CFP: 2010 Episteme Conference in Edinburgh

I'm pleased to announce that the Edinburgh Epistemology research group will be hosting the 2010 Episteme conference, on the topic: 'Cognitive Ecology: The Role of the Concept of Knowledge in our Social Cognitive Ecology'. So far, confirmed speakers include Martin Kusch (Cambridge/Vienna) and Ram Neta (UNC, Chapel Hill), with more speakers to be confirmed soon. A rough conference webpage is available here.

There is also a call for papers for this conference, with more details posted on the conference webpage.

CFP: Experimental Philosophy

The deadline for submissions to the Experimental Philosophy Graduate Conference at Buffalo University is coming up on August 15, 2009. The conference's focus on experimental epistemology and submissions in this area is especially encouraged. Following the conference will be a Experimental Epistemology Workshop (with James Beebe, Michael Bishop Ram Neta, Shaun Nichols and Jonathan Weinberg) and all speakers are invited to attend.

More details can be found here (pdf).

2009 Nature of Knowledge Lecture & Virtue Epistemology Workshop

Ernie Sosa will be visiting Edinburgh again next week. As part of his visit he'll be delivering the 2009 Nature of Knowledge lecture on Wednesday (22nd), on the topic of 'Knowledge and Wisdom'. If you're in the Edinburgh area and fancy coming along, then more details are available here. This is a free event, with no registration.

Also, prior to the lecture we're hosting an informal workshop on virtue epistemology, with more details posted here. Again, this is free and there's no registration fee.

Epistemic Goodness Conference: New Webpage

This is just to let everyone know that the webpage for the Epistemic Goodness conference has moved. For the new webpage, click here.

Epistemic Goodness Conference: Abstracts Posted

The abstracts for all the papers for the Epistemic Goodness conference have now been posted here.

Conference on The Aim of Belief (Oslo)

Timothy Chan has brought to my attention a fantastic looking conference on The Aim of Belief which is being held at CSMN in Olso in May. Speakers include Pascal Engel (Geneva), Paul Horwich (NYU), David Papineau (King’s College, London), Nishi Shah (Amherst), Asbjørn Steglich-Petersen (Aarhus), Ralph Wedgwood (Oxford) and Timothy Williamson (Oxford). For more details, click here.

CFP: Amsterdam Conference on Disagreement

Responsible Belief in the Face of Disagreement

August 18–20, 2009
VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands
http://www.knowledgebeliefnormativity.org

Keynote Speakers
Robert Audi (University of Notre Dame)
Richard Feldman (University of Rochester)
Bruce Russell (Wayne State University)

Note that there is a call for papers, with a deadline of March 15th, so get your skates on!

Value of Knowledge Chapters

Here is the latest version of my contribution to the Value of Knowledge book that I'm writing with Alan Millar and Adrian Haddock:

Analytical Table of Contents (pdf)
Chapter One: The Value Problem for Knowledge (pdf)
Chapter Two: Knowledge and Final Value (pdf)
Chapter Three: Anti-Luck Virtue Epistemology (pdf)
Chapter Four: Understanding (pdf)
Bibliography (pdf)

NEH Summer Institute On Experimental Philosophy

I've been alerted to this announcement by Josh Knobe:

NEH Summer Institute: Experimental Philosophy

Experimental Philosophy is a new movement that uses experiments to address traditional philosophical questions. Although the movement is only a few years old, it has attracted prolific practitioners as well as ardent critics. (For more about Experimental Philosophy, see the recent article in the New York Times or the ongoing discussion at the Experimental Philosophy Blog.)

This summer, the NEH is sponsoring an Institute on Experimental Philosophy. The Institute will bring in over a dozen distinguished guest faculty, who will present their latest research across a wide range of issues and perspectives. The Institute will also provide participants with the opportunity to learn experimental methods that are used in Experimental Philosophy. The Institute will also provide participants with the opportunity to learn experimental methods that are used in Experimental Philosophy.

The Institute will take place in SLC from June 22-July 17 2009. Eligible participants must have a teaching position at a U.S. college or university. The deadline for application is March 2. More information about the Institute, as well as application materials, are available here.

Reminder: 2009 Episteme Conference CFP

This is just a reminder that the deadline for the 2009 Episteme conference on Disagreement is January 15th. For more details about this event, click here.

CFP: Formal Perspectives on the Epistemology of Religion (Leuven, June 2009)

========================================================================

*FORMAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF RELIGION*

June 10-12 2009 @ KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium)

Co-organized by the Formal Epistemology Project, KU Leuven
and the Center for Philosophy and Religion, University of Glasgow

Conference website: http://formalphilosophy.org/fmer

========================================================================


The organizers of the conference invite contributions bringing
formal methodology -- decision theory, statistics, epistemic logic,
game theory, etc. -- to bear on issues in the epistemology of religion.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

- Pascalian arguments

- Cosmic and organic design arguments

- Arguments from miracles

- Problems of evil

- Religious pluralism and disagreement

Authors are invited to submit a 400-600 word abstract for a paper of
30-40 minutes reading time. The abstracts are to be submitted by e-mail,
as an attachment in a common format (preferably pdf, doc or rtf).

