From david.braddon-mitchell at sydney.edu.au Mon Sep 14 11:24:56 2026 From: david.braddon-mitchell at sydney.edu.au (David Braddon-Mitchell) Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2026 01:24:56 +0000 Subject: [SydPhil] This week's seminar postponed Message-ID: <0724E3FF-5D8D-4CC4-A9B5-2C18374B98BD@sydney.edu.au> Dear All Our speaker for this week Toby Solomon (LMU) is not yet in the country! I have persuaded next week?s speaker to move to the last slot in the calendar, so we can still hear from him. So there is no seminar this week! cheers d From machuw at gmail.com Tue Sep 15 13:08:10 2026 From: machuw at gmail.com (Huw Price) Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2026 13:08:10 +1000 Subject: [SydPhil] Fwd: Blackheath Philosophy Forum is back! In-Reply-To: <100ba0a677e6b0d22363954fb.b51f26e285.20260911054832.ee113c76f0.1f37899b@mail74.atl111.rsgsv.net> References: <100ba0a677e6b0d22363954fb.b51f26e285.20260911054832.ee113c76f0.1f37899b@mail74.atl111.rsgsv.net> Message-ID: Some SydPhilers may be interested in this welcome news from Blackheath! ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Blackheath Philosophy Forum Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2026 at 3:48?pm Subject: Blackheath Philosophy Forum is back! Comments, queries, feedback? Just reply to this email. Comments, queries, feedback? Just reply to this email. *Blackheath Philosophy Forum* Hello subscribers, After a Covid-induced six-year sojourn, Blackheath Philosophy Forum is back! There will be an initial program of four talks this year, put together by our small team of academic philosophers: Huw Price , Gemma Smart and James Norton . Details of all but the first talk are still being finalized, but the dates are: *20 September, 18 October, 15 November, 22 November*. There will be some differences from how we used to run these forums. The main changes: - *Time: *The forums will all be held on Sunday afternoons, starting at 4:30 pm and finishing between 6 and 6:30. - *Venue:* The forums will be held in the Charles Darwin Room at at the Gardners Inn Hotel, 255 Great Western Highway, Blackheath. The management has generously offered this very nice space to us free of charge. - *No afternoon tea*, but drinks, including coffee, are available from the bar. - *Admission charge: *The highly concessional rate of *$0.00 *for all comers for the early talks (this will need to be revisited at some point). - *Dinner*: The discussions can continue over dinner at the pub after the forums. If you want to join us, please indicate on arrival arrive so we can give the pub numbers. - *Register to attend*: Given the limited seating at the venue (60 at a stretch) it is essential that anyone planning to attend register with Humanitix - *Inquiries: *Reply to this email. *Inaugural topic: Trust Me, I'm an Algorithm* 4:30 pm, Sunday 20 September 2026 *Ask ten people whether they trust AI and you'll get ten answers ? partly because they're not all talking about the same thing. Trusting your car to start is not the same as trusting a friend to keep a secret, yet we reach for the same word for both. So when people say AI needs to earn our trust, which kind do they have in mind? This talk untangles the surprising number of things we mean by trust, and asks which of them we owe to AI ? and which AI could ever really earn. The distinction carries a moral weight: some of what we call trust asks for goodwill and genuine care, things a machine simply cannot offer, and pretending otherwise means resting real moral decisions on a comforting fiction. To ground all this, I'll share new data on how people actually think about trusting AI.* *Speaker: Sam Baron* Sam Baron is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne and works across the philosophy of science, metaphysics, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of AI. His research ranges from the metaphysics of time, spacetime emergence, and quantum gravity to mathematical explanation and the foundations of explainable and trustworthy artificial intelligence. He is the author of *Out of Time: A Philosophical Study of Timelessness* (Oxford, 2022) alongside more than eighty journal articles in venues such as *Mind*, the *Journal of Philosophy*, *Philosophy and Phenomenological Research*, and the *British Journal for the Philosophy of Science*. He currently holds an ARC Discovery Project and an ARC Future Fellowship. Beyond