I reckon this one might be worth a punt!
The Blackwell Philosophy and PopCulture Series
David Kyle Johnson, Editor davidjohnson@kings.edu
William Irwin, General Editor wtirwin@kings.edu
Abstracts and subsequent essays should be philosophically substantial but accessible, written to engage the intelligent lay reader. Contributors of accepted essays will receive an honorarium.
Possible themes and topics might include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Do We All Have a Destiny? Peter Petrelli, Sylar, Freewill and Fate
- “Save the Cheerleader, Save the World.” (Is the past changeable? Is the future “written in stone”?)
- Painting the Future. (If Isaac can paint the future, can we be free?)
- Can Hiro Really Travel in Space? (Is teleportation philosophically possible?)
- Can Hiro really Travel in Time? (Is time travel philosophically possible?)
- Heroes Time Travel (Is the story consistent?)
- Physics and Philosophy: The Physical Possibility of Super Powers
- Matt Parkman, Mind Reading and the Problem of Other Minds
- Sanjog and the Philosophical Possibility of Dream Manipulation
- Are Niki and Jessica the Same Person? (Personal identity)
- Is Niki’s “Power” a Power at All? (Multiple personalities)
- Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind and the Art of Watch Repair; Seeing How Things Work and How Sylar Acquires His Powers
- Hana Gitelman: Personal Identity and Artificial Intelligence (See Comic # 33 & 34 “The Death of Hana Gitelman”)
- Peter Petrelli, The Haitian and the Philosophical Implications of Memory Loss. (What role does memory play in identity?)
- What is evil? Sylar, Linderman and Working for the Greater Good.
- Freedom vs. Security in a Futuristic Post Nuclear Holocaust: Restricting Liberty to Protect the Public
- Sylar’s “Evolutionary Imperative” and the Ethics of Evolution (Does evolution leave room for morals? Did our moral sense evolve? Is it ethically acceptable to interfere in evolution (to progress or hinder it by genetic engineering)?)
- Stealing Swords and Saving the World; The Appropriate Use of Powers (Hiro cheating Vegas, Jessica stealing tuition money, Linderman torturing with healing powers (see Comic 24-29 “War Buddies.”))
- The Ring of Gyges and the Hero’s Duty; Does the Ability to Do Good Create an Obligation to do Good?
- Nietzsche’s Will to Power and the “Superman” of Heroes
- Working for The Company; Ethical Obligations and Following Orders.
- Is Love all that Matters? The Meaning of Life and Finding Kindred Spirits.
- The Drive to be Special: Who’s to Blame—Sylar or his Mother?
- “Activating Evolution”; Science, Pseudoscience and Scientific Progress (Telling the geniuses from the cranks?)
- Can the Simplest of Questions Ever be Answered? (Why are we here? What is the Soul? Why do we dream?)
- The Power of Persuasion (Eden McCain)
- Voting to Include Characters? Communitarian Involvement in Fetish TV Shows.
- Plagiarism and Heroes. Isn’t this just X-men?
Contributor guidelines:
1. Abstract of paper (100-500 words).
2. CV or resume for each author and co-author.
3. Submission deadline for abstracts: Dec 10, 2007
4. Submission deadline for first drafts of accepted papers (tentative): April 1, 2008
5. Submission deadline for final papers June 1, 2008
6. Abstracts should be submitted by e-mail, with or without Word attachment.
Send by e-mail to:
David Kyle Johnson davidjohnson@kings.edu
The 10th International Conference of the Spinoza-Society, held at the Philipps University of Marburg, Sept. 26-26th 2008
Keynote Speakers:
Dieter Birnbacher (Düsseldorf), Andrea Esser (Marburg), Alan Gabbey (Columbia University), Petra Gehring (Darmstadt), Barbara Merker (Frankfurt), Ursula Renz (ETH Zürich), Winfried Schröder (Marburg), Robert Spaemann (Stuttgart), Rudolf Stichweh (Luzern), Lutz Wingert (ETH Zürich)
Call for papers for the following panels:
- Reception of Spinozistic conceptions of nature
- Nature and history
- Nature and Mind
- Nature and Lawlikeness
- Nature and Religion
Please send abstract (German or English) under the heading of the section the paper should presented by March 31th 2008 to hampe@phil.gess.ethz.ch
Awarded Essay: How much of Man is natural?
Responses to this question can be submitted till May 15th 2008. Enclose a CV on one page to renz@phil.gess.ethz.ch. Contributors should be under 35 at December 12th 2008 and not yet hold a professorship. Prize: 1000 Euro. The elected essay will be presented on the conference and be published.
PD Dr. Ursula Renz
Wissenschaftliche Assistentin
Professur für Philosophie
ETH Zentrum
Rämistr. 36
CH – 8092 Zürich
“True and false belong among those determinate notions which are held to be inert and wholly separate essences, one here and one there, each standing fixed and isolated from the other, with which it has nothing in common. Against this view it must be maintained that truth is not a minted coin that can be given and pocketed ready-made. Nor is there such a thing as the false, any more than there is something evil.” Hegel, Preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit
“Proof is, in general, mediated cognition. The various kinds of being demand or imply their own kind of mediation, so that the nature of proof, too, will differ in respect of each.” Hegel, Science of Logic
Speculative systematic philosophy is known for making a bold claim for an absolute knowledge of what there is in truth. Notoriously, however, philosophers working in the tradition of European philosophy still disagree as to the nature of this claim: Does Hegel mean that philosophy can produce a corpus of indisputable knowledge which exemplifies aspects of things, states-of-affairs or events as they are in themselves? What domain of objects or aspects of the real would this knowledge cover? What would be the ontological, epistemological or logical status of those objects or aspects of objects that are left outside of such knowledge? Even the dynamic and developmental structure of the speculative system seems to imply that a notion of absolute falsity must be operative in it, as Michael Theunissen (Sein und Schein) has already pointed out. The Warwick Hegel Conference 2008 aims to clarify and hopefully provide specific solutions to these questions and problems.
Speakers
Paul Franks (Toronto)
All or Nothing: Skepticism, Transcendental Argument and Systematicity in German Idealism
Stephen Houlgate (Warwick)
Hegel, Nietzsche and the Criticism of Metaphysics; The Opening of Hegel’s Logic; An Introduction to Hegel: Freedom, Truth and History
Anton Koch (Tübingen)
Subjectivity in Space and Time; An Inquiry on Truth and Time; Truth, Time and Freedom: An Introduction to a Philosophical Theory
Angelica Nuzzo (City University of New York)
Kant and the Unity of Reason; System
Robert Pippin (Chicago)
The Persistence of Subjectivity: On the Kantian Aftermath; Idealism as Modernism: Hegelian Variations; Hegel’s Idealism: The Satisfactions of Self-Consciousness; Kant’s Theory of Form: An Essay on the Critique of Pure Reason
Robert Stern (Sheffield)
Transcendental Arguments and Scepticism: Answering the Question of Justification; Hegel, Kant and the Structure of the Object; Hegel and the Phenomenology of Spirit; Transcedental Arguments: Problems and Prospects
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/philosophy/news/warwickhegelconference/
I have started a new site to extend the learning environment outside the classroom for my ‘Introduction to Philosophy’ classes this year. It can be found at http://py111.wordpress.com/. Feel free to join the debate if you’re new to philosophy. Between now and the end of this year the subject is moral philosophy. One thing to note, though – you must post pseudonymously.
