Author: PhilSoc

PhilSoc 2017 Annual General Meeting

Annual General Meeting 2017

Thursday, 30th March, 2017; 7:30 pm; David Hume Tower (DHT), Lecture Theatre B.

The AGM will take place immediately following the guest lecture by Dr Patrick Greenough.

The agenda for the meeting is as follows:

1) COMMITTEE ELECTIONS 2017

We will be electing the following committee positions for the upcoming academic year 2017/18. There are a large number of roles available and you do not need to have had committee experience before, nor do you need to have been heavily involved in the Society already. However, in order to stand for election, you must be 1) A PhilSoc Member and 2) A Matriculated Student of The University of Edinburgh. If you are not currently a member, you are welcome to join at any point before the AGM begins.

Please find a full description of the positions available here. Whether you would like to run our guest lecture series, gain financial experience, organise socials and parties, tutor students, manage our library, or market the society, there is a role for you! Being on the committee gives you a fantastic insight into how academic events are run and the opportunity to personally communicate and work with philosophers throughout the UK. Of course, it also offers great skills and experience — and it’s fun at the same time!

The following roles will be elected at the AGM.

  • President (Executive Role)
  • Vice-President (Executive Role)
  • Secretary (Executive Role)
  • Treasurer (Executive Role)
  • Chairperson
  • Discussion Group Organiser
  • Reading Group Organiser
  • Academic Support Officer
  • Department Liaison Officer
  • Social Secretary
  • Marketing Officer
  • Webmaster
  • Librarian

If you wish to stand for election, we ask you to prepare a few words about why you would like to stand. This will be followed by elections by secret ballot by all members in attendance. Some of these roles can be available as shared positions.

2) REPORTS

The following reports from the committee will be presented:

2.1: The President’s Report 2017 (by President Milan Ney)
2.2: The Financial Report 2017 (by Treasurer Tommy Zhang)

3) MOTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION

In addition to the committee elections, we will be voting on any motions that members would like to bring forward for the coming year. This can include constitutional amendments (please find the current constitution attached). Please submit all proposals to contact@euphilsoc.com in advance of the meeting.

If you would like more information about being on the committee, please free to contact a member of the committee.

Week 10 Events

Reading and Film Group
Monday, 27th March; 7 pm; The New Amphion, Teviot Row House (Map)
Reading: Annette Baier’s ‘Can Philosophers be Patriots?‘
[Next week’s film: ‘Zizek!‘ (dir. Astra Taylor)]
Discussion Group
Tuesday, 28th March; 7 pm, The New Amphion, Teviot Row House (Map)
Topic: Knowledge and Truth-Relativism
Academic Support Office Hours
Wednesday, 29th March; 1:30 pm until 3:30 pm; Dugald Stewart Building (DSB), Room 5.01.

Guest Lecture

Thursday, 30th March; 6.15 pm, David Hume Tower, Lecture Theatre B.

Speaker: Dr Patrick Greenough, University of Edinburgh

Title: Conceptual Engineering: For and Against

Abstract: Conceptual Engineering is the view that many, or even most, philosophical concepts are broken and are in need of repair or replacement. On such a view, we should not simply be asking: What is our concept of X? Rather, we should (also) be asking: What should our concept of X be? In this talk I look at some of the arguments for and against Conceptual Engineering. Without mincing words, the main news will be that “Conceptual Engineering” is a bad name for a bad idea. An alternative to Conceptual Engineering will be briefly sketched. 

Week 9 Events

Reading and Film Group
Monday, 20th March; 7 pm; 2.06, Appleton Tower (Map)
Film: ‘Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World‘ (dir. Werner Herzog)
Discussion Group
Tuesday, 21st March; 7 pm, The New Amphion, Teviot Row House (Map)
Topic: The Concept of Übermensch
Academic Support Office Hours
Wednesday, 22nd March; 1:30 pm until 3:30 pm; Dugald Stewart Building (DSB), Room 5.01.

THURSDAY LECTURE CANCELLED

Dr Baldwin’s lecture tomorrow (Thursday, 23rd) has, sadly, been cancelled. We apologise for the inconvenient.

PhilSoc PubQuiz

However, to make up for the lecture cancellation, PhilSoc has organised its annual PubQuiz, which will take place on Friday, 24th March!

Friday, 24 March 2017; 7.15 pm (until about 10 pm); Greenmantle Pub, 44 West Crosscauseway, EH8 9JP (Map)
What is the scope of your philosophical knowledge? Come find out at PhilSoc’s yearly PubQuiz! It’s free, and you have the opportunity to win a mystery prize.
There will, of course, be some mandatory nerdy philosophical trivia to add some flair, but it won’t be solely about philosophy so do bring along friends and flatmates. Everybody’s welcome; philosopher to non-philosopher, drinker to non-drinker, pubquiz whiz to reluctant acquaintance. 

