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DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20230907T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20230907T150000
DTSTAMP:20260423T011406
CREATED:20230719T141906Z
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SUMMARY:Global Philosophy Research Interest Group Talk (Sean M. Smith\, Hawai'i)
DESCRIPTION:The Global Philosophy Research Interest Group is delighted to welcome as guest speaker Sean M. Smith\, an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Dr. Smith earned both a bachelor’s and a doctoral degree at the University of Toronto. His research is focused on the intersection of Indian Buddhist philosophy (with a particular emphasis on the Pāli tradition) and contemporary philosophy of mind\, cognitive science\, and moral psychology. Specifically\, his work addresses the connection between embodied affect\, consciousness\, and attention. In particular\, he is trying to understand how affective biases shape perceptual salience and what kind of normative obligations we might be under in light of that shaping process. Other related interests include pain and suffering\, animal consciousness\, and the nature of the self. His research has been published in the Journal of Indian Philosophy\, Sophia\, Review of Philosophy and Psychology\, and Philosopher’s Imprint. Dr. Smith was the recipient of the 2022 College of Arts\, Languages & Letters Excellence in Teaching Award at UH Mānoa. \nTalk Title\nPain\, Suffering\, and the Time of Life: A Buddhist Philosophical Analysis \nTalk Abstract\nIn this paper\, I explore how our experiences of pain and suffering structure our experience over time. I argue that pain and suffering are not as easily dissociable\, in living and in conceptual analysis\, as philosophers have tended to think (Klein 2015). Specifically\, I do not think that there is only a contingent connection between physical pain and psychological suffering. Rather\, physical pain is partially constitutive of existential suffering. That is\, when one experiences physical pain\, one endures suffering of an existential sort. The argument I will defend in this paper is as follows: \n\nPains are homeodynamic affects.\nHomeodynamic affects have horizonal and not just object intentionality.\nHomeodynamic affects are partially constitutive of existential suffering.\nPains have horizontal intentionality and are partially constitutive of existential suffering.\n\nI begin with some reasons for the claim that pains are homeodynamic affects. I then explore what Indian Buddhist philosophers have to say about the problem of pain and suffering\, focusing on the work of Buddhaghosa\, Vasubandhu\, and the Pāli sutta material. I note the fluid way in which these concepts seem to shade into each other and how this conceptual blending is philosophically informative rather than a case of sloppy thinking (Gomez 2007). I then argue that pain’s intentional structure is informative\, it tells us something about the world\, which supports the second premise of my main argument. I then argue for premise three by claiming that it is very difficult to distinguish between pain and suffering when we understand pain as a homeodynamic feeling and take seriously the larger role that I interpret Buddhist philosophers as affording homeodynamic feeling in making us suffer. I conclude with some thoughts on what it might mean for a Buddhist to achieve the eradication of suffering. This is important because even fully liberated beings still feel physical pain. So\, Buddhist views on the possibility of physical pain without suffering in the case of a fully liberated person constituted a prima facie objection to the view I will defend. I address this concern at the end of the paper. \n  \nThe Global Philosophy Research Interest Group explores the benefits of drawing on diverse traditions of thought in approaching philosophical questions. These include novel insights into familiar problems\, new questions and research directions\, and fresh methodologies. We work to deprovincialize and decolonize all aspects of philosophy in the academy. The group currently has strengths in Sanskrit philosophy\, and Chinese philosophy\, Indian philosophy in English\, and classical Islamic philosophy.
