Author Archive
How to move from a Turkish institution to a UK one
Or not. Read all about it in Istvan Aranyosi’s Times Higher Ed article, here.
For those of you who don’t know Istvan, he is not crazy, and he is one of the most pleasant colleagues it has been my pleasure to work with.
He’s also got some pretty good people writing references on his behalf. So it’s truly a mystery how this happened to him. Or rather, it’s a sign, as he persuasively argues, that there’s something wrong with the system.
NewApps has replied to the article, here.
Note that Eric Schliesser describes Bilkent as a ‘fantastic institution’! It had occured to me that one of the obstacles Istvan faced was that people outside Turkey perhaps did not think of Bilkent as a fantastic place, but more as a ‘have you ever heard of it?’ place. I’ll be glad if I’m wrong.
Add women and stir: filling some gaps in the history of philosophy.
This is a post I wrote for the Feminist History of Philosophy blog. If you would like to write about a woman philosopher, please get in touch in the comments here or on the original blog. Turkish women philosophers would be a bonus. In particular, it would be very nice to have something about the Cappadocian philosopher Macrina the younger.
When I posted about the History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps podcasts, commenting that they did in fact have some – women-shaped – gaps, a discussion started about who, if anyone, was to blame for systematically leaving women out of the history of philosophy.
One of our authors, Lena, pointed out that it certainly wasn’t the case that a only a few, male, philosophers were to blame. As students, most of us didn’t even ask ourselves why all the ‘classics’ we read were written by men, swept up as we were by the ideals of rationality, the thought that reason is universal and unaffected by gender. Certainly I still believe those things, as a Wollstonecraft scholar would, but I’m no longer so impressed with them that I fail to notice that most of those representants of human ungendered rationality offered to us as undergraduates had beards and penises. It’s no longer something I can overlook. Read the rest of this entry »
A Book for International Women’s Day.
Routledge just reminded me that my new book was a particularly good fit for today, so here is:
Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the greatest philosophers and writers of the Eighteenth century. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children’s book. Her most celebrated and widely-read work is A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. This Guidebook introduces:
- Wollstonecraft’s life and the background to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
- The ideas and text of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
- Wollstonecraft’s enduring influence in philosophy and our contemporary intellectual life
It is ideal for anyone coming to Wollstonecraft’s classic text for the first time and anyone interested in the origins of feminist thought.
Happy International Women’s Day.
John Pitseys at Bilkent
Dr. John Pitseys from the Universite Catolique de Louvain
will give a talk on “Deliberation and Procedural Pluralism.”
The talk will take place in G160, Tuesday Dec. 4, at 15.40.
Positions in Kırklareli
I’ve just heard of some junior positions going in Kırklareli.
Applicants need not have completed their Phds to apply. However, if they have, the start time will be very soon (possibly in February).
Please pass this on to anyone who might be interested.
Here is the advert:
The following Assistant Professorship positions are available in Kırklareli University.
Department of Philosophy: 1 Asst. Prof.
Department of Psychology: 4 Asst. Prof.s
Department of Sociology: 2 Asst. Prof.s
Please Contact:
Asst. Prof. Mehmet Emre Taşgın
Tel: 0 530 235 88 92
metasgin@kirklareli.edu.tr
World Philosophy Day celebrations at Bilkent : Future Generations.
The Department of Philosophy at Bilkent University together with the Bilkent Philosophy Society is organising a
two-day event in honour of Unesco World Philosophy Day 2012.
The event will take place on Thursday 22 November in the afternoon and Friday
23 November in the morning in G160.
Light refreshments will be served on both days.
All welcome.
Dummett workshop at Bilkent tomorrow
A two-day workshop, organized by the Department of Philosophy on Dummett’s work will take place on September 27-28, 2012 in Room G-160. The keynote speaker is Dr. Anita Avramides (Oxford University). The workshop is open to public. A timetable can be found at
http://www.phil.bilkent.edu.tr/images/Dummett-WS.htm
Hope to see you there.
Job posting: Middle Eastern Philosophy in Sussex
I thought the following add might be of interest to some of you:
As part of a significant investment in the study of the Middle East, the University of Sussex wishes to appoint a promising scholar to a Lectureship in Philosophy.
The precise area of specialization is open. However, applications are especially welcome from scholars working on the history of one or more Middle Eastern philosophical traditions; or political philosophers exploring issues such as national and/or ethnic identity; legitimacy of government; theories of rights; theories of democracy; the nature of citizenship; just war theory; legal theory with an emphasis on international or interstate relations.
The individual we seek will possess a profile of high quality published work; clear plans for future research; demonstrable excellence as a teacher; and an entrepreneurial attitude to generating research grant income.
He or she will join a friendly, intellectually invigorating department, committed to dialogue across philosophical traditions. We seek a colleague who will contribute fully to the life of the department and enjoy interacting with our highly engaged and intellectually able student community.
For further details, please see http://www.sussex.ac.uk/aboutus/jobs/647
Dummett workshop at Bilkent.
