will be hosting conferences on

Metaphilosophy in History

The first conference will take place in Prague between the 4th-5th of June, 2020.

The second conference will take place in Budapest, between the 29th-30th of October, 2020.

Organizers: Tamás Demeter, Catherine Dromelet, James Hill, Josef Moural

Call for Papers:

What is philosophy? How a philosopher proceeds and what goals he or she pursues, how he or she distinguishes between good and bad philosophy? Being interested in such questions is sometimes labeled as metaphilosophy, and while much of metaphilosophical work so far was concerned with 'systematic' issues, our aim is to turn our metaphilosophical gaze onto the history of philosophy.

We shall have two conferences, gathering people interested in the self-conception of philosophy up to the very recent past. The chronological dividing line between them will be roughly 1725, for we beleive that the emergence of successful Newtonian science was a serious blow to the preceding self-conception(s) of philosophy, and that philosophy had to reinvent itself afterwards.

Some of the questions we are interested in are: Did metaphilosophy play an important role in the past philosophers' agenda? If they held metaphilosophical views, did their philosophical practice follow them? Was there more agreement on the metaphilosophical level than in argumentative practice, or vice versa?

We are inviting submissions on individual philosophers and/or schools, as well as of a comparative kind (within the chronological limits of each conference).

Abstracts for the first conference of about 500 words should be sent to:
cat.dromelet@gmail.com until the 1st of March 2020.
(There will be a further call for the second conference.)

Call for Papers (Synthese Special Issue): "Humeanisms"

Guest Editors:
Tamás Demeter (Hungarian Academy of Sciences),
László Kocsis (University of Pécs),
Iulian D. Toader (University of Salzburg)

It would be difficult to overestimate the influence of Hume’s thought on contemporary philosophy. Just consider the doctrine of Humean Supervenience, which is widely discussed, defended and criticized in connection with many metaphysical topics such as the nature of laws, causation, reduction of the mental, counterfactual conditionals, existence of chance in the physical world, among others. Humeanism is popular in practical philosophy as well, since many contemporary moral philosophers share the plausible but not uncontroversial Humean view that we cannot give a satisfactory account of our actions just in terms of beliefs: reason alone is impotent to produce actions; our desires also have substantial motivational force.  

This special issue seeks answers to questions about various forms of Humeanisms. Although Humeanism is a well-known philosophical view, the conditions for labeling a position Humean are not always clear. One might say that Humeans are those who take themselves as modern adherents to Hume’s philosophy – but under what interpretation? Vice versa, in the light of contemporary Humeanisms, how can we answer the question whether Hume, himself, was a Humean? Can anyone elaborate contemporary Humeanism as a unified, all-purpose strategy for approaching philosophical problems?

The special issue calls for contributions discussing (a) Humean strategies in metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of science, philosophy of action or phenomenology, and (b) theories in these areas that engage critically and constructively with Hume’s own philosophy. Contributions must be original and must not beunder review elsewhere. Each submission should include a separate title page containing the contact details for the author(s), a brief abstract (150-200 words) and list of 4-6 keywords. All papers will be subject to double-blind peer-review.

Manuscripts should be submitted online through the Synthese Editorial Manager: https://www.editorialmanager.com/synt Please choose the appropriate article type for your submission by selecting “S.I.: Humeanisms” from the relevant drop-down menu.

For further details on how to prepare the manuscripts, please follow the author guidelines “Instructions for Authors” available on the journal’s website:

https://www.springer.com/philosophy/epistemology+and+philosophy+of+science/journal/11229?detailsPage=editorialBoard

The deadline for submissions is September 30th, 2019.

For further information, please contact the guest editors:

tsd2333@gmail.com, kocsis.laszlo@gmail.com, itoad71@gmail.com

Institute of Philosophy, Research Centre for the Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Dates: 29th and 30th of March, 2019.

Organizer: The MTA BTK Lendület Morals and Science Research Group

Ian Hacking’s thought has contributed highly original insights to the philosophical landscape of the late 20th and early 21st century. His interests in the history and philosophy of mathematics and the natural sciences in general (The Logic of Statistical Inference, Representing and Intervening, Why is There Philosophy of Mathematics at All?); in the concept of probability in particular (The Emergence of Probability, The Taming of Chance); and in the metaphysical and social scientific implications of human (or interactive) kinds (Rewriting the Soul, Mad Travelers, The Social Construction of What?) all provide significant additions to the canon of analytic philosophy.

This conference aims to engage all aspects of Ian Hacking’s philosophy, bringing together scholars working in the fields touched upon by Hacking’s body of work in the philosophy of logic, the history and philosophy of science, the philosophy of language and the philosophy of the social sciences. Contributions from all areas of philosophy and scientific thought are welcome, aiming to address the questions including, but not limited to the following:

General assessments:

-          How does Hacking’s philosophy relate to its influences in both the analytic and the continental traditions? How did it influence philosophy in the 21st century?