URL:https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/global-philosophy-research-interest-group-talk-sean-m-smith-hawaii/
LOCATION:Jackman Humanities Building\, Room 418\, 170 St. George Street\, Toronto\, Ontario\, M5R 2M8\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Graduate,St. George,UTM,UTSC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/sean-m-smith-philosophy-utoronto-guest-lecturer.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20230908T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20230909T180000
DTSTAMP:20260423T011406
CREATED:20221205T150233Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230905T135618Z
UID:27958-1694185200-1694282400@philosophy.utoronto.ca
SUMMARY:Conference in Honour of Tom Hurka
DESCRIPTION:This conference will celebrate the work and life of our cherished colleague Tom Hurka\, who is retiring this year. It will take place in person in the Jackman Humanities Building at the University of Toronto\, as well as being live-streamed. To register for the Zoom link\, please contact the assistant to the chair at phl.chairassistant@utoronto.ca. \n  \nSchedule\nFriday\, September 8\n3:10 PM \nWelcome (Martin Pickavé) \n3:15-4:30 PM  \nGwen Bradford (Rice)\, “Why You Should Be Miserable” \nChair: Sergio Tenenbaum (Toronto) \n4:45-6:00 PM  \nShelly Kagan (Yale)\, “Hurka on Comparative Desert:  Wrong\, Wrong\, Wrong (and Wrong)!” \nChair: Brendan de Kenessey (Toronto) \nSaturday\, September 9\n9:30-10:45 AM \nWayne Sumner (Toronto)\, “Goods: Personal and Otherwise” \nChair: Rachel Barney (Toronto) \n11:00 AM-12:15 PM  \nRob Shaver (Manitoba): “C.D. Broad on Common Sense Morality” \nChair: Andrew Franklin-Hall (Toronto) \n BREAK \n2:00-3:15 PM  \nJohann Frick (Berkeley): “The Value of Life\, the Value of Virtue” \nChair: Hasko von Kriegstein (Toronto Metropolitan) \n3:30-4:45 PM  \nJeff McMahan (Oxford): “Revising Hurka’s Variable Value View” \nChair: Eric Mathison (Toronto) \n5:00-6:00 PM  \nTom Hurka (Toronto)
URL:https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/conference-in-honour-of-tom-hurka/
LOCATION:Jackman Humanities Building 100
CATEGORIES:Alumni,Graduate,St. George,Undergraduate,UTM,UTSC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/Conference-in-Honour-of-Tom-Hurka.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20230915T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20230915T170000
DTSTAMP:20260423T011406
CREATED:20230719T154609Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230906T183926Z
UID:29002-1694790000-1694797200@philosophy.utoronto.ca
SUMMARY:History of Modern Philosophy Group Talk (Brian Bitar\, Toronto)
DESCRIPTION:The History of Philosophy Group is pleased to welcome as speaker Brian Bitar\, a part-time assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. Brian Bitar’s research concentrates on moral and political philosophy with consideration of their metaphysical basis\, specializing in early modern. He is currently working on a book\, Hobbes’s Psychology and the Origins of the Modern Concept of Power\, a critical study of Hobbes’s development of the idea of power as a psychological principle. \n  \nTalk Title\nHobbes’s Transformation of the Conscience \nTalk Abstract\nHobbes\, I argue\, authors a transformational critique and reconception of the conscience. His opening definition of conscience as mere opinion\, taken within his whole naturalistic psychology of selfish passions\, undermines the foundations and content of conscience as previously understood. Yet Hobbes reconceives the conscience according to his own philosophic principles. The distinctness of this account\, what may be called the Hobbesian conscience\, tends to be underappreciated. Hobbes radically modifies specific elements of the conscience from its prior (broadly Augustinian\, Scholastic\, and Protestant) forms. Hobbes’s reconceived natural conscience\, far from peripheral or merely rhetorical\, comes to light as necessary to natural right and law as interior witness-judge. Hobbes’s theorised rational conscience attempts to unify the psyche by overcoming divisions between demands of Christian conscience and justified natural desire\, between conscience and political authority.  \nI reconstruct Hobbes’s argument on conscience in negative-critical and positive-constructive phases. Hobbes cuts away false or exaggerated (mainly Christian) ideas of conscience to reground its genuine hard core. I elucidate the moral psychology of Hobbesian natural private conscience in its strictly natural and civil-political modes. I argue that even in the state of nature-war\, Hobbes affirms the conscience by extreme emphasis on inner intention reinterpreted as desire\, principally in the morally reduced form of desire for self-preservation through peace. He closely identifies conscience with reason in a reduced reconfiguration of (especially Scholastic) rationality of conscience. I evaluate the coherence and plausibility of Hobbes’s account by focusing on cases of cruelty and pride. The Hobbesian conscience is shown to open up tensions or divisions between moral intention and act; subjective judgement of conscience and objective basis in natural right and law; rationality of conscience and its epistemic basis in passions. Hobbes’s political resolution of the problem of conscience compels his further division between private conscience and public or what could be called representative conscience\, which shares or replaces its authority—if by a continually self-effacing dictate of private conscience. I explore in what sense public conscience remains conscience\, and what kind of dual conscience or consciousness is left to the Hobbesian self.   \nAbout the History of Philosophy Group\nOne of six departmental Research Interest Groups\, the History of Philosophy Group is home to the History of Modern Philosophy Research Group\, which focuses on the period\, roughly\, from Descartes to Kant.
