Digest Week 3 Trinity Term 2019

Reading Group - Philosophers Discuss Current Events | 19.00 - 20.00 | Ryle Room, Radcliffe Humanities

A group for discussing topics in current events and international relations 'through the lens of philosophy'. Contact tena.thau@philosophy.ox.ac.uk to be added to the mailing list.

Two-day workshop: The Ethics and Politics of Online Interaction | 14th - 15th May | Christ Church

Organisers: Étienne Brown and Michael Hannon.

Attendance is free. Lunch and dinner can only be provided to speakers, but all participants are welcome for informal drinks. For full details, timings and schedule, please visit http://etiennebrown.com/workshop-1

Mereology Reading Group | 17.00 - 19.00 | Ryle Room, Radcliffe Humanities

This reading group will focus on some recent work on mereology. Our focus will be on how the notion of parthood and other mereological principles can be extended to apply beyond the realm of material objects. The group will meet each Tuesday from 17.00 - 19.00. Please e-mail sabine.bot@philosophy.ox.ac.uk if you would like to attend.

Book discussion | Mark Edwards - Aristotle and Early Christian Thought, Studies in Philosophy and Theology in Late Antiquity | 17.00 | Seminar Room, Corpus Christ College

The book discussion will take place with the participation of the author, Mark Edwards, and four colleagues, who will comment on the book:
•    Anna Marmodoro 
•    Giulio Maspero
•    Robert Wozniak
•    Johannes Zachhuber
 

After the seminar all participants will be most welcome to join the speakers for drinks.

In studies of early Christian thought, ‘philosophy’ is often a synonym for ‘Platonism’, or at most for ‘Platonism and Stoicism’. However, it was Aristotle who, from the sixth century AD to the Italian Renaissance, was the dominant Greek voice in Christian, Muslim and Jewish philosophy. Aristotle and Early Christian Thought is the first book in English to give a synoptic account of the slow appropriation of Aristotelian thought in the Christian world from the second to the sixth century. Concentrating on the great theological topics – creation, the soul, the Trinity, and Christology – it makes full use of modern scholarship on the Peripatetic tradition after Aristotle, explaining the significance of Neoplatonism as a mediator of Aristotelian logic. While stressing the fidelity of Christian thinkers to biblical presuppositions which were not shared by the Greek schools, it also describes their attempts to overcome the pagan objections to biblical teachings by a consistent use of Aristotelian principles, and follows their application of these principles to matters which lay outside the purview of Aristotle himself.

Set Theory Reading Group | 19.00 - 21.00 | Ryle Room, Radcliffe Humanities

Our reading group welcomes anyone interested in Set Theory. We shall discuss topics such as large cardinals, forcing, and inner models. No prerequisites are required. Organised by Wojciech Woloszyn.

Oxford European Forum (OEF) event |  Nietzsche's Europe | 19.30 | Doctorow Hall, St Edmund Hall

Speaker: Simon Glendinning.

Simon Glendinning will be exploring Nietzsche's theory on the development and history of Europe - looking at his theory on European identity and the potential evils that accompany this.
Simon Glendinning is the Head of LSE's European Institute, Professor in European Philosophy and Director of the Forum for European Philosophy. His key expertise lies in the philosophy of Europe and the European Union, with a particular research interest in European identities.

See the event details on Facebook.

Two-day workshop: The Ethics and Politics of Online Interaction | 14th - 15th May | Christ Church

Organisers: Étienne Brown and Michael Hannon.

Attendance is free. Lunch and dinner can only be provided to speakers, but all participants are welcome for informal drinks. For full details, timings and schedule, please visit http://etiennebrown.com/workshop-1

WEH / Ethox Seminars | A can of worms: open data, replication and evidence-making in global health | 11.00 - 12.30 | Seminar Room 0, Big Data Institute

Speaker: Elizabeth Hall, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

Abstract: To follow at https://www.weh.ox.ac.uk/upcoming-events

Seminar on Boethius’ De Consolatione Philosophiae | De Bono: Boethius’ De Hebdomadibus. | 17.00 - 18.30 | Seminar Room, Corpus Christi College

Speaker: Gyula Klima (Fordham University)

The lecture will provide a brief survey of the main argument of Boethius’ De Hebdomadibus, along with an analysis of its role in supporting 'the thesis of the convertibility of being and goodness', providing the metaphysical grounding of objective judgments of value. 