The seas of Michael Dummett
Leaflet with full details here.
A workshop organized by Bilkent University Department of Philosophy
Date: september 27-28, 2012
PLACE: G BLDG, ROOM 160
List of Speakers
- Anita Avramides Keynote speaker (Oxford University) TBA
- István Aranyosi (Bilkent University) In Defense of Dummett on Backwards Causation
- Sandrine Berges (Bilkent University) Hands-on Tarot Learning Session
- Sandy Berkovski (Bilkent University) Tolerant Reductionism
- David Grünberg (Middle East Technical University) Towards a Convergence Theory of Truth
- Norman Stone (Bilkent University) – to be confirmed
- Lars Vinx (Bilkent University) Michael Dummett’s Defense of the Borda Count: A Normative Analysis
- Simon Wigley (Bilkent University) Migration and Global Justice
- Bill Wringe (Bilkent University) A Bearable Lightness of Being? Dummett and Others on Mathematical Platonism
Contact
Varol Akman
Department of Philosophy
Bilkent University, Bilkent, Ankara 06800, Turkey
Phone/Fax: [90] (312) 290-3349/-1074
Email: phil@bilkent.edu.tr
Yahya Michot at Ankara University today.
Yahya Michot is giving a lecture entitled ”Ibn Taymiyya against Extremisms.” at Ankara University Faculty of Divinity on April 30, 2012 at 3:30pm. Venue: Yunus Emre Conference Hall
Yahya Michot (Ph.D. Catholic University of Louvain, 1981) is currently Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary, Hatford, Connecticut, USA.
Including women philosophers in textbooks
I recently came across a great textbook: An Unconventional History of Philosophy, edited by Karen Warren.
The book is an introduction to the history of philosophy presented as a dialogue between men and women writers. Most of the usual suspects are there, from Plato to Wittgenstein, but for each extract from a male philosopher, Warren gives us an extract from a woman philosopher writing in the same period, about the same problems.
Sorin Baiasu at Bilkent
Sorin Baiasu, from Keele University, will give the following talk on Tuesday 10 April, 15.40, G160.
THE EPISTEMIC CHARACTER OF KANT’S PRACTICAL JUSTIFICATION
The attempt to discuss the process of practical justification in Kant encounters several difficulties. First and paradoxically, although an examination of Kant?s justification of various (especially practical) norms
is under way in the literature and most of the Kantians have something to say about this topic, yet not much has been written on Kant?s view of justification [Rechtfertigung]. Secondly, what has been written on Kant?s Rechtfertigung suggests that practical Rechtfertigung in Kant is a non-epistemic notion and, hence, a notion that cannot be placed within an account of Kant?s moral or practical epistemology. Thirdly, Kant makes use of the notion of Rechtfertigung in many ways and many contexts, so much so that it sometimes looks like we are dealing with more than one concept under the same name. In this paper, I hope to answer all these questions in a way which shows that Kant?s view of practical justification is unitary and coherent, that it is significant for practical epistemology and that it overlaps with the contemporary notion of justification in a way which makes it relevant for the numerous current debates.
All welcome.
Heloise, philosopher
I have just finished a draft of a chapter on virtue ethics in the Middle Ages from the perspective of women. As I knew next to nothing about that period (twelfth century) before I started, I decided to focus mostly on Heloise. I could have written about Hildegard of Bingen, as Barbara Newman has written a very nice book about her, but I chose Heloise because she was in dialogue with other philosophers of her time (well, Abelard, anyway) and because she is steeped in whatever was left-over of ancient virtue ethics – she is particularly fond of Seneca's Letters to Lucilius.
Oliver Leaman in Ankara University, 23 March
I just heard that Oliver Leaman will be giving a paper in Ankara tomorrow.
Here’s the announcement:
“Oliver Leaman is giving a lecture at Ankara University Faculty of Divinity on March 23, 2012 at 2pm (tomorrow). The title of the lecture is ”Can Art be Religious: The Case for Islamic Art”
Venue: Yunus Emre Conference Hall
The lecture will be in English and no Turkish translation will be provided. I am sorry for the late announcement. Everybody is welcome. Please kindly let anybody who might be interested know. Many thanks in advance.
Oliver Leaman (Ph.D. Cambridge, 1979) is a Professor of Philosophy and Zantker Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Kentucky. He has published extensively on Islamic, Jewish and eastern Philosophy.
Ankara University Faculty of Divinity is conveniently located in Besevler, and only a few minutes walk away from the Besevler Station of ANKARAY.”
On the steps of Ancient Philosophers in Turkey: Diogenes of Sinope.
Not much is known about this Diogenes, if only because, although he seems to have written some texts, including letters, none have survived. The other Diogenes (Laertius, the Perez Hilton of the ancient world) tells us that he was originally from Sinop, on the Black Sea. His dad minted coins. Diogenes helped him deface them, or he did it all by himself, or someone else did it and they were framed. Diogenes exiled himself to Athens, his father ended up in jailed and died there. Read the rest of this entry »
