From tristan.bradshaw at sydney.edu.au Mon Aug 9 11:57:41 2021 From: tristan.bradshaw at sydney.edu.au (Tristan Bradshaw) Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2021 01:57:41 +0000 Subject: [SydPhil] Critical Antiquities Workshop - Dennis Schmidt Message-ID: Dear all, A reminder that the first Critical Antiquities Workshop meeting for Semester 2 is this Friday, August 13, 10-11:30am. Please note that the previously circulated flyer advertised the wrong time for this meeting. A corrected flyer has been attached to this email. This week we are delighted to host Professor Dennis Schmidt (Western Sydney University) for his paper, ?Thinking and Moral Considerations.? Here is the abstract: The title of these remarks repeats the title of an essay by Arendt that was published in 1971. In that essay Arendt asks whether thinking ? understood in the broadest sense and not merely as a matter of knowledge ? provides some sort of ?guarantee?, some sort of compelling attachment to a moral sense. Here reflections are largely, but not exclusively, directed to Platonic texts. My intention is to ask this question again by beginning with a closer look at Arendt?s text, but then moving to look at some key Platonic texts ? including some that Arendt does not take up ? that treat this issue. My special concern will be to ask what, if anything, binds us to the good? While the focus of my comments will be centered on Platonic texts and will take Arendt?s text as the guiding impulse for those comments, it will be necessary to refer to some issues in Aristotle, Kant, Heidegger, and Agamben in order to unfold some further possibilities. Philosophy has tended to hold tight to the conviction that reason, thinking, truth, and the good matter. Bloch took this conviction as evidence for the importance of the principle of hope. Arendt echoes this in her essay, especially its final words: ?The manifestation of the wind of thought is not knowledge; it is the ability to tell right from wrong, beautiful from ugly. And this indeed may prevent catastrophes, at least for myself, in the rare moments when the chips are down.? Since my own conviction in this matter has been badly shaken, this paper is an effort to understand more clearly how it might be renewed. To receive a Zoom link, please sign up for Critical Antiquities Network announcements here. Please note, if you have already subscribed to the mailing list, you will receive the Zoom link and need not sign up again. Best wishes, Tristan and Ben Tristan Bradshaw ARC Postdoctoral Research Fellow | Co-director, Critical Antiquities Network The University of Sydney Department of Classics and Ancient History School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Office: H606, Main Quadrangle | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 +61 406 747 955 tristan.bradshaw at sydney.edu.au | fass.can at sydney.edu.au -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: CAW Flyer - Sem 2 2021 - Fair 2 corrected.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 322496 bytes Desc: CAW Flyer - Sem 2 2021 - Fair 2 corrected.pdf URL: From arts.cave at mq.edu.au Thu Aug 12 13:08:32 2021 From: arts.cave at mq.edu.au (Centre for Agency, Values, and Ethics) Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2021 03:08:32 +0000 Subject: [SydPhil] CAVE Public Lecture: "Academic Freedom and Democracy" by Adrienne Stone, 8 Sept, online Message-ID: Hi everyone, The Macquarie University Research Centre for Agency, Values, and Ethics (CAVE) invites you to the annual CAVE Public Lecture. This year, the lecture will be given by Prof. Adrienne Stone (Melbourne Law School), and is entitled, "Academic Freedom and Democracy." Date: Wednesday 8 September 2021 Time: 17:30 - 19:00 AEST Venue: Online webinar All are welcome! Please register here to receive the event link: CAVE Annual Lecture 2021. "Academic Freedom and Democracy" Academic freedom is essential to the functioning of a university. Its principal purpose is to advancement of knowledge through teaching and research, which in turn brings enormous public benefit. This lecture will take a close look at a second rationale for academic freedom that lies in the connections between academic freedom and democracy. It will be argued that universities play an important role in support for democracy as independent sources of information and knowledge. In doing so, they are a valuable democratic resource for all citizens ? and not just for the members of a university community. In turn, however, universities themselves require a commitment to democratic government in a full sense. That is, universities thrive in societies that are truly committed to free academic inquiry, that are prepared to wear the discomfort that challenging independent thinkers can bring. As a result, academic freedom has a constitutional dimension and scholars should conceive of themselves and their universities