The submission deadline is Monday 16th of February 2009, with decisions
expected to be reached by Monday 30th of March 2009.

The language of the conference is English.

In addition to contributed papers, the program will also include the
following invited speakers:

- Paul Bartha (British Columbia)

- Branden Fitelson (Berkeley)

- Alan Hajek (ANU)

- Tim & Lydia McGrew (Western Michigan)

- Graham Oppy (Monash)

- Richard Swinburne (Oxford)

- Michael Tooley (Boulder)

Further details regarding the event will be posted in due course on the
conference website.

Please send abstracts and requests for further information to

jacob.chandler@hiw.kuleuven.be.

and cc. to

v.harrison@philosophy.arts.gla.ac.uk

New Society and Blog

The International Society for the Study of Scepticism has just been founded, and this organisation also now has its own blog. Check it out!

Value of Knowledge Book Update

I've just updated the draft chapters for the book on the value of knowledge that I'm writing with Alan Millar and Adrian Haddock, and which I recently posted here. Here are the new draft chapters:

Chapter One: The Value Problem for Knowledge (pdf)
Chapter Two: Knowledge and Final Value (pdf)
Chapter Three: Anti-Luck Virtue Epistemology (pdf)
Chapter Four: Understanding (pdf)
Bibliography (pdf)

Many thanks to all of you who sent comments!

Epistemic Goodness Conference and Call for Papers

This is a reminder that the deadline for submitting an abstract for the Epistemic Goodness conference is November 1st. Abstracts should be submitted directly to me at duncan.pritchard@ed.ac.uk. For more details about the conference, click here.

Epistemology@Edinburgh Blog

Well, it's still pretty basic, but I think it's fair to say that the Epistemology@Edinburgh blog is now live. Check it out here.

Epistemology @ Edinburgh

There's a lot going to be happening here in Epistemology over the coming years. I lack specific details for most of these events, but I thought it worth flagging what's planned anyway, even though there are a few gaps. Here are the main events planned:

Ernest Sosa will be here next year to give the 2009 Nature of Knowledge lecture, and we're planning to host a workshop to coincide with his visit, probably on virtue epistemology (for obvious reasons).

We will be hosting the 2010 Episteme conference, and the conference theme will be 'Cognitive Ecology: The Role of the Concept of Knowledge in our Social Cognitive Ecology'. Confirmed speakers so far include Martin Kusch and Ram Neta, with more to follow (including a call for papers).

We're planning a conference on ancient epistemology, probably for 2011.

We're planning a conference on the epistemological ramifications of embodied cognition, probably for 2011 or 2012.

In addition, the Epistemology Research Seminar begins here next week, with a talk from Julien Dutant (Geneva). In addition, we're just about the launch the Epistemology @ Edinburgh blog. So it's all happening here in Edinburgh!

Crispin Wright @ Edinburgh

I'm very pleased to say that Crispin Wright (NYU/Arche) has been appointed an Honorary Professorial Fellow in our Department. While this is clearly generally a good thing, it is particularly good news for our growing Epistemology @ Edinburgh research cluster (which will soon have its own blog, by the way, so watch this space!).

Wisdom Conference

Allan Hazlett is organising a conference on Wisdom in April '09 at Fordham University, with talks from, amongst others, John Greco and Ernie Sosa. For more details, click here.

Epistemology: 5 Questions

I don't normally plug my own books on this blog, but I think I'll make an exception in this case. Vincent Hendricks and myself have collected together a bunch of interviews with some of the world's leading epistemologists, such as Fred Dretske, Tim Williamson, Ernie Sosa and Alvin Goldman. It's called Epistemology: 5 Questions, and it's now available on Amazon.

Value of Knowledge Book

I'm currently working on a book on the value of knowledge, which will be co-authored with Alan Millar and Adrian Haddock. I've just finished drafting my contribution, which I've posted on my homepage. In case you're interested, here are the links:

Chapter One: The Value Problem for Knowledge (pdf)
Chapter Two: Knowledge and Final Value (pdf)
Chapter Three: Anti-Luck Virtue Epistemology (pdf)
Chapter Four: Understanding (pdf)
Bibliography (pdf)

Basically, the first chapter sets up the issues and argues that a complete positive response to the value problem for knowledge requires one to show that knowledge has final value. The second chapter considers the best defence of the final value of knowledge--due to what I call 'robust virtue epistemology--and argues that it fails. The third chapter argues for a new account of knowledge that I call anti-luck virtue epistemology, and looks at how this proposal would deal with the value problem for knowledge, given that it cannot offer a complete positive response to that problem. Finally, the last chapter locates understanding in this debate.

I'm hoping to present this material during my visit to UNAM next month, and no doubt I'll make changes in the light of the feedback I get there. I'm also due to present this at an informal workshop in October in Stirling, at which Wayne Riggs will be commentating (and Ernie Sosa, amongst others, will be in attendance). Accordingly, expect this material to change a lot over the coming months (I'll post alerts if I make any changes).

As always, comments welcome!