University of Oxford Philosophy Society | Illness as a Philosophical Tool | 18.00 |  Seminar Room East, Mansfield College

Speaker: Havi Carel (Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bristol and a Oxford University Press author) 

Havi Carel specialises in the phenomenology of illness and believes that traditional medicine has worked from within a problem-focused, deficit perspective that overlooks the lived body.Carel will be sharing her insights on illness as a philosophical tool, and the unique features of illness that make it an 'invitation to philosophise.'

Entry is free for members, £3 for non-members. Membership of the society can be purchased at the door of any of our events. If you have any questions then feel free to contact us on Facebook.

The Wilde Lectures | Lecture 2: The Argument from the Falsity of Scepticism | 17.00 | Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College

This year’s Wilde Lectures in Natural Theology will be delivered by Alexander Pruss, Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University, USA.

Alexander Pruss holds PhD degrees in both mathematics and philosophy. In addition to many peer-reviewed articles, his publications include the following academic monographs: Infinity, Causation and Paradox (OUP 2018), Necessary Existence, (with Joshua Rasmussen, OUP 2018), One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics (Notre Dame 2012), Actuality, Possibility and Worlds (Continuum 2011), The Principle of Sufficient Reason: A Reassessment (CUP 2006).

Appeals to Nature Seminar | Is There A Human Nature? | 17.00 | Hovenden Room, All Souls College

Speakers: Edouard Machery (University of Pittsburgh). All are welcome.  

Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures | The Universe Speaks in Numbers | 17.00 - 18.00 | Mathematical Institute

Speaker: Graham Farmelo (Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge and the author of 'The Strangest Man,' a biography of Paul Dirac). 

The supreme task of the physicist, Einstein believed, was to understand the 'miraculous' underlying order of the universe, in terms of the most basic laws of nature, written in mathematical language. Most physicists believe that it's best to seek these laws by trying to understand surprising new experimental findings. Einstein and his peer Paul Dirac disagreed and controversially argued that new laws are best sought by developing the underlying mathematics. Graham will describe how this mathematical approach has led to insights into both fundamental physics and advanced mathematics, which appear to be inextricably intertwined. Some physicists and mathematicians believe they are working towards a giant mathematical structure that encompasses all the fundamental laws of nature. But might this be an illusion? Might mathematics be leading physics astray?

Please email external-relations@maths.ox.ac.uk to register. Or watch live: https://www.facebook.com/OxfordMathematics/ or https://livestream.com/oxuni/farmelo

Normative Ethics Reading Group | 18.30 - 20.30 | Meeting Room 4, Radcliffe Humanities

During this group a paper within this topic is usually read and discussed, and occasionally the group has contributions from Faculty members. Organised by Tomi Francis.

InParenthesis Reading Group | 20.00 - 21.30 | Ryle Room, Radcliffe Humanities 

Women in Parenthesis (www.womeninparenthesis.co.uk) is a research collaboration between Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman. The project is dedicated to the study of the lives and friendships of four women philosophers: Iris Murdoch, Phillipa Foot, Elizabeth Anscombe, and Mary Midgley. For questions, please contact sasha.lawson-frost@philosophy.ox.ac.uk  

‘The Private Morality of Climate Change’ | 20.00 | Slager Jewish Student Centre, 61 George Street

Speaker: John Broome, Emeritus White's Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford and Honorary Professor at the Australian National University. He works on normativity, rationality and reasoning, and also on the ethics of climate change. He was Lead Author of the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He is author of Rationality Through Reasoning, Climate Matters: Ethics in a Warming World, Counting the Cost of Global Warming, among other works.

A buffet reception is from 7pm. All are welcome. 

