Philosophy@Keele Newsletter 9th May

Hello! Summer’s here and so is the newsletter. This time we have three great news items to share.

Grab a refreshing drink and settle in to enjoy! 

Jonathan Head

Congratulations to Jonathan, his new article ‘Anne Conway on Omnipresence‘ has just been published open access in the journal ‘Philosophica‘. It is available via this link: https://doi.org/10.5840/philosophica20244159. Jonathan’s abstract is presented below:

This paper offers a discussion of Conway’s account of omnipresence, as found in her only published work, Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy (1690). It is argued that Conway proposes a radical approach to understanding the nature of the divine presence in the world. After delineating different approaches to the question of omnipresence that can be found in the philosophical and theological tradition, it is argued that Conway offers a significant and original account that contrasts with the more traditional notions of divine presence based on God’s location, knowledge, power, and creative activity. This account is informed by an exploration of Conway’s underlying Platonist commitments and her arguments regarding the need for a mediating principle, “Christ” or “Adam Kadmon,” between God and creation. Following this, it is argued that there is a notion of omnipresence to be found in Conway’s philosophy centred on a Platonist-inspired “participation-presence,” which offers a dynamic sense of the growing presence of God in the world. The paper then concludes with some more general reflections upon the manner in which Conway’s account of omnipresence fits into the wider intellectual climate of the time, including radical reimaginings of both the nature of God and his presence in the world.

James Tartaglia

James’ article titled ‘Ethnophilosophy as a global development goal‘ has also been published recently, by ‘Metaphilosophy.’ Find the author’s abstract below:

The ethnophilosophy debate in African philosophy has been primarily concerned with the nature and future direction of African philosophy, but this paper approaches the debate in search of lessons about philosophy in general. The paper shows how this ongoing debate has been obscured by varying understandings of “ethnophilosophy” and that a de facto victory has long since transpired, since “ethnophilosophy,” in the sense recommended here, is flourishing. The paper argues that the political arguments with which Hountondji and Wiredu initiated the debate in the 1970s supervene on the metaphilosophical view that ethnophilosophy, if philosophy at all, is of a poor standard. Showing that ethnophilosophy must indeed be philosophy, it argues that the critics’ low opinions of it depend on unrealistic assumptions about how philosophy makes progress. The paper concludes that Africa is lucky to have ethnophilosophies and that the rest of the world should hope to develop some.

Here is the link for the full article: https://doi.org/10.1111/meta.12678, check it out!

Christopher Mountford

As a distinguished Master’s graduate from Keele, Chris has been developing his career in Philosophical counselling. For the moment, he is working on a paper he intends to present at a conference later this year. The purpose of the paper is to draw a clear distinction between Philosophical counselling and therapy related to sexual issues. Sex presents a unique case which includes mind and body, as well as cultural, spiritual and social connotations, meaning it can be hard to decide how to tackle problems that arise. 

If anyone has any interest in these topics, he invites you to share with him any thoughts you might have. His email address is: christophermountford1@gmail.com

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The summer break is upon us, but “the unexamined life is not worth living,” so Philosophising never stops!

The Editorial Team

Meg, Eric and Shihao

Kant Calendar. 22 April 1724. Kant’s birth

Kant Calendar: This year, 2024, marks the tricentennial of the birth in 1724 of the Königsberg philosopher, Immanuel Kant. In celebration, each month, the Keele-Oxford-St Andrews Kantian (KOSAK) Research Centre’s blog will feature one or two short pieces on significant milestones or trivial events during Kant’s lifetime on the anniversary of their occurrence. This is meant to be a fun and instructive way of bringing the philosopher’s biography and intellectual context to life.

On April 22nd, 1724, 300 years ago today, Kant was born in Königsberg to Anna Regina Kant (1697-1737) and Johann Georg Kant (1682-1746). Many academic events are set to occur this year for the tricentennial, so in this post we have decided to focus on some perhaps lesser-known biographical trivia about Kant’s childhood.

