza sets out the content of Descartes&rsquo\; Principles of Philosophy (1644) in geometrical form. Through this meticulous reconstruction\, he gained methodological insights that would later shape the composition of his masterpiece\, the Ethics. At the same time\, he uses his role as commentator and mediator to develop\, and to hint at\, positions of his own. Written at the urging of his friends\, the PPC also offers valuable insight into the early reception of Descartes in the Dutch Republic.
\nNevertheless\, the PPC remains far less studied than Spinoza's other works. When scholars do turn to it\, they tend to focus not on the main body of the text but on the "Metaphysical Thoughts"\, published as its appendix. This neglect is all the more surprising given that the PPC is widely recognized as a landmark interpretation of Descartes&rsquo\; philosophy and as indispensable for situating Spinoza within the wider Cartesian context.
\nThe workshop combines keynote lectures with reading sessions. Each reading session is introduced by a 15-minute presentation on a specific section of the PPC and the parallel passages in Descartes&rsquo\; "Principles". We invite proposals for presentations on the following sections:
\n&bull\; Part I: definitions and axioms\; PPC1p1&ndash\;4
\n&bull\; PPC2p15&ndash\;p19
\n&bull\; PPC2p20&ndash\;31
\n&bull\; PPC2p32&ndash\;37\, PPC3
\nTo apply\, please send an anonymized abstract of up to 300 words to oliver.toth@uni-heidelberg.de by 15 November 2026. Please include your name\, affiliation\, and the section you are applying for in the body of the email. The abstract should briefly outline your proposed approach to the section and explain how it relates to your research interests or existing work. Applicants may propose presentations for more than one section. Decisions will be communicated by 1 December 2026.
\nThe workshop language is English. Before the event\, the organizers will circulate a reader containing the Latin texts and standard English translations. We hope to offer a small number of travel bursaries\, subject to available funding. If you would like to be considered\, please say so in your email. We plan to publish a collective commentary based on the workshop. Details will be discussed at the event.
\nThe workshop is generously funded by the European Society for Early Modern Philosophy (https://esemp.hypotheses.org)\, the German Spinoza Society\, and the German Society for Philosophy.
\nOrganizers: Oliver Toth (Heidelberg) and Daniel Bella (Hamburg)
ORGANIZER;CN=Oliver Toth;CN=Daniel Bella: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20270208T090000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20270210T170000 SUMMARY:Spinoza as Reader\, Interpreter\, and Critic of Descartes’ Principles of Philosophy UID:20261017T003946Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/Berlin LOCATION:Schulgasse 6\, Heidelberg\, Germany\, 69117 DESCRIPTION:Keynote speakers
\nGá\;bor Boros (Ká\;roli Gá\;spá\;r University\, Budapest)
\nKim Sang Ong-Van-Cung (Université\; Bordeaux Montaigne)
\nSarah Patterson (Birkbeck\, University of London)
\nAndrea Sangiacomo (Erasmus University Rotterdam / University of Groningen)
\nStephan Schmid (University of Hamburg)
\n"Descartes&rsquo\; Principles of Philosophy\, Demonstrated in the Geometric Manner" (1663\, henceforth PPC) is the only work Spinoza published under his own name during his lifetime. In it\, Spinoza sets out the content of Descartes&rsquo\; Principles of Philosophy (1644) in geometrical form. Through this meticulous reconstruction\, he gained methodological insights that would later shape the composition of his masterpiece\, the Ethics. At the same time\, he uses his role as commentator and mediator to develop\, and to hint at\, positions of his own. Written at the urging of his friends\, the PPC also offers valuable insight into the early reception of Descartes in the Dutch Republic.
\nNevertheless\, the PPC remains far less studied than Spinoza's other works. When scholars do turn to it\, they tend to focus not on the main body of the text but on the "Metaphysical Thoughts"\, published as its appendix. This neglect is all the more surprising given that the PPC is widely recognized as a landmark interpretation of Descartes&rsquo\; philosophy and as indispensable for situating Spinoza within the wider Cartesian context.
\nThe workshop combines keynote lectures with reading sessions. Each reading session is introduced by a 15-minute presentation on a specific section of the PPC and the parallel passages in Descartes&rsquo\; "Principles". We invite proposals for presentations on the following sections:
\n&bull\; Part I: definitions and axioms\; PPC1p1&ndash\;4
\n&bull\; PPC2p15&ndash\;p19
\n&bull\; PPC2p20&ndash\;31
\n&bull\; PPC2p32&ndash\;37\, PPC3
\nTo apply\, please send an anonymized abstract of up to 300 words to oliver.toth@uni-heidelberg.de by 15 November 2026. Please include your name\, affiliation\, and the section you are applying for in the body of the email. The abstract should briefly outline your proposed approach to the section and explain how it relates to your research interests or existing work. Applicants may propose presentations for more than one section. Decisions will be communicated by 1 December 2026.
\nThe workshop language is English. Before the event\, the organizers will circulate a reader containing the Latin texts and standard English translations. We hope to offer a small number of travel bursaries\, subject to available funding. If you would like to be considered\, please say so in your email. We plan to publish a collective commentary based on the workshop. Details will be discussed at the event.
\nThe workshop is generously funded by the European Society for Early Modern Philosophy (https://esemp.hypotheses.org)\, the German Spinoza Society\, and the German Society for Philosophy.
\nOrganizers: Oliver Toth (Heidelberg) and Daniel Bella (Hamburg)
ORGANIZER;CN=Oliver Toth;CN=Daniel Bella: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20261019T153000 DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20261019T170000 SUMMARY:A grace-first picture of why God allows horrendous evils UID:20261017T003947Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Australia/Melbourne LOCATION:250 Victoria Parade\, East Melbourne\, Australia DESCRIPTION:Abstract: It seems like a good God would prevent horrendous evils. But horrendous evils are all around us. Right now\, for instance\, cuts to USAID are causing half a million children to starve to death. Horrendous evils thus seem to provide evidence against God's existence. Marilyn McCord Adams describes how God might defeat horrendous evils in each person's life - that is\, how God might integrate those evils in an organic unity that restores positive meaning across the whole of that person's life. This talk tries to say how the possibility of Adams-style defeat could undermine evidence against God's existence. After all\, we can still ask why God didn't avoid a world with horrendous evils\, even if Adams is right that God is able to ultimately defeat them. The talk will echo ideas that others have developed - that God can graciously choose to have relationships with particular people\, where God's grace is not a response to merit. This talk focuses on two challenges for this grace-centred picture: (i) exactly why horrendous evils are necessary for particular people to exist\, and (ii) whether it is permissible for ordinary agents like you and me to act in the way that the grace-centred picture imagines God acting. I respond to those two challenges by building from themes in Derek Parfit's work. I argue that Parfit's conception of personhood answers challenge (i) in a way that is more satisfying than Adams' own answer. And I try to show that challenge (ii) is (covertly) a challenge in population ethics\, and that there is no defensible thesis in population ethics that conflicts with the grace-centred picture. \; \;
ORGANIZER;CN=Caleb Perl: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20261215T234500 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20261215T234500 SUMMARY:50th Annual Ancient Philosophy Workshop UID:20261017T003948Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:America/Chicago LOCATION:Austin\, United States DESCRIPTION:The 50th Annual Ancient Philosophy Workshop will take place on April 9&ndash\;10\, 2027\, at the University of Texas at Austin. \;
\nThe conference will consist of presentations on topics in ancient Greek or Roman philosophy\, with a keynote address by Victor Caston (University of Michigan).
\nThe submission details are as follows:
\nSUBMISSION DEADLINE: December 15\, 2026\, 11:59 pm CST.
\nSUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Each abstract submitted should be 300-500 words. The paper should be suitable for a 45-minute presentation.
\nPlease submit as two separate PDF files: (i) your anonymized abstract (the name of the file should be the title of your paper)\; and (ii) a cover letter (the name of the file should be 'the title of your paper_Cover Letter'). Please include in the cover letter: your name\, institutional affiliation\, position at said institution\, and email address.
\nPlease upload your submission here &ndash\; https://utexas.app.box.com/f/229fa0af9eb247608f2c59f53e981563
\n&ndash\; by December 15\, 2026\, 11:59 pm CST.
\nAuthors of accepted papers will be notified by the second week of January. If accepted\, complete papers should be submitted in early March. Any questions should be directed to Jingyi Yang at jingyiyang@utexas.edu.
ORGANIZER: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261128T090000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20271231T170000 SUMMARY:Reading Badiou’s Inaesthetics UID:20261017T003949Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/London DESCRIPTION:GROUP DESCRIPTION
Is there any mutualism between art and philosophy? Can philosophy contribute to art and vice versa? Is anti-philosophy actually just one of many philosophies which is able to better comprehend artistic expression and lead to a mutual consensus?
Ever since Plato proclaimed all arts as inappropriate for life in Ancient Greek society and permitted only military or patriotic music and songs\, art has gone through many phases of existence. For Badiou art belongs to the four truth procedures related to philosophy alongside love\, politics and science. In his book Handbook of Inaesthetics he examined poetry\, theatre\, cinema\, and dance in order to elucidate the relationship between philosophy and art. Badiou&rsquo\;s perception of this link can be summarised as follows:
&ldquo\;Historically\, philosophy and art are paired up like Lacan&rsquo\;s Master and Hysteric. We know that the hysteric comes to the master and says: &lsquo\;Truth speaks through my mouth\, I am here. You have knowledge\, tell me who I am.&rsquo\; [&hellip\;] In so doing\, the hysteric takes charge of the master\, &lsquo\;barring&rsquo\; him from mastery and becoming his mistress. Likewise\, art is always already there\, addressing the thinker with the mute and scintillating question of its identity while through constant invention and metamorphosis it declares its disappointment about everything that the philosopher may have to say about it.&rdquo\; (translated by Alberto Toscano)
The aim of the reading group is to approach Badiou&rsquo\;s artistic configuration in Inaesthetics from a philosophical standpoint\, as well as from an anti-philosophical ground specifically developed by the influence of his reading of Nietzsche\, in his words the &ldquo\;prince of anti-philosophy.&rdquo\; Through Nietzschean anti-Platonism and his entire effort &ldquo\;to be cured of the sickness of Plato&rdquo\; we can ask if Badiou seeks to dance with Nietzsche in Plato&rsquo\;s Republic. What Badiou aims to accomplish by entering the realm of anti-philosophy is to allow philosophy to remain alive and active while creating a rapprochement with art. Does artistic expression as a sensory\, intuitive and finite practice demonstrate the potential of rendering the truth of an event (a rupture of given orders of being and understanding) and what role can it play for &ldquo\;true life&rdquo\; to happen? And more generally\, how can &ldquo\;the experience of the limit &ndash\; philosophy as a limit experience&rdquo\; be overcome?