URL:https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/history-of-modern-philosophy-brian-bitar-toronto-2/
LOCATION:Jackman Humanities Building\, Room 418\, 170 St. George Street\, Toronto\, Ontario\, M5R 2M8\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Graduate,St. George
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/Brian-Bitar-utoronto-philosophy-guest.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20230921T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20230921T170000
DTSTAMP:20260423T011406
CREATED:20230719T150428Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230921T131458Z
UID:28989-1695308400-1695315600@philosophy.utoronto.ca
SUMMARY:Colloquium (Jenann Ismael\, Johns Hopkins)
DESCRIPTION:As speaker for our first Fall 2023 colloquium\, the department is delighted to welcome Jenann Ismael\, the inaugural William H. Miller III Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Ismael concentrates her research on philosophy of physics\, metaphysics\, philosophy of science\, and the philosophy of mind. Before coming to JHU\, she was professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and an affiliate of the Zuckerman Institute. She has also taught at Stanford University (1996-98) and the University of Arizona (1998-2018). \nThis is an in-person event\, but for those who cannot join us on campus today\, a livestream is available. \nTalk Title\nGödel Meets Laplace \nTalk Abstract\nThere’s an understanding of what determinism entails illustrated by the familiar image that Laplace gave us of a demon that can predict everything that will happen in the universe\, from knowledge of initial conditions. I’ll argue that there are both specific and general reasons that there could never be a Laplacian demon in the world: not for classical mechanics\, not for any theory.   
URL:https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/colloquium-jenann-ismael-johns-hopkins/
LOCATION:Claude T. Bissell Building\, BL 205\, 140 St. George Street\, Toronto\, ON\, M5S 3G6\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Alumni,Graduate,St. George,UTM,UTSC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/jenann-ismael-philosophy-utoronto-guest-lecturer.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20230922T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20230922T170000
DTSTAMP:20260423T011406
CREATED:20230719T160342Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230830T220019Z
UID:29004-1695394800-1695402000@philosophy.utoronto.ca
SUMMARY:Kant & Post-Kantian Philosophy Group Talk (Pauline Kleingeld\, Groningen)
DESCRIPTION:The Kant & Post-Kantian Philosophy Group is delighted to welcome as a speaker Pauline Kleingeld\, a professor of Philosophy at the University of Groningen. Her academic interests lie in Kant and Kantian philosophy\, as well as in ethics and political philosophy. She is the author of Kant and Cosmopolitanism: The Philosophical Ideal of World Citizenship (Cambridge University Press\, 2012) and Fortschritt und Vernunft: Zur Geschichtsphilosophie Kants (Königshausen und Neumann\, 1995). She has also edited three volumes with translations of texts by Immanuel Kant and Gottfried Achenwall and in 2020 received the Spinoza Prize. \nTalk Title\nThe Argument of Kant’s Groundwork \nTalk Abstract\nThe structure of Kant’s overall argument in the Groundwork leaves many readers puzzled\, and the book’s third section is seen as downright obscure. There is even deep disagreement as to which metaethical position he is defending in the book. In this paper I argue that one crucial resource for understanding the Groundwork has thus far been overlooked: Kant’s Prolegomena. I propose a new account of the Groundwork’s overall argument by drawing on Kant’s discussion of method and highlighting the striking similarities between the argument structure of the Groundwork and the Prolegomena. I show that Kant develops a three-step argument that is helpfully understood as a form of reverse engineering of common morality. \n  \nThe Kant & Post-Kantian Philosophy Group is a a subgroup of the History of Philosophy Research Group\, which focuses on European philosophy in Kant and post-Kantian traditions.