Week 7 Events

PhilSoc’s Annual ‘Women and Other Minorities in the Humanities’ Conference

A reminder that on Friday, March 6th, Philsoc will host our annual ‘Women and other Minorities in the Humanities’ Conference. This year, the conference will be part of the Student Union’s ‘LiberatEd’ programme, which replaces last years’ GenderJam. The aim of the conference is to raise awareness of gender and minority biases, discrimination and underrepresentation in the humanities, academia and society. Check out our earlier post, or the conference website, for more details! The event is free and open to all students!

 

Reading and Film Group
Monday, 6th March; 7 pm, The New Amphion, Teviot Row House (Map)
Reading: Penelope Maddy’s “The Philosophy of Logic” [You can click on the paper’s name to open it.]

(Next week’s reading: Alisa Bokulich’s ‘How Scientific Models can Explain‘)

Discussion Group
Tuesday, 7th March; 7 pm, The New Amphion, Teviot Row House (Map)
Topic: Scepticisms
Academic Support Office Hours
Wednesday, 8th March; 1:30 pm until 3:30 pm; Dugald Stewart Building (DSB), Room 5.01.

Guest Lecture

Thursday, 9th March; 6.15 pm, David Hume Tower, Lecture Theatre B.

Speaker: Prof. Ofra Magidor, University of Oxford

Title: “Co-predication and Property Inheritance”
(Ofra Magidor, paper co-authored with David Liebesman)

Abstract: ‘It is tempting to think that words like ‘book’ are ambiguous between a ‘physical book’ sense and an ‘informational book sense’: on the physical sense, three copies of War and Peace count as three books, and on the informational sense, as only one book. However this ambiguity hypothesis seems to face problems with cases of co-predication, namely sentences such as “Three red books are informative”. The problem arises from the claims that (i) ‘red’ only applies to physical books (ii) ‘informative’ only applies to informational books. (iii) we have only one occurrence of the word ‘book’ in the sentence.
Co-predication has been taken in the literature to be a deep problem that forces us into radical conclusions, most notably – the abandonment of referential semantics altogether. In this paper we argue that no such radical conclusions are warranted. We offer a novel account of co-predication which both denies that ‘book’ is ambiguous, and maintains that properties such as ‘informative’ can apply to physical books. We show how our account can address a wide variety of cases of co-predication and deal with some objections.’

Week 6 Events

Reading and Film Group
Monday, 27th February; 7 pm, David Hume Tower Lower Ground (DHT LG) 0.6 (Map)
Film: “The Look of Silence” (2014), Dir. Joshua Oppenheimer (IMDb)
Discussion Group
Tuesday, 28th February; 7 pm, The New Amphion, Teviot Row House (Map)
Topic: Philosophy of Law
Academic Support Office Hours
Wednesday, 1st March; 3.00 pm until 5.00 pm; Dugald Stewart Building (DSB), Room 3.01.

Guest Lecture

Thursday, 2nd March; 6.15 pm, David Hume Tower, Lecture Theatre B.

Speaker: Prof. Joachim Gentz, University of Edinburgh

Interests: Ancient Chinese Philosophy

Title: TBA

Abstract: TBA

Green Festival Lecture

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PhilSoc is hosting an event for this year’s Green Festival! Sustain.ED is Edinburgh’s first citywide green festival brought to you by the Students’ Association Sabbatical Officer team. Bring along your thinking caps for a talk by Dr Mike Hannis, and consider the freedoms and limitations of environmental policy.

Time: 6:45pm

We recommend you arrive five to ten minutes early. This lecture is free and open to all.


Location: Teviot Row House, Study

TITLE: Is Environmentalism a Threat to Freedom?
Dr Mike Hannis of Bath Spa University

ABSTRACT: An adviser to the current US president has declared that “the environmental movement is the greatest threat to freedom and prosperity in the modern world”. This talk begins by examining how this striking claim may be understood, before moving on to consider how the thinking behind it might be countered. Drawing on material from my recent book “Freedom and Environment”, I explore how competing conceptions of freedom deal with the awkward fact that human civilisations exist within physical limits. I conclude (with Robyn Eckersley) that sustainability should be seen as a condition for autonomy, not a constraint upon it. Along the way I discuss liberalisms, capabilities, rights, and virtues. I also argue that there can be no sustainability without egalitarianism.

https://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/ents/event/8509/
——

For more details about our event, visit: https://www.facebook.com/events/1867060096903502/
If you have any questions about the festival please contact vps@eusa.ed.ac.uk.

Week 5 Events

Please Note: This week’s Discussion Group will take place in Usher’s
Reading and Film Group
Monday, 13th February; 7 pm, The New Amphion, Teviot Row House (Map)
Reading: Susan Bordo’s Anorexia Nervosa: Psychopathology as the Crystallization of
Culture.
(Next week’s film: “The Look of Silence” (2014), Dir. Joshua Oppenheimer (IMDb) )
Discussion Group
Tuesday, 14th February; 7 pm, Usher’s, West Nicolson Street (Map)
Topic: Liberty
Academic Support Office Hours
Wednesday, 15th February; 3.00 pm until 5.00 pm, Dugald Stewart Building (DSB), Room 3.01.

