26-27 April 2008
Geneva, Switzerland
Epistemic Agency Conference
Geneva, april 26th-27th 2008
Recent work in the philosophy of knowledge has lead to a rediscovery ---or
a rethinking--- of the relationships between knowledge and action. What is
the role of knowledge in the explanation of action and in practical
reasoning? To what extent do knowers have to be agents and can knowledge
be defined in relation to what the knower does? Are beliefs and judgements
in some sense actions? Are there connexions between epistemic reasons and
practical reasons, and if there are, what are they? Is there a difference
between knowledge and the activity of inquiry? These are, in a sense,
traditional questions, which have also a long record within the pragmatist
tradition, from Peirce and Ramsey to Isaac Levi, and which can be examined
from many angles, from epistemology to philosophy of mind and issues about
practical reasoning or meta-ethics. The aim of this conference, which is
to examine these issues from a number of aspects, starting from the
question: can there be epistemic agency ?
The conference will follow a one-week visit by John Greco
<http://www.slu.edu/colleges/AS/philos/Faculty/fgreco.html> (Saint Louis),
a leading theorist in virtue epistemology, and include a symposium on his
work.
The conference is organised by Prof. P. Engel's Episteme
<http://www.unige.ch/lettres/philo/episteme/> group at Department of
Philosophy, University of Geneva, within the FNS project on Knowledge,
Reasons and Norms
<http://www.unige.ch/lettres/philo/enseignants/pe/researchprojects.html>.
Call for papers, deadline march 1st: details below.
Invited Speakers
* Fabian Dorsch
<http://www.unifr.ch/philo/modern-contemporary/dorsch/index.html>
(Fribourg)
* Olav Gjelsvik
<http://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/om-instituttet/ansatte/vit/olavgj.xml> (
Oslo)
* John Greco
<http://www.slu.edu/colleges/AS/philos/Faculty/fgreco.html> (Saint
Louis)
* Pamela Hieronymi
<http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/phil/faculty/Phieronymi/> (UCLA)
* Roger Pouivet
<http://www.univ-nancy2.fr/poincare/perso/pouivet/> (Nancy)
* Duncan Pritchard
<http://www.philosophy.ed.ac.uk/staff/DuncanPritchard.htm> (Edinburg
h)
* Joelle Proust
<http://www.institutnicod.org/notices.php?user=Proust> (Institut
Jean Nicod, Paris)
Call for papers
Papers are invited on any of the topics of the conference :
1. mental action and the voluntariness of judgment
2. epistemic agency and the role of agents in knowledge and justificati
on
3. the implications of virtue epistemology for epistemic agency
4. knowledge and practical reasoning
In addition, one half-day will be devoted to the epistemology of John
Greco. Papers discussing his work are invited as well.
The deadline for submission is MARCH 1st, 2007. Abstracts of no more
than 1000 words should be sent to Julien Dutant
(julien.dutant@lettres.unige.ch). Notifications of acceptance
will be made not later than March 10.
Scientific Committee
* Fabian Dorsch (Fribourg and Geneva)
* Julien Dutant (Geneva)
* Pascal Engel (Geneva)
* John Greco (Saint Louis)
* Anne Meylan (Geneva and Neuchâtel)
* Roger Pouivet (Nancy)
* Joelle Proust (Institut Jean Nicod, Paris)
More details
at: http://www.unige.ch/lettres/philo/evenements/2008/EpistemicAgency.htm