-          What connections are there between the main areas of interest in Hacking’s philosophical body of work?

Specific topics:

-          What role does the concept of probability play in scientific reasoning, and how did the concept emerge to fulfill that role?

-          What is the relation of language to philosophical thought in the early 21st century?

-          How does experimentation influence theory choice (and vice versa) in scientific thinking?

-          What are the peculiar characteristics of human (or interactive) kinds contrasted with natural kinds?

Abstracts of about 500 words should be sent to Dr. Akos Sivado, akos.sivado@gmail.com

Speakers include:

Rachel Cooper (Lancaster University)
Janette Dinishak (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Axel Gelfert (Technical University of Berlin)
Mark Risjord (Emory University)
Paul A. Roth (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Luca Sciortino (University of Leeds)
Jonathan Tsou (Iowa State University)

The deadline for submissions is 1st December 2018.

We plan to dedicate a special issue of Organon F to modal logic. The special issue will be published in the first half of 2019 and will have the title below:

Reflecting on the legacy of C.I. Lewis: contemporary and historical perspectives on modal logic

We invite submissions presenting
– technical results in any area of modal logic, provided that they are illustrated in a detailed way and are accessible to a broad audience;

– philosophical applications (or discussing philosophical aspects) of modal logic, provided that they are connected to a relevant tradition of studies;

– historical discussions on the development of modal logic after C.I. Lewis's early works, provided that they have some relevance for contemporary investigations.

The special issue will be guest-edited by Matteo Pascucci (Vienna University of Technology and Slovak Academy of Sciences) and Ádám Tamás Tuboly (Hungarian Academy of Sciences and University of Pécs). It will include three invited articles by established researchers in the field and contributed manuscripts selected via a double-blind reviewing process. There are no restrictions regarding the style of submitted manuscripts, but the authors of accepted contributions will be asked to prepare their final versions according to the journal's guidelines. Manuscripts should be sent in pdf format by

15 September 2018

to any of the guest-editors (please, put ORGANON-F-MODAL-LOGIC-SUBMISSION as a subject):

matteo.pascucci@tuwien.ac.at
tubolyadamtamas@gmail.com

Feel free to contact the guest-editors for further information on the special issue and on the format of submissions.

HUMEANISMS

In various branches of philosophy, several positions are called "Humean". If someone holds that modal features supervene on the spatiotemporal distribution of fundamental non-modal properties, then (s)he is a Humean. If someone argues that our reasons for action cannot be explained in terms of our beliefs without reference to desires, then (s)he is a Humean. This workshop seeks answers to questions about various forms of Humeanisms. Although Humeanism is a well-known philosophical view, the conditions for labeling a position Humean are not always clear. One might say that Humeans are those who take themselves as modern adherents to Hume's philosophy -- but under what interpretation? Vice versa, in the light of contemporary Humeanisms, how can we answer the question whether Hume, himself, was a Humean? Can one elaborate contemporary Humeanism as a unified, all-purpose strategy for approaching philosophical problems? We are looking for papers that discuss (a) Humean strategies in metaphysics, epistemology, practical philosophy or phenomenology, and (b) theories in these areas that engage critically and constructively with Hume's own philosophy.

We invite submissions for presentations (30 min talk + 15 min Q&A). Please send a 500 word abstract to any of the email addresses below for double blind review.

Important dates:
• Deadline for submissions: March 31, 2018.
• Communication of acceptance: May 1, 2018.

Invited speakers include:
• Miren Boehm
• Marian David
• Michael Esfeld
• Kevin Mulligan
• Steff Rocknak

Organizers:
• Tamas Demeter (Budapest)
• Laszlo Kocsis (Pécs)
• Iulian Toader (Salzburg/Bucharest)

For questions, please contact us at tsd2333@gmail.com or kocsis.laszlo@gmail.com or itoad71@gmail.com

Date: 30th-31st March 2018

Organizers:
Department of Sociology, University of Pécs, and
MTA BTK Lendület Morals and Science Research Group

Peter Winch’s The Idea of a Social Science and its Relation to Philosophy was first published in 1958 – and it is still in the forefront of controversies. Winch’s Wittgensteinian approach to sociological problems, his conception of understanding (Verstehen) and its focus on rule-following, and his vision on the relation of social science and philosophy found a peculiar place within the Verstehen-tradition and collided with alternative conceptions of understanding (most importantly, Max Weber’s verstehende Soziologie). Winch’s view of social science made him a worthy opponent of many different and well-entrenched positions in the philosophy of the social sciences – and after having been labeled the ’linguistic variant of Dilthey’, a ’collective solipsist’ and a radical relativist, in the introduction to the second edition (published in 1990) he took steps toward a slightly modified and softened position – without revising the original text.