his research, he is a former producer and presenter for ABC Radio National's *Philosopher's Zone*, and a widely read contributor to *The Conversation*. I hope you can make it to some of the discussions. Peter Baldwin You received this email because you opted in to our mailing list *Our mailing address is:* Blackheath Philosophy Forum P.O. Box 212 Blackheath, NSW 2785 Australia Add us to your address book [image: Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp] unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences | view email in browser From alex.lefebvre at sydney.edu.au Tue Sep 15 15:54:43 2026 From: alex.lefebvre at sydney.edu.au (Alexandre Lefebvre) Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2026 05:54:43 +0000 Subject: [SydPhil] 2026 Anderson Lectures | Art and Aesthetic Appreciation by Description | Oct 6, 2026 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi everyone, I?m delighted to invite you to the Anderson Lecture in Philosophy, to be held at Gleebooks in Glebe on Tuesday, 6 October. Doors open at 5:45 p.m. for a 6 p.m. start. We?re very fortunate to have Catharine Abell from the University of Oxford delivering this year?s lecture, titled ?Art and Aesthetic Appreciation by Description.? All are welcome, and registration is free. I hope you can make it. All the best, Alex Alexandre Lefebvre | Professor of Politics and Philosophy Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences | The University of Sydney S248 Quadrangle (A14) | 0491 672 222 | alexlefebvre.com Chair, Discipline of Philosophy New book: Liberalism as a Way of Life (Princeton, 2024) Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences School of Humanities Discipline of Philosophy [The University of Sydney] [Duchamp's fountain] 2026 Anderson Lectures in Philosophy Art and Aesthetic Appreciation by Description Catharine Abell | University of Oxford Gleebooks | Tuesday, 6 October | 5:45pm doors for 6:00pm start The appreciation of many artworks requires us to perceptually experience them or recordings, copies or reproductions of them. This is consistent with the view that aesthetic appreciation is essentially perceptual. However, there are some artworks we do not need to perceive to appreciate. Descriptions of the non-aesthetic properties of some avant-garde and contemporary artworks can put those with the requisite background knowledge in a position to appreciate them. Either our appreciation of such artworks is not aesthetic, or such artworks show that aesthetic appreciation is not essentially perceptual. I will argue for the latter view and will explore its implications for the nature of aesthetic appreciation. Please join us after the lecture for some refreshments. [Catharine Abell] About the speaker Catharine Abell is Professor of Philosophy of Art at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of The Queen?s College, Oxford. She is the author of Fiction: A Philosophical Analysis (2020, Oxford University Press). She has published articles on a wide range of topics in the philosophy of art, including the nature of art, pictorial representation, genre, photography and film. ABOUT THE ANDERSON FELLOWSHIPS: Anderson Fellowships are bestowed through a bequest of the estate of John Anderson (1893-1962), an influential Australian philosopher and Challis Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney from 1927 to 1958. They fund travel to the University of Sydney for up to two distinguished fellows in philosophy each year with the aim of promoting collaboration between members of the philosophy department and leading researchers around the world. Image: Wikiart. Click Here to Register Venue Gleebooks 49 Glebe Point Road Glebe Click here for a map [Twitter] [Facebook] [Instagram] [https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/3wFGC4QOPEi6m3KQvhNFGGi4I1OO?domain=images.e2ma.net] [The University of Sydney] Keep in touch [Facebook] [Twitter] [Instagram] [LinkedIn] [YouTube] Copyright ? 