The Keele - Oxford - St Andrews Kantian (KOSAK) Research Centre and the Oxford Forum | 17th - 18th May 2019, 9.30 - 17.30 | Stanford University Center, Oxford

Two events co-organised under the aegis of the British Academy Newton Advanced Fellowship 'Dealing Ethically with Conflicts between Deep Commitments: A Dual Critical-Hermenutic Approach', and hosted by the Stanford University Center in Oxford 

17th May: Symposium on Edward Kanterian’s Kant, God and Metaphysics (Routledge 2018)

Speakers: Margit Ruffing (Mainz), James DiCenso (Toronto), Jonathan Head (Keele), Edward Kanterian (Kent), Roxana Baiasu (Oxford).

18th May: Academic Freedom and Political Disagreement

Speakers: Maria Sibylla Lotter (Bochum), Elke Schmidt (Siegen), Dieter Schönecker (Siegen), Yossi Nehushtan (Keele), Ruhi Demiray (Berlin), Sorin Baiasu (Keele).

The event is free to attend, but given room capacity constraints, please reply to roxana.baiasu@philosophy.ox.ac.uk, if you plan to attend.

The Meaning of Life Reading Group | 11.30 | St Peter’s College  

Oragnised by Tim Mawson. This small reading group/seminar will be arranged during weeks 1-8 on (mainly recent) contributions to the literature on ‘the meaning of life’, broadly construed, as given by philosophers, theologians, scientists, psychologists and others. Readings will be circulated in advance each week. The seminar is aimed at graduate students and faculty members; anyone wishing to attend should email tim.mawson@philosophy.ox.ac.uk to be included on the circulation list for further information. Suggestions for suitable readings are most welcome.

UCL Philosophy Leverhulme Lectures | Truthmakers for What We Say | 16.00 - 18.00 | UCL

Speaker: Angelika Kratzer (Visiting Leverhulme Professor at UCL Philosophy and Professor of Linguistics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherstat).

This is a set of three lectures. All are welcome. The slides of each lecture will be uploaded here few hours before the lecture.

Any semantic theory worth its money needs to connect (1) to (4): 

(1) A tile from my neighbour’s roof hit my car.
(2) That tile’s hitting my car made a big dent.  
(3) I heard a tile from my neighbour’s roof hit my car. 
(4) Every time a tile from my neighbour’s roof hits my car, her insurance pays me £100. 

Here is one way of making the connection. My saying (1) picks out a set of possible situations, parts of a world, that is. Among those are situations that are small enough to contain nothing that does not contribute to the truth of (1). Those situations may cause dents, may be heard, and may be quantified over. They are truthmakers for (1). The lectures will make a case that it pays to connect (1) to (4) in this way. It may help with understanding counterfactual reasoning, knowledge ascriptions, and the semantics of tense and modality. It may help with explaining mistakes we make with conditionals and quantifiers, and it may help with explaining our preference for exhaustive interpretations.  

The Keele - Oxford - St Andrews Kantian (KOSAK) Research Centre and the Oxford Forum | 17th - 18th May 2019, 9.30 - 17.30 | Stanford University Center, Oxford

Two events co-organised under the aegis of the British Academy Newton Advanced Fellowship 'Dealing Ethically with Conflicts between Deep Commitments: A Dual Critical-Hermenutic Approach', and hosted by the Stanford University Center in Oxford 

17th May: Symposium on Edward Kanterian’s Kant, God and Metaphysics (Routledge 2018)

Speakers: Margit Ruffing (Mainz), James DiCenso (Toronto), Jonathan Head (Keele), Edward Kanterian (Kent), Roxana Baiasu (Oxford).

18th May: Academic Freedom and Political Disagreement

Speakers: Maria Sibylla Lotter (Bochum), Elke Schmidt (Siegen), Dieter Schönecker (Siegen), Yossi Nehushtan (Keele), Ruhi Demiray (Berlin), Sorin Baiasu (Keele).

The event is free to attend, but given room capacity constraints, please reply to roxana.baiasu@philosophy.ox.ac.uk, if you plan to attend.