We can agree or disagree with Badiou&rsquo\;s propositions\, but the goal of this reading group is to refine our own thoughts on this vicious entanglement between philosophy\, anti-philosophy and art. All participants can also propose texts they consider relevant for this topic\, and together through readings and discussions we can build a space for future Incite seminars.
TIME
SATURDAYS: bi-weekly\, starting November 28\, 2026.
13:00-14:30 Eastern US time / 19:00-20:30 Central European Time.
GROUP MATERIALS
The main reading will be Handbook of Inaesthetics by Alain Badiou translated by Alberto Toscano as well as excerpts from the journal INAESTHETICS edited by Wilfried Dickhoff &\; Marcus Steinweg and Nietzsche: anti-philosophy 1 also by Badiou. All texts will be provided.
FACILITATOR
Gorica Orsholits (PhD) is an independent scholar\, theoretician\, artist\, and musician (flautist). She studied and taught at the University of Toronto and the European Graduate School from which she received her PhD under the supervision of the French poet Philippe Beck. She has lectured extensively and participated in numerous international conferences. Dr. Orsholits is on the Advisory Board of Inscriptions and was board member and convenor of the seminar at the Ereignis Center for Philosophy and the Arts. Her research interests are in continental philosophy\, poetry and poetics\, literary theory\, film\, music\, and theatre. Her chapter &ldquo\;Event and its Compossibility with Truths and Subject in Badiou&rsquo\;s Thought&rdquo\; will appear in the forthcoming volume Contributions to Continental Event-philosophy (Mohr Siebeck). She resides in Geneva\, Switzerland.
ABOUT INCITE SEMINARS
We are a mix of rogue scholars\, disgruntled academics\, disenchanted buddhists\, enchantment-hungry anarchists\, radical therapists\, and general weirdos looking to create autonomous and accessible forms of &ldquo\;higher education.&rdquo\;
We offer online seminars and reading groups to incite personal exploration and inspire community action. Incite Seminars offers an educational experience. We do so by gathering an engaged group of participants for a dynamic exchange of ideas\, led by skilled facilitators. All of our facilitators have a deep relationship to a subject or topic through intensive study or practice.
Incite Seminars is a 100% member-supported learning community. We depend on member contributions to continue holding space for radical study and practice groups\, putting on rigorous seminars and courses\, and providing our facilitators and organizers with fair compensation. If you are unable to pay the full amount for a session or membership at this time\, we invite you to join us at reduced or no cost with our Solidarity option.
a 3-session seminar with Andrea F. de Donato\, Gorica Orsholits &\; Carlos A. Segovia &bull\; with guest contributions by Luigi Attademo &\; Gaia Ferrantini
SEMINAR DESCRIPTION
Fractured Ontologies in Music explores musical forms in which fracture becomes a productive way of organizing musical experience. From the spectral dispersions of the French style brisé\; to the phantomic operations of fantasia and the mutable structures of variation in the Romantic piano repertoire\, music emerges as a field where presence is continually refracted through absence\, interruption\, and excess. Across these perspectives\, the seminar asks how musical forms might resist organic wholeness without simply celebrating its dissolution\, opening instead onto modes of existence that are multiple\, unstable\, and generative.
Session I (&ldquo\;Style Brisé\;&rsquo\;s Ghost: Neither Unity Nor Its Loss\,&rdquo\; with Carlos A. Segovia and a guest contribution by Luigi Attademo) explores how French Baroque music&mdash\;and the lute world within it in particular&mdash\;is an anomaly running perpendicular to the principles of development of modern European music. Neither is architecture in it prior to expression\, as in Renaissance polyphony\, nor does drama determine form\, as in the Italian Baroque&mdash\;the development of these tendencies having resulted in Classicism and Romanticism\, and post-Romanticism having dissolved organic wholeness wherever it emerged. The French style brisé\; or luthé\;&mdash\;which is not merely a style but an aesthetic field with its own affective ontology&mdash\;thus amounts to modernity&rsquo\;s musical ghost. Two ideas define it: the refraction and diffraction of the experienceable. Through them\, harmony and rhythm\, to which melody is subordinated\, disperse into echoes\, delays\, and interruptions\, from the repertoire to the individual note. Music thus becomes spectral: neither does unity precede fragmentation\, nor is fragmentation the effect of its loss\; rather\, fracture itself becomes the condition of its manifestation. Hence\, the French style brisé\; inhabited positively what modernism would seek through negation\, thereby unsettling the narrative of today&rsquo\;s dominant musical aesthetics.
In turn\, Session II (&ldquo\;Fantasia: The Sounding of a Phantom\,&rdquo\; with Gorica Orsholits) examines fantasia: an imagined musical composition that represents the free-form\, improvisational\, and irrational power of imagination through sound\, overcoming the limits of ordinary conceptual thinking. The structure of fantasia is a bridge between the sensory and the supersensory\, where music does not imitate the external world\, but directly expresses the inner essence and movement of consciousness\, ignoring common harmonic structures to achieve hyper-sensual experiences. Fantasia operates through phantasm which represents a phantomic sound operation that exposes the visibility of its being through a disguise\, a phantom\, a non-being. The phantomic event of non-being is a combination of real and completely invented situations where the trace of a presence appears as an absence. The original fantasias were compositions intended for the lute and related string instruments\, and later for keyboard instruments. In Baroque music\, fantasia acquires a more extensive\, technically complex structure while in the classical period\, it appears in more freely-formed sonata movements. In the Romantic period\, it is encountered as the title of various compositions. Fantasia in contemporary music changes shape and embodies musical expressionist melodrama\, speech-songs and forms of dark\, phantasmagoric musical fantasias.
Lastly\, Session III (&ldquo\;The Mutant Sound Object: Paganini-Liszt &\; Variation\,&rdquo\; with Andrea F. de Donato and a guest contribution by Gaia Ferrantini) focuses on the problem of variation. After providing an introductory overview of how the concept of variation can be defined differently in philosophy and musicology\, the session presents a case study of Franz Liszt&rsquo\;s Grandes é\;tudes de Paganini\, S. 141\, from 1851. This work serves as an exemplary case to demonstrate how creative thought and the structuring of a musical style can constitute multiple levels of ontological expressibility. Thus the session begins with a comparative analysis of the 1851 é\;tudes and an earlier version\, published by Liszt in 1838 under the title É\;tudes d&rsquo\;exé\;cution transcendante d&rsquo\;aprè\;s Paganini\, S. 140. Next\, focusing on É\;tude No. 3\, &ldquo\;La Campanella\,&rdquo\; four different modes of variation are identified: functional\, semantic\, sound\, and spatial variation. Supported by specific audio and score excerpts\, key harmonic characteristics are analyzed\, providing the following conclusions: 1. the four modes of variation structure a distinctive sound object&mdash\;not monadic and isolated\, but processual and mutant\; 2. from this sound object\, an ontology based on variation may be derived. Whether and how this variational ontology\, derived from the Paganini-Liszt é\;tudes\, might constitute a fractured ontology is likewise examined.
TIME
3 Sundays\, November 8\, 15\, and 22\, 2026
10:00&ndash\;12:00 Eastern Time Zone &bull\; 16:00&ndash\;18:00 Central European
SESSIONS
Session I &bull\; November 8\, 2026
Style Brisé\;&rsquo\;s Ghost
Neither Unity Nor Its Loss
with Carlos A. Segovia
Session II &bull\; November 15\, 2026
Fantasia
The Sounding of a Phantom
with Gorica Orsholits
Session III &bull\; November 22\, 2026
The Mutant Sound Object
Paganini-Liszt &\; Variation
with Andrea F. de Donato
ABOUT INCITE SEMINARS
We are a mix of rogue scholars\, disgruntled academics\, disenchanted buddhists\, enchantment-hungry anarchists\, radical therapists\, and general weirdos looking to create autonomous and accessible forms of &ldquo\;higher education.&rdquo\;
We offer online seminars and reading groups to incite personal exploration and inspire community action. Incite Seminars offers an educational experience. We do so by gathering an engaged group of participants for a dynamic exchange of ideas\, led by skilled facilitators. All of our facilitators have a deep relationship to a subject or topic through intensive study or practice.
Incite Seminars is a 100% member-supported learning community. We depend on member contributions to continue holding space for radical study and practice groups\, putting on rigorous seminars and courses\, and providing our facilitators and organizers with fair compensation. If you are unable to pay the full amount for a session or membership at this time\, we invite you to join us at reduced or no cost with our Solidarity option.
Workshop: The Shapes of Scientific Understanding
November 9\, 2026 | 14:00&ndash\;18:30
Center for Philosophy of Science\, University of Pittsburgh
Dear colleagues\,
\nWe are pleased to announce the workshop &ldquo\;The Shapes of Scientific Understanding\,&rdquo\; to be held on Monday\, November 9\, 2026\, from 14:00 to 18:30 at the Center for Philosophy of Science\, University of Pittsburgh.
\nThe workshop will bring together philosophers working on the nature\, structure\, and varieties of scientific understanding.
\nSpeakers:
\nDiscussant: \;
\nCommentators for each talk will be announced soon.
\nAttendance is free and open to all.
\nFor further information\, please contact Alfredo Vernazzani at alfredo-vernazzani@protonmail.com.
\nWe hope you will join us for an afternoon of discussion on the different shapes that scientific understanding can take.
ORGANIZER;CN=Alfredo Vernazzani: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20261111T090000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20261112T170000 SUMMARY:The Age of the Bookworm: Can Large Language Models Represent the World? UID:20261017T003952Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/Zurich LOCATION:Rue des Savoises 15\, Genève\, Switzerland\, 1205 DESCRIPTION:What does it mean for a system trained exclusively on text to represent and understand the world?
\nSince the public release of ChatGPT in late 2022\, large language models (LLMs) have become a fixture of academic and public life. Yet how these systems work\, and what they are fundamentally capable of\, remains poorly understood. Many people know that they are trained to predict the next token given a context. Far fewer have reflected on the capacities that emerge from this simple training objective\, or on what fine-tuning through human feedback and verifiable rewards adds to it.
\nA useful starting point is Bender and Koller's (2020) thought experiment. An infinitely smart octopus intercepts underwater telegraph messages between two islanders. After eavesdropping on vast amounts of their talk about life on land\, could it produce meaningful text about that world without ever engaging with it directly? The sharper question behind the analogy is this: can an LLM's internal states and outputs be about extra-linguistic reality\, independently of the meaning human interpreters project onto them?