Did you know…

• … that if Kant had been born just a day earlier or a day later his name would have been different? The date April 22nd 1724 not only gave Kant to the world, but also gave Kant his name. According to Manfred Kuehn’s biography, the Old Prussian Almanac associated the name ‘Emanuel’ with the date April 22nd. Kant later changed the spelling of his name to ‘Immanuel’, believing that it was a better rendition of the original Hebrew. He very much liked his name, and reportedly often remarked its meaning: “God is with him”. (Kuehn: p. 26)
• … that the vordere Vorstawdt, the outskirts of Königsberg where Kant was born, was a dangerous place to live? There were swampy meadows and irrigation channels, and parents had to be vigilant of where the neighborhood’s children, including Kant, went out to play. Moreover, several times there had been fires, floods, and storms that ravaged the neighborhood. (Kuehn: p. 58)
• … that Kant felt deeply indebted to both his parents (and especially his mother)? He wrote: “my two parents (from the class of tradesmen) were perfectly honest, morally decent, and orderly. They did not leave me a fortune (but neither did they leave me any debts). Moreover, they gave me an education that could not have been better when considered from the moral point of view. Every time I think of this I am touched by feelings of the highest gratitude.” (AA 13: 461; quoted from Kuehn: p. 31)
• … that Immanuel Kant had siblings? Indeed, he was one of five surviving siblings in the Kant household, with four other siblings passing away at an early age. His sister Katharina Barbara went to Immanuel’s house during his last days to care for him. Throughout his life he was not particularly close to any of them. (Kuehn: pp. 28, 34)

Happy 300th birthday, Immanuel Kant!

References

• Kuehn, Manfred (2002). Kant: A Biography. Cambridge University Press.

Philosophy@KeeleNewsletter 16th April

Hello everyone! It’s a new semester, a new dawn, a new day, a new life… And we’re feeling Philosophical.

James Tartaglia and Stephen Leach

Congratulations to James and Stephen! The book they co-authored, “The Meaning of Life and The Great Philosophers” is becoming more influential globally. Following the release of a Persian translation, the book has now been translated into Korean. Woah Hoo, 축하합니다!

Keele PGR Symposium

A gentle reminder about the next Keele PGR Symposium taking place over the span of two days from June 17th to 18th, 2024. For more information please check at: https://keeleacuk.sharepoint.com/sites/KU-ResearchandInnovationSupport/SitePages/Keele-PGR-Symposium-2024.aspx.

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Hope you all enjoy the sunshine today and see you at tonight’s RIP Lecture!

The Editorial Team

Meg, Eric and Shihao

Philosophy@Keele Newsletter 4th April 2024

Hello everyone! We have set the clocks forward, the sun today will set at 19.50, we’ve beat the winter blues!

We hope everyone is enjoying the Easter break. Is there anything better than a research newsletter to enjoy with your afternoon tea? We can’t think of anything we would rather be reading, so here it goes:

Keele Research Conference Day

On the 20th of March, colleagues from the Philosophy Department here at Keele gathered together again for the Keele Research Conference Day 2024. It was a rainy day, but that didn’t keep us from having many wonderful discussions on topics such as the human future with AI, nihilism, panpsychism, and the Upanishads! Besides this, the lunch was great!

Royal Institute of Philosophy Lectures

A kind reminder of the next Keele RIP lecture that will take a place on 16th April. Mary Edwards from Cardiff University will deliver a talk titled Psychological Oppression and Existential Psychoanalysis. Please do NOT miss it!

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We hope everyone finds the remainder of the Easter break restful and re-energising. Life goes up and down but there will always be something great in the foreseeable future waiting for us. For example, more sunny days! Yay!

Shihao, Meg and Eric, The Editorial Team

Kant Calendar. 31 March 1770. Kant appointed Professor of Logic and Metaphysics

Kant Calendar: This year, 2024, marks the tricentennial of the birth in 1724 of the Königsberg philosopher, Immanuel Kant. In celebration, each month, the Keele-Oxford-St Andrews Kantian (KOSAK) Research Centre’s blog will feature one or two short pieces on significant milestones or trivial events during Kant’s lifetime on the anniversary of their occurrence. This is meant to be a fun and instructive way of bringing the philosopher’s biography and intellectual context to life.

