This Newsletter is under construction -- Ce Bulletin est sous construction.
Minutes from the FISP CD Meeting in Cres, Croatia, September 2011
NEWS FROM MEMBER SOCIETIES
NATIONAL SOCIETIES
CUBA
SOCIEDAD CUBANA DE INVESTIGACIONES FILOSOFICAS (SCIF)
Se produjo un incremento de nuestros asociados que alcanzó el numero de 754 hasta el 15 de deciembre del 2011.
a) Como estaba planificado realizamos el XIV TALLER INTERNACIONAL "NUEVA CIENCIA POLÍTICA" y la Sesión que correspondía de FILOSOFÍA DE LA EDUCACIÓN, con una asistencia de unos 100 colegas, de los cuales 19 eran de otros países, a saber, Brasil, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Angola, Inglaterra, Alemania, Palestina, Viet Nam, España y México.
b) Se celebró el Día Internacional de la Filosofía, en la cual se distinguieron con diplomas a aquellos colegas que se han destacado por su trayectoria científica en Filosofía y Ciencia Política, y en dicha actividad se presentó la Resolución de la UNIVERSIDAD DE LA HABANA por la cual se creó la Cátedra Honorífica "Una Ciencia Política Enfoque Sur", presidida por Thalía Fung, con Ileana Capote y Armando Cristóbal de vicepresidentes y Alicia Morffi de Secretaria científica.
c) Se presentó la versión cubana del libro "El mundo contemporáneo en crisis", La Habana, 2011, cuya primera edición fue en México, 2009.
d) La Academia de Ciencias de Cuba otorgó la Medalla conmemorativa 150 años de la ciencia en Cuba a la Sociedad Cubana de Investigaciones Filosóficas por el trabajo realizado desde su fundación.
e) Thalía Fung participó en The World Cultural Forum en Taihu, China, 16-22 de mayo del 2011, donde presentó la ponencia "Inclusive thought for the twenty-first century from Marti´s America", cuya texto completo fue publicado por la Revista Internacional Critical Thought, Volume 1, Numbeer 1, March 2011, Lndon,, Taylor and Francis Group, ISSN 2159-8282.
f) El 15 de deciembre del 2011 se efectuó en la Universidad de La Habana, la Asamblea Nacional Anual donde se rindió el balance ante los asociados y se proyectaron las tareas y actividades para el 2012.
DANEMARK
PHILOSOPHICAL FORUM
LIST OF ACTIVITIES 2010-2011
September 29, 2010
Jacob Dahl Rendtorff, ph.d., dr. scient. adm., Roskilde Universitet: Profit and Ethics. Can morality pay off? About Corporate Responsibility, Ethics and Legitimacy
October 7, 2010
Søren Gosvig Olesen, Ass. professor, Københavns Universitet: Hitler and Me
October 14 to 15, 2010
Philosophical Forum's 30th birthday
Simon Critchley (New York): The Faith of the Faithless
Alejo José Sison Galsim (Navarras): Aristotle on Corporate Governance. Praxis and the Common Good of the Firm?
Howard Williams (Wales): Towards a Kantian Theory of International Distributive Justice
November 24, 2010
Peter Høilund, professor, ph.d. & dr. scient. soc., Roskilde Universitet: Philosphy of justice in the light of Fear
February 17,2011
Mads Peter Karlsen, ph.d., cand.theol.: Alain Badiou's Critique of 'the metaphysic of definitivity'
March 9, 2011
Pia Lauritzen, ph.d.-stipendiat, mag.art., Københavns Universitet: Applied Philosophy goes Astray
March 25, 2011
Dr.theol., Niels Grønkjær: The Christian God of the Philosophers
May 2, 2011
Bo Jacobsen, professor, dr.phil. and practitioner of psychology, Københavns Universitet and Jens Skou Olsen, musician, writer, docent at Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium: Happiness, love and Jazz Music
Summer meeting at Grundtvigs Højskole Frederiksborg July 30 to August 6, 2011: Why Philosophy?
