Too much to do

In a perfect world I'd be submitting something to each of these:

1. Contextual Ethics II: Methods and Approaches

The 11^th conference of the Nordic Wittgenstein Society

May 8-9, 2020. Åbo Akademi University, Finland

This conference brings together moral philosophers and ethicists in neighboring fields to reflect on how to do ethics in close conversation with a range of contexts where real life moral decisions are made. It responds to a range of shifts in shared sensibilities among a growing number of ethicists.

The role of the moral philosopher is changing, from that of a solitary theorist in debate with other philosophers, to different roles as author, critic and interlocutor in increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative research ventures. The roles of theory seem to multiply. From having been conceived as the main product of the philosopher’s work, theories are increasingly considered and used as adaptable tools for furthering understanding and analysis in context-bound discussions. The role of moral community as conceived of or implied in the philosophers’ work is also undergoing change. Where normative moral theorists have previously often seen theory as a necessary corrective to the ordinary lives of people, we see an emerging low-key sensibility, where the challenge to think, the intelligence to solve problems and the power to change lie within moral communities. The philosopher’s role is not to be an ethical master mind, but a facilitator in responsible and reflective moral thinking among equals.

But what does it mean to do ethics or moral philosophy in context? What are the theoretical tools, methods and approaches at our disposal?

Invited speakers:

Avner Baz, Tufts University

Camilla Kronqvist, Åbo Akademi University

Hilde Lindemann, Michigan State University

Sarin Marchetti, Sapienza University of Rome

We invite ground-up, contextually embedded and methodologically reflective contributions from ethicists at all career stages, with a variety of theoretical backgrounds, including but not limited to pragmatism, feminist ethics, ethics after Wittgenstein, analytic ethics, and theological ethics. We welcome interdisciplinary contributions from bio-ethics, environmental ethics, ethics in education, animal ethics, sexual ethics, ethics and public policy, and so on. Abstracts of no more than 400 words, for 30 + 15 minute presentations should be sent to nora.hamalainen@upce.cz by February 15th, 2020.

2. Special Issue: Sats: Northern European Journal of Philosophy

Contextual Ethics

Developing Conceptual and Theoretical Approaches

CALL FOR PAPERS

The importance of context is increasingly in focus in contemporary moral philosophy. Among the reasons for this is the popularity of ’ground-up’ approaches to a large range of topics such as hope, human nature and moral change. Philosophers engage history, anthropology, literature, and empirical research in order to investigate and answer their questions (e.g. Nussbaum 1990; Lear 2006; Appiah 2008, 2010; Guenther 2013). Another reason is  a growing interest in the idea that ‘the ethical’ cannot be exhaustively captured theoretically but is inherently open and interwoven with numerous aspects of human life; a point developed in the work of moral philosophers such as K.E. Løgstrup, Cora Diamond, Alice Crary and Margaret Urban Walker. Approaches such as these give context ethical prominence.

The prominence of context has important consequences for work in moral philosophy and is central in the developing meta-ethical stance that we have coined ‘contextual ethics.’ The aim of the proposed issue is to discuss how to integrate contextual concerns into moral philosophy and develop adequate conceptual and theoretical frameworks for contextualized ethics. Its main focus is thus meta-philosophical: how we are to understand and conceptualize a truly contextual form of moral philosophy. Possible themes of the issue include:

·         How are we to understand the role of context in moral philosophy? What determines the relevant context and how does the inclusion of context affect philosophical work?

·         What is the role of moral theory? Should we continue to consider theories the main product of the philosopher’s work or should they rather be conceived of and used as adaptable tools for furthering understanding and analysis in context bound discussions?

·         What theoretical and conceptual tools are needed to do contextualized ethics?

·         What is the role of the moral philosopher? Is this role changing from that of a theorist in debate with other philosophers, to different roles as author, critic, conceptual  designer and discussant in increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative research ventures?

Guest-editors of the special issue are Cecilie Eriksen, University of Aarhus and Anne-Marie S. Christensen, University of Southern Denmark.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. All manuscripts should adhere to the guidelines for Sats. Northern European Journal of Philosophy, see here: https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/sats#callForPapersHeader. Manuscripts relevant for the special issue will be refereed through a peer-review process.

Manuscripts should be submitted to amsc@sdu.dk. Deadline for submission is April 17, 2020.

3. Call for Papers

Moral Change

Interdisciplinary workshop organized by the Centre for Ethics as Study in Human Value, University of Pardubice, The Czech Republic, 20-21.5.2020

This workshop explores the dynamics of change in the everyday moral frameworks we live by. What happened when slavery became unacceptable in 19^th century US? How did the common vice of pawing one’s female employees become an offence that disqualifies a person as leader? How did the father lose his power to rule over the productive, social and sexual lives of spouse and adolescent or grown up children in mainstream western settings? What happens when the previously admired life style of the well to do middle class is, due to climate change, increasingly conceptualized as a moral problem? How should we understand the dynamics of the current conservative backlash, where principles of human rights are supplanted by nationalist concerns? What are the implications of such changes for moral thought?

            Although change is a defining feature of human communal life, explicit attention to it has had a negligible role in the formation of modern Anglophone moral philosophy. Centered on Universalist and general meta-ethical and normative theories, philosophers’ interest in historicity and moral renegotiations has been thin, in spite of important openings toward the history of ethics in late 20^th century virtue ethics.

            Against this backdrop of a predominantly ahistorical universalist ethics a pattern of new philosophical work on change is currently emerging, with contributions by Kwame Anthony Appiah (2010), Jonathan Lear (2008), Rahel Jaeggi (2018), Michele Moody-Adams (1997), Philip Kitcher (2011), Nigel Pleasants (2010, 2018), and Cecile Eriksen (2019) among others. Also the booming fields of moral anthropology and the sociology of valuation are currently lively sites for philosophical thinking about moral change. This workshop offers an interdisciplinary platform for continuing and initiating such conversations.

Confirmed speakers:

James Laidlaw, Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge

Megan Laverty, Teachers College, Columbia University

Cecilie Eriksen, Philosophy, Aarhus University

Anne-Marie Søndergaard Christensen, Philosophy, SDU, Odense

Niklas Forsberg, Centre for Ethics, University of Pardubice

Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon, Centre for Ethics, University of Pardubice

We welcome abstracts from scholars in philosophy, anthropology, sociology, law, education and neighboring fields for papers (30 + 15 min.) on changes of collective moral/ethical norms, concepts, virtues, frameworks and conceptions of personhood, and the  kinds of normative, theoretical and meta-theoretical issues they raise. We are especially interested in cases where fundamental criteria of moral evaluation seem to be in motion.

Abstracts of no more than 400 words should be sent by February 16, 2020 to our conference secretary Philip Strammer: philip.strammer@gmail.com. For all queries, please contact Nora Hämäläinen: nora.hamalainen@upce.cz.