April 18, 2012

CF: Expressivism and Epistemic Normativity
By S. Matthew Liao

May 9-10, 2012
Amphithéâtre Gustave Roussy – Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers
15 rue de l’Ecole de Médecine, 75006 Paris
Organizers : Joëlle Proust and Anne Coubray (Institut Jean-Nicod)

WEDNESDAY 9 MAY
10:00 a.m. Speaker : Allan Gibbard (Michigan) : Full Truth for Expressivists: Deflationary Truth and Acceptability.
Respondent : Joëlle Proust (ENS, IJN).
12:00 a.m. Lunch
2:00 p.m. Speaker : Kristoffer Ahlstrom-Vij (Copenhagen) : The Costs of Epistemic Realism.
Respondent : Friedericke Moltmann (CNRS, IHPST).
4:00 p.m. Coffee break
4:30 p.m. Speaker : Seth Yalcin (Berkeley) : Knowledge in the Absence of Truth.
Respondent : Paul Egré (CNRS, IJN).
6:30 p.m. End

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Posted on April 18, 2012 at 7:32 pm in Conference Announcement, Metaethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

April 17, 2012

CFA: 4th Arizona Workshop in Normative Ethical Theory
By S. Matthew Liao

There is a call for abstracts for the Fourth Annual Arizona Workshop in Normative Ethical Theory that will be held in Tucson, Arizona on January 3-5, 2013.

Abstracts are welcome in any area or on any topic in normative ethical theory (to be distinguished as well as possible from metaethics, political philosophy, and applied ethics).

Abstracts should be 2-3 double-spaced pages and are due no later than Monday June 3, 2012. Please send abstracts by email to Professor Mark Timmons at mtimmons (at) u.arizona.edu. Those who presented at the 2011 or 2012 workshops are not eligible for presenting at the 2013 workshop.

Read the full post here

Posted on April 17, 2012 at 4:47 am in Conference Announcement, Normative Ethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

April 7, 2012

BBC Interview about Human Engineering and Climate Change
By S. Matthew Liao

Readers of Ethics Etc might be interested in an interview I did with the BBC One Planet about human engineering and climate change. The interview segment starts at around the 11 minute mark.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00q88qq/One_Planet_Aid_Happiness _and_Tiny_Vegetarians/

More programming information can be found here.

Posted on April 7, 2012 at 7:48 pm in Applied Ethics, Bioethics, Environmental Ethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | 1 Comment

April 6, 2012

Cartoon about Human Engineering and Climate Change
By S. Matthew Liao

Here is an amusing cartoon that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, drawn by Cathy Wilcox, about our “Human Engineering and Climate Change” paper.

Posted on April 6, 2012 at 4:04 am in Bioethics, Environmental Ethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

April 4, 2012

CF: BSET 2012 in Stirling
By S. Matthew Liao

9 – 11 July, 2012
University of Stirling,

Keynote Speakers
Sarah Broadie (St Andrews)
Frances Kamm (Harvard)

Submitted Papers
Science’s Immunity to Moral Refutation
– Alex Barber (Open)

Specialising General Duties
– Stephanie Collins (ANU)

Cognitivism about Moral Judgement
– Alison Hills (Oxford)

Read the full post here

Posted on April 4, 2012 at 3:52 am in Conference Announcement, Metaethics, Normative Ethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

March 28, 2012

Your Brain on Politics with Jonathan Moreno and Jonathan Haidt at NYU
By S. Matthew Liao

Thursday, March 29, 6:30pm -8:00pm
Location: NYU Bookstore, 726 Broadway New York, NY 10003

“This is Your Brain on Politics: Why people believe what they want to believe, and deny science selectively” with Jonathan Moreno and Jonathan Haidt, moderated by S. Matthew Liao.

Jonathan Moreno is David and Lyn Silfen University Professor of Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania, and author of The Body Politic: The Battle Over Science in America (BLP, 2012) and Mind Wars: Brain Science and the Military in the 21st Century (BLP pap. ed., 2012).

Read the full post here

Posted on March 28, 2012 at 7:17 pm in Applied Ethics, Bioethics, Moral Psychology, Neuroethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

March 19, 2012

CF: Irrealism in Ethics at Reading
By S. Matthew Liao

The Department of Philosophy at the University of Reading invites you to the annual Ratio Conference on Friday 20 April 2012.

This year’s theme is Irrealism in Ethics.