Kant spent fifteen years as ‘Privatdozent‘ at the University of Königsberg, with his salary depending on the number of students enrolled in his lectures. This led to a low-income period of his life, being forced to accept second jobs, such as working in the university library. In 1764, Kant’s name was suggested for a position in Berlin as Professor of Poetry, which he turned down, not settling for a position he considered second best (Kuehn 2002: 158-9). Finally, on March 31st, 1770, 254 years ago today, an almost 46-year-old Immanuel Kant was appointed Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at the University of Königsberg.

Aside from granting Kant a long-awaited financial stability, this event also bears an intellectual impact on the history of philosophy. As customary, the professorship position was confirmed by the defence of a piece of writing in front of a jury. Therefore, the appointment prompted Kant to write at a very particular time in the development of his philosophy De mundi sensibilis atque intelligibilis forma et principiis (in English On the Form and Principles of the Sensible and Intelligible World), commonly known as the Inaugural Dissertation. Kant himself later considered this work the turning point towards his critical philosophy. As Manfred Kuehn writes:

Thus when he was approached by Johann Heinrich Tieftrunk about the publication of a collection of his minor writings in 1797, he answered: “I accept your proposal of putting together a collection of my minor writings. However, I would not like to have included anything before 1770, so that it would begin with my dissertation de mundi sensibilis et intelligibilis forma . . .” (Kuehn 2002: 190)

On August 21st, 1770, just six days before Hegel was born, the Inaugural Dissertation was officially defended and famously became the last substantial piece of writing Kant published for a period of almost 11 years. The so-called ‘silent decade’ ended when the Critique of Pure Reason appeared. This leads to an interesting ‘what-if’ to entertain:

What would Kant have written during the silent decade had he not been appointed professor?

References

• Kuehn, Manfred (2002). Kant: A Biography. Cambridge University Press.

Philosophy@Keele Newsletter 14th March 2024

We are on the brink of Spring, whilst still philosophizing. Here’s the latest research news at Keele:

Stephen Leach

Stephen Leach has co-authored with Gordon Warren the paper ‘Montaigne and Kenkō as Men of Leisure’ in Bulletin de la Societé Internationale des amis de Montaigne, 78 (1): 109-122. Click here for the full issue. In their abstract Stephen Leach and Gordon Warren write:

In this essay, Montaigne is compared to one of the Japanese originators of the essay form, Yoshida Kenkō (1283-1350). Both had chosen to be ‘men of leisure’ and so were free to ‘follow the pen’ wherever it took them. Their common practice is analysed in the light of Josef Pieper’s essay Leisure: the basis of culture (1948).

James Tartaglia

James Tartaglia has published an article on Beyond Belief, an online forum initiated with the intent of discussing life’s most mysterious questions. James Tartaglia’s article, ‘Why the World Needs More Public Philosophy. Transforming the human race into a philosophical species‘ is featured as the centrepiece of Beyond Belief‘s main web page. The piece gives an explanation of what public philosophy is and argues that the world needs more of it. It can be an antidote to excessively living “on autopilot”, a bridge between science and religion, and a kind of collective and rational control in the face of technology’s steep development. Do give it a read!

Stephen Leach and James Tartaglia

Many congratulations to Stephen and James on the recent release of the Persian translation of the book they co-edited The Meaning of Life and the Great Philosophers. The book was first published in 2018 by Routledge. The Persian edition was translated by Saba Sabeti and published by Qoqnoos Publishing Group. For the press release, click here.

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We are expecting more exciting news and more sunshine in the UK as Spring approaches!

The Editorial Team: Meg, Shihao and Eric

Philosophy@Keele Newsletter 29th February 2024

It’s a leap year! Don’t fall asleep here (unless you’re jetlagged, like Shihao). On February 29th, philosophy research news continues. We are excited to report:

Giuseppina D’Oro

Josie has written a short piece for IAI News (Institute of Art and Ideas), in which she argues that we must appreciate the range of idealism and see how Oakeshott and Collingwood’s view defends humanistic knowledge, rejecting naturalism and steering clear of supernaturalism, providing a needed alternative to scientism. Read it in full, here: ‘We must put an end to scientism‘.

