Book Cover

Behold, the cover of my new book with OUP. Rather nifty, don't you think?

Experimental Philosophy Post

There's a very interesting discussion going on at the Experimental Philosophy blog, here.

CFP: The Epistemology of Liberal Democracy

2ND COPENHAGEN CONFERENCE IN EPISTEMOLOGY:
THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF LIBERAL DEMOCRACY

THE UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN
AUGUST 19-20, 2010

We tend to think of liberal democracy as providing the most ethically defensible way to set up a modern society. A separate yet highly relevant issue is whether liberal democracies also are preferable from an epistemological perspective, i.e., from the point of view of promoting true over false belief, knowledge over ignorance, and so on. The purpose of this conference-and of the research project that it is part of-is to investigate the norms, practices, and institutions that determine how belief and
knowledge is acquired and transmitted in liberal democracies. Questions to be addressed include but are not limited to the following:

- Under what conditions is free speech a truth-conducive social arrangement?
- When can we trust each others’ testimony?
- What is the proper response to disagreement, including disagreements among experts?
- What is the proper role of scientific expertise in democratic decision making?
- How is the need for expertise to be balanced against the desire for adequate representation?
- What are the epistemological properties of social deliberation?

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS
Speakers include David Christensen (Brown), Jerry Gaus (Arizona), Stephan Hartmann (Tilburg), Rainer Hegselmann (Bayreuth), Vincent Hendricks (Copenhagen), Michael Lynch (UConn), Erik J. Olsson (Lund), and Duncan Pritchard (Edinburgh).

CALL FOR PAPERS
We cordially invite you to submit a 500 word abstract on any topic relevant to the conference theme. Please prepare your abstract for anonymous review. Abstracts should be submitted (as a plain text, MS Word, or PDF file) to cph.epistemology@gmail.com no later than April 1, 2010. Decisions regarding acceptance will be made within two weeks.

REGISTRATION
To register, please e-mail kappel@hum.ku.dk with your name and affiliation. There will be a registration fee of 200 DKK ($40, or €25) for faculty, and 100 DKK ($20, or €12) for students. There will also be an option to attend the conference dinner on the evening of August 19 at a cost of 400 DKK ($80, or €50). Please indicate in your registration if you wish to attend. All fees are due in full on the first day of the conference.

ORGANIZERS
The conference is organized by the Social Epistemology Research Group (SERG) at the University of Copenhagen as part of the research project, the Epistemology of Liberal Democracy: Truth, Free Speech and Disagreement, conducted with generous support from the Velux Foundation.

WEBPAGE
http://epistemology.ku.dk/

CFP: De Se Attitudes + Self-Knowledge & Rational Agency, Oslo

CONF: De se attitudes + Self-Knowledge & Rational Agency, Oslo, June 2010

Arché (St Andrews) and CSMN (Oslo) are pleased to announce two major events on first-person thoughts to be held in Oslo from 6th to 11th June, 2010.

(1) Arché/CSMN Mini-course & Workshop: De se attitudes
Sunday June 6, 2010 - Wednesday June 9, 2010
Confirmed speakers:
• Pranav Anand (UC Santa Cruz)
• Andy Egan (Rutgers/Arché)
• James Higginbotham (USC)
• Daniel Morgan (Oxford)
• Dilip Ninan (Arché)
• François Recanati (Institute Jean-Nicod (CNRS)/Arché)
• Seth Yalcin (Berkeley)
Website: http://www.csmn.uio.no/events/2010/De-Se

(2) Conference: Self-Knowledge and Rational Agency
Wednesday June 9, 2010 - Friday June 11, 2010
Confirmed Speakers:
• Quassim Cassam (Warwick)
• Fred Dretske (Duke)
• Adrian Haddock (Stirling)
• Pamela Heironymi (UCLA)
• Jennifer Hornsby (Birkbeck/CSMN)
• Richard Moran (Harvard)
• Robert Stalnaker (MIT)
• Crispin Wright (NYU/Aberdeen)
Website: http://www.csmn.uio.no/events/2010/self-knowledge.xml

Call for participants / respondents:
We invite postgraduate students and junior researchers (within 5 years of completing Ph.D.) to come as participants to the De Se Mini-course, and as respondents to one of the plenary speakers at the Self-Knowledge conference.

(1) Mini-course & Workshop on de se attitudes
The Workshop and Mini-Course is intended for graduate students and younger researchers (postdocs and junior faculty) working on related topics. Participants from outside St Andrews and Oslo need to apply; see details below.

(2) Conference on Self-Knowledge & Rational Agency
Invited respondents will present brief replies (c. 10 minutes) to one of the plenary talks, to open the question and discussion sessions. Accommodation in Oslo and travel expenses within Europe (or a subsidy of similar amount for invitees outside Europe) of respondents will be paid for by CSMN.

To apply for either event (or both), please send by email:
- Your name and institutional affiliation;
- A brief CV, inc. year of your Ph.D. (if any, 2007 or after);
- Name of a referee;
- A brief statement of up to 200 words for *each* of the event(s) you are applying for (so 2 x 200 words if you are applying for both), explaining the relevance of the themes of the workshop/conference to your research.
- For the Self-Knowledge conference only, names of up to 3 speakers, in order of preference, you would like to respond to. (Please base your choice on the speakers’ relevant published works, as the talks are not yet available at this stage.)

Email your application to:
(1) For De Se Mini-course: dilip.ninan@st-andrews.ac.uk
(2) For Self-Knowledge conference: t.h.w.chan@ifikk.uio.no
and to both of us if you are applying for both events.

Deadline for application: *1st April, 2010*
Notifications of acceptance: By 27th April, 2010

Registration:
In addition, the conference on Self-Knowledge & Rational Agency is open to all interested philosophy students and researchers (at any career stage) from around the world as (non-speaker) participants. Registration is FREE. Please fill in the online registration form at the conference website http://www.csmn.uio.no/events/2010/self-knowledge.xml by *15th May, 2010*.

For more information please contact:
Dilip Ninan (dilip.ninan@st-andrews.ac.uk ) for the De Se event; and
Timothy Chan (t.h.w.chan@ifikk.uio.no ) for the Self-Knowledge event.