\nThis two-day interdisciplinary workshop brings together philosophers and AI researchers to address that question and related issues of grounding\, reference\, intentionality and understanding in LLMs. It sits at the intersection of philosophy of mind and language\, linguistics and artificial intelligence.
\nRegistration: please write to Niels.Linnemann@unige.ch / Subject "Bookworm". 30 places\, first come\, first served.
ORGANIZER;CN=Niels Linnemann;CN=Eliot Du Sordet: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20270219T230000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20270219T230000 SUMMARY:Philosophy Graduate Conference UID:20261017T003953Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:America/New_York LOCATION:725 S. Church Street\, West Chester\, United States\, 19383 DESCRIPTION:We are pleased to announce the 2027 WCU Philosophy Graduate Conference\, organized and hosted by the graduate students of the Philosophy Department at West Chester University.
\nTheme: Philosophy Beyond Thought
\nKeynote Speaker: Professor Macalester Bell\, Bryn Mawr University
\nDate: \;Friday\, April 9th\, 2027
\nDescription: Philosophy is more than its reputation for abstract pontification. Humans are philosophical creatures\, and we encounter philosophy in our daily thoughts\, questions\, and activities. For many\, it feels as if the world has been plunged into chaos and the nature of our problems (and by extension\, the solutions to these problems) often feel beyond our reach. Join us for the annual Philosophy Graduate Conference where we attempt to elucidate and respond to this chaos with our theme: Philosophy Beyond Thought.
\nSubmission Requirements: If you are interested in presenting at the conference\, please submit any papers related to defining and/or addressing tangible real-world issues. This may include injustice in any form (social\, legal\, environmental\, etc.)\, human and animal rights\, sustainability\, race relations\, political paralysis\, ways of protest\, freedom and surveillance\, everyday action\, and so on. \;
\nPreferred word count: 250 words for abstracts and 5\,000-8\,000 words for articles. Please include name\, contact information\, and institutional affiliation. \;
\nSubmit Abstracts or Papers to: \;TD893915@wcupa.edu\, Tiera Danheux
\nDeadline for Submission: Friday\, February 19th\, 2027
\nRSVP For Speakers Due: Friday\, March 5th\, 2027
ORGANIZER: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20270409T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20270409T170000 SUMMARY:Philosophy Graduate Conference UID:20261017T003954Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:America/New_York LOCATION:725 S. Church Street\, West Chester\, United States\, 19383 ORGANIZER: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261201T234500 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261201T234500 SUMMARY:Disembodied agency in Neuro Technologies: Ethical and Legal Challenges UID:20261017T003955Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/London DESCRIPTION:Disembodied agency in Neuro Technologies: Ethical and Legal Challenges
\nEdited by L. Valera &\; Marcelo Barrientos
\nCall for Abstracts
\nIn the framework of our research "Redeeming autonomy: disembodied agency in Neuro Technologies (RADIANT)" project\, we invite you to participate in the shaping of the book "Autonomy in emerging technologies: ethical and legal challenges". The contribution of women will be especially encouraged\, as well as papers addressing Latin-America&rsquo\;s perspective.
\nThe current development of NTs like brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and neurofeedback (NF) in cognitive neuroscience and clinical interventions is demanding new ethical approaches and regulations\, as the recent case for neurorights has shown. The advancements in this field sparked concerns about the potential misuse of these NTs since they seem to cause a potential loss of personal autonomy.
\nThe topics to be addressed\, as the title of the research suggests\, will be the crossovers between Philosophy\, Ethics and Law\, to address the challenges of autonomy facing the development of technology in general\, and\, specially\, brain-computer interfaces and neurofeedback\, data protection\, privacy and neurorights.
\nSome examples of topics:
\nThe list is indicative rather than exhaustive. People interested in these - or similar - topics may send a long abstract (1.000 words including references) to avillamizar@uc.cl by December 1st. We expect that final papers would be around 4\,000-6\,000 words. (Please note that neither submission nor acceptance of an abstract is a guarantee of publication). The deadline for the final paper is May 30th\, 2027. The book will be published between 2027/2028 in a Springer series.
ORGANIZER: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=America/Santiago:20261020T093000 DTEND;TZID=America/Santiago:20261021T170000 SUMMARY:I Congreso Sociedad Chilena de Filósofos Cristianos UID:20261017T003956Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:America/Santiago LOCATION:Lota 2463\, Santiago\, Chile ORGANIZER;CN=Eduardo Fuentes: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261022T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261023T170000 SUMMARY:What does economic language make with and in societies? UID:20261017T003957Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/London DESCRIPTION:Zoom Meeting ID: 870 6915 2067
\nPasscode: 927440
ORGANIZER;CN=Florencia Castro Possi;CN=Eduardo Fuentes;CN="Sven Günther": METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261117T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261117T130000 SUMMARY:Alexander Paseau - Is Historical Mathematics Largely True? UID:20261017T003958Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:America/New_York LOCATION: University of Pittsburgh\, 4200 Fifth Avenue\, Pittsburgh\, United States\, 15260 DESCRIPTION: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.
\n\nLTT: \; \;Alexander Paseau
\n\nTuesday\, November 17th @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EST
\n\nTitle: \; \;Is Historical Mathematics Largely True?
\n\nAbstract:
\nHistorical mathematics is widely regarded as a repository of truths. It would seem unusually sceptical to deny that\, say\, ancient mathematical cultures established many truths about numbers and shapes\, such as Pythagoras&rsquo\; Theorem or instances of it for specific right-angled triangles.
\nMy talk will list some of the ways in which this assumption might be tested. I&rsquo\;ll then focus on two case studies\, both involving extra-mathematical beliefs that apparently &lsquo\;infect&rsquo\;\, or in some way threaten\, the truth of older mathematics. The first concerns 19th-century matricial algebra and the second 18th-century geometry.
\nThis talk will also be available live streamed on:
\nZoom at https://pitt.zoom.us/j/91289849273
\nYouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.
ORGANIZER;CN=Edouard Machery: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=America/Santiago:20261111T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Santiago:20261112T170000 SUMMARY:Emociones Conflictivas: Perspectivas desde la filosofía\, la psicología\, el derecho\, la medicina y las ciencias sociales UID:20261017T003959Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:America/Santiago LOCATION:Arturo Prat 514\, Valdivia\, Chile ORGANIZER;CN=Rafael Simian: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20261201T234500 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20261201T234500 SUMMARY:Bioethics and the Border 2027: Contested Spaces UID:20261017T004000Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:America/Chicago LOCATION:Edinburg\, United States DESCRIPTION:Call for Abstracts
\nBioethics and the Border 2027
\nThe University of Texas\, Rio Grande Valley
\nFebruary 5-6\, 2027 | Edinburg\, Texas (and online)
\nTheme: Contested Spaces
\nThe Bioethics MS and Department of Philosophy at the University of Texas\, Rio Grande Valley invites submissions for the 2027 Bioethics and the Border Graduate Conference\, to be held February 5-6\, 2027. This first annual conference explores the ethical challenges and opportunities that emerge in border contexts\, broadly construed to include geographic\, legal\, political\, cultural\, social\, technological\, and conceptual spaces.
\nEach year the conference will examine a different aspect of bioethics and the border. The 2027 theme\, &ldquo\;Contested Spaces\,&rdquo\; invites participants to consider places\, practices\, identities and institutions where competing values\, interests and claims create ethical tensions. These include but are not limited to geographical\, legal\, and political borders\, healthcare settings\, research environments\, public health systems\, digital spaces\, and communities experiencing social and political marginalization.
\nWe welcome submissions for both in-person and online presentationsfrom graduate students across disciplines such as bioethics\, philosophy\, medicine\, nursing\, public health\, law\, anthropology\, sociology\, the life sciences and related fields.
\nSubmission Guidelines
\nAuthors should submit an abstract of 300-500 words describing the work they wish to present at the conference\, including original research andworks in progress.
\nPlease include:
\nThe conference is committed to increasing accessibility and welcomes both in-person and online presentation. All talks will take place in Central Time (USA).
\nSubmission Information: Via google forms: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSft_vz3867ltdojencJrXmcfa2mKB2PRIBwYHGjyRT7FlaX5w/viewform?usp=preview \;
\nImportant Dates:
\nFor questions please contact:hannah.allen@utrgv.edu \;
ORGANIZER;CN=Hannah Allen;CN=Ian Werkheiser;CN=Ioan Muntean;CN=Gregory Gilson;CN=Stephen Smith: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20270205T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20270206T170000 SUMMARY:Bioethics and the Border 2027: Contested Spaces UID:20261017T004001Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:America/Chicago LOCATION:Edinburg\, United States DESCRIPTION:Call for Abstracts
\nBioethics and the Border 2027
\nThe University of Texas\, Rio Grande Valley
\nFebruary 5-6\, 2027 | Edinburg\, Texas (and online)
\nTheme: Contested Spaces
\nThe Bioethics MS and Department of Philosophy at the University of Texas\, Rio Grande Valley invites submissions for the 2027 Bioethics and the Border Graduate Conference\, to be held February 5-6\, 2027. This first annual conference explores the ethical challenges and opportunities that emerge in border contexts\, broadly construed to include geographic\, legal\, political\, cultural\, social\, technological\, and conceptual spaces.
\nEach year the conference will examine a different aspect of bioethics and the border. The 2027 theme\, &ldquo\;Contested Spaces\,&rdquo\; invites participants to consider places\, practices\, identities and institutions where competing values\, interests and claims create ethical tensions. These include but are not limited to geographical\, legal\, and political borders\, healthcare settings\, research environments\, public health systems\, digital spaces\, and communities experiencing social and political marginalization.
\nWe welcome submissions for both in-person and online presentationsfrom graduate students across disciplines such as bioethics\, philosophy\, medicine\, nursing\, public health\, law\, anthropology\, sociology\, the life sciences and related fields.
\nSubmission Guidelines
\nAuthors should submit an abstract of 300-500 words describing the work they wish to present at the conference\, including original research andworks in progress.
\nPlease include:
\nThe conference is committed to increasing accessibility and welcomes both in-person and online presentation. All talks will take place in Central Time (USA).
\nSubmission Information: Via google forms: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSft_vz3867ltdojencJrXmcfa2mKB2PRIBwYHGjyRT7FlaX5w/viewform?usp=preview \;
\nImportant Dates:
\nFor questions please contact:hannah.allen@utrgv.edu \;
ORGANIZER;CN=Hannah Allen;CN=Ian Werkheiser;CN=Ioan Muntean;CN=Gregory Gilson;CN=Stephen Smith: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261113T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261113T130000 SUMMARY: Annual Lecture Series – John Morrison - Do neural networks understand what they are doing? UID:20261017T004002Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:America/New_York LOCATION: University of Pittsburgh\, 4200 Fifth Avenue\, Pittsburgh\, United States\, 15260 DESCRIPTION:The Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh invites you to join us for our 67th Annual Lecture Series Talk. Attend in person in room 1008 in the Cathedral of Learning (10th Floor) \; or visit our live stream on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.
