12 – 14 September 2018

Philosophy in the twenty-first century has been reinvigorated by a set of disputes which both challenge its disciplinary status and open up new areas of contention. Some argue that philosophy is not a site of truth; others argue that it reconstructs the rationality that subjects already possess; others contend that rationality is simply the mirror image of multiple forms of domination. The politics of affect; the turn to an ethics of the other; feminist challenges to the masculinity of reason; decolonial critiques of the relationship between philosophy and colonialism: all have put into question the way philosophy polices the boundaries which define the discipline. This conference probes the future of philosophy; what it might be; and how it relates both to politics, ethics and other disciplines.

We encourage contributions from any philosophical, ethical or political “tradition” addressing the range of contentions which define the field of contemporary philosophy. Themes include, but are not limited to, the following. Contributions may well range across several of these questions.

Disciplinary Disputes

  • Does philosophy have a purpose?
  • Is philosophy radical? Should it be?
  • Is there a public role for philosophy?
  • Gender and philosophy: is the discipline intrinsically sexist?
  • Race and philosophy: is racism intrinsic to philosophy?
  • Decolonising philosophy: what is to be done? Is it necessary?
  • What has philosophy to say to others?
  • Philosophy for children
  • Are there appropriate limits to philosophy?
  • Love and wisdom in the age of post-truth.
  • Bio-politics, ontology and the question of humanity

Philosophy, Ethics and Politics

  • What’s political about political philosophy?
  • Should moral philosophy be ethically committed?
  • How might political and moral concerns intersect?
  • Does philosophy rely on universalism?
  • What is applied philosophy?
  • The theological turn in question?
  • Philosophy as a discipline; philosophy as a practice
  • Do social movements need philosophers?
  • Affect, reason and acting
  • Directions in contemporary moral and political philosophy: hope, despair or neither?

Keynote speakers

Professor Kimberley Brownlee (University of Warwick, UK)

Professor Evert van der Zweerde (Radboud University, Netherlands)

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