U.S. Intellectual History Blog

CFP & Comment: Applied Philosophy As Common Ground (Princeton, NJ)

USIH Readers,

I saw this last week via H-Ideas. The conference is explicitly seeking proposals dealing with “applied philosophy in the history of philosophy.” You’ve got 10 days to get a proposal together!

– Tim

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Society for Applied Philosophy
APPLIED PHILOSOPHY AS COMMON GROUND
Princeton, New Jersey, 13 -14 October 2007

Call for papers
Submission deadline: 1 June 07

Event Rationale:

The UK based Society for Applied Philosophy was an early initiative in giving professional philosophy a voice in the critical examination and discussion of matters of public and social importance. Through its conferences and workshops, and especially its Journal of Applied Philosophy, the SAP can plausibly claim to have been a significant contributor to the major developments in the area that English language philosophy has seen since then. However, two powerful trends have marked this development – the tendency for applied philosophy to become more narrowly conceived as ‘applied ethics’, and a further tendency to specialization within this conception. Thus bioethics, business ethics, international ethics, and so on have all become sub-areas of philosophy in their own right, with societies, journals, degree courses of their own.

While such proliferation is to be welcomed, there is a danger that the common philosophical ground on which these various specialisms meet should suffer neglect, and that areas of applied philosophy not naturally thought of as ‘ethics’ disappear from view. It is with the purpose of countering these dangers that the Society for Applied Philosophy is sponsoring a special conference whose aim is to bring together some of the leading figures (both as speakers and discussants) in the different areas of applied philosophy in an exploration of the common ground their specialisms share.

Call for Papers and Publication Plans

One aim of the conference is a special issue of the Journal of Applied Philosophy which, it is expected, will also be published subsequently as a free standing book. This will not be the publication of the conference proceedings, but a set of essays specially commissioned from authors who have attended the conference. With this end in view, proposals of not more than 500 words are invited for essays on any topic that falls under the general theme of the conference. Some suggested sub-themes are these:

applied philosophy in the history of philosophy
– the relation of ethics to other branches of philosophy
– applied philosophy in areas other than ethics, social and political
– philosophy eg aesthetics, education, philosophy of mind
– the role of applied philosophy in interdisciplinary study

Conference places will be allocated in the first instance to those whose abstracts are chosen for POTENTIAL inclusion in the volume. Any remaining places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Essay proposals should be submitted by 1st June 2007 to [email protected]. Decisions will be notified by 30th June.

PLEASE NOTE : No previously published papers will be accepted. The final version of all papers must be prepared AFTER participation in the conference.

Venue and Registration

The conference will be held in Erdman Hall, the Center for Continuing Education of Princeton Theological Seminary. Places are limited and priority will be given in accordance with the plan for a published volume of papers (see above). Full registration details t.b.a.

Confirmed speakers

Norman Daniels (Harvard School of Public health): Bioethics as applied philosophy
Commentator: Carol Gould (Center for Global Ethics, Temple University)
Chair: David Archard (Lancaster University and Chair of the SAP)

Jeff McMahan (Dept of Philosophy, Rutgers University): International Ethics as applied philosophy
Commentator: tba
Chair: John Tasioulas, Corpus Christi College, Oxford and Secretary of the
SAP

Andrew Light (Philosophy and Public Affairs, University of Washington at
Seattle): Environmental Philosophy as applied philosophy
Commentator: Melinda Roberts, Dept of Philosophy, College of New Jersey
Chair: Gordon Graham, Princeton Theological Seminary

Tom Donaldson (Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania): Business Ethics as applied philosophy
Commentator: Shelly Wilcox, Temple University
Chair: Suzanne Uniacke, Hull University and Editor, Journal of Applied
Philosophy

James P Sterba, Joan B Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame and
President Elect, American Philosophical Association (Central Division)): Ethics as applied philosophy
Chair: David Archard, Lancaster University and Chair of the SAP

Further information, including the current program, can be viewed here.