Stephen Leach

Stephen has written a new, short, online article in Epoché Magazine (Issue 69), discussing the potential of changing the mode of voting proposed by J. S. Mill in a chapter of Considerations on Representative Government (1861). Stephen concludes that Mill’s ideas are somewhat outdated, and suggests that in some circumstances, it is possible to leave the question of ‘how do you intend to vote?’ in opinion polls unanswered, and even may be beneficial for the public good. If you want to know why, read here: ‘Of the Mode of Voting’ by John Stuart Mill (and of Over-Sharing)

Jonathan Head

Last but not least, Jonathan will be giving a public lecture entitled ‘Can an AI system be a person and should we create them?’ at the Shrewsbury Unitarian Church at 7.30pm on Tuesday 7th May. The talk is organised by ‘Hmmm Squad’, a group that hosts public lectures in science and philosophy in the town. Such a thought-provoking topic!

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Above is the report of this 29th Feb, 2024’s leap day! Imagine what sort of news will be reported in 2028! At the moment, we, the first generation of the editorial team, are anticipating the news reported by the second generation.

The technology will become even more advanced, the political landscape will have new (hopefully not dumb) leaders, ideologies will change in some measure, and we will face new global challenges. We are expecting new philosophical ideas to help humanity!

The Editorial Team: Meg, Eric and Shihao.

Philosophy@Keele Newsletter 13th February 2024

Hi all. On this rainy Shrove Tuesday, we hope this newsletter find you well! We have some exciting philosophy research to share, but, above all, the most important Philosophical question is: what toppings do you enjoy on your pancakes?

Sila Ozdemir

James Tartaglia’s ex-PhD student Sila Ozdemir, who was awarded her PhD by Keele in 2023, is now a full-time philosophy lecturer at Erzurum Technical University in Turkey. Congrats to Sila!

Christopher Mountford

In November of 2023, Keele Master’s graduate Christopher Mountford was fortunate enough to attend the P4C course hosted by the Philosophy Foundation, a philosophy-focused charity founded by Peter Worley. What is P4C? It means “philosophy for children”. The course was focused on how one ought to deliver philosophy as a subject in schools. Those who study philosophy may already appreciate how important it is to teach philosophy to children, if only for the critical thinking and self-reflective skills acquired.

The Philosophy Foundation encourages the “open mindset” approach and the use of open-ended and sometimes unusual questions. This way, the children learn to think as opposed to recall or guess what they believe the teacher wants to hear. The aim of using the “open mindset” in P4C facilitation is to remove any hidden agenda, with no lesson plans or learning objectives. The facilitators’ aim is to encourage the discussion while contributing as little as possible, hoping to engage children’s critical thinking skills. This is what they call the “absence” approach.

The course is open to anyone and is broken up into 2 phases. Christopher so far has attended Phase 1, in which the foundation teaches their techniques for facilitating philosophy for children. Phase 2 involves using these skills in the classroom.

On the experience, Christopher writes:

In my opinion, it was a fantastic course and the content and techniques on offer are phenomenal for anyone wishing to teach philosophy at any stage or for someone wishing to get better at facilitating group discussions. The Philosophy Foundation has done some wonderful work so far and it is exciting to see what they will do next as they work diligently towards getting philosophy back into schools.

Eric Sancho-Adamson

As of January 2023, Eric is on the Editorial Board of the University of Barcelona-based philosophy journal Convivium. The journal has published its first issue since Eric is on board!

Check it out here (in Spanish and Catalan).

Keele-Royal Institute of Philosophy Lectures

Next Tuesday, 20th February, Professor Dr. Hyeongjoo Kim (Chung-Ang University, Seoul) will deliver his talk, entitled ‘Unexplainable Explainable AI’.

Here is the abstract:

In the presentation, I would like to introduce one philosophical approach to recent AI research that has garnered significant attention. Among them, I will particularly focus on explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). Through this, I aim to emphasize the importance of language use issues related to AI. At first, I analyze the word “explain” in XAI and the theory of explanation and identify the discrepancy between the meaning of the explanation claimed to be necessary and that which is actually presented. After summarizing the history of AI related to explainability, I argue that American philosophy in the 1900s operated in the background of said history. I then extract the meaning of explanation in view of XAI, to elucidate the relationship among AI, logic, and the theory of explanation. In so doing, I aim to reveal DARPA’s surreptitious definitional retreat in terms of its contents. I conclude that this intentional fallacy preexists the XAI project and that presumptuous use of reason, which Kant criticizes, is underlying.