\nThe Annual Lecture Series\, the Center&rsquo\;s oldest program\, was established in 1960\, the year when Adolf Grü\;nbaum founded the Center. Each year the series consists of six to eight lectures\, about three quarters of which are given by philosophers\, historians\, and scientists from other universities.
\n\nAnnual Leture Series &ndash\;John Morrison
\n\nFriday\, November 13th @ 3:30 pm - 5:30pm EDT
\n\n1008 Cathedral of Learning \;
\n\nTitle: \; \;Do neural networks understand what they are doing?
\n\nAbstract: \;
\nIt is often claimed that neural networks construct models of the world (&ldquo\;world models&rdquo\;) and do not merely exploit heuristics. In this sense\, they are said to understand their tasks. But it is not always clear what having a world model amounts to\, or what should count as evidence for or against. In the first half of the talk\, I propose a minimal notion of a world model: a single\, unified representation of a task that preserves its structural relations. I explain how this notion sits within a hierarchy of stronger ones\, and argue that many disputes about world models are merely verbal. In the second half of the talk\, I reassess the standard example of a network using a world model: Othello-GPT\, a transformer widely taken to use a model of the Othello board. I argue that the existing evidence is ambiguous once we adopt the right baselines and the right metrics. I then introduce another kind of evidence that favors the heuristic interpretation: how quickly the network learns variants of Othello that extend rather than scramble the board&rsquo\;s geometry. I end by drawing general lessons for attributing world models to neural networks\, and by describing similar approaches for attributing algorithms and probabilistic inference.
\n\nCan&rsquo\;t make it in-person? This talk will available online through the following:
\n\;Zoom: https://pitt.zoom.us/j/98388637045 \; \;and \;
\nYouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.
\n\nA reception with light refreshments will follow in The Center on the 11th floor from 5-6pm.
ORGANIZER;CN=Edouard Machery: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261022T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261022T200000 SUMMARY:The Ethics of Using Deceased Donors' Tissue in Cosmetic Procedures UID:20261017T004003Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/London DESCRIPTION:Cosmetic injectables are evolving... with help from deceased donors. What are your thoughts?
\n\n\n\n\nIn this discussion\, Dr. Becki Nash will be sharing her research into public and professional attitudes around cosmetic injectables made from human adipose tissue\, sourced from deceased donors.
\nWhat do you think of the idea of being injected with a dead person's tissue? Would you do it? Is it an acceptable\, ethical practice? What concerns would you have\, and why?
\nCome and join the Death Cluster as we talk about this complex evolving trend. Everyone welcome\, no knowledge of cosmetic procedures required. \;
\n\n---
\nAbout Dr. Becki Nash
\nBecki researches cosmetic medical procedures. She is broadly interested in how cosmetic procedures are normalised and routinised in 'everyday' (gendered) beauty practices. Her recent research has focused on how aesthetic practitioners navigate cosmetic entrepreneurship in an increasingly saturated market and how they experience their role as 'gatekeepers' of beauty. She is currently exploring perceptions towards the use of human tissue in cosmetic injectables. Lastly\, Becki has a forthcoming autoethnographic article (The Sociological Review\, in press) that explores the blurring of boundaries between researcher-bodies and/as researched-bodies when conducting aesthetic fieldwork.
\n\n ORGANIZER;CN=Chindilani Filifilidh Andekalithan: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261110T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261110T130000 SUMMARY:Michel Janssen - Einstein gaining a foothold in the quantum world\, 1905–1925 UID:20261017T004004Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:America/New_York LOCATION: University of Pittsburgh\, 4200 Fifth Avenue\, Pittsburgh\, United States\, 15260 DESCRIPTION: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.
\n\nLTT: \; \;Michel Janssen
\n\nTuesday\, November 10th @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EST
\n\nTitle: \; \;Einstein gaining a foothold in the quantum world\, 1905&ndash\;1925
\n\nAbstract:
\nIn his early work on quantum theory\, Einstein found a number of constraints on a new theory of radiation that would account for various phenomena classical theory could not account for. He found most of these constraints by making sure the thermal behavior of radiation was in accordance with general results in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Similar considerations led him to his quantum theory of the ideal gas\, which helped pave the way for Schrö\;dinger&rsquo\;s wave mechanics.
\nThis talk will also be available live streamed on:
\nZoom at https://pitt.zoom.us/j/95333952372
\nYouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.
ORGANIZER;CN=Edouard Machery: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261106T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261106T130000 SUMMARY:Caterina Del Sordo - Was Early Carnap a Machian Neutral Monist? UID:20261017T004005Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:America/New_York LOCATION: University of Pittsburgh\, 4200 Fifth Avenue\, Pittsburgh\, United States\, 15260 DESCRIPTION: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.
\n\nLTT: \; \;Caterina Del Sordo
\n\nFriday\, November 6th @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EST
\n\nTitle: \; \;Was Early Carnap a Machian Neutral Monist?
\n\nAbstract:
\nIn this talk\, I defend the thesis that early Carnap is a Machian neutral monist. To
\nsupport this thesis\, I mediate between two opposing readings of the relation between
\nMach and early Carnap: Textor (2021)\, who advances a neutral monistic reading of
\nCarnap&rsquo\;s Aufbau\, and Banks (2003\, 2014)\, who regards Carnap&rsquo\;s Aufbau and Mach&rsquo\;s
\nneutral monism as divergent projects. I argue that the Aufbau does not satisfy the main
\nconditions of Machian neutral monism and that the comparison between Mach and
\nearly Carnap with respect to ontological neutrality remains largely underdetermined. I
\nfurther argue that Carnap&rsquo\;s pre-Aufbau works satisfy the main conditions of Machian
\nneutral monism and support a reading according to which Mach and early Carnap are
\naligned in their account of ontological neutrality.
\nThis talk will also be available live streamed on:
\nZoom at https://pitt.zoom.us/j/96691832736
\nYouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.
ORGANIZER;CN=Edouard Machery: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20261123T090000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20261124T170000 SUMMARY:The Language and Attitudes of Inquiry UID:20261017T004006Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/Berlin LOCATION:Habelschwerdter Allee 30\, 14195\, Berlin\, Germany DESCRIPTION:Invited Speakers:
\n\;Tez Clark (Bard College) \;Mike Deigan (Human Abilities Center\, Berlin) -Daniel Drucker (University of Texas at Austin) -Daniel Hoek (University of Virginia) -Matthew McGrath (Washington University in St. Louis) -Anne Meylan (University of Zurich) -Juliette Vazard (University of Zurich) -Alexandra Zinke (Goethe University Frankfurt)
ORGANIZER;CN=Michele Palmira;CN=Alexander Dinges: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20270818T090000 DTEND;TZID=Africa/Johannesburg:20270820T170000 SUMMARY:SENE 5 UID:20261017T004007Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Africa/Johannesburg LOCATION:Glenburn Lodge and Spa\, Kromdraai\, South Africa DESCRIPTION:CfA: SENE 5 | 18\;&ndash\;20 Aug 2027 | ACEPS\, Uni Johannesburg\, South Africa
\nThe Fifth Annual Event of the Social Epistemology Network (socialepistemology.net) SENE 5 will be hosted by The African Institute for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science (ACEPS)\, University of Johannesburg (www.uj.ac.za/aceps).
\nABSTRACTS
\n- \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; max 500 words
\n- \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; to be submitted toSENE5ACEPS@gmail.com
\n- \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; no later than 5pm SAST on 15 November 2026
\n- \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; 2 separate docs: 1 anonymised abstract\; 1 title page with author details
\n- \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; Title of email &lsquo\;SENE 5 submission&rsquo\;
\n- \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; Notification of acceptance/ rejection: 1 December 2026
\n\;
\nABOUT SENE 5
\nWhen: 18th to 20th August 2027
\nWhere: Johannesburg\, South Africa\, Glenburn Lodge and Spa\; (www.glenburn.co.za)&mdash\;3km from UNESCO World Heritage Site Cradle of Humankind)
\nKeynotes: philosophersLuvell Anderson (philosophy.illinois.edu/directory/profile/vell11) andCatarina Dutilh Novaes (www.cdutilhnovaes.com)\; legal theorist and SA Human Rights commissionerTshepo Madlingozi (www.tshepomadlingozi.com).
\nFunding: ACEPS\, University of Johannesburg and Philosophy Department\, Northwestern University
\nConference fee: Covered by ACEPS\, including lunches
\nAccommodation: +/- R 2000 / $ 100 per day dinner\, bed and breakfast. Lunch covered by conference fee
\nChildcare: available for a fee
ORGANIZER;CN=Veli Mitova;CN=Sanford Goldberg: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261012T030000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261012T043000 SUMMARY:Committed Beliefs and Brute Beliefs UID:20261017T004008Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/London DESCRIPTION:I would like to draw your attention to the following online philosophy seminar series hosted by Beijing Normal University&rsquo\;s Department of Philosophy.
\n
On October 12th\, 3pm \;China Standard Time\, \;Ben Winokur (Assisant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Macau) \;will be presenting a talk titled "Committed Beliefs and Brute Beliefs&rdquo\;.
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: \;It has sometimes been said that only certain beliefs are constitutively tied to our natures as rational beings who weigh reasons for taking things to be true or false. For there are other beliefs\, they say\, that lack the &ldquo\;judgement-sensitive&rdquo\; nature of the former kind\, thus falling outside the scope of rational self-control. I interrogate this division among beliefs and defend it by way of three conclusions. First\, it is argued that there are plausible cases of belief on each side of the division. Second\, it is argued that many beliefs which do not seem to fit the division can nevertheless be made to fit it. Third\, and finally\, it is argued that we have reason to regard both kinds of belief as species of a shared genus. Accordingly\, the division has a claim to explanatory fecundity and withstands a good deal of scrutiny.
Bio: \;Benjamin Winokur is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Macau. He researches self-knowledge as well as topics in social epistemology and philosophy of mind\, including first-person authority\, epistemic manipulation\, and norms of inquiry. He is the author of Knowing Where You Stand: On the Value of Reflective Commitment (Routledge 2026) and a coeditor of New Perspectives on Transparency and Self- Knowledge (Routledge 2025). His other publications appear in venues such as The European Journal of Philosophy\, Synthese\, Episteme\, Dialectica\, Philosophical Psychology\, Inquiry\, and elsewhere.
