Russelliana: 17th September @ 1pm EST/6pm UK

Register at this page for the next Russelliana, a free and online event joint with the British Wittgenstein Society! Time is to be confirmed). This is a panel discussion of Russell and Wittgenstein from 1913 onward, with speakers Jose Zalabardo and James Connelly. Below are the speaker’s abstracts and a description of the event’s theme:

Considered individually, each of Russell and Wittgenstein rank among the twentieth century’s most important and influential thinkers. However, they were also at times both close collaborators, as well as insightful critics of one another’s work. Through both collaboration and criticism, each profoundly influenced the other’s philosophical development. This panel will explore these influences over the period from 1913, when Russell composed and then ultimately abandoned his Theory of Knowledge manuscript in part in response to Wittgenstein’s criticisms, to 1927, when a second edition of Principia Mathematica was published, in which Russell attempted to incorporate several of Wittgenstein’s key logical proposals. Over the intervening years, Wittgenstein wrote and then published the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922), which was both deeply influenced by Russell’s philosophical ideas, but also impacted Russell’s thinking significantly as well, as evidenced in Principia Mathematica’s second edition.   

Speakers

Jose Zalabardo (University College London)  

Tractarian ideas in Russell’s Theory of Knowledge manuscript  

I plan to discuss some passages of Russell’s manuscript in which some central ideas of the Tractatus appear as targets, including the Tractarian accounts of expressions and of logical form and, time permitting, the picture theory.

James Connelly (Trent University)  

Russell, Wittgenstein, and the Second Edition of Principia Mathematica  

I plan to critically exposit and assess Russell’s implementation of Wittgenstein’s ideas within the second edition of PM. I will argue that while Russell understood Wittgenstein’s proposals, he did not implement them in ways that strictly cohere with Wittgenstein’s intentions, because he did not find the associated ideas plausible enough. Instead, Russell attempted to revise and reconstruct Wittgenstein’s ideas as charitably and fruitfully as possible, but found they were not up to the task of providing a foundation for mathematics of the sort envisioned in PM.

Register online to get the Zoom link. Questions or concerns may be raised at this link.

CFP: Royal Institute of Philosophy Graduate Conference: Wittgenstein and the Idea of a Social Science

Conference Venue:

Durham University

Organisers:

Michael Wee (Durham University); Ruby Main (Durham University)

Details:

On 11-12 November 2022, Durham University will host a conference sponsored by the Royal Institute of Philosophy on ‘Wittgenstein and the Idea of a Social Science’. Abstract submissions are welcome from researchers of all levels from disciplines relating to philosophy and/or social science, and are especially encouraged from graduate students and early-career researchers.

We are pleased to announce the following keynote speakers:

·    Nigel Pleasants (Exeter)

·    Rachael Wiseman (Liverpool)

·    Arif Ahmed (Cambridge)

This conference will explore Wittgensteinian perspectives on the philosophy of social science, in order to promote further dialogue between philosophy and the social sciences, and to build on the legacy of Peter Winch and his book The Idea of a Social Science. Key questions that conference papers are invited to address include (but are not limited to):

·    What are the philosophical presuppositions of social science, in its different forms, as it is practised today? Does social science depend on externalist conceptions of human relations, e.g. an atomistic view of human relations, or a form of reductionism such as behaviourism?

·    Should social science make a sharper distinction between causes of human behaviour and reasons for acting? What are the implications of this distinction for areas of study such as nudge theory and implicit bias? If willing is not, as Wittgenstein suggests, a kind of causality, does this limit the validity of social scientific studies of causes in behavioural patterns?

·    How might Wittgenstein’s rule-following considerations in the ‘Philosophical Investigations’ illuminate the way we ought to study regularities in human behaviour? Is Winch right to apply Wittgenstein’s concept of internal relations to social relations?

·    How do Wittgenstein’s views on community and language use relate to social concepts and recent work in social metaphysics?

·    What role can the description and clarification of psychological concepts play in the social sciences? Does the Wittgensteinian idea that psychological concepts like belief cannot be pinned down to a particular mental state, and can exist in multiple language-games, spell trouble for social scientific methodologies?

·    How does Winch’s critique, or other Wittgensteinian critiques, of social science compare with other well-known philosophical treatments of social science (e.g. Alasdair MacIntyre’s, Charles Taylor’s)? Is there a distinctively Wittgensteinian philosophy of social science?

Abstract submission

Please submit an abstract (max. 300 words) to  by 12 Sep 2022. Presentations will be 30 minutes, plus time for discussion.

Abstracts should be anonymised, but please indicate in the same document if you are a graduate student (at the time of the conference).

Subsidies for UK-based travel and accommodation within Durham will be provided for graduate student speakers. 

In-person presentation of papers and attendance of the conference is highly encouraged for all speakers, but please let us know if you will require an option for online attendance or presenting. 

Contact

Registration for the conference is free for both delegates and speakers. To book a place, please email  with your name and affiliations.

PhilEvents page: philevents.org/event/show/102130

Conference website: wittgensteinsocsci.wixsite.com/wittgenstein-soc-sci

The Radio Wales documentary on Ludwig Wittgenstein - BBC Radio Wales - Wittgenstein: From Austria to Abertawe - features a a range of contributors, including Professor Ray Monk, Radmila Schweitzer and James Kelman.

Times of broadcast are available on the link below. From next week, it should be available for a month on BBC Sounds:

BBC Radio Wales - Wittgenstein: From Austria to Abertawe

MODERNISM 1922 * CELEBRATING DISTINCTIONS

14-17 September 2022 / free online event

Call for Registration

Hi all, 

The conference Modernism1922: Celebrating Distinctions honours 1922 as annus mirabilis for modernism, from many different perspectives. It aims to uncover new views on what set the 1922 modernist events apart, but also on how they compare and impacted each other, e.g., with regard to art ideology, aesthetics, philosophy, religion,… Keynote speakers are:

Clare Hutton, Loughborough University: Women and the Making of Ulysses

James C. Klagge, Virginia Tech. Wittgenstein’s Tractatus and the Great War

Philomeen Lelieveldt, Netherlands Music Institute Ido Eyl’s visit to the French musical avantgarde

Michael North, UCLA 1922: A Centenary Dismemberment

A detailed schedule can be found on the website modernism.nl. To participate in this event please register. To do so, fill out the form here.  Once registered, you’ll receive the links to take part in the webinar in due time. We look forward to your participation in what promises to be a lively event!