as part of the infrastructure of democracy. About Prof. Stone: Adrienne Stone holds a Chair at Melbourne Law School where she is also Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor and Director of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies. She researches in the areas of constitutional law and constitutional theory with particular attention to freedom of expression and academic freedom. She is a Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellow and her Laureate Program on Comparative Constitutional Law assembles a research team to investigate challenges to liberal democratic constitutionalism. She is the President of the International Association of Constitutional Law and is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and Australian Academy of Law. Her most recent book is Open Minds: Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech (2021) co-authored with Carolyn Evans. Macquarie University Research Centre for Agency, Values and Ethics (CAVE) Department of Philosophy Macquarie University Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia CAVE website: mq.edu.au/cave www.facebook.com/MQCAVE -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cole at uow.edu.au Thu Aug 12 14:35:50 2021 From: cole at uow.edu.au (Sally Cole) Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2021 04:35:50 +0000 Subject: [SydPhil] Dr Samir Mahmoud, Agora Online Speaker Series, Thursday 19 August, 3.30-5pm AEST Message-ID: The School of Liberal Arts, University of Wollongong invites you attend the Online Agora Speaker Series Thursday 19 August, 3.30 to 5.00 PM AEST. Register here Dr Samir Mahmoud Quranic Storytelling and Divine Perspectives. This lecture looks at the unique way in which the Quran offers parables and the lessons we can learn in our age of crises. It will highlight some distinct Quranic characteristics (narrative, structure, order, style) that have often baffled its readers. All are welcome to participate. Please find below instructions on how to register for anyone interested to attend. * In order to participate in Agora Speaker Series events, you will be required to register here, you will receive an email confirming your registration. * Prior to the event, registered participants will be contacted with further information, including the Access Code for the Webinar. * Please note that our team will be using Zoom to host this webinar and - if you do not already have Zoom installed it is advised, though not necessary, that you download the software to your device. * This webinar is scheduled to be recorded and will be uploaded to UOW owned websites and/or platforms, noting that the Q&A session may be edited for privacy reasons. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this, please contact us at sola-enquiries at uow.edu.au * The session chair will explain any additional rules and expected norms of engagement to participants at the outset of sessions. The Agora Speaker Series is proudly hosted by The School of Liberal Arts Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities University of Wollongong NSW 2522 Australia SOLA Enquiries sola-enquiries at uow.edu.au T +61 2 4221 4160 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From theaustralianhegelsociety at pb03.ascendbywix.com Thu Aug 12 20:59:27 2021 From: theaustralianhegelsociety at pb03.ascendbywix.com (australianhegelsociety) Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2021 10:59:27 +0000 Subject: [SydPhil] =?utf-8?q?Confronting=C2=A0__Crisis?= Message-ID: <97.3A.26434.F0FF4116@bg.mta1vrest.cc.prd.sparkpost> Confronting Crisis Third Biannual Conference of the Australian Hegel Society December 2-3, 2021 The call for papers is now open Dear Subscribers, We are happy to announce that a call for papers for the Third Biannual Conference of the Australian Hegel Society Confronting Crisis is now open. Hosted by UNSW Sydney and Macquarie University, Confronting Crisis will be held online on December 2-3, 2021. Humanity is facing multiple intertwined crises on a global scale: environmental disasters, biodiversity collapse, zoonotic pandemics, capitalist acceleration and monopolization, rising inequalities, increased control and manipulation at the hands of states and corporations, the list goes on. A hallmark of Hegelian and post-Hegelian social thought has been to elaborate conceptual tools to grasp the features, problems, and crises of an age, as well as the paths that could lead beyond them. The conference explores the resources that Hegelian and post-Hegelian philosophy provides to think through our current predicament and to confront the many crises we are facing? Keynote speakers: Rahel Jaeggi (HU Berlin) Karen Ng (Vanderbilt University) Papers are welcome that address the conference theme or key issues in Hegel or post-Hegelian social thought. The Australian Hegel Society welcomes submissions also from early career