Speakers:
Jonas Olson (University of Stockholm): ‘Precursors of Moral Error Theory’
James Lenman (University of Sheffield): ‘Ethics without Errors’
Michael Ridge and Sebastian Köhler (University of Edinburgh): ‘Revolutionary Expressivism’
Mark Kalderon (University College London): ‘The Philosophical Significance of the Frege-Geach Problem’

Registration fee: £15 (staff), £10 (students), which includes tea and coffee during the day.

The conference programme and registration form are available at http://www.reading.ac.uk/philosophy/Conferences/Conferences.aspx

Read the full post here

Posted on March 19, 2012 at 4:14 am in Conference Announcement, Metaethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

CF: Oxford Political Theory Graduate Conference
By S. Matthew Liao

Theme: Political Theory and the ‘Liberal’ Tradition

Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford | 19-20 April 2012

Graduate students and academics are invited to attend the inaugural Oxford Graduate Conference in Political Theory, to be held at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, on 19-20 April 2012. The theme for this conference is “Political Theory and the ‘Liberal’ Tradition”, and there will be four panels of student speakers, as well as two keynote addresses, given by Professor Jeremy Waldron (University of Oxford) and Professor Charles Mills (Northwestern University). The deadline for registration is 15 April 2012, and attendees can register online at: http://www.politics.ox.ac.uk/index.php/component/option,com_seminar/It emid,138/

Posted on March 19, 2012 at 3:51 am in Conference Announcement, Political Philosophy, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

March 14, 2012

The Guardian on Human Engineering and Climate Change
By S. Matthew Liao

My co-authors, Anders Sandberg and Rebecca Roache, and I chime in on the debate regarding our Human Engineering and Climate Change paper at the Guardian. You can read the interview here.

Posted on March 14, 2012 at 6:04 pm in Applied Ethics, Bioethics, Environmental Ethics, General Announcement, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | 2 Comments

March 12, 2012

Human Engineering and Climate Change in The Atlantic
By S. Matthew Liao

Recently, the Atlantic interviewed me about the paper “Human Engineering and Climate Change,” which I co-wrote with Anders Sandberg and Rebecca Roache, and which is forthcoming in Ethics, Policy and the Environment. You can find the interview here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/03/how-human-engine ering-could-be-the-solution-to-climate-change/253981/

Read the full post here

Posted on March 12, 2012 at 6:42 pm in Applied Ethics, Bioethics, Environmental Ethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | 3 Comments

March 10, 2012

MERG Mini-Conference at NYU
By S. Matthew Liao

Metro Experimental Research Group, in conjunction with the NYU Center for Bioethics, is hosting a mini-conference at NYU on some exciting new work in experimental philosophy on Friday, March 16th.

The conference includes the following four talks:

* Zoltan Szabo (Yale), Impure Modals

* S. Matthew Liao (NYU), The Doctrine of Double Effect and Experimental Philosophy

* Shaun Nichols (Arizona), Ambiguous Reference

* Fiery Cushman (Brown), Two Functions of Morality

The conference will be held in Room 101 of NYU’s Philosophy department (5 Washington Place) from 10:30 to 5:30. All are welcome to attend.

Read the full post here

Posted on March 10, 2012 at 7:55 pm in Conference Announcement, Experimental Ethics, Experimental Philosophy, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

March 6, 2012

2012 Moral Brain Conference at NYU
By S. Matthew Liao

Please find below the Final Program for the 2012 Bioethics Conference: The Moral Brain. Although we have reached capacity, we strongly encourage you to RSVP so that you can be placed on the waitlist. We will contact you as soon as space becomes available. The direct link for RSVP is at

http://goo.gl/PXHmO

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Posted on March 6, 2012 at 7:01 am in Bioethics, Conference Announcement, Neuroethics, Neuroscience of Morality, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

March 3, 2012

Apply til 15 March: Distributing Human Resources for Health–Ethics and Health Policy
By Nir Eyal

2012 Brocher Summer Academy in Global Population Health – 18-22 June 2012.

Location: Villa Brocher, Hermance, Switzerland.

Website: http://bit.ly/zP8eDN

Applications are accepted until 15 March 2012.

Read the full post here

Posted on March 3, 2012 at 9:18 pm in Applied Ethics, Bioethics, Conference Announcement, Nir Eyal's Posts | Leave a Comment

February 28, 2012

SLACRR 3 – Program
By S. Matthew Liao

Here are the main speakers at the next St. Louis Annual Conference on Reasons and Rationality, May 20-22, 2012.