The lecture will take place from 6 to 7.30 pm, in CBA0.060, Chancellor’s Building, at Keele University (the usual place). Do join us!

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Signing off: Meg and Eric (Shihao in absentia), toodooloo! Off to flip some pancakes!

The Editorial Team

Kant Calendar. 12 February 1804: Kant’s death

Kant Calendar: This year, 2024, marks the tricentenary of the birth in 1724 of the Königsberg philosopher, Immanuel Kant. In celebration, each month, the Keele-Oxford-St Andrews Kantian (KOSAK) Research Centre’s blog will feature one or two short pieces on significant milestones or trivial events during Kant’s lifetime on the anniversary of their occurrence. This is meant to be a fun and instructive way of bringing the philosopher’s biography and intellectual context to life.

Today, February 12th 2024, is the 220th anniversary of Immanuel Kant’s passing. In May, the KOSAK blog featured Philippe Collin’s 1993 film adaptation Les Derniers Jours d’Emmanuel Kant. In this piece, we reproduce an excerpt from Thomas de Quincey’s The Last Days of Immanuel Kant, originally published in 1827. The excerpt spans from the moment of Kant’s last words to his death.

Let us briefly introduce some aspects of this text. The first-person narrator, penned by De Quincey, is a semi-historical, semi-fictional Wasianski, combined with Jachmann, Borowski, and others who accompanied Kant during his last days. Wasianski’s Immanuel Kant in seinen letzten Lebensjahren (1804) served as De Quincey’s primary source material and the details included were those that were corroborated by the accounts of the others present. De Quincey intends to be faithful to the historical details as reported by his sources, and even disputes the received accounts in footnotes when he believes them to be wrong. Moreover, Manfred Kuhn has argued (2022: pp. 1-16) that these sources themselves (Wasianski, Jachmann, Borowski) were not neutral and disinterested observers. In Königsberg, following Kant’s death, there were local public disputes regarding Kant’s character and certain expectations fell upon these authors, as Kant’s confidants, to set the record straight. In all likelihood, The Last Days of Immanuel Kant inherited exaggerations, embellishments and censorship of details from its sources. With all its verisimilitude, De Quincey’s book should not be read as historical fact without qualification, but as a remarkable literary feat inhabiting the grey area between fact and fiction.

Excerpt:

I wished to stay with him till all was over; and as I had been witness of his life, to be witness also of his departure; and therefore I never quitted him except when I was called off for a few minutes to attend some private business. The whole of this night I spent at his bed-side. Though he had passed the day in a state of insensibility, yet in the evening he made intelligible signs that he wished to have his bed put in order; he was therefore lifted out in our arms, and the bed-clothes and pillows being hastily arranged, he was carried back again. He did not sleep; and a spoonful of liquid, which was sometimes put to his lips, he usually pushed aside; but about one o’clock in the night he himself made a motion towards the spoon, from which I collected that he was thirsty; and I gave him a small quantity of wine and water sweetened; but the muscles of his mouth had not strength enough to retain it, so that to prevent its flowing back he raised his hand to his lips, until with a rattling sound it was swallowed. He seemed to wish for more; and I continued to give him more, until he said, in a way that I was just able to understand,—’It is enough.’ And these were his last words. At intervals he pushed away the bed-clothes, and exposed his person; I constantly restored the clothes to their situation, and on one of these occasions I found that the whole body and extremities were already growing cold, and the pulse intermittent.

At a quarter after three o’clock on Sunday morning, February 12, Kant stretched himself out as if taking a position for his final act, and settled into the precise posture which he preserved to the moment of death. The pulse was now no longer perceptible to the touch in his hands, feet or neck. I tried every part where a pulse beats, and found none anywhere but in the left hip, where it beat with violence, but often intermitted.

About ten o’clock in the forenoon he suffered a remarkable change; his eye was rigid and his face and lips became discolored by a cadaverous pallor. Still, such was the effect of his previous habits, that no trace appeared of the cold sweat which naturally accompanies the last mortal agony.

