Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Bursaries and Scholarships

Hi everyone,

If you would like some money, check this out:

http://webdev.cc.umanitoba.ca/colleges/uc/students/index.html

Its for the University College Endowment Fund.

More applications are needed!

I put some of the forms downstairs in the phil. offices. If you have any questions come on down to the Provost's Office.

N.B. being a member of the College costs you nothing.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Dan Korman Call for Commentators and Snarky Chalmers Reply

Dan Korman
Call for commentators for the upcoming Illinois Philosophical Association Meeting in DeKalb, IL (Nov 18-19). Keynote: Michael Tooley. Email me if you'd like to comment on (or would like more info about) any of these papers.
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/dzkorman/www/IPA.xls
netfiles.uiuc.edu
�Ïࡱá > þÿ 6 þÿÿÿ ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ�…
Like · · Share · 7 hours ago ·

David Chalmers i would like to comment on þÿÿÿ. i feel that þÿ does not develop its point adequately, while ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ� is overly predictable (until the surprise ending).
7 hours ago · Unlike · 14 people

I would volunteer to comment, but that is the weekend that Dennis Witcomb will be here. You are not similarly constrained. (Though meeting Dennis is clearly a win, commenting at a conference is no fail.)

Thursday, October 13, 2011

UNDERGRADUATE CFP

*Pensées* *Canadiennes *is a national philosophy journal that showcases the
work of talented undergraduate students from all across Canada to a wide
audience. Published annually every April, the 2011-12 volume will mark *
Pensées*´ tenth volume, and we are proud to continue its excellent
reputation and quality. Each year, we publish a selection of exceptional
undergraduate papers and conduct an interview with a distinguished Canadian
philosopher.

A team of approximately six editors - together with Lyndon and Maxwell -
will be responsible for selecting the papers to be published via a
double-blind peer review process. We accept applications from any
undergraduate philosophy student enrolled in a Canadian university.
Interested applicants must include: (1) name; (2) university; (3) year of
study (e.g., third year); (4) areas of philosophical specialization and
competence; (5) editing (or other relevant) experience; (6) philosophical
credentials (awards, publications, etc.).

Applications should be sent to journal@penseescanadiennes.com by November 3.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Best wishes,

Lyndon Entwistle and Maxwell Ramstead

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

UT Graduate Conference in Philosophy

Call For Papers
Varieties of Possibility:

Logical, Metaphysical, Epistemic and Practical
The 12th Annual University of Toronto Graduate Conference in Philosophy
March 30 & 31, 2012, with Keynote Speaker:
Timothy Williamson, University of Oxford

What is it for something to be possible? And what have possibilities to do with us and the world? Can envisioning them tell us something about what there is and how to act? How do we know that something is possible, and how should we reason about it? Is there a core conception of possibility that runs through all such questions? If not, in what relations do these various conceptions stand?

The graduate students of philosophy at the University of Toronto invite papers exploring these and related issues for their 12th annual graduate conference. We welcome submissions from all fields in philosophy, including those making connections to other disciplines, and especially encourage those engaging the history of philosophy. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

The logic of future contingents in ancient and contemporary philosophy
The concept of potentiality (dunamis) in ancient thought, and its relation to the modern notion of possibility
Developments in medieval theories of modality in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
The relations among various sorts of possibility, e.g., logical, conceptual, epistemic, metaphysical, mathematical, nomological, technological or practical
The relations between various sorts of possibility and various kinds of modal logic, e.g., alethic, doxastic, deontic and so on
Quantified modal logic and the Barcan Formula
Realism and antirealism about possibilia
The existence of unactualized or unactualizable possibilities
The connections between intuitions, evidence, conceivability and possibility in counterfactual or thought experimental reasoning
The relations between skeptical possibilities, justification and what it means 'to know that p'
The conceptual relations between the notions of possibility and probability
The supervenience of the normative on the natural, i.e. the impossibility of an identical world having the same natural but different normative properties
The bearing of the principle of alternate possibilities on free-will and moral responsibility
The best of all possible worlds and Leibniz's philosophical theology
The role of utopias or ideal social arrangements in political and ethical thought
The relation between the possibility of discourse and democratic institutions

