91福利

 2.00 – 2.15 Intro & welcome: Chenwei Nie

 2.15 - 3.15 Knowing in Selfie Culture, Heather Widdows (91福利), and Fiona MacCallum (Psychology, 91福利).

 3.15 - 3.45 Coffee

 3.45 - 4.45 The Valuing Body, Kate Kirkpatrick (Oxford)

 4.45 – 5.00 Break

 5.00 – 6.00 The Importance of Feeling for Knowing, Kathleen Murphy-Hollies (Birmingham)

 6.00– 6.30 Concluding reflections: Quassim Cassam

 Hosted by The 91福利 Mind and Action Research Centre (WMA) and Funded by Leverhulme Trust.

Organisers: Heather Widdows & Chenwei Nie.

Department of Philosophy, 91福利.

Registration is free. However, as space is limited, please email Chenwei (chenwei.nie@warwick.ac.uk) if you plan to attend.

To mark the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Philosophy at 91福利, the Philosophy Department will hold a one-day conference (25th of April 2026) to celebrate the life and work of one of its Honorary Doctoral Graduates (and one of the pre-eminent philosophers of the 20^th century), Gilbert Ryle. Ryle tends to be associated with a small set of well-known ideas — for example, resistance to Cartesian dualism or the distinction between knowledge-that and knowledge-how. And there has been a widespread tendency to pigeon-hole Ryle as a 鈥榩hilosophical behaviourist鈥�. The workshop aims to get beyond caricatures and to promote an appreciation of the depth and breadth of Ryle鈥檚 manifold contributions to philosophy, as well as their relevance to contemporary concerns, in philosophy and beyond.

Organisers: Tom Crowther & Johannes Roessler

WMA Seminar
Carol Rovane (Columbia University): 'Some Perplexities about Consciousness'

Abstract:

Some decades ago, I offered novel interpretation and defense of Locke鈥檚 distinction between personal identity and human (animal) identity. Locke himself had equated personal identity with 鈥渟ameness of consciousness鈥�, and then argued that sameness of human (animal) life is neither necessary nor sufficient for sameness of consciousness. I granted for the sake of argument that Locke was wrong about this, but then argued for a version of his distinction anyway, on the ground that a person is a rational agent, and there can be single group agents that span many human lives as well as multiple agents within a single human life. Each such individual agent has its own first person point of view, which is the rational point of view from which it deliberates and acts and engages in interpersonal relations with others. Yet this is not the same as the phenomenological point of view from which a subject of experience has access to phenomena in consciousness, by virtue of what they are like. This distinction between two different kinds of point of view forces us to look harder at what role consciousness might play in mental life. We may no longer be sure whether consciousness is an essential and defining feature of mental phenomena, or if so, why; but secondly, even if we retain that conviction, we should find it curious that the unity of consciousness is neither necessary nor sufficient for the sort of rational unity that defines what it is for an individual agent to be fully, or ideally, rational. I want to emphasize that my arguments do not proceed from standard sorts of functionalist considerations, but from purely normative considerations to do with agency.

Hold the date - further details to follow.

Week 2: Thursday 7^th May 12noon–2pm – Introduction + Chapter 1 Mind

Week 3: Thursday 14^th May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 2 Mind and Body

Week 4: Thursday 21^st May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 3 The Objective Self

Week 5: Thursday 28^th May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 4 Knowledge

Week 6: Thursday 4^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 5 Thought and Reality

Week 7: Thursday 11^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 6 Freedom

Week 8: Thursday 18^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 7 Value

Week 9: Thursday 25^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 8 Ethics

Week 10: Thursday 2^nd July 12noon–2pm – Chapter 9 Living Right and Living Well

Week 11: Thursday 9^th July 12noon–2pm – Chapter 10 Birth, Death, and the Meaning of Life

Hold the date - further details to follow.