2021 The University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia Phone +61 2 9351 2222 ABN 15 211 513 464 CRICOS Number: 00026A Please add soh.events at sydney.edu.au to your address book or senders safe list to make sure you continue to see our emails in the future. Manage and Opt out using TrueRemove? Got this as a forward? Sign up to receive our future emails. View this email online. Disclaimer | Privacy statement | University of Sydney From alex.lefebvre at sydney.edu.au Tue Sep 15 16:02:32 2026 From: alex.lefebvre at sydney.edu.au (Alexandre Lefebvre) Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2026 06:02:32 +0000 Subject: [SydPhil] 2026 Anderson Lectures | Art and Aesthetic Appreciation by Description | Oct 6, 2026 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi everyone, I?m delighted to invite you to the Anderson Lecture in Philosophy, to be held at Gleebooks in Glebe on Tuesday, 6 October. Doors open at 5:45 p.m. for a 6 p.m. start. We?re very fortunate to have Catharine Abell from the University of Oxford delivering this year?s lecture, titled ?Art and Aesthetic Appreciation by Description.? All are welcome, and registration is free. Refreshments to follow the lecture. I hope you can make it. Register here: https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/C_vpCzvkyVCnx9D74H4f77i9IpRO?domain=events.humanitix.com Full details are in the attached flyer. All the best, Alex Alexandre Lefebvre | Professor of Politics and Philosophy Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences | The University of Sydney S248 Quadrangle (A14) | 0491 672 222 | alexlefebvre.com Chair, Discipline of Philosophy New book: Liberalism as a Way of Life (Princeton, 2024) From catherine.wesselinoff at nd.edu.au Wed Sep 16 13:05:58 2026 From: catherine.wesselinoff at nd.edu.au (Catherine Wesselinoff) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2026 03:05:58 +0000 Subject: [SydPhil] =?windows-1252?q?CHOP_Research_Seminar_October_1_-_Kar?= =?windows-1252?q?yn_Lai=A0=28UNSW=29_=22The_Zhuangzi_on_place=22?= Message-ID: The Notre Dame Centre for the History of Philosophy warmly invites you to this Research Seminar. TIME: Thursday, October 1, 1:00 - 2:30 pm IN PERSON: University of Notre Dame Australia, Broadway/Sydney Campus, NDS22/102 ONLINE: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_Y2Q5YjU0MDUtMjQ0MS00NTE4LTg4ZjQtMzkyMGU3OTM0NWUw%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22c93ebcc3-e84c-45c4-9c7e-8607adc072ec%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22d57c9f6e-4977-4ef4-ab54-cde3631e83ed%22%7d PASSCODE: kh3si7J5 ________________________________ SPEAKER: Karyn Lai (UNSW) TITLE: "The Zhuangzi on place" ABSTRACT: The Zhuangzi?s stories and imagery feature characters and animals that are often somewhere, in a specific place. Varieties of human activities, such as conversing, creating, wandering, or simply going about life are often embedded in places. Consider how Zhuangzi and Huizi are both on the bridge, over the river Hao, in which the fish are swimming?happily, as Zhuangzi says (17/87-91). In this story?and there are many more?the places and positions of its characters could have been omitted. But, instead, each has a unique place; I suggest this is for a reason. In this paper, I propose that the Zhuangzi pays close attention to the places we inhabit, roam in, leave behind, travel to, and move beyond. I discuss key themes and imagery in the text that highlight the centrality of place in human experiences: we are grounded in and by place. BIO: Karyn Lai is Professor of Philosophy at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Her research in Chinese and comparative philosophy seeks to offer culturally-inclusive and relevant models of human wellbeing. Her publications include Introduction to Chinese Philosophy (2017, CambridgeUP), now translated into Chinese, Korean and Portuguese; edited volumes; and peer-reviewed articles. Karyn is co-editor of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy?s Chinese philosophy entries; of the book series New Texts in the History of Philosophy (OxfordUP); and Associate Editor of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy. She is co-author (on the classical Chinese philosophical tradition) of the podcast series History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps. Dr Catherine Wesselinoff The University of Notre Dame Australia. Lecturer | School of Philosophy and Theology Lead, Strategic Programs and Partnerships | Institute for Ethics and Society (IES) The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Aesthetics Area Editor (Acting) Recent Publications: "Beauty's Comeback", Debates in Aesthetics, Vol 19. No. 2, 2025, pp 35-45. "Apophatic Beauty in the Hippias Major and the Symposium", The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 82, Issue 1, 