GRECE
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY
5, SIMONIDOU STR., 174 56 ALIMOS- GREECE
TEL: +30210- 99 56955, +30210-727.7545, 30210-727.7548, 3022730-62166
FAX: +30210- 9923281, +30210-7248979
website: http://www.hri.org/iagp/, http://www.iagp.gr E-mail: kboud714@ppp.uoa.gr
THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY ( IAGP )
THE INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY & CULTURE
THE GREEK PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY(GPS)
and other academic and cultural institutions
are pleased to announce the:
24th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF PHILOSOPHY
ΟΝ ΤΗΕ ΤΟPIC:
«THE PHILOSOPHY OF INTER-HUMAN RELATIONS AND
THE RELATIONS WITH OTHER NATURAL BEINGS IN THE GLOBAL ERA»
The Conference will take place in the famous island of Samos (Pythagorion) in Greece from 17th -21st of July 2012.
The Conference intends to provide a broad forum for exploring crucial issues concerning the Philosophy of human relations and the relations to other beings in our age. This means that all legitimate fields of study and philosophical research are included in the scope of the Conference, provided that the authors of conference papers concentrate on the main issues of the Conference. We are particularly interested in all branches of philosophy and of course we pay special attention to academic research papers relevant to the burning moral issues and problems concerning inter-human bonding and other relations and our stance to the world at large in our global era.
The aim of the Conference is to open discourse and to promote the exchange of ideas on the following issues:
1. Inquiry into the ontology of relations
2. Examination and assessment of theories and means regarding kinds of communication among persons, institutions and states (ancient and modern)
3. Review and evaluation of theories (or conceptions) of friendship, love, eros, agape and enmity (ancient and modern)
4. Inquiry into theories that have (a) been put forth and implemented as bases for human bonding and (b) what conclusions can be drawn from these experiences and (c) to examine the influence of these concepts on such aspects of human intercourse and on social institutions such as community cohesiveness, communication among persons, social dialogue and communication among state authorities and citizens, political change and stability, persons well-being and psychoanalysis, communication and rationality. (How do people get together at a time when individualism, alienation, loneliness and fragmentation are on the rise and how can the technological character of our global era help to bridge the gap or reinstate the real communication and bonding among people?)
5. Investigation of the kind of relations that man has developed and adopted towards other beings in the world and evaluation of the results of these relations for humanity and the world itself in our global era.
There are the following categories of presentation:
Category a: The presentation of original academic Papers by Invited Speakers (30 min. duration).
Category b: The presentation of original academic Papers (20 min. duration).
Category c: Short presentation of papers (15 min. duration).
Category d: The presentation of papers by Post-graduate Students (Students' Session).
Category e: Presentation by Posters (Poster Session).
The Papers in Category a will address particular issues, evaluate research undertaken in connection with the subject they investigate in the last decade, and provide an overview and synthesis of various philosophical approaches related to the topic of research.
Participants who wish to be considered for Category a should express their interest promptly and state their preferences concerning the topic they wish to deal with, and send all the necessary information (a detailed Curriculum Vitae and a substantive Abstract of their Paper) to the Organising Committee by 29th of February 2012. Persons interested in being considered for designation as Invited Speakers should fill in and send out Form Νo 1A to the Organising Committee.
The Organising Committee will cover the cost of board and accommodation for Invited Speakers during the days of the Conference. The Papers to be presented by Invited Speakers should be sent to the Secretariat of the Conference by 15/6/2012.
The Organizing Committee reserves the right to provide up to 30 minutes of speaking time to the Conference Participants considered as Invited Speakers, although their expenses will not be covered by the Conference.
In the framework of the Conference there will be a special Session (category d) for Students and Post-graduate Students of Philosophy (and of other disciplines too, provided that they have philosophical interests) where they will present their papers.
The Papers should be submitted in one of the following languages: Greek, English. Papers written in Greek should be accompanied by a proper translation into English. More extended texts of Papers (15-20 pages) from all categories (a, b, c d, and e) may be published.