Guest Lecture

Thursday, 16th February; 6.15 pm, David Hume Tower, Lecture Theatre B.

Speaker: Prof. Komarine Romdenh-Romluc, University of Sheffield

Title: “Being in love with Merleau-Ponty“
Abstract: What is love? One might be tempted by the view that love is a type of feeling, and to be in love is to feel a certain kind of way. If this were true, it seems to follow that no-one could be mistaken about whether or not they were in love. But this seems wrong. People are regularly confused about such matters. How, then, should we understand love? In this talk, I will explore Merleau-Ponty’s account. Merleau-Ponty argues that love is a way of perceiving, and interacting with, the world. Perception, for him, does not present the perceiver with ‘neutral’ information about entities. It immerses her in a rich world of things that ‘invite’ her to act. It does this in part because it has an affective dimension – things literally look scary (inviting us to run away), foreboding (demanding that we avoid them), enticing (drawing us into them), and so on. To be in love, for Merleau-Ponty, is to perceive one’s beloved as demanding certain kinds of loving behaviour. It also ‘lights up’ other parts of the world, so that the cafe where we always meet is infused with a welcoming glow, the noisy children invite affection rather than annoyance, and the time between the loved one’s visits become an interminable wait when I lose interest in all my usual pursuits. It is also to act in ways that are in line with these perceptions of the world. On this view, love becomes a thread woven through the fabric of one’s life; a certain ‘style’ of perceiving and acting. Merleau-Ponty then tells us that real love is one that concerns a person’s whole being, whilst illusory love is such that it only touches us at a superficial level. To the person concerned, they can sometimes appear the same. Sometimes, it is only when reflecting on the patterning of one’s life that one can tell if one has really been in love.

Week 4 Events

Reading and Film Group
Monday, 6th February; 7 pm, The New Amphion, Teviot Row House (Map)
Reading: Anita L. Allen’s Atmospherics: Abortion Law and Philosophy.
(Next week’s reading: Susan Bordo’s Anorexia Nervosa: Psychopathology as the Crystallization of Culture)
Discussion Group
Tuesday, 7th February; 7 pm, The New Amphion, Teviot Row House (Map)
Topic: Science vs. Pseudo-science
Academic Support Office Hours
Wednesday, 8th February; 1.30 pm until 3.30 pm, Dugald Stewart Building (DSB), Room 5.01.

 

Guest Lecture

Thursday, 9th February; 6.15 pm, David Hume Tower, Lecture Theatre B.

Speaker: Prof. David Bloor, University of Edinburgh

Title: “Relativism and Mr. Trump”
Abstract: Donald Trump became president of the USA after a campaign notable for its mendacity. Why did such behaviour attract, rather than repel, votes? Some commentators answer this question by saying that we live in a post-truth age. But how did that come about? Part of the blame has been attributed to a group of academics, called ‘relativists’, who are said to have undermined the respect for truth. I shall examine this argument and show that, among other mistakes, it rests on an absurd misrepresentation of relativism. There are Trump-like tendencies in the academic world but they find expression in the anti-relativist, not the relativist, literature.

Week 3 Events

(Please not changed Academic Support time and location)
Reading and Film Group
Monday, 30th January; 7 pm, David Hume Tower (DHT) Lower Ground (LG.06). (Map)
Film: Paprika (2006) – Dir. Satoshi Kon (IMDb)
Discussion Group
Tuesday, 31st January; 7 pm, The New Amphion, Teviot Row House (Map)
Topic: Philosophy of Mathematics
Academic Support Office Hours
Wednesday, 1st February; 1.30 pm until 3.30 pm, Dugald Stewart Building (DSB), Room 5.01.

Guest Lecture

Thursday, 2nd February; 6.15 pm, David Hume Tower, Lecture Theatre B.

Speaker: Prof. James Ladyman, University of Bristol

Interests: Philosophy of Science

Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA

Week 2 Events

Please Note that Academic Support has been moved to Wednesday afternoons, from 1:30 – 3:30pm in DSB 3.01.
Reading and Film Group
Monday, 23th January; 7 pm, The New Amphion, Teviot Row House (Map)
Reading: Patricia Churchland’s Epistemology in the Age of Neuroscience.
[Next week’s film: “Paprika” (2006) Dir. Satoshi Kon]
Discussion Group
Tuesday, 24th January; 7 pm, The New Amphion, Teviot Row House (Map)
Topic: Philosophy of Mind and Memory
Academic Support Office Hours (Please note changed times!)
Wednesday, 25th January; 1.30 pm until 3.30 pm, Dugald Stewart Building (DSB), Room 3.01

Guest Lecture

Thursday, 26th January; 6.15 pm, David Hume Tower, Lecture Theatre B

Speaker: Prof. Simon Prosse, University of St AndrewsInterests: Philosophy of Mind

Title: TBA
Abstract: TBA