Week 3 Events, 2017

Reading and Film Group
Monday, 25th September; 7 pm; G.05 Appleton Tower (Map)
Film Screening: “The Wolf Pack”, dir. Crystal Moselle.

Discussion Group
Tuesday, 26th September; 7 pm, The New Amphion, Teviot Row House (Map)
Topic: Consciousness

Guest Lecture
Thursday, 28th September; 6.15 pm, Appleton Tower, Lecture Theatre 1
Speaker: Dr. Jennifer Corns, University of Glasgow
Title: ‘Pain Hallucination and Illusion’.

Week 2 Events, 2017

Reading and Film Group
Monday, 25th September; 7 pm; The New Amphion, Teviot Row House (Map)
Reading: Jerry Fodor: “The Mind-Body Problem

Discussion Group
Tuesday, 26th September; 7 pm, The New Amphion, Teviot Row House (Map)
Topic: Feminism

Guest Lecture
Thursday, 28th September; 6.15 pm, Appleton Tower, Lecture Theatre 1
Speaker: Dr. Katherine Hawley, University of St. Andrews
Topic: Impostor Syndrome

Week 1 Events, 2017

Reading and Film Group
 Monday, 18th September; 7 pm; The New Amphion, Teviot Row House (Map)
Reading: David Chalmers: “Facing up to the Problem of Consciousness
Discussion Group
Tuesday, 19th September; 7 pm, The New Amphion, Teviot Row House (Map)
Topic: Beauty
Guest Lecture

Thursday, 21st September; 6.15 pm, Appleton Tower, Lecture Theatre 1
Speaker: Dr Michael Grady, University of Glasgow
Interests: Philosophy of Emotion

Freshers’ Week Events 2017

Tuesday the 12th: PPLS Meet & Greet
3:00pm to 4:30pm
Basement Concourse, 7 George Square

Wednesday the 13th & Thursday the 14th: Freshers Fair
11:00am to 4:00pm
60 Pleasance, Tented Area

Thursday the 14th: Freshers’ Week Debate: Free Will
5:00pm to 7:00pm
The Study, Teviot

Friday the 15th: International Students Brunch
10:30am to 12:30pm
Basement Concourse, 7 George Square

Sunday the 17th: Freshers’ Social
8:00pm onwards
The Southern Bar, South Clerk Street

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. 

2017 WoMH Conference Tomorrow!

PhilSoc is proud to present our annual Women & Other Minorities in Humanities Conference, this year also as part of the Student Union’s LiberatEd (GenderJam). The aim of the conference is to raise awareness of gender and minority biases and discrimination in humanities, academia and society.

The conference will run from 9:30am to 5pm on Friday the 10th of March. This year, we will be running 3 lectures and 2 workshops, so feel free to drop in and out throughout the day.  The event is free, and we welcome students of all fields of study. Catering in the form of tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided!

Conference Schedule:
Morning session: 9.30 – 12.00
7 George Square, Room S.1

9.30 – 10.40
Lecture: ‘Is False Consciousness false?’
Dr Elinor Mason, University of Edinburgh

10.50 -12.00
Workshop on Helen Longino and Gender in the Philosophy of Science
Prof Michela Massimi, University of Edinburgh
See below for recommended readings

LUNCH

Afternoon session: 13.30 – 17.00
David Hume Tower, Room LG.09

13.30 -14.40
Lecture: ‘Kant and Race’
Prof Stella Sandford, Kingston University London

14.45-15.45
Workshop on ‘Privilege in academia’
Dr Aidan McGlynn, University of Edinburgh
See below for recommended readings

15.50-17.00
Lecture: ‘Empowering minority women: Autonomy versus participation’
Dr Andrea Baumeister, University of Stirling


Recommended Readings for Prof. Massimi’s workshop:
Longino, Helen E. (1991). Multiplying subjects and the diffusion of power. The Journal of Philosophy, 88(11), 666. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2027028
Longino, H. (1992). Taking Gender Seriously in Philosophy of Science. PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, 1992(2), 333-340. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/192847

Recommended Readings for Dr. McGlynn’s workshop:
Gat, Roxanne (2012). Peculiar Benefits. URL: http://therumpus.net/2012/05/peculiar-benefits/

If you lack access to these, feel free to send us a message and we try to help.

For more details please visit out Conference Website: http://euwmp.weebly.com/ and RSVP on our Facebook event.

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.’

Orders now open for PhilSoc Hoodies!

At long last, orders are now open for PhilSoc hoodies! If you’d like to decorate your back with one of our brilliant and humorous designs, then look no further!

To order your hoody, stop by between 6:00 and 6:15pm before our weekly Thursday lecture series. Details about ordering hoodies online to follow!

Information about the ordering process is available on our ‘Hoodies’ page!

In addition to our previous winning designs, we will also be offering this year’s winning design!

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