URL:https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/post-kantian-talk-and-workshop-pauline-kleingeld-groningen/
LOCATION:Jackman Humanities Building\, Room 418\, 170 St. George Street\, Toronto\, Ontario\, M5R 2M8\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Graduate,St. George
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/pauline-kleingeld-philosophy-utoronto-guest-lecturer.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20230922T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20230923T190000
DTSTAMP:20260423T011406
CREATED:20230328T211448Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230905T205533Z
UID:28372-1695398400-1695495600@philosophy.utoronto.ca
SUMMARY:2023 Toronto Colloquium in Medieval Philosophy
DESCRIPTION:Please join us for the 2023 edition of the Toronto Colloquium in Medieval Philosophy. \n  \nSCHEDULE\n  \nFRIDAY\, SEPTEMBER 22\nSession I (4:30 – 6:30) \nChair: Jennifer Hart Weed (University of New Brunswick) \nPasquale Porro (University of Turin): “How Does God’s Knowledge Differ from Tiresias’ Oracles? Revisiting Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy\, Book V” \nCommentator: Martin Pickavé (University of Toronto) \n  \nSATURDAY\, SEPTEMBER 23\nSession II (10:00 – 12:00) \nChair: Thérèse-Anne Druart (Catholic University of America) \nMeryem Sebti (CNRS\, Paris): “Imagination and Individuality of the Soul in Avicenna’s Philosophy” \nCommentator: Seyed Mousavian (Loyola University Chicago) \n  \nSession III (2:00 – 4:00) \nChair: Simona Vucu (University of Toronto) \nRui Xu (University of Toronto): “Henry of Ghent on Creation” \nDominic LaMantia (Notre Dame): “Identity and Real Distinction According to Duns Scotus” \nNick Westberg (Boston College): “Reexamining Suárez’s Theory of Logical Possibility” \n  \nSession IV (4:15 – 6:15) \nChair: Peter Eardley (University of Guelph) \nJean-Luc Solère (Boston College): “On the Constant Attention of the Soul: In Defense of Olivi” \nCommentator: Giorgio Pini (Fordham University) \n  \nAll sessions are free and open to the public and will be held in Room 100 of the Jackman Humanities Building (170 St. George Street). \nThe colloquium is sponsored by the Department of Philosophy\, the Collaborative Specialization in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy\, the Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations\, and the Centre for Medieval Studies. \nOrganizers: Deborah Black\, Peter King\, Martin Pickavé \n 
URL:https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/toronto-colloquium-medieval-philosophy-2023-2/
LOCATION:Jackman Humanities Building\, Room 100 (Main Floor Lecture Hall)\, 170 St. George Street\, Toronto\, Ontario\, M5R 2M8\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Graduate,St. George,UTM,UTSC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023-Toronto-Colloquium-in-Medieval-Philosophy.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20230929T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20230929T150000
DTSTAMP:20260423T011406
CREATED:20230811T150103Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230811T150103Z
UID:29183-1695992400-1695999600@philosophy.utoronto.ca
SUMMARY:Language\, Epistemology\, Metaphysics\, and Mind Research Interest Group Talk (John Campbell\, Berkeley)
DESCRIPTION:The Language\, Epistemology\, Metaphysics\, and Mind Research Group welcomes as guest speaker John Campbell\, the Willis S. and Marion Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California\, Berkeley. His main research interests lie in the theory of meaning\, metaphysics\, and the philosophy of psychology. He is currently working on the question of whether consciousness\, and in particular sensory awareness\, plays any key role in our knowledge of our surroundings. He is also working more generally on causation in psychology. He is the author of Past\, Space\, and Self (MIT Press\, 1994) and Reference and Consciousness (Oxford University Press\, 2002). Dr. Campbell was a Guggenheim Fellow\, a Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Behavioural Sciences at Stanford University\, a British Academy Research Reader\, and between 2003 and 2006 served as the president of the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology. In 2023\, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. \n  \nTalk Title\nSingular Causation and Free Will \nTalk Abstract\nTBD \nAbout the Language\, Epistemology\, Metaphysics and Mind Research Group\nOne of six departmental research interest groups\, the Language\, Epistemology\, Metaphysics and Mind Group undertakes research in philosophy of mind\, philosophy of cognitive science\, traditional and formal epistemology\, metaphysics\, and philosophy of language.