It was near eleven o’clock when the moment of dissolution approached. His sister was standing at the foot of the bed, his sister’s son at the head. I, for the purpose of still observing the fluctuations of the pulse in his hip, was kneeling at the bed-side; and I called his servant to come and witness the death of his good master. Now began the last agony, if to him it could be called an agony, where there seemed to be no struggle. And precisely at this moment, his distinguished friend, Mr. R. R. V., whom I had summoned by a messenger, entered the room. First of all, the breath grew feebler; then it missed its regularity of return; then it wholly intermitted, and the upper lip was slightly convulsed; after this there followed one slight respiration or sigh; and after that no more; but the pulse still beat for a few seconds—slower and fainter, till it ceased altogether; the mechanism stopped; the last motion was at an end; and exactly at that moment the clock struck eleven.

Soon after his death the head of Kant was shaved; and, under the direction of Professor Knorr, a plaster cast was taken, not a masque merely, but a cast of the whole head, designed (I believe) to enrich the craniological collection of Dr. Gall.

The corpse being laid out and properly attired, immense numbers of people of every rank, from the highest to the lowest, flocked to see it. Everybody was anxious to make use of the last opportunity he would have for entitling himself to say—’I too have seen Kant.’ This went on for many days—during which, from morning to night, the house was thronged with the public. Great was the astonishment of all people at the meagreness of Kant’s appearance; and it was universally agreed that a corpse so wasted and fleshless had never been beheld. His head rested upon the same cushion on which once the gentlemen of the university had presented an address to him; and I thought that I could not apply it to a more honorable purpose than by placing it in the coffin, as the final pillow of that immortal head.

Thomas De Quincey, The Last Days of Immanuel Kant

Sources and further recommended readings:

• Thomas De Quincey, ‘The Last Days of Immanuel Kant’, in: Narrative and Miscellaneous Papers. (Project Gutenberg link).
• Manfred Kuehn (2002), Kant. A Biography. Cambridge University Press.
  

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Eric Sancho-Adamson, Media and Research Coordinator of the Keele-Oxford-St Andrews Kantian Research Centre

Philosophy@Keele Newsletter 23rd Jan

Hello all! In a world buzzing with noise, we invite you to pause, and dive into the essence of thought (introduction generated by AI), if there is any (comment added by Shihao).

The new semester has officially started! The boreal weather isn’t great, but we have some great news that’ll blow you away.

Giuseppina D’Oro

Congratulations to Josie! Her paper, “To reply or not to reply, that is the question: descriptive metaphysics and the sceptical challenge” (2023) has been published in Audun Bengtson, Benjamin De Mesel and Sybren Heyndels (eds.) P.F. Strawson and His Philosophcal Legacy. OUP, 192-211.

To read or not to read, that is completely your decision! 🙂 (But we recommend you read).

Tadhg Ó Laoghaire

We are proud to announce that Tadhg has two exciting pieces to share with us.

1. ‘Let Slip the Dogs of Commerce: The Ethics of Voluntary Corporate Withdrawal in Response to War’, has recently been published in the Journal of Ethics. He summerised the paper in the following manner: The paper discusses the two most prominent moral arguments that have been given in favour of complete voluntary corporate withdrawal from Russia in response to the ongoing war, arguing that they are ultimately unconvincing. The paper then suggests that corporations in times of war face a case of ‘spattered hands – one where they may do good by remaining in a war-waging state, but where they contribute indirectly to grave wrongdoing by doing so. The paper then outlines four considerations which corporations ought to bear in mind when deciding whether to withdraw, or whether to remain active within warzones.
2. His paper ‘Business and Bleeding Hearts: Why Multinational Corporations Have a Responsibility to Encourage Cosmopolitan Concern‘, which has been published in Global Justice: Theory, Practice, Rhetoric, won the journal’s Jonathan Trejo Mathys Prize, for ‘a stellar contribution to the political theory and philosophy of global justice’. Woohoo!

Editorial Team

Eric and Meg are sad to announce that Shihao will leave us… For one whole month! Between the two of us, we will do our best to upkeep the quality of the newsletter in that time. We hope Shihao has an excellent time visiting his home country, China, and a rejoiceful reunion with his friends and family.

All our best wishes for the new semester!

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The Editorial Team: Eric, Meg and Shihao