This workshop aims to assess the afterlife of Winch’s book, to take up topics central to the text and to Winch’s oeuvre (philosophy of the social sciences, interpretive social science, social theory, ethics), and revisit them after more than half a century of their initial formulation.  We invite submissions on the legacy of Peter Winch’s thought for the philosophy of the social sciences and social scientific methodology, particularly in the context of Verstehen and interpretation.

The questions our workshop aims to address include but are not limited to the following:
-    How does the Winchian account of interpretation relate to different concepts of social scientific understanding?
-    What kind of philosophical consequences can be drawn from a Winchian view regarding the building blocks of society and social life?
-    What kind of consequences could be derived for the practice of sociology, anthropology or political science?
-    What kind of ethical considerations are worth addressing regarding society and interpretation?

Abstracts of about 500 words should be sent to Dr. Akos Sivado akos.sivado@gmail.com

Speakers include:
Michael Campbell (University of Pardubice)
Katalin Füzér (University of Pécs)
Juliette Harkin (University of East Anglia)
Marcus Morgan (University of Bristol)
Rupert Read (University of East Anglia)
Lynette Reid (Dalhousie University)
Paul A. Roth (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Mark Theunissen (The New School for Social Research)
Leonidas Tsilipakos (University of Bristol)
Christopher Winch (King’s College, London)

The deadline for submissions is 1st December 2017.

Date: 9-10th March 2018

Organizers:
Department of Sociology, University of Pécs, and
MTA BTK Lendület Morals and Science Research Group

The ’ontological turn’ in anthropological methodology has been the topic of much discussion in anthropological theory and the philosophy of the social sciences. The ’turn’ generates new problems for both disciplines regarding the role of anthropological fieldwork (or experimentation), the methods of interpreting cultures alien to our own, and the ways in which conceptual frameworks are formed and reconfigured.
While much attention has been paid to the philosophical underpinnings of this methodology and to its consequences regarding anthropological practice, this workshop attempts to integrate the philosophical and the anthropological side of the ontological coin.
We look forward to contributions from the disciplines of philosophy, anthropology and other social sciences that might benefit from the insights of the turn’s methodological program, such as e.g. the turn towards the things themselves that figure in the social life of various communities, the application of the extended mind thesis in fieldwork, or bridging the gap between Western and non-Western concepts of sociality.

The topics to be discussed include but are not limited to the following:
-    What role does the ontological turn play in actual fieldwork?
-    Should and/or could one overcome the relativistic implications of such a methodology?
-    What are the philosophical consequences of the turn towards ’the things themselves’?
-   What can the disciplines learn from each other: how can philosophy illuminate anthropological practice, and how can this practice influence philosophical reasoning?

Abstracts of about 500 words should be sent to Dr. Akos Sivado, akos.sivado@gmail.com

Confirmed speakers:
Matei Candea (University of Cambridge)
Paolo Heywood (University of Cambridge)
Martin Holbraad (University College London)
Morten Axel Pedersen (University of Copenhagen)
Martin Paleček (University of Hradec Kralové)
Andrew Pickering (University of Exeter)
Mark Risjord (Emory University)

The extended deadline for submissions is 15th January 2018.

• The first workshop, to be held in Budapest on the 15th-16th March 2018, will focus on topics from Treatise Book 1, the first Enquiry, and relevant essays.
  
  
• The second workshop, provisionally planned to be held in Oxford in September 2018, will be devoted to Treatise Book 2, the Four Dissertations of 1757 (notably the Dissertation on the Passions), and relevant essays.
  
  
• The third workshop, provisionally planned to be held in Budapest in the spring of 2019, will be focused on Treatise Book 3, the second Enquiry, and relevant essays.

This structure is not intended to be rigid, and proposals that draw connections between the various themes will also be welcome. Efforts will be made to provide financial support for accommodation and travel for those whose abstracts are accepted, but are unable to cover their costs.

Organizers:

• Tamas Demeter (Budapest) - tsd2333@gmail.com
• Peter Millican (Oxford) - peter.millican@philosophy.ox.ac.uk

Invited members include: Kate Abramson, Miren Boehm, Don Garrett, Lorenzo Greco, James Harris, Jennifer Marusic, Amyas Merivale, Dan O’Brien, Hsueh Qu, Jacqueline Taylor.

At this stage we are inviting extended abstracts of about 1,000 words for the first workshop. The deadline for submission is 7th of January 2018.
See also: http://www.davidhume.org/workshops/.