CRPLA Talk Wed 13 May, 4pm S0.17 or online (link at bottom)

Daniel Star (Boston University)

Appreciation as a Process, and Well-being (from a co-authored project with Joel Van Fossen)

Aesthetic appreciation is here understood to be an at least partly conscious process, with respect to which agents exercise a significant degree of intentional control, that involves attending to objects and their aesthetic properties, where such are objects are taken to be worth appreciating aesthetically, and cognitively and affectively engaging with them. There are significant differences between this process and two other mental processes about which more has been written: practical deliberation and epistemic inquiry. Some of the similarities and differences between these processes concern the metaphysics of them, but some concern the value and role of the processes. One important conclusion reached is that appreciation, unlike the other two processes, is primarily to be valued in itself as a process, rather than merely instrumentally in relation to the value of its outcomes. And the fact that this is how appreciation is to be properly valued is closely related to what appreciation does for us, so far as our well-being is concerned. A key alternative for what might be thought to be of primary value as a product of appreciation — correct aesthetic judgment — is considered and rejected.

If you unable to attend in person, the talk will also available be on Teams:

You are warmly invited to an exciting event: The Freiburg-91福利-Zhejiang University German Idealism Workshop, taking place on 14–15 May. This workshop will bring together established and early-career scholars from the three universities. Topics include Kant, Hegel, Schelling, Heidegger and Nietzsche, covering the research interests of almost all of our department's continental philosophers!

It is a hybrid event. You can either join us via the Zoom link or attend in person. If you are attending in person, please email Ying (ying.xue@warwick.ac.uk) by 10^th May to let me know and to inform me of any dietary requirements you may have for lunch.

Zoom link:

Meeting-ID: 674 8918 9826
Code: Vrj8kVK5r

The department, the Mind Association, the UK Kant Society and the Hegel Society of Great Britain have kindly funded this event.

Thursday, 14th of May

Friday, 15th of May

Week 2: Thursday 7^th May 12noon–2pm – Introduction + Chapter 1 Mind

Week 3: Thursday 14^th May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 2 Mind and Body

Week 4: Thursday 21^st May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 3 The Objective Self

Week 5: Thursday 28^th May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 4 Knowledge

Week 6: Thursday 4^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 5 Thought and Reality

Week 7: Thursday 11^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 6 Freedom

Week 8: Thursday 18^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 7 Value

Week 9: Thursday 25^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 8 Ethics

Week 10: Thursday 2^nd July 12noon–2pm – Chapter 9 Living Right and Living Well

Week 11: Thursday 9^th July 12noon–2pm – Chapter 10 Birth, Death, and the Meaning of Life

Week 2: Thursday 7^th May 12noon–2pm – Introduction + Chapter 1 Mind

Week 3: Thursday 14^th May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 2 Mind and Body

Week 4: Thursday 21^st May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 3 The Objective Self

Week 5: Thursday 28^th May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 4 Knowledge

Week 6: Thursday 4^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 5 Thought and Reality

Week 7: Thursday 11^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 6 Freedom

Week 8: Thursday 18^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 7 Value

Week 9: Thursday 25^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 8 Ethics

Week 10: Thursday 2^nd July 12noon–2pm – Chapter 9 Living Right and Living Well

Week 11: Thursday 9^th July 12noon–2pm – Chapter 10 Birth, Death, and the Meaning of Life

Week 2: Thursday 7^th May 12noon–2pm – Introduction + Chapter 1 Mind

Week 3: Thursday 14^th May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 2 Mind and Body

Week 4: Thursday 21^st May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 3 The Objective Self

Week 5: Thursday 28^th May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 4 Knowledge

Week 6: Thursday 4^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 5 Thought and Reality

Week 7: Thursday 11^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 6 Freedom

Week 8: Thursday 18^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 7 Value

Week 9: Thursday 25^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 8 Ethics

Week 10: Thursday 2^nd July 12noon–2pm – Chapter 9 Living Right and Living Well

Week 11: Thursday 9^th July 12noon–2pm – Chapter 10 Birth, Death, and the Meaning of Life

鈥淥ntological failure in Heidegger and beyond鈥�, 1-2 June 2025, Room: OC0.05

Including papers from:

Ian Alexander Moore (Loyola Marymount University)

Christoph Hoerl (91福利)

