Dear FEASTers,

If you have any graduate students working on issues concerning the general
will, could you let them know about this graduate conference at York
University in the spring?

Thanks so much!

Helga

The Department of Philosophy at York University is pleased to announce the
12th Annual Philosophy Graduate Conference, to be held on April 23-24, 2020
in Toronto. Our theme this year is The General Will and Collective Action.
We invite submissions from graduate students working in all areas and
traditions of philosophy related to our main theme.

We are delighted to announce that we will have three keynote speakers:

   - Peter Hallward, Professor of Modern European Philosophy at Kingston
   University, London.
   - Helga Varden, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of
   Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
   - Louis-Philippe Hodgson, Associate Professor of Philosophy at York
   University.

Conference description:

The general will of the people has been a central, yet contentious, concept
in the moral and political thought of philosophers since Rousseau, Kant,
and Hegel. It is often disputed whether the collective will of the people
could be conceived of as what legitimizes legal and political authorities,
and how it could be manifested in social movements. Today, in the face of
environmental disaster, widespread inequality, migrant crisis, rampant
discrimination, and global social and political movements, understanding
the notions of collective action and general will is particularly relevant,
not just domestically but globally. Our aim in this conference is to
explore the concept of the general will in relation to collective action.

Submissions from all areas and traditions of philosophy that are related to
the theme are welcomed. We especially welcome submissions from
underrepresented groups and areas. Possible topics include (but are not
limited to):

   - What does it mean to assert the general will of the people?
   - How can collective willing be understood as legitimating political
   authority?
   - Is there a global will? What are the conditions of the possibility of
   collective agency at the global level?
   - Do relational theories of autonomy, such as those espoused by feminist
   theorists, challenge or change our understanding of the general will?
   - How can we understand the general will at work in the collective
   mobilization of the people, liberation struggles, movements of social
   change and economic empowerment?
   - What is ‘acting together’? What are the normative implications of the
   theories of collective action, shared agency, and solidarity for the
   questions of political philosophy?
   - What is the relationship between collective self-determination,
   collective agency, and the general will?
   - How has the concept of the general will been developed throughout the
   history of philosophy?
   - How can social ontology and action theories inform the relationship
   between collective agency and the general will?
   - What can the cognitive science of mind and agency tell us about the
   nature and possibilities of collective willing?

Please submit your abstract (500-800 words) to [log in to unmask],
by Feb 14th, 2020. Abstracts should be prepared for blind review. Please in
the body of your email include your name, the title of the paper, and
affiliation. Papers should be suitable for a 20-minute presentation,
followed by a commentary. Speakers will be notified by the end of February
2020.

Any questions about the conference should be forwarded to
[log in to unmask]


-- 
Helga Varden <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__helgavarden.academia.edu_&d=DwIFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=Oo4TCJF8pXcsWPDC7Sy8bdP2IJ6ZbST0v2xdYtuNH80&m=Knye5Wv6igp4pxccdzObNnUtnPAIitYVqDgrIqMJ9Yo&s=jA37pLtQpbCEs8QuBNPn6GmBguX5Pt3UX8EesRQVROs&e=>
Associate Professor
Departments of Philosophy and of Gender and Women Studies
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.philosophy.illinois.edu_people_hvarden&d=DwIFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=Oo4TCJF8pXcsWPDC7Sy8bdP2IJ6ZbST0v2xdYtuNH80&m=Knye5Wv6igp4pxccdzObNnUtnPAIitYVqDgrIqMJ9Yo&s=1SFq1TUcHLTwnLH81yQ9LV1FrKumo1sKNWpO9v2aouU&e=>
Affiliate of The Unit for Criticism and Interpretive theory and of European
Union Center
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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