Digest Week 7 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.

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.

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.

WEH/Ethox seminar | 'Beyond Money: Conscientious Objection in Medicine as a Conflict of Interests' | 11.00 - 12.30 | Seminar Room 0, Big Data Institute

Speaker: Alberto Giubilini, Research Fellow, Oxford Martin School & Wellcome Centre for Ethics and the Humanities.

Conflicts of interests (COIs) in medicine are typically taken to be financial in nature: it is often assumed that a COI occurs when a health care practitioner’s financial interest conflicts with patients’ interests, public health interests, or professional obligations more in general. Even when non-financial COIs are acknowledged, ethical concerns are almost exclusively reserved for financial COIs. However, the notion of ‘interests’ cannot be reduced to its financial component. Individuals in general, and medical professionals in particular, have different types of ‘interests’, many of which are non-financial in nature but can still conflict with professional obligations. The debate about health care delivery has largely overlooked this broader notion of ‘interests’. Here, we will focus on health practitioners’ moral or religious values as particular types of personal interests involved in health care delivery that can generate COIs, and on conscientious objection in health care as the expression of a particular type of COI. We argue that, in the health care context, the COIs generated by interests of conscience can be as ethically problematic, and therefore should be treated in the same way, as financial COIs.

Seminar on Boethius’ De Consolatione Philosophiae | The Harmony between Plato and Aristotle in the Consolation | 17.00 - 18.30 | Seminar Room, Corpus Christi College

Speaker: Giovanni Catapano (University of Padova).

Website: http://www.power-structuralism.ox.ac.uk/weekly_seminars/invited_speakers.html

Oxford University Philosophy Society | ‘Philosophy and Psychoanalysis' | 19.00 | Seminar Room, Mansfield College

Michael Lacewing and Richard Gipps discuss philosophy and its relationship with psychoanalysis. Topics will include the scientific status of psychoanalysis, its relationship with phenomenology, the reality of the unconscious, and the nature of emotional self-knowledge.

Michael Lacewing is a Philosophy and Theology teacher at Christ’s Hospital School and Honorary Reader in the Psychoanalysis Unit of the Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology at University College, London. Richard Gipps is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist and an Associate of the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford.

Together, Gipps and Lacewing are co-editors of the OUP Handbook of Philosophy and Psychoanalysis and Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry.

2019 Kings College London and University of North Carolina Workshop | Possibility & Probability | 13th - 14th June, 9am | Bush House, KCL

Possibility allows us to reason about what could be the case. Probability allows us to reason about what is likely to be the case. Despite the clear relevance of these notions to each other, much research on these two areas is pursued separately. There is much to be learnt from discussing work from these two domains in tandem. The goal of the workshop is to bring together philosophers working on these areas and to provide a forum for learning about current research.

Please register (and view the full schedule) for the workshop here. If you aren’t based at KCL, you’ll need to sign in at the reception to get a visitor pass. If you register, the security will have your name on the list. You’ll then only need to give your name when you sign in, no ID required.

The workshop is generously supported by KCL Department of Philosophy, KCL Faculty of Arts & Humanities, and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Please email Tom Beevers, tom.beevers@kcl.ac.uk, or Roope Ryymin, roope-kristian.ryymin@kcl.ac.uk, with any questions. 

Blavatnik School of Government and University College | 'The corruption of institutions' | 10.30 | Goodhart Seminar Room, University College

Programme:

10:30 - 12:15: Carla Bagnoli (The Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics & University of Modena & Reggio Emilia)
                       'Systemic corruption, trust and normative uncertainty: A dynamic account'

14:00 - 15:45: Emanuela Ceva (Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford & University of Pavia) and Maria Paola Ferretti (Goethe University, Frankfurt)                                                                                                     'Building just institutions in post-conflict scenarios. The threat of corruption'

Attendance is free.

The Ian Ramsey Centre | 'The Metaphysical Poverty of Naturalism' | 13.00 - 14.15 | Aquinas Seminar Room, Blackfriars Annex

Speaker: Daniel Kodaj (Department of Philosophy, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary), winner of the Oxford University Prize for Eastern European Perspectives on Science, Theology and Humane Philosophy. 

This event is free and open to the public, but please register here to secure a place.

The Ian Ramsey Centre | 'Contemporary Manifestations of Evil and Attempts at Their Justification' | 17.00 - 18.15 | Blackfriars Hall

Speaker: Marija Selak (Department of Philosophy, University of Zagreb, Croatia).

This event is free and open to the public, and no registration is needed. For further information, please visit their website.

Wittgenstein Reading Group | 17.00 - 19.00 | Canada Room, St Hilda’s

Convenor: Richard Gipps. See http://wrgoxford.blogspot.com for details of how to join and what text will be discussed.

Appeals to Nature Seminar | 'The Unnatural Nature of Food' | 17.00 | Hovenden Room, All Souls College

Speaker: Matt Ridley (House of Lords). All are welcome. 

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  

2019 Kings College London and University of North Carolina Workshop | Possibility & Probability | 13th - 14th June, 9am | Bush House, KCL

Possibility allows us to reason about what could be the case. Probability allows us to reason about what is likely to be the case. Despite the clear relevance of these notions to each other, much research on these two areas is pursued separately. There is much to be learnt from discussing work from these two domains in tandem. The goal of the workshop is to bring together philosophers working on these areas and to provide a forum for learning about current research.

Please register (and view the full schedule) for the workshop here. If you aren’t based at KCL, you’ll need to sign in at the reception to get a visitor pass. If you register, the security will have your name on the list. You’ll then only need to give your name when you sign in, no ID required.

The workshop is generously supported by KCL Department of Philosophy, KCL Faculty of Arts & Humanities, and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Please email Tom Beevers, tom.beevers@kcl.ac.uk, or Roope Ryymin, roope-kristian.ryymin@kcl.ac.uk, with any questions. 

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

Organised 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.