The meeting time is the 12th of October\, 3pm China Standard Time.
\nMeeting time in other timezones:
\n- 9am Central European Standard Time
\n- 12am\, Pacific Daylight Time
\n- 8pm\, New Zealand Standard Time
ORGANIZER;CN=M R. X. Dentith: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=America/Chicago:20270422T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/Chicago:20270424T170000 SUMMARY:Philosophy in the Ozarks Graduate Conference UID:20261017T004009Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:America/Chicago LOCATION:Fayetteville\, United States DESCRIPTION:Philosophy graduate students at the University of Arkansas are excited to announce our third Philosophy in the Ozarks Graduate Conference. \;This conference has no particular theme. As such\, we welcome quality submissions from all areas of philosophy. Each paper will be assigned a graduate student commentator.
\nThe conference will be held in-person at the University of Arkansas from \;April 22nd through April 24\, 2027. In addition to five accepted graduate student presentations\, keynote speakers will include:
\nPapers should be:
\nSeparately\, please include the following in your email:
\nCoffee\, breakfast\, and lunch will be available during the conference\, and there will be a conference dinner on Saturday evening. There may also be the option to be housed with University of Arkansas graduate students. If you are interested in that option\, please notify the conference organizers after your paper is accepted.
\nThe deadline for submission is January 1st\, 2025\, and acceptances will be communicated no later than \;January 31st.
ORGANIZER;CN=Jason Miller: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261016T093000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261016T170000 SUMMARY:PRAGMATISM\, AMERICAN PHILOSOPHIES\, AND THE CRITIQUE OF POWER UID:20261017T004010Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:America/New_York LOCATION:Winningham Building\, room 107\, Charlotte\, United States ORGANIZER;CN=Sofia Alexandratos;CN=Trevor Pearce;CN=Steven Levine: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20261019T110000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20261019T170000 SUMMARY:Philosophy of Free Speech UID:20261017T004011Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/Zurich LOCATION: Bd du Pont-d’Arve 40\, \, Genève\, Switzerland\, 1203 DESCRIPTION:Philosophy of Free Speech
\nUniversity of Geneva\, Uni Mail &mdash\; Room M6620
\nBd du Pont-d&rsquo\;Arve 40\, 1205 Genè\;ve
\nTo join online via zoom\, contact ruben.marciel@unige.ch \;
\n11:15 &ndash\; 11:30 Welcome
\nSession 1 \; \; Chair: Beatrice Bella
\n11:30 &ndash\; 12:30 Uğur Aytaç\;\, Utrecht University
\nJustifying a labor right to counterpublics
\n12:30 &ndash\; 13:30 David Guerrero\, Pompeu Fabra University
\nLack of access\, misrepresentation\, and failure of speech choices: three blind spots of neorepublican accounts of free speech
\n\; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; \; 13:30 &ndash\; 14:30 Lunch Break \; \; \; \; \;
\nSession 2 \; \; Chair: Matthieu Debief
\n14:30 &ndash\; 15:30 Jeffrey Howard\, University College London
\nSpeech\, Harm\, and Public Office
\n15:30 &ndash\; 16:30 Suzanne Whitten\, Queen&rsquo\;s University Belfast
\nWhen does a march become a &lsquo\;hate march&rsquo\;?
\n\;
\n16:30 &ndash\; 17:00 Coffee Break
\nSession 3 \; \; Chair: Marta Dainesi
\n17:00 &ndash\; 18:00 Rowan Cruft\, University of Stirling
\nWhat is the point of news media in the digital age? A social rights perspective
\nOrganized by Rubé\;n Marciel. To join online\, please drop an email to ruben.marciel@unige.ch.
\nFunded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant nº\; 224920)
ORGANIZER;CN="Rubén Marciel": METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20261024T093000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20261025T170000 SUMMARY:Spinoza and Imaginative Ideas UID:20261017T004012Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/Berlin LOCATION:Schönhauser Allee 10-11\, Berlin\, Germany\, 10119 DESCRIPTION:Spinoza and Imaginative Ideas
\nHuman Abilities Center\, Humboldt University Berlin
\nRoom 4.17
\nSchö\;nhauser Allee 10-11\, 10119 Berlin
\n\;
\n24&ndash\;25 October 2026
\n\;
\n\;
\n24th \;of October
\n\;
\n9:30&ndash\;11:00 &ndash\; Eric Schliesser (Amsterdam): Spinoza as a Machiavellian Comparative Modeler in the Political Treatise
\n11:15&ndash\;12:00 &ndash\; Kevin Jobe (Texas-Rio Grande Valley): Borders as Terminus: Spinoza's Political Epistemology of Images
\n12:15&ndash\;13:00 &ndash\; Marie Wuth (Eichstä\;tt-Ingolstadt): The Accursed Body Politic: Spinoza on Sacred Expulsion and Governmental Hate
\n14:15&ndash\;15:00 &ndash\; Johanna Alt (Aberdeen): Spinoza and the Problem of Attention
\n15:15&ndash\;16:00 &ndash\; Daniel Bella (Hamburg): Imagination and Disposition: Searching for an Objective Foundation
\n16:15&ndash\;17:00 &ndash\; Henry Kwok (Cornell): The Composition of Representational Content and Error in Spinoza
\n17:30&ndash\;19:00 &ndash\; Ursula Renz (Graz): Identification troubles and Spinoza&rsquo\;s theory of the imagination
\n25th \;of October
\n\;
\n9:30&ndash\;11:00 &ndash\; Kristin Primus (Berkeley): The Two Sides of an Imaginative Idea
\n11:15&ndash\;12:00 \; \;&ndash\; Aliza Ashraf (St Andrews): Why we need to be more imaginative: the case of 'pity' in Spinoza
\n12:15&ndash\;13:00 &ndash\; Andrew Lopez (Colorado State): Despising Beasts: Spinoza&rsquo\;s Antipathy Toward Animals
\n14:15&ndash\;15:00 &ndash\; Luce deLire (Cologne): The Role of Imagination in Spinoza's Methodology
\n15:15&ndash\;16:00 &ndash\; Lois Niemeyer (Vienna): Spinoza and the Uncanny in Imagination: Futurity\, Affect\, Ambivalence
\n16:15&ndash\;17:00 &ndash\; Dafna Mark Ben Shabbat (UC San Diego): The conatus as an interactive power increase: how inadequate ideas are necessary for successful striving
\n17:30&ndash\;19:00 &ndash\; Martin Lenz (Hagen): Reading the Ethics: Geometrical Imagination and the Transformation of Readers
\nOrganization: Leonardo Moauro (HU Berlin)\, Domenica Romagni (Colorado/HU Berlin)\, Oliver Toth (Heidelberg)
\nThe conference is generously funded by ESEMP\, Spinoza-Gesellschaft\, DFG.
\nThe conference is free and open to all. Due to limited seating\, we ask for registration under: leonardo.moauro@hu-berlin.de.
ORGANIZER;CN=Oliver Toth;CN=Leonardo Moauro;CN=Domenica Romagni: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20261215T090000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20261216T170000 SUMMARY:Attention in Early Modern Philosophy UID:20261017T004013Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/Berlin LOCATION:Martin Luther University Halle / IZEA\, Halle\, Germany ORGANIZER;CN=Katerina Mihaylova: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Lisbon:20261203T133000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Lisbon:20261204T170000 SUMMARY:Interdisciplinary Workshop on Biases UID:20261017T004014Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/Lisbon LOCATION:Facultade de Letras \, Lisbon\, Portugal DESCRIPTION:Thursday 3rd December
\n13.30 Cristina Mendonç\;a (WJCR &ndash\; Instituto Universitá\;rio de Ciê\;ncias Psicoló\;gicas\, Sociais e da Vida\, Portugal): Cognitive biases in the social transmission of information
\n14.30 Elena Popa (Universidad de Sevilla\, Spain): Scientific objectivity: From values\, to biases\, to context
\n15.30 Simone Lackner (Independent researcher\, Portugal): AI and objective Truth &ndash\; the myth of the rational agent
\nFriday 4th December
\n9.00 Filipa Madeira (Universidade Cató\;lica Portuguesa\, Portugal): When does race capture attention? Resource scarcity in a healthcare context
\n10.00 Marina Trakas (Universidade de Lisboa\, Portugal): Mnemonic biases
\n11.00 Francisco Cruz (WJCR &ndash\; Instituto Universitá\;rio de Ciê\;ncias Psicoló\;gicas\, Sociais e da Vida\, Portugal): Putting the biased in bias: Cognitive and motivational bases in distorted social judgments
\nThis activity is funded by Portuguese national funds through FCT &ndash\; Fundaç\;ã\;o para a Ciê\;ncia e a Tecnologia\, CEEC Ind Research Project 2024.10330.CEECIND: "An inquiry into memory biases\, memory virtues\, and mnemonic humility" \;
\n ORGANIZER;CN=Marina Trakas: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270413T080000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270413T080000 SUMMARY:University of Aberdeen Philosophy Postgraduate Conference 2027: Comparative Approaches to Chinese Philosophy UID:20261017T004015Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/London LOCATION:Bedford Road\, Aberdeen\, United Kingdom\, AB24 3AA DESCRIPTION:Call for Abstracts: University of Aberdeen Philosophy Postgraduate Conference 2027: Comparative Approaches to Chinese Philosophy
\nThe University of Aberdeen Philosophy Postgraduate Conference invites submission of abstracts for its second annual conference in April 2027. The topic will be on Comparative Approaches to Chinese Philosophy.
\nThe two-dayconference will take place at the University of Aberdeen\, Sir Duncan Library\, from April 13th-14th\, 2026\, featuring 8 talks\, each divided into a 30-minute presentation and 15 minutes of Q&\;A\, followed by a keynote speaker at the end of each day. \;
\nKeynote Speakers:
\n- Lea Cantor(Kings College London) \;
\n- Shuchen Xiang (Xidian University) \;
\nSubmission Specifications
\nWe are inviting current postgraduate studentsto submit works for presentation. Submissions are welcome from all areas of philosophy\, with priority given to topics related to comparative approaches to Chinese philosophy. Submissions from related topics\, including but not limited to comparative virtue ethics\, metaphysics in Chinese thought\, or comparisons of sceptical traditions are also highly encouraged.
\nAnonymised abstracts(up to 500 words) suitable for a 30-minutes presentation are to be submittedvia email to uoaphilgradconference@abdn.ac.uk. Please include the subject line [Submission &ndash\; LAST NAME].The email body should also include your name\, affiliation\, career stage\, and if you identify as a member of an underrepresented group. \;
\nFor any inquiries\, please get in touch with us at uoaphilgradconference@abdn.ac.uk.