2024, pp 36-44. The Revival of Beauty: Aesthetics, Experience, and Philosophy, Routledge, 2023. Disclaimer The information contained in this communication from the sender is confidential. It is intended solely for use by the recipient and others authorized to receive it. If you are not the recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or taking action in relation of the contents of this information is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. This email has been scanned for viruses and malware, and may have been automatically archived by Mimecast Ltd, an innovator in Software as a Service (SaaS) for business. Providing a safer and more useful place for your human generated data. Specializing in; Security, archiving and compliance. To find out more visit the Mimecast website. From 1281218483 at ulife.com.br Wed Sep 16 14:46:12 2026 From: 1281218483 at ulife.com.br (Francisco de Assis Mariano) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2026 04:46:12 +0000 Subject: [SydPhil] The Logic and Religion Webinar this Thursday - What is God? Message-ID: The next Logic and Religion Webinar will be held on Sep 17 (This Thursday), 2026 at 4 pm CET with the topic: What is God? Speaker: Jean-Yves Beziau and Flaw? de Lara Bone (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) Chair: Susana Gomez (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota) Abstract: This talk applies eleven methodological procedures to the Socratic-Platonic question, ?What is God?? Avoiding dogmatic definitions, it maps the divine across philosophical, religious, and cultural dimensions. The methods include definitions, quotations, proverbs, jokes, word clouds, Venn diagrams, opposition theory, the pyramid of meaning, categorization, typification, and symbolization. By analyzing theology, folk wisdom, and symbols, it structures diverse conceptions of God, ultimately seeking clarification over closure to keep philosophical wonder open. Paper: https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/bIJRCGv0oyCq057JXs7hmmiB90iU?domain=link.springer.com Please, register here to get a zoom link: https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/b3TbCJyBrGfy1EJ8MTzi33iyXj5j?domain=logicandreligion.com Time zones: 10:00 am in New York; 11:00 am in S?o Paulo; 4:00 pm in Paris; 5:00 pm in Jerusalem; and 7:30 pm in New Delhi. *Check the timeanddate.com to convert to your time zone Best regards, ---------------- Francisco de Assis Mariano Co-Chair of the Logic and Religion Webinar From admin at aap.org.au Wed Sep 16 16:03:21 2026 From: admin at aap.org.au (Australasian Association of Philosophy AAP) Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2026 16:03:21 +1000 Subject: [SydPhil] 2026 Alan Saunders Lecture - Registrations close tomorow Thursday 17 September Message-ID: *Alexandre Lefebvre will deliver the 2026 Alan Saunders Lecture on the topic: * *The Return of the Moral State: Philosophy and the Good Life. * Across the world, politics is returning to an old and dangerous question: should the state help decide what makes a life worth living? Liberal democracies have long tried to hold back from that question, leaving individuals, families, and communities to pursue their own visions of the good life. But from Hungary and the United States to China, India, and Israel, powerful movements and regimes are again using law, education, welfare, culture, and public power to promote particular ideals of family, order, harmony, pride, sacrifice, and belonging. In this lecture, Alexandre Lefebvre argues that liberalism?s rivals cannot be understood only through corruption, resentment, or authoritarianism. They are also offering moral visions ? often attractive, sometimes noble, and frequently dangerous once backed by the state. The challenge for liberals is to answer these rival ?good life states? without becoming one themselves. *Thursday 24 September, 6.30 - 8pm AEST * *Eugene Goossens Hall, ABC Ultimo Centre, Sydney* More info and register here: aap.org.au/AlanSaundersLecture *NB Registrations Cut Off 17 September* -- Australasian Association of Philosophy aap.org.au ABN 29 152 892 272 From hps.admin at sydney.edu.au Fri Sep 18 09:34:35 2026 From: hps.admin at sydney.edu.au (HPS Admin) Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2026 23:34:35 +0000 Subject: [SydPhil] HPS Research Seminar, Monday 21 September 2026 at 5.30pm In-Reply-To: <4k8fb.sne1ty.8zmgipmb@e2ma.net> References: <4k8fb.sne1ty.8zmgipmb@e2ma.net> Message-ID: School of History and Philosophy of Science RESEARCH SEMINAR [The University of Sydney] [https://d31hzlhk6di2h5.cloudfront.net/20260917/43/79/64/95/fdd24a437ebeb21a4b77a808_1276x850.jpg] Expanding the Reflex Beyond Nervous Systems: animal preparations, tropism, and the presumption of stimulus-response sufficiency Matthew Sims (Macquarie University) Dates: Monday, 21/9/2026 Start Time: 5:30pm Venue: Madsen Building (F09), Room 331 How to register: Free, no registration required Website: https://hps-events.sydney.edu.au/ Abstract: Contemporary biologists and philosophers often explain unicellular behaviour in terms of simple stimulus-response mechanisms, even where it appears to involve memory, learning, or context-sensitive evaluation. This talk traces one historical route by which exhaustive explanations in terms of reflex-like behaviour became presumptively available for organisms lacking nervous systems: the animal preparation experiments of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century reflex physiology. I reconstruct an inferential pattern, the animal preparation model (APM), from Whytt and Hall's decapitated preparations through Loeb's extension of reflex explanation to cnidarians and non-neuronal organisms. Loeb treated the latter as a secondary comparison class, licensing the conclusion that neuronal structures were dispensable for explaining similar animal behaviour. Jennings's work on infusoria exposed the presumption underlying this move, yet a residue of the APM's logic outlived the experimental practice that generated it. I trace this presumption into contemporary treatments of slime mould navigation, where organisms lacking nervous systems continue to attract a standing presumption of reflex sufficiency, one that evidence of flexibility or history-dependence does not by itself defeat. The history of the reflex reveals that stimulus-response explanation is not a neutral methodological starting point, but carries a historical residue that continues to shape explanations of behaviour.\ Bio: Matthew Sims is a postdoctoral researcher at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, and an affiliate of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. His research lies at the intersection of the philosophy of biology and the philosophy of cognitive science, with a particular focus on memory and learning, the evolution of cognition, and nineteenth- and early twentieth-century protozoology. He has conducted extensive research on the protist Physarum polycephalum, an acellular slime mould, which was the subject of his first monograph, published by Cambridge University Press. [https://images.e2ma.net/0/images/templates/spacer.gif] [The University of Sydney] Keep in touch [Facebook] [Twitter] [Instagram] [LinkedIn] [YouTube] Copyright ? 2026 The University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia Phone +61 2 9351 2222 ABN 15 211 513 464 CRICOS Number: 00026A Please add hps.admin at sydney.edu.au to your address book or senders safe list to make sure you continue to see our emails in the future. Manage your preferences | Opt out using TrueRemove? Got this as a forward? Sign up to receive our future emails. View this email online. Disclaimer | Privacy statement | University of Sydney From vmitova at uj.ac.za Sat Sep 19 16:04:56 2026 From: vmitova at uj.ac.za (Mitova, Veli) Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2026 06:04:56 +0000 Subject: [SydPhil] Workshop: Emotion and Resistance | Uni Johannesburg | ACEPS & SAP | 22-23 Sep 2026 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: The African Institute of Epistemology & Philosophy of Science (ACEPS) and the Society for Applied Philosophy (SAP) invite you to: Resistance and Emotions Workshop Keynotes: Lindokuhle Gama (North-West University) Taylor B. Rogers (University of Hawaii at Manoa) When: 22?23 September 2026 Where: ACEPS 11th Floor Boardroom, UJ on Empire and Zoom. Programme: https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/difqC4QOPEi66nO3GhVtGGi4rZyM?domain=uj.ac.za Organisers: Shen? de Rijk, Dimpho Moletsane, Lerato Motsoahole Inquiries: shened at uj.ac.za Funding: SAP and ACEPS All are welcome! Veli Mitova ? Professor: Philosophy (University of Johannesburg) Director: ACEPS (University of Johannesburg) Associate Editor: Philosophical Studies; AI & Society