Deadline for submission: JANUARY 5, 2012

Please submit through EasyChair. Submissions must be in doc(x) or pdf format and prepared for blind review. Papers should not exceed 4000 words and abstracts should not exceed 300 words. Only one submission per author. Limited travel stipends are available, with special funds for exceptional papers in ancient and medieval philosophy.
Contact: Geordie McComb

http://philosophy.utoronto.ca/gpsu/conf/

Friday, October 7, 2011

Feagin Fail Movies

We talked in class today about movies that didn't quite conform to Feagin's idea of tragedies as works for which one's positive meta-response outweighs the negative direct-response. _Happiness_, _Requiem for a Dream_ and _White Ribbon_ were mentioned. What other notable cases have you encountered, and how did they have a troubling meta-response. _Freaks_ comes to mind for me.

BEGINNING OF TERM PARTY

October 16th, 2011
Great Hall, University College
2-5 pm

This will be a family friendly event, so bring your partners and children if you got them!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

University of Manitoba Speaker Series

Fall Term:
Sept. 30: Dan Korman, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
Nov. 4: Derek Brown, Brandon University
Nov. 18: Dennis Whitcomb, Western Washington University
Nov. 25: Esa Diaz-Leon, University of Manitoba

Winter Term:
Jan. 20: Meena Krishnamurthy, University of Manitoba
Feb. 10: Simone Mahrenholz, University of Manitoba
Mar. 9: Shieva Kleinschmidt, University of Southern California
Mar. 23: David Liebesman, Boston University

COPYRIGHT: What Graduate Students Need To Know

Copyright
What Graduate Students Need To Know
Copyright is complex. Attend an information session for an overview on copyright law,
fair dealing, when copyright permission is needed, how to obtain permission, using free resources, and more.
You are responsible for ensuring you do not infringe copyright. Remember, use it fairly - keep it legal.

Fort Garry session

Thursday, October 20, 2011
9:00 am – 10:30 am
Cross Common Room, St. John’s College

Bannatyne session

Monday, October 31, 2011
9:00 am – 10:30 am
Theatre A, Basic Medical Sciences Bldg

Online evening session
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Central Standard Time (CST)
Connect from your home or office
RSVP juliette_nadeau@umanitoba.ca to pre-register
High-speed Internet and speakers/earbuds needed

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

CHARLES TAYLOR @ The University of Winnipeg

Charles Taylor @ the University of Winnipeg (take 2)


Due to illness, last years lecture was cancelled. I was just informed that they are trying to make it happen yet.
Here is the info.

Topic: Solidarity and Diversity in a Secular Age: Managing Belief and Unbelief in the Public Square
Date: Wednesday October 19th, 2011
Time: 7:30pm
Location: University of Winnipeg (515 Portage Avenue)
Free Admission. Talk takes place in the U of W’s Eckhardt-Grammate Hall.

Globally renowned Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor will deliver a lecture titled “Solidarity and Diversity in a Secular Age: Managing Belief and Unbelief in the Public Square,” which is based on his 2007 magnum opus, A Secular Age.

Dr. Taylor is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Philosophy at McGill University. He was the co-chair of the Taylor-Bouchard Commission on Reasonable Accommodation in Quebec. Dr. Taylor was the recipient of the 2008 Kyoto Prize in arts and philosophy and the 2007 Templeton Prize for progress towards research or discoveries about spiritual realities, which included a cash award of US$1.5 million.

Highly respected sociologist of religion Robert Bellah has called A Secular Age “one of the most important books to be written in my lifetime.”

“The change I want to define and trace is one which takes us from a society in which it was virtually impossible not to believe in God, to one in which faith, even for the staunchest believer, is one human possibility among others,” Dr. Taylor writes in the book.