\nImportant Dates
\nSubmission deadline: 18th December2026.
\nNotification of Decisions: 4th January 2027.
ORGANIZER: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270413T090000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270414T170000 SUMMARY:University of Aberdeen Philosophy Postgraduate Conference 2027: Comparative Approaches to Chinese Philosophy UID:20261017T004016Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/London LOCATION:Bedford Road\, Aberdeen\, United Kingdom\, AB24 3AA ORGANIZER: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261201T234500 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261201T234500 SUMMARY:AGATHEOS – European Journal for Philosophy of Religion UID:20261017T004017Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/London DESCRIPTION:We are pleased to announce the Agatheos Prize\, generously sponsored by the University of Gä\;vle and the Olaus Petri Foundation through Uppsala University\, Sweden. The Agatheos Prize recognises and promotes outstanding contributions to the field of Philosophy of Religion (broadly construed) and is eligible for PhD students and scholars who have obtained their PhD within the last 7 years. We particularly encourage people from underrepresented groups in Philosophy of Religion to submit a contribution.
\nPrize: A constellation consisting of members from the journal&rsquo\;s regional editors and editorial committee will nominate the winning paper of the Agatheos Prize. The winner will receive a monetary award of 1000 euros (might be subject to taxes) and be published in Agatheos. Co-authorship is welcome\, and if co-authors win the prize\, the monetary award will be split among them equally.
\nAdditionally\, all submitted papers will be evaluated for publication in the journal\, regardless of whether they win the prize.
\nFor submission instructions and further information\, please visit our website at \;https://publicera.kb.se/aejpr/cfp1. Be sure to mark the title page of your submitted article with &ldquo\;the Agatheos prize&rdquo\;. \;
\nWe encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to contribute to the development of Philosophy of Religion.
ORGANIZER: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20261025T230000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20261025T230000 SUMMARY:Negative Social Action: Silence\, Salience\, and the Politics of Absence UID:20261017T004018Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/Berlin LOCATION:Gabelsbergerstraße 62\, Munich\, Germany DESCRIPTION:DEADLINE for Abstract Submission: 25 October 2026
\nLanguage is the specifically human alternative to physical violence. As speaking animals\, human beings are capable of inflicting harm through words alone\, and this capacity has driven scholars across philosophy of language\, linguistics\, and related disciplines to investigate verbal violence and hate speech: if we can do things with our words\, then we can also do harm with them (Austin 1962\; Langton 1993\; Maitra and McGowan 2012\; Kukla 2014\; Bianchi 2018\; Langton 2018).
\nYet what is said is only part of the picture. What happens when harm is produced not by what is said\, but by what is left unsaid\, unanswered\, unnoticed\, or absent? Silence is commonly understood as the mere absence of speech\, a neutral gap in communication\, or simply the failure to act. However\, scholars across different disciplines have increasingly challenged this conception\, arguing that silence and related forms of communicative absence are active\, socially structured\, and consequential phenomena (Maitra 2007\; Langton 2007\; Kurzon 2011\; Schrö\;ter 2013\; Tanesini 2018\; Klieber 2024). Silence can communicate\, subordinate\, exclude\, and harm (Bird 2002\; Langton 2007\; Maitra 2009\; Klieber 2024)\; it can be strategically deployed to maintain ambiguity or plausible deniability (Anthonissen 2008\; Schrö\;ter 2013\, 2019\, 2022)\, or emerge from socially organised patterns of inattention that marginalise certain voices\, perspectives\, and experiences (Fricker 2007\; Dotson 2011\; Pohlhaus 2012\; Medina 2013\; Smith and Archer 2020).
\nThis workshop takes as its starting point two converging lines of inquiry. The first concerns silence as a communicative act: a socially embedded practice capable of conveying meaning\, performing social functions\, and shaping relations (Langton 2007\; Schrö\;ter 2013\; Tanesini 2018\; Klieber 2024). The second concerns what we call the politics of absence: the socially structured forms of inattention\, non-response\, and selective salience through which collective patterns of noticing and overlooking are produced and maintained (Watzl 2017\; Wu 2024\; Kaeslin 2024\; Caprioglio Panizza 2022).
\nBy bringing these perspectives into dialogue\, the workshop extends questions traditionally associated with philosophy of language and communication studies towards philosophy of mind\, ethics and moral philosophy\, and philosophy of perception. Taken together\, they point towards a broader theoretical framework centred on negative social action: socially significant actions performed not through explicit speech or overt intervention\, but through absences\, omissions\, silences\, failures of uptake\, and organised forms of non-attention.
\nWe want to investigate cases in which harm is produced through what remains unsaid\, unacknowledged\, unanswered\, unnoticed\, or excluded from personal and collective awareness. Such harm frequently operates indirectly and diffusely\, with a high degree of deniability (Maitra 2007\; Zerubavel 2006\; Saul 2018). Rather than treating silence and inattention as passive phenomena\, the workshop examines their role in producing social meanings\, epistemic environments\, political realities\, and forms of harm.
\nWe ask how absences communicate\, how they shape what becomes collectively visible or invisible\, and how responsibility should be understood when harms arise not from what someone does or says\, but from what is omitted\, neglected\, or left unnoticed (Ayala-Ló\;pez and Vasilyeva 2016\; Smith and Archer 2020). We also welcome empirical work examining how patterns of silence\, non-response\, and inattention shape collective responses to harmful speech\, including their effects on perceived social norms and the recognition of harm (Zapata et al. 2024).
\nMore information:
ORGANIZER;CN=Irene Lo Faro;CN=Jimena Zapata: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20261208T090000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20261209T170000 SUMMARY:Negative Social Action: Silence\, Salience\, and the Politics of Absence UID:20261017T004019Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/Berlin LOCATION:Gabelsbergerstraße 62\, Munich\, Germany DESCRIPTION:DEADLINE for Abstract Submission: 25 October 2026
\nLanguage is the specifically human alternative to physical violence. As speaking animals\, human beings are capable of inflicting harm through words alone\, and this capacity has driven scholars across philosophy of language\, linguistics\, and related disciplines to investigate verbal violence and hate speech: if we can do things with our words\, then we can also do harm with them (Austin 1962\; Langton 1993\; Maitra and McGowan 2012\; Kukla 2014\; Bianchi 2018\; Langton 2018).
\nYet what is said is only part of the picture. What happens when harm is produced not by what is said\, but by what is left unsaid\, unanswered\, unnoticed\, or absent? Silence is commonly understood as the mere absence of speech\, a neutral gap in communication\, or simply the failure to act. However\, scholars across different disciplines have increasingly challenged this conception\, arguing that silence and related forms of communicative absence are active\, socially structured\, and consequential phenomena (Maitra 2007\; Langton 2007\; Kurzon 2011\; Schrö\;ter 2013\; Tanesini 2018\; Klieber 2024). Silence can communicate\, subordinate\, exclude\, and harm (Bird 2002\; Langton 2007\; Maitra 2009\; Klieber 2024)\; it can be strategically deployed to maintain ambiguity or plausible deniability (Anthonissen 2008\; Schrö\;ter 2013\, 2019\, 2022)\, or emerge from socially organised patterns of inattention that marginalise certain voices\, perspectives\, and experiences (Fricker 2007\; Dotson 2011\; Pohlhaus 2012\; Medina 2013\; Smith and Archer 2020).
\nThis workshop takes as its starting point two converging lines of inquiry. The first concerns silence as a communicative act: a socially embedded practice capable of conveying meaning\, performing social functions\, and shaping relations (Langton 2007\; Schrö\;ter 2013\; Tanesini 2018\; Klieber 2024). The second concerns what we call the politics of absence: the socially structured forms of inattention\, non-response\, and selective salience through which collective patterns of noticing and overlooking are produced and maintained (Watzl 2017\; Wu 2024\; Kaeslin 2024\; Caprioglio Panizza 2022).
\nBy bringing these perspectives into dialogue\, the workshop extends questions traditionally associated with philosophy of language and communication studies towards philosophy of mind\, ethics and moral philosophy\, and philosophy of perception. Taken together\, they point towards a broader theoretical framework centred on negative social action: socially significant actions performed not through explicit speech or overt intervention\, but through absences\, omissions\, silences\, failures of uptake\, and organised forms of non-attention.
\nWe want to investigate cases in which harm is produced through what remains unsaid\, unacknowledged\, unanswered\, unnoticed\, or excluded from personal and collective awareness. Such harm frequently operates indirectly and diffusely\, with a high degree of deniability (Maitra 2007\; Zerubavel 2006\; Saul 2018). Rather than treating silence and inattention as passive phenomena\, the workshop examines their role in producing social meanings\, epistemic environments\, political realities\, and forms of harm.
\nWe ask how absences communicate\, how they shape what becomes collectively visible or invisible\, and how responsibility should be understood when harms arise not from what someone does or says\, but from what is omitted\, neglected\, or left unnoticed (Ayala-Ló\;pez and Vasilyeva 2016\; Smith and Archer 2020). We also welcome empirical work examining how patterns of silence\, non-response\, and inattention shape collective responses to harmful speech\, including their effects on perceived social norms and the recognition of harm (Zapata et al. 2024).
\nMore information: \;
ORGANIZER;CN=Irene Lo Faro;CN=Jimena Zapata: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20261211T080000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20261212T170000 SUMMARY:What is it that signifiers do? On the effects of language when meaning is suspended UID:20261017T004020Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/Brussels LOCATION:Gent\, Belgium DESCRIPTION:This interdisciplinary course brings together leading scholars in philosophy\, neuro- and psycholinguistics\, and (neuro)psychoanalysis to explore how language operates beyond its orthodox function of meaning and representation. Drawing on a research tradition rooted in Freud&rsquo\;s early work\, we examine how the phonological and articulatory aspects of language exert a powerful influence on mental life precisely where meaning is suspended&mdash\;illuminating the autonomous workings of &lsquo\;the signifier&rsquo\; through both theoretical and experimental research. \;
\nThere are two ways to participate in this workshop: \;
\n- Those wishing to attend this workshop as an audience member \;should register by writing an email to: levi.haeck@ugent.be.