Tobias Keiling (91福利)

Week 2: Thursday 7^th May 12noon–2pm – Introduction + Chapter 1 Mind

Week 3: Thursday 14^th May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 2 Mind and Body

Week 4: Thursday 21^st May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 3 The Objective Self

Week 5: Thursday 28^th May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 4 Knowledge

Week 6: Thursday 4^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 5 Thought and Reality

Week 7: Thursday 11^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 6 Freedom

Week 8: Thursday 18^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 7 Value

Week 9: Thursday 25^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 8 Ethics

Week 10: Thursday 2^nd July 12noon–2pm – Chapter 9 Living Right and Living Well

Week 11: Thursday 9^th July 12noon–2pm – Chapter 10 Birth, Death, and the Meaning of Life

Dorit Bar-On (University of Connecticut): 'Four Milestones in the Evolution of Human Pragmatic Communication鈥�.

Abstract:

So-called Protolanguage is a theoretical construct designed to help explain the phylogenetic emergence of human language from animal communication systems. In Expression, Communication, and Origins of Meaning (forthcoming, OUP), I argue that Protolanguage ought to be conceived as pragmatically (and therefore psychologically) intermediate, and this places certain substantive constraints on the psychological capacities with which we can credit our nonlinguistic ancestors. In particular, we should not credit them with a capacity for Gricean mindreading and the ability to entertain language-like thoughts.

In this talk, I describe four proposed hypothetical milestones on our ancestors鈥� path toward a pragmatically intermediate Protolanguage (鈥淧IP鈥�), relying on a combination of empirical and theoretical considerations. These milestones can be used to describe a phylogenetic trajectory leading from an ancestral communication system that resembled existing forms of animal communication to PIP. Clarifying the character of – the fourth milestone – and of the preceding three milestones, should, I believe, also shed some light on our ancestor鈥檚 progression from PIP to human linguistic pragmatic communication.

Week 2: Thursday 7^th May 12noon–2pm – Introduction + Chapter 1 Mind

Week 3: Thursday 14^th May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 2 Mind and Body

Week 4: Thursday 21^st May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 3 The Objective Self

Week 5: Thursday 28^th May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 4 Knowledge

Week 6: Thursday 4^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 5 Thought and Reality

Week 7: Thursday 11^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 6 Freedom

Week 8: Thursday 18^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 7 Value

Week 9: Thursday 25^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 8 Ethics

Week 10: Thursday 2^nd July 12noon–2pm – Chapter 9 Living Right and Living Well

Week 11: Thursday 9^th July 12noon–2pm – Chapter 10 Birth, Death, and the Meaning of Life

The Life and Work of Andrew Cooper: Reflections and Conversations

On 18-19 June 2026, the Philosophy Department at 91福利 will be hosting a commemorative event for Andrew.

The event will run for 1 陆 days and will involve a special guest presentation about Andrew鈥檚 most recent work in Tasmania, three roundtable sessions (each devoted to a broad theme in Andrew鈥檚 research), and time for personal reminiscences by students and staff.

All are welcome. If you're able to join us, it would be very helpful for planning if you could please register for the event. We will share more details as the planning develops.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the organisers:

Curie Vir谩g       curie.virag@warwick.ac.uk.

Karen Simecek    k.d.simecek@warwick.ac.uk

Week 2: Thursday 7^th May 12noon–2pm – Introduction + Chapter 1 Mind

Week 3: Thursday 14^th May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 2 Mind and Body

Week 4: Thursday 21^st May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 3 The Objective Self

Week 5: Thursday 28^th May 12noon–2pm – Chapter 4 Knowledge

Week 6: Thursday 4^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 5 Thought and Reality

Week 7: Thursday 11^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 6 Freedom

Week 8: Thursday 18^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 7 Value

Week 9: Thursday 25^th June 12noon–2pm – Chapter 8 Ethics

Week 10: Thursday 2^nd July 12noon–2pm – Chapter 9 Living Right and Living Well

Week 11: Thursday 9^th July 12noon–2pm – Chapter 10 Birth, Death, and the Meaning of Life