I don't know how many of you are planning
to attend the Pacific meetings of the American Philosophical
Association that will happen early April in San Francisco, CA. Those
of you who are will likely know about the boycott of the conference
hotel. With Sharon Meagher, I helped organize a pair of sessions on
"Practicing Public Philosophy," cosponsored by the Committee on Public
Philosophy, to be held April 2. With the boycott, we are holding these
meetings off site, at a hotel in Union Square. These will not be
typical sessions, with papers given and question-and-answer, but are
designed around group discussion provoked by the invited speakers,
including John Lachs, Eduardo Mendieta, Nancy Tuana, Linda Alcoff, Bill
Sullivan, Noelle McAfee and Elizabeth Minnich. Space is somewhat
limited, and we are asking everyone to preregister, but we are able, with the help of the CPP and George Mason's Center for Global Ethics, to provide everyone lunch and snacks.
For those of you who are interested, here is the panel description:
Despite
the public perception that continues to share Aristophanes’ view that
philosophers remain “in the clouds,” incapable of doing publicly
relevant work, at least some philosophers have remained committed to a
Socratic model of philosophy that is engaged with public life. These
sessions invite philosophers who do publicly engaged work (assuming
multiple publics and multiple types of engagement) to come together to
both share their work and to reflect philosophically on the concept of
“public philosophy.”
Please
note that both sessions will focus on dialogue and discussion, and
audience members are invited and expected to participate. Speakers featured below are “catalyst speakers,” whose aim is to draw all of us into discussion. Interested
participants who require a letter of invitation in order to secure
travel funding from their institution should pre-register.
You will find the more detailed announcement and registration here:
http://philosophyandthecity.org/publicphilconference.html
I would be happy to answer any questions you have. I hope to see some of you there!
--
Ellen K. Feder
Associate Professor and Acting Chair
Department of Philosophy and Religion
American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20018-8056
202-885-2931
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