URL:https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/lemm-interest-group-talk-john-campbell-berkeley/
LOCATION:Jackman Humanities Building\, Room 100 (Main Floor Lecture Hall)\, 170 St. George Street\, Toronto\, Ontario\, M5R 2M8\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Graduate,St. George,UTM,UTSC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/john-campbell-guest-lecturer-philosophy-university-of-toronto.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20230929T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20230929T170000
DTSTAMP:20260423T011406
CREATED:20230719T161541Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230829T002630Z
UID:29007-1695999600-1696006800@philosophy.utoronto.ca
SUMMARY:Kant & Post-Kantian Philosophy Group Talk and Workshop (Lawrence Pasternack\, Oklahoma State)
DESCRIPTION:The Kant & Post-Kantian Philosophy Group is delighted to welcome as a speaker Lawrence Pasternack\, a professor of Philosophy at the Oklahoma State University. Most of his work focuses on Kant\, with publications across his ethical theory\, epistemology\, and philosophy of religion. Dr. Pasternack’s first book\, Kant’s Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason: An Interpretation and Defense\, was published by Routledge in 2014. \nTalk Title\nKant’s Doctrine of the Highest Good: An Interpretation and Defense \nTalk Abstract\nThis book (currently in rough-draft form) develops an interpretation of Kant’s doctrine of the Highest Good which closely follows the actual texts where it is discussed.  As such\, a key hermeneutical principle for the book is that Kant means what he says/says what he means with respect to the Highest Good\, and that we can come to an understanding of it that\, contrary to the prevailing views\, does not have to navigate through alleged textual “flip-flops” or major lacunae. \nMoreover\, it is argued that Kant’s conception of the Highest Good does not significantly change during the Critical period.  For example\, he never abandons the postulate of immortality nor repurposes it in favor of a later “this-worldly” interpretation.  It is thus argued that the “this-worldly” interpretation of the Highest Good is a consequence of certain misreadings from the 1980s which subsequently came to dominate the secondary literature.   Likewise\, it is argued that the Highest Good is not a pre-Critical atavism that Kant should have given up\, nor is it otherwise superfluous to his mature thought. \nWith respect to the function of the Highest Good\, it is argued that while the Groundwork and the second Critique’s Analytic provide an “episodic” account of moral willing (for any instance\, we can set aside our inclination and act from duty)\, there is also a need for a principled and prospective solution to the ongoing conflict between morality and happiness.  This\, in short\, is the role Kant assigns to the Highest Good.  It is the “unconditioned totality of the object of pure practical reason\,” (5:108) meaning that it brings together the heterogeneous practical principles of morality and happiness\, which\, if left discordant\, leaves the moral agent in jeopardy of the sort expressed most vividly by Kant in the third Critique’s example of the Righteous Atheist. \nAccordingly\, this book argues that Kant’s treatment of the Highest Good in all three Critiques\, in the Religion\, and elsewhere\, all speak to the same need: to foster a moral “resolve” (A813/B841)\, an “immutable resolution” (5:123) so as to endure in life what otherwise may “weaken the respect by which the moral law immediately influences” or do “damage to the moral disposition” (5:452). \nThis is a read-ahead event. Please email Dave Suarez to register and receive the required readings. \nThe Kant & Post-Kantian Philosophy Group is a a subgroup of the History of Philosophy Research Group\, which focuses on European philosophy in Kant and post-Kantian traditions.
URL:https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/post-kantian-talk-and-workshop-lawrence-pasternack-oklahoma-state/
LOCATION:Jackman Humanities Building\, Room 418\, 170 St. George Street\, Toronto\, Ontario\, M5R 2M8\, Canada
CATEGORIES:Graduate,St. George,UTM,UTSC
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/lawrence-pasternack-guest-lecturer-philosophy-university-of-toronto.jpg
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