Keynote: Jonathan Dancy (Texas/Reading), “More Right than Wrong”

* Nomy Arpaly (Brown) and Timothy Schroeder (Ohio State), “Acting and Believing for Reasons”
* Agnes Callard (Chicago), ”Introducing Socratic Anti-Intellectualism”
* Patricio Fernandez (Harvard), “Why Not Act?
* Ernesto Garcia (Massachusetts), “Explaining Constitutive Norms”
* Alex Gregory (Reading), “A Very Good Reason to Reject the Buck-Passing Account” * Ali Hasan (Iowa), “A Puzzle for Analyses of Rationality”
* Doug Portmore (Arizona State), “Perform Your Best Option”
* Abe Roth (Ohio State), “Team Reasoning, Shared Intention, and Non-Evidential Warrant for Belief”
* Michael Titelbaum (Wisconsin), “In Defense of Right Reasons”
* Daniel Whiting (Southampton), ”Reasons for Belief, the Aim of Belief, and the Aim of Action”

Read the full post here

Posted on February 28, 2012 at 6:19 am in Conference Announcement, Metaethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

February 20, 2012

Reply to Sobel
By Allen Wood

I am grateful that my post on Ethics Etc. finally reached David Sobel, and that he has taken the trouble to respond to it. On the face of it, his response looks pretty devastating – I am sure it must seem so to him. But I offer the following rejoinder:

I suppose I should have anticipated this reply, given the way Parfit presents what he calls ‘the agony argument’ and the way in which Sobel in his article exploits the notions of liking and disliking. Nor can it be my aim to speak for Parfit or defend the letter of his texts (he is surely more able to do that for himself than I could possibly be on his behalf). My aim, however, was to criticize the strategy Sobel uses in defending subjectivism about reasons against Parfit’s objections. In a short post, it was impossible for me to do this in a way that avoids misunderstanding. For this reason, the present note is quite a bit longer, because it will take longer to explain what I believe to be at issue. I agree that Sobel’s reply seems quite apt in relation to the letter of what Parfit says. However, this reply also perpetuates the fatal confusion on which I believe the argument of Sobel’s article rests.

Read the full post here

Posted on February 20, 2012 at 7:03 am in Allen Wood's Posts, Metaethics | 4 Comments

February 14, 2012

Henle Conference on Happiness and Well-Being
By S. Matthew Liao

The Department of Philosophy at Saint Louis University will be hosting the Henle Conference on Happiness and Well-Being on March 30-31, 2012. A tentative schedule appears below.

Read the full post here

Posted on February 14, 2012 at 7:36 am in Conference Announcement, Metaethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

February 9, 2012

Open Peer Commentaries for Human Engineering and Climate Change
By S. Matthew Liao

A paper I’ve co-written with Anders Sandberg (Oxford) and Rebecca Roache (Oxford) entitled “Human Engineering and Climate Change” has been selected by Ethics, Policy, and Environment to be a Target Article for their next issue. The abstract of our paper is as follows:

Read the full post here

Posted on February 9, 2012 at 8:34 pm in Applied Ethics, Bioethics, Environmental Ethics, General Announcement, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

Conference on Manipulation at Bowling Green
By S. Matthew Liao

March 16 & 17, 2012
Bowling Green State University

Registration is free and open to all. To register; visit the workshop website: http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/phil/conferences/manipulation/page1051 39.html

Read the full post here

Posted on February 9, 2012 at 6:18 pm in Applied Ethics, Conference Announcement, Normative Ethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

CFA: 9th Annual Metaethics Workshop in Wisconsin
By S. Matthew Liao

There is a call for abstracts for the Ninth Annual Metaethics Workshop, to be held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, on September 28-30, 2012.

Jonathan Dancy (Reading and Texas) will be this year’s keynote speaker. Abstracts (of 2-3 double-spaced pages) of papers in any area of metaethics are due by May 1. There is a limit of one submission per person. Speakers in the 2010 or 2011 workshop are not eligible to submit abstracts for this year’s event. A program committee will evaluate submissions and make decisions by early June.

Read the full post here

Posted on February 9, 2012 at 6:11 pm in Conference Announcement, Metaethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

NEH Summer Institute
By S. Matthew Liao

Ron Mallon (Philosophy, Washington University, St. Louis) and Shaun Nichols (Philosophy, Arizona) are hosting an NEH Summer Institute for College and University Teachers in Experimental Philosophy this July in Tucson. Details are here:

http://epi.arizona.edu/

Applications are due March 1st, 2012.

Institutes are designed for teachers of American undergraduate students. Because of recent changes to the program, now up to three spaces may be awarded to graduate students in the humanities as well.

Consider applying!

Posted on February 9, 2012 at 6:05 pm in Conference Announcement, Experimental Philosophy, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment