UPDATE: Conceptualising Philosophy (Barbados) (12/3/04; 3/31/05-4/1/05)

In response to several requests, the Organising Committee has extended the
deadline for the submission of abstracts and panel proposals to Friday
December 03, 2004. The original CFP follows:

CONVERSATIONS I: CONCEPTUALISING PHILOSOPHY
CAVE HILL PHILOSOPHY SYMPOSIUM 2005
University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, West Indies
Thursday March 31 and Friday April 1, 2005

"The discipline called 'philosophy' encompasses not only different answers
to philosophical questions but total disagreement on what questions are
philosophical."
(Richard Rorty)

Many would agree there is no single definition of 'philosophy'. The
hallmark of the field is, rather, a diversity of conceptions, traditions and
concomitant vocabularies, each assured of its own 'rightness' and
distrustful (and, in some cases, dismissive) of other perspectives. The
history of philosophy may be seen as a succession of disagreements and
'partis pris' due mainly to the incommensurable vocabularies of the parties
involved.

Even a brief and simplistic survey of the history of philosophy in the
Western world might lend credence to such a view. It is supported even more
when one takes into consideration traditions in other parts of the world and
in those regions touched by European colonialism. Africa, for example, seems
to reproduce the supposed European division between Analytic philosophy in
its English-speaking countries and "continental" in Francophone and
Lusophone territories. Here in the Caribbean, where philosophy as a formal
field of study is still, relatively-speaking, an emerging one, there is
little consensus on what constitutes philosophy per se or, indeed, what
might make philosophy specifically 'Caribbean' in nature.

The aim of the Cave Hill Philosophy Symposium is non-partisan: to encourage
dialogue between various approaches to philosophy in the hope, even if
resolution is not possible, of at least encouraging different traditions to
engage in conversation with each other. For the inaugural meeting, devoted
to the theme "Conceptualising Philosophy," we are looking for papers that
seek to address the nature of philosophy written from a wide range of
perspectives: Analytic, Continental, Pragmatist, African, South Asian, East
Asian, Caribbean, African American, etc. We are also interested in papers
that seek to conceptualise regional variations of the field: e.g. 'What is
Caribbean [or Indian, or Chinese, etc.] philosophy?'. We would hope, in
particular, to see answers to these questions framed by appeal to topics in
the various sub-disciplines of philosophy so that panels may be constructed
in which differing perspectives may be pitted against each other, or be
shown to work collaboratively with each other. We are interested also in
theoretical work in disciplines that share a boundary with philosophy (such
as linguistics, critical theory, cultural studies, or political theory) and
which reveals the way philosophy can contribute to the discipline itself.
Another area that might be of particular interest to scholars outside of
philosophy per se concerns Rorty's provocative claim that philosophy is a
kind of writing, that is, a literary genre.

Keynote Speaker:
Professor Simon Critchley of the New School for Social Research in New York
and the University of Essex in the UK has accepted our invitation to deliver
the keynote address which is entitled "Poetry as Philosophy." Professor
Critchley's areas of expertise include Continental philosophy,
phenomenology, philosophy and literature, psychoanalysis, ethics and
politics. He is the author of On Humor (2002), Continental Philosophy: a
Very Short Introduction (2001), Ethics-Politics-Subjectivity: Essays on
Derrida, Levinas, and Contemporary French Thought (1999), Very Little,
Almost Nothing: Death, Philosophy, Literature (1997, Second Edition 2004),
and The Ethics of Deconstruction: Derrida and Levinas (1992, Second Edition
1999). He is also the editor of Deconstruction and Pragmatism (1996) and
co-editor of Laclau: a Critical Reader (2004), The Cambridge Companion to
Levinas (2002), The Blackwell Companion to Continental Philosophy (1998),
Deconstructive Subjectivities (1996), and Re-reading Levinas (1991). His
latest work, Things Merely Are: Philosophy in the Poetry of Wallace Stevens,
is scheduled to be published by Routledge in Spring 2005 and he is currently
working on a political ethics.

In an effort to ensure well-prepared, quality presentations, abstracts
(300-500 words) are due by December 03, 2004. Participants whose abstracts
are accepted by the vetting committee will then be asked to submit their
completed papers (5-7 pages, single-spaced) via e-mail as an attachment in
either Word or Wordperfect by the firm deadline of February 28, 2005.
(These papers will then be posted on-line for other participants to consult
prior to the conference.)

Deadlines:
Abstracts (300-500 words) and panel proposals due: December 03, 2004
Completed papers due: February 28, 2005
Limits: Presentations must not exceed 20 minutes (5-7 pages, single spaced)

Contacts:

Via e-mail:
Dr. Frederick Ochieng'-Odhiambo fochieng_at_uwichill.edu.bb
Dr. Richard Clarke clarker_at_uwichill.edu.bb
Mr. Ed Brandon ebrandon_at_uwichill.edu.bb

Via regular mail:
The Organising Committee,
"Conversations I: Conceptualising Philosophy,"
CAVE HILL PHILOSOPHY SYMPOSIUM,
The Faculty of Humanities and Education,
University of the West Indies,
Cave Hill Campus,
Barbados,
West Indies.

Further details are available at:
http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/fhe/SpecialEvents/philosophy_symposium2005.htm

Sincerely,
Richard Clarke,
Home Page: http://humanities.uwichill.edu.bb/RLWClarke/Teaching/Default.htm
PhilWeb Philosophy Resources:
http://humanities.uwichill.edu.bb/RLWClarke/PhilWeb/Default.htm

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Received on Wed Dec 01 2004 - 12:48:00 EST