\n- Those wishing to actively participate in this workshop as a doctoral student should submit an application to the UGent doctoral school: \;https://event.ugent.be/registration/event/a57c7e6f-8417-439d-a814-aee1afe2f836 \;
\nFor more information on the application\, see
\n ORGANIZER;CN=Levi Haeck;CN=Gertrudis Van de Vijver;CN=Ariane Bazan: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20261209T090000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20261210T170000 SUMMARY:On Signs and Signifiers UID:20261017T004021Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/Brussels LOCATION:Gent\, Belgium DESCRIPTION:This interdisciplinary course must be seen in collaboration with another Doctoral School titled &lsquo\;What is it that signifiers do?&rsquo\;. Driven by the shared question of how language operates beyond its orthodox function of meaning and representation\, it serves as a philosophical prelude in which PhD students engage with prof. Adrian Johnston\, a leading scholar working at the intersection of philosophy\, science and psychoanalysis. The course offers PhD students a bottom-up opportunity to engage directly with him\, as well as a forum in which they can present and discuss their own research.
\nThere are two ways to participate in this workshop: \;
\n- Those wishing to attend this workshop as an audience member should register by writing an email to: levi.haeck@ugent.be.
\n- Those wishing to actively participate in this workshop as a doctoral student should submit an application to the UGent doctoral school: https://event.ugent.be/registration/event/7f5983ba-5eb0-41b2-bab3-b75f5e5325ba \;
\nFor more information on the application\, see
ORGANIZER;CN=Levi Haeck;CN=Kobe Keymeulen;CN=Gertrudis Van de Vijver: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20270105T234500 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20270105T234500 SUMMARY:The AI & Society Symposium: Where Technology Meets Human Values UID:20261017T004022Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:America/New_York LOCATION:Boston\, United States DESCRIPTION:The Boston University Humanities &\; AI Lab (HAIL) invites undergraduate and graduate students from any institution and any discipline to submit papers for its first symposium. \;
\nThis symposium inquires into the conceptions of the human built into generative AI. \;
GenAI systems sound like us: they say &ldquo\;I understand\,&rdquo\; they apologize\, they appear to care. They&rsquo\;re also made for a user\, and so they come with assumptions about who that user is: what they need and what they can already do. And they&rsquo\;re built on assumptions about what intelligence itself is. Some of these pictures of the human reflect choices made by engineers and product teams\; others were assumed without anyone ever deciding. It all demands to be examined. This symposium brings these and related questions into public discussion\, asking what it means to be human at a time when these systems are made like us and for us\, even as this &lsquo\;us&rsquo\; is still being decided. \;
We welcome work from any discipline in the humanities\, the social sciences\, and technical fields such as engineering\, computer science\, and data science. Possible topics include\, but are not limited to:
\nSubmission details:
\nLimited travel grants may be available for presenters from outside Boston\, with priority for students in New England. \;
\nYou can send questions to \;ppardi1@bu.edu.
\nOrganized by Pol Pardini Gispert\, Anika Mukherjee\, Daniel Munro\, and Seth Villegas\, with support from the Boston University Center for the Humanities and the APA Berry Fund.
ORGANIZER;CN=Pol Pardini Gispert;CN=Daniel Munro: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20270416T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20270417T170000 SUMMARY:The AI & Society Symposium: Where Technology Meets Human Values UID:20261017T004023Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:America/New_York LOCATION:Boston\, United States DESCRIPTION:This symposium inquires into the conceptions of the human built into generative AI. \;
GenAI systems sound like us: they say &ldquo\;I understand\,&rdquo\; they apologize\, they appear to care. They&rsquo\;re also made for a user\, and so they come with assumptions about who that user is: what they need and what they can already do. And they&rsquo\;re built on assumptions about what intelligence itself is. Some of these pictures of the human reflect choices made by engineers and product teams\; others were assumed without anyone ever deciding. It all demands to be examined. This symposium brings these and related questions into public discussion\, asking what it means to be human at a time when these systems are made like us and for us\, even as this &lsquo\;us&rsquo\; is still being decided. \;
You can send questions to \;ppardi1@bu.edu.
\n\nOrganized by Pol Pardini Gispert\, Anika Mukherjee\, Daniel Munro\, and Seth Villegas\, with support from the Boston University Center for the Humanities and the APA Berry Fund.
ORGANIZER;CN=Pol Pardini Gispert;CN=Daniel Munro: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261117T090000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261117T100000 SUMMARY:Not Born Yesterday: Why humans are less gullible than we think (Closing Keynote) UID:20261017T004024Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/London DESCRIPTION:Closing Keynote: AAPAE Symposium 2026
\nIt is often thought that humans are gullible\, easily manipulated by demagogues\, advertisers\, and politicians. I will argue that the opposite is true: humans are equipped with a set of psychological mechanisms that allow them to properly evaluate communicated information\, and to reject information that is false or harmful. I will rely on experimental psychology data\, as well as studies showing the failures of mass persuasion\, from Nazi propaganda to American presidential campaigns. I will also suggest that\, when people do accept false beliefs\, they often do so only in a superficial manner. \;
\n\;(Note: this event will be hosted on Australian Eastern Daylight Time\, which is UTC+11).
\nHugo Mercieris a cognitive scientist working at the Jean Nicod Institute in Paris. He studies human reasoning and communication\, as well as cultural evolution. He is the co-author\, with Dan Sperber\, of The Enigma of Reason\, and the author of Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who we Trust and What we Believe. \;
ORGANIZER;CN=Larelle Bossi;CN=Hugh Breakey;CN=Jacqueline Boaks: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20261117T090000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20261117T100000 SUMMARY:When Uncertainty Becomes a Vacuum: Misinformation\, Trust\, and the Ethics of Communicating What We Don’t Know (Q&A Session wiht Professor Mike Steer) UID:20261017T004025Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/London DESCRIPTION:What happens when communities need answers before institutions have them?
\nIn this Q&\;A\, Mike Steer reflects on communicating with South Australian communities during the unprecedented algal bloom\, when rapidly evolving science could offer probabilities rather than definitive answers &ndash\; while communities\, media and political leaders demanded explanations.
\nRather than asking simply how we combat misinformation\, this conversation asks a more difficult question: \;what are the ethical responsibilities of institutions when certainty is impossible?
\n\n(Note: This session will be held at Australian Eastern Dayligh Time\, which is \;UTC +11)
\nFacilitated by: Dr Larelle Bossi
\nLarelle is CEO and Founder of Ethical Ocean\, a Research Fellow at Griffith University&rsquo\;s Institute for Ethics\, Governance and Law\, and Vice President of the Australian Association for Professional and Applied Ethics. Her research and advisory work focuses on ocean ethics\, biocultural ethics and transformative ocean governance\, drawing on ecofeminist theory and First Nations kinship worldviews. She has developed ethical frameworks for aquaculture\, offshore wind and wave energy\, and works across ocean governance\, place attachment\, cultural licence and the decolonisation of marine spaces. Larelle is also an advisory member of the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy.
\nProf Mike Steer
\nProfessor Steer brings over two decades of expertise in marine science to his role at the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI). His expertise spans various fields including fish biology\, fisheries science\, cephalopod ecology\, molecular science\, fishery reform\, gear selectivity\, and fleet dynamics\, providing direction for numerous applied research initiatives that have advanced Australia&rsquo\;s seafood industry.
\nProfessor Steer's strategic leadership centres on forging genuine relationships to facilitate collaborations with stakeholders and industry partners\, ensuring SARDI's work remains pertinent and impactful in fisheries management and sustainable livestock practices. He drives meaningful advancements\, bridging the gap between academia and industry to address critical challenges in South Australia's aquatic ecosystems and livestock industries.
ORGANIZER;CN=Larelle Bossi;CN=Hugh Breakey;CN=Jacqueline Boaks: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Qatar:20261231T060000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Qatar:20261231T060000 SUMMARY:Economic Cosmologies and Ethics in Islamic Scholarship UID:20261017T004026Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Asia/Qatar LOCATION:Doha\, Qatar DESCRIPTION:This research seminar is convened by Dr. Sami Al-Daghistani (Centre for Theology and Religious Studies\, Lund University).
\nWe invite researchers to submit proposals for a seminar exploring the ethical and cosmological foundations of economic thought across Islamic intellectual traditions. The seminar examines how Muslim scholars have understood wealth\, ownership\, exchange\, production\, and livelihood within broader conceptions of morality\, divine trust\, and human flourishing.
\nOver recent decades\, Islamic economics and finance have attracted considerable attention from scholars and practitioners. The field has been variously understood as a &ldquo\;third-way&rdquo\; economic system\, part of wider Islamization efforts\, and a discipline within the social sciences. These different approaches have generated debates about its scope\, methods\, and relationship to classical Islamic sources. Despite the growth of scholarship on Islamic economics\, the relationship between classical ethical frameworks and modern Islamic economics remains underexplored. This seminar addresses that relationship by asking: What are the ethical-economic principles of classical Islamic thought? What is the nature of ownership? What is the purpose of wealth? How is the human being situated in relation to economic resources and the lived environment? Is the economy primarily a sphere of competition\, or one of trust and stewardship?
\n ORGANIZER: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Qatar:20270914T090000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Qatar:20270916T170000 SUMMARY:Economic Cosmologies and Ethics in Islamic Scholarship UID:20261017T004027Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Asia/Qatar LOCATION:Doha\, Qatar DESCRIPTION:This research seminar is convened by Dr. Sami Al-Daghistani (Centre for Theology and Religious Studies\, Lund University).
\nWe invite researchers to submit proposals for a seminar exploring the ethical and cosmological foundations of economic thought across Islamic intellectual traditions. The seminar examines how Muslim scholars have understood wealth\, ownership\, exchange\, production\, and livelihood within broader conceptions of morality\, divine trust\, and human flourishing.
\nOver recent decades\, Islamic economics and finance have attracted considerable attention from scholars and practitioners. The field has been variously understood as a &ldquo\;third-way&rdquo\; economic system\, part of wider Islamization efforts\, and a discipline within the social sciences. These different approaches have generated debates about its scope\, methods\, and relationship to classical Islamic sources. Despite the growth of scholarship on Islamic economics\, the relationship between classical ethical frameworks and modern Islamic economics remains underexplored. This seminar addresses that relationship by asking: What are the ethical-economic principles of classical Islamic thought? What is the nature of ownership? What is the purpose of wealth? How is the human being situated in relation to economic resources and the lived environment? Is the economy primarily a sphere of competition\, or one of trust and stewardship?
\n ORGANIZER: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20261216T004500 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20261216T004500 SUMMARY:1st Interpersonal Philosophy Network Workshop UID:20261017T004028Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:America/Edmonton LOCATION:Lethbridge\, Canada DESCRIPTION:1st Interpersonal Philosophy Network Workshop 2027
\nUniversity of Lethbridge | 2-3 April 2027
\nThe Interpersonal Philosophy Network (IPN)\, in collaboration with the Critical Thinking &\; Civic Engagement Lab \;at the University of Lethbridge\, invite abstract submissions for a two-day workshop exploring philosophical questions concerning interpersonal relations.