Texts in their final version for presentation may be sent by e-mail as Word documents and in PDF format as well.
Abstracts and Papers may also be sent by e-mail as attached documents in the above formats. Only papers of a philosophical nature will be accepted and included in the Programme of the Conference.
The Organising Committee and the Academic Committee of ICOGPC reserve the right to accept or reject papers that do not comply with the academic standards of the Conference. (Conference participants are reminded that only manuscripts written in acceptable English or Greek will be considered and reviewed for publication. If you have any doubt about the quality of your text in this regard, and in particular if you are not a native speaker of the language in which your paper was given, please be sure that it has been scrutinized by a native speaker of that language before sending it in).
All Papers presented at the Conference and selected for publication are copyrighted by the Organising Committee and ICGPC and cannot be republished without permission; the exclusive copyright of papers to be published belongs to ICOGPC, unless otherwise stated.
The official languages at the Conference will be Greek, English. Greeks who present Papers are kindly asked to submit an acceptable English translation of the latest version of their Papers which will be read at the Conference. This should be submitted to the Conference Secretary one month before the opening of the Conference.
Applications for participation of whatever kind must be received by the 29th of February 2012 or earlier. Applications should be made on Participation Form No. 1 and for Invited Speakers Participation Form No. 1A. Participation Form No. 2 should also be sent no later than: 29th of February 2012. Participation Form No. 2 should be accompanied by an Abstract of the Paper to be presented together with an English translation in the case of Greek scholars. The Abstract should be written in such a way as to give a clear indication of the ideas and line of argument that the finished paper will be pursuing.
All participants (except Invited Speakers) should send the full texts of their Paper for presentation (two copies) to the Organising committee by 15th of June 2012.
All participants will be notified by e-mail regarding the category to which they have been assigned.
Texts in their Final version {with the indication: FINAL TEXT FOR PUBLICATION }must be submitted no later than the 30th of September 2012.
BOOK EXHIBITION, POSTER SESSIONS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES
Apart from other events, during the Conference there will be an EXHIBITION OF BOOKS (FORM No. 6) and especially books on philosophy (and of course books related to the Conference topic). Authors of books, particularly those connected with philosophy, are kindly requested to send copies of their books so these may be included in the exhibition.
There will also be reserved space and special panels for poster sessions. Material planned for Poster Sessions should be typed on not more than two pages (size: A5). The deadline for applications for poster sessions is 15th of June 2012. Applications submitted after this date, but before 30th of June 2009, may be accepted if there is still space available.
REGISTRATION AND CONFERENCE FEES
The Conference is open to all who wish to attend, provided that he or she contacts the Organising Committee and completes the necessary forms (No. 1, No. 1A, No. 2 and No. 3) and pays the Conference fee. The Conference Fee must be paid by all participants. Persons accompanying participants must also complete the forms and pay the Conference fee. The Conference fee (see also Participation Form No. 3) is as follows:
a. Participants: Before 1st May 2012: 100 euros
(after 1st May 2012: 120 euros)
b. Accompanying Persons: before 1st May 2012: 80 euros
(after 1st May 2012: 100 euros)
c. Students: Before 1st May 2012: 60 euros
(after 1st May 2012: 70euros)
d. Secondary School Students: Before 1st May 2012: 50 euros
(after 1st May 2012: 60 euros)
Conference participants are advised that cancellations cause major logistical, scheduling and economic problems for the organization of a Conference of this scope. Outings, receptions and other activities are seriously disrupted by cancellations and schedule changes. We ask that only those who are certain of their attendance submit the forms for participation. It should be noticed that there will be no refunds of any fees, nor are cancellations accepted.
The Participation Fee for the Conference should be sent either by cheque drawn on the name of the President of the Conference, or directly to the following bank account number:{National Bank of Greece, Konstantinos Boudouris-24rd ICOP, BANK-BRANCH: 151/622563-23. IBAN ACCOUNT: GR 1501101510000015162256323, Swift Code (BIC): ETHNGRAA}.