researchers and advanced graduate students. To notify your interest in presenting at the conference, please send an abstract of your paper (no more than 200 words) to the following address: theaustralianhegelsociety at gmail.com Your abstract should include the following items: 1. The paper?s title 2. Author?s name 3. Institutional affiliation (if any) 4. Email address 5. Description of the paper (no more than 200 words) Abstracts must be received by September 1. Sessions at the conference are likely to be around 35 minutes per paper including question time. Local Organising Committee: Jean-Philippe Deranty (Macquarie University) Heikki Ik?heimo (UNSW) Simon Lumsden (UNSW) Get in Touch Click on the link below to open the message in a browser: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/n6QeCP7LAXfKGprlMfz1nsY?domain=shoutout.wix.com You've received this email because you are a subscriber of this site. https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/eRmsCQnMBZfkA0ExrfPnLbE?domain=shoutout.wix.com If you feel you received it by mistake or wish to unsubscribe, please click here. https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/YLWVCROND2uvm2kVBIPs2v-?domain=wixapis.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From h.ikaheimo at unsw.edu.au Fri Aug 13 11:33:31 2021 From: h.ikaheimo at unsw.edu.au (Heikki Ikaheimo) Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2021 01:33:31 +0000 Subject: [SydPhil] Melissa Merritt on Epictetus and Kant on Self-Respect. UNSW Philosophy Seminar, August 24, 12.30-2pm, online In-Reply-To: References: , Message-ID: *|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* [UNSW] PHILOSOPHY SEMINAR SERIES 2021 ?Everyone has a price at which he sells himself?: Epictetus and Kant on Self-Respect [cid:image004.png at 01D78F68.0989B730] Speaker: Melissa Merritt (UNSW Sydney) Abstract: ?Everyone has a price at which he sells himself?: Kant quotes this remark in the Religion, ostensibly attributing it to Horace Walpole. On closer inspection, however, it turns out that he is invoking the pedagogical practices of the Epictetus. Taking up this clue, I argue that Kant develops a conception of self-respect in his later practical works (i.e. Religion, Metaphysics of Morals, and Anthropology) that draws heavily on Epictetus, and his distinctive version of the traditional Stoic account of rational agency. Crucially, Stoic tradition understands the nature of agency in developmental and teleological terms: in this context, Epictetus argues that we ?preserve? ourselves (rather than ?sell ourselves?) only by progressing towards virtue, and that this progress is possible only through a certain way of exercising choice ? namely, from a well-developed sense of what is appropriate to one as rational. I explain how this background informs Kant?s own pedagogical aims in the Religion and helps us work through puzzles in his account of character in the Anthropology. Yet the establishment of common ground should leave us wondering about the significance of obvious systematic differences: above all, Kant?s commitment to a metaphysical dualism that does not figure in Stoic thought and underwrites his distinctively modern conception of moral disposition. Although the difference is genuine, it remains unclear whether Kant can fully distinguish how own conception of moral disposition from what Epictetus holds up as self-respecting character. About the Presenter: Melissa Merritt is Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales and Australian Research Council Future Fellow (2019-2022). She is the author of Kant on Reflection and Virtue (Cambridge University Press, 2018), which won the 2019 North American Kant Society Book Prize, and The Sublime (Cambridge University Press, 2018). Her work on Kant focuses mostly on his ethics and moral psychology, and his understanding of the essentially reflective nature of the rational mind. She is currently working on a long-term project on the significance of Stoicism for Kant and contemporary ethics. [cid:image007.png at 01D78F68.0989B730] 24th August 2021 [cid:image008.png at 01D78F68.0989B730] 12:30pm to 2pm [cid:image009.png at 01D78F68.0989B730] Zoom Zoom link here [Read more] For further information email: h.ikaheimo at unsw.edu.au School Of Humanities and Languages Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture Follow Us [UNSW Facebook] [UNSW Instagram] [UNSW LinkedIn] [UNSW Twitter] [UNSW WeChat] [UNSW Weibo] [UNSW YouTube] [UNSW TikTok] Copyright ? 2020 UNSW Sydney. All rights reserved. CRICOS Provider Code 00098G -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.gif Type: image/gif Size: 96589 bytes Desc: image001.gif URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image004.png Type: image/png Size: 365389 bytes Desc: image004.png URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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