\nThe workshop aims to bring together researchers working on the nature\, value\, and normative significance of our relations with others. We welcome contributions from a wide range of philosophical traditions and subfields.
\nKeynote Speakers
\n(1) Kimberly Brownlee (University of British Columbia)
\n(2) TBC.
\nAbstract Submission
\nWe invite submissions on any topic related to the philosophy of interpersonal relations\, though we are particularly interested in the epistemology\, ethics\, and politics of interpersonal relations. For example\, papers might address topics such as:
\nPlease submit an anonymised PDF abstract (up to 1000 words) through the following form by 15 December\, 2026: https://forms.gle/jXPRqdNE2dzSQnEW7
\nFurther Details
\nThe workshop will feature:
\nPresentations should be suitable for a 30-40 minute talk\, followed by discussion.
\nAccepted speakers will receive a CAD $300 honorarium to help offset travel and accommodation expenses.
\nParticipants are warmly invited to join an informal excursion to Waterton Lakes National Park on Sunday\, 4 April 2027.
\nIf you have any questions please contact adham.elshazly@uleth.ca
ORGANIZER;CN=Adham El Shazly;CN=Facundo Rodriguez;CN=Paloma Morales: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=America/Edmonton:20270402T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/Edmonton:20270403T180000 SUMMARY:1st Interpersonal Philosophy Network Workshop UID:20261017T004029Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:America/Edmonton LOCATION:Lethbridge\, Canada DESCRIPTION:The Interpersonal Philosophy Network is holding its first workshop at the University of Lethbridge\, AB\, Canada\, 2-3 April 2027. \;
\nPlease see the CFP for more information\, or contact adham.elshazly@uleth.ca with any questions. \;
\nFor more information about the Interpersonal Philosophy Network see
\nhttps://www.interpersonalphilosophy.com/
ORGANIZER;CN=Adham El Shazly;CN=Facundo Rodriguez;CN=Paloma Morales: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270201T234500 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270201T234500 SUMMARY:The Digital Worlds Workshop UID:20261017T004030Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/London DESCRIPTION:The philosophy departments at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and The University of North Dakota invite submissions for a virtual workshop to be conducted remotely from April 30 - May 2\, 2027. We seek papers that interrogate the way modern digital technology enhances\, hampers\, or alters our experience of our lived worlds. We encourage submissions on any aspect of the digital world\, and in particular on this year&rsquo\;s theme of rootedness.
\n\nWork on digital technologies often focuses on their alienating\, atomizing and polarizing effects. This year\, we are particularly interested in explorations of the flip side: rootedness and correlate concepts like dwelling\, community\, connection\, place\, resonance\, etc. Are there ways that digital worlds promote rootedness? If alienation is a problem\, what are the appropriate responses? We especially encourage collaborative projects that cross disciplinary boundaries.
\n\nThe purpose of this workshop is to collaboratively develop works-in-progress with an eye toward publication. This is a pre-read workshop with each paper having a designated commenter to lead the conversation\, rather than formal conference presentations. We invite extended abstract submissions of approximately 500 words by February 1st\, 2027. We also invite expressions of interest to be a commenter on a paper\, independent of a submission (it is not necessary to submit a paper to provide commentary). The discussion draft of the papers will be required one month in advance of the meeting for everyone to pre-read and for commenters to review and prepare feedback.
\n\nAbstracts and any questions should be submitted to: digitalworldsworkshop@gmail.com
\nFurther information\, including programs from past workshops\, can be found at
\nhttps://digitalworldsworkshop.com/
ORGANIZER;CN=Michael Butler;CN=Ian Werkheiser: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20270430T090000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20270502T170000 SUMMARY:The Digital Worlds Workshop UID:20261017T004031Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/London DESCRIPTION:The philosophy departments at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and The University of North Dakota invite submissions for a virtual workshop to be conducted remotely from April 30 - May 2\, 2027. We seek papers that interrogate the way modern digital technology enhances\, hampers\, or alters our experience of our lived worlds. We encourage submissions on any aspect of the digital world\, and in particular on this year&rsquo\;s theme of rootedness.
\n\nWork on digital technologies often focuses on their alienating\, atomizing and polarizing effects. This year\, we are particularly interested in explorations of the flip side: rootedness and correlate concepts like dwelling\, community\, connection\, place\, resonance\, etc. Are there ways that digital worlds promote rootedness? If alienation is a problem\, what are the appropriate responses? We especially encourage collaborative projects that cross disciplinary boundaries.
\n\nThe purpose of this workshop is to collaboratively develop works-in-progress with an eye toward publication. This is a pre-read workshop with each paper having a designated commenter to lead the conversation\, rather than formal conference presentations. We invite extended abstract submissions of approximately 500 words by February 1st\, 2027. We also invite expressions of interest to be a commenter on a paper\, independent of a submission (it is not necessary to submit a paper to provide commentary). The discussion draft of the papers will be required one month in advance of the meeting for everyone to pre-read and for commenters to review and prepare feedback.
\n\nAbstracts and any questions should be submitted to: digitalworldsworkshop@gmail.com
\nFurther information\, including programs from past workshops\, can be found at
\nhttps://digitalworldsworkshop.com/
ORGANIZER;CN=Michael Butler;CN=Ian Werkheiser: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261008T131040Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270104T234500 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Brussels:20270104T234500 SUMMARY:CREPH Seminar "Attention and Consciousness: New Directions" UID:20261017T004032Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@fe80:0:0:0:dca3:70ff:fede:dbf7%3 TZID:Europe/Brussels LOCATION:Pl. du Vingt Août 7\, Liège\, Belgium\, 4000 DESCRIPTION:ATTENTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS: NEW DIRECTIONS
CREPH Research Seminar in Phenomenology
University of Liè\;ge\, Belgium 10&ndash\;14 May 2027
The Centre de Recherches Phé\;nomé\;nologiques (CREPH) at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Liè\;ge (Belgium) is pleased to announce the next CREPH Research Seminar in Phenomenology\, devoted to attention and consciousness\, which will take place from Monday 10 May to Friday 14 May 2027.
\nThe CREPH Seminar is a week-long event held every two years\, each edition exploring a specific topic in phenomenology and philosophy of mind\, broadly understood. The program will include invited talks and contributed papers selected through a call for abstracts.
\nOver the past two decades\, the relationship between attention and phenomenal consciousness has attracted renewed philosophical interest\, giving rise to an increasingly rich and differentiated literature. Yet\, despite increasingly refined arguments and mappings of the logical space\, foundational questions remain debated. Is attention necessary\, or even both necessary and sufficient\, for phenomenal consciousness? What kind of necessity is at stake? If experience overflows attention\, what is the nature of this unattended phenomenology? Is it fully determinate and specific\, or does attention contribute to making it so?
\nAlongside these questions about the dependence relations between attention and consciousness\, a further line of inquiry concerns attention&rsquo\;s contribution to the character and organization of experience. This includes its effects on our overall experience and the precise nature of the structural role often attributed to it. It also concerns whether attention contributes uniformly across different kinds of experience or plays distinctive roles in different experiential domains such as\, for example\, emotional and cognitive phenomenology.
\nThese issues also have epistemic consequences\, particularly concerning attention&rsquo\;s contribution to the acquisition of perceptual and introspective knowledge. Debate centres on whether attention facilitates such knowledge\, whether it is indispensable to it\, and whether its effects can sometimes be disruptive - for instance\, when attending to an experience essentially modifies the very phenomenon we seek to understand. Clarifying these possibilities requires examining how attention&rsquo\;s contribution to conscious experience bears on its capacity to be knowledge-conducive.
\nThe seminar aims to explore these questions by bringing contemporary debates into dialogue with historical accounts of attention. We welcome contributions from phenomenology\, philosophy of mind\, epistemology\, as well as historical investigations addressing these themes.
\nInvited Speakers
\nNatalie Depraz (Paris Nanterre) \;
\nAnna Giustina (Valencia)
\nHanne Jacobs (Tilburg)
\nHamid Taieb (Humboldt)
\nJuliette Vazard (Zurich)
\nCall for Abstracts
\nWe welcome submissions addressing the themes of the seminar from contemporary or historical perspectives. A non-exhaustive list of possible questions includes:
\nIs attention necessary or even necessary and sufficient for phenomenal consciousness? Can consciousness occur without attention? Is there unconscious attention?
\nDoes attention act as a gatekeeper for conscious experience\, or does phenomenal consciousness overflow the limits of attention? Is the phenomenology overflowing attention fully determinate and specific or is it indeterminate or generic? \;
\nHow does attention modify the phenomenal character of experience? What implications does this have for theories of consciousness (e.g.\, representationalist views)?
\nWhat structural role\, if any\, does attention play in the organisation of the phenomenal field?
\nDoes attention play sui generis phenomenal and/or epistemic roles in particular experiential types (e.g.\, emotional phenomenology\, cognitive phenomenology\, agential phenomenology\, etc.)?
\nWhat is the epistemic import of attention with respect to perceptual and introspective knowledge acquisition? Is attention necessary to have propositional and/or doxastic justification? What role does attention play in inquiry?
\nCan the so-called phenomenal modification problem be overcome?
\nWhat is the relationship between attention and inner awareness?
\nHow have historical accounts of attention addressed these issues\, and what can they contribute to contemporary debates?
\nThose interested in presenting at the seminar are invited to submit an anonymized abstract of no more than one page \;(excluding references) in either English or French to both jacopopallagrosi@gmail.com and vmartinis@uliege.be (please include both addresses \;in the email).
\nEach speaker will have a one-hour slot\, so presentations should ideally last around 30&ndash\;40 minutes\, followed by Q&\;A. The presentation itself may also be given in either English or French.
\nSubmission deadline: 4 January 2027
Notification of acceptance: 15 January 2027
Organizers: Arnaud Dewalque\, Valentina Martinis\, Jacopo Pallagrosi.
\nScientific Committee: Christian Blanco\, Alexis Delamare\, Arnaud Dewalque\, Ethan Field\, Quentin Hosch\, Bruno Leclercq\, Francesca Maffettone\, Valentina Martinis\, Jacopo Pallagrosi\, Denis Seron.
\nContact:jacopopallagrosi@gmail.com\;vmartinis@uliege.be \;
\nPermalink:http://www.pheno.ulg.ac.be/sem/?num_id=19&\;page=1&\;lang=fr
\n ORGANIZER;CN=Jacopo Pallagrosi;CN=Arnaud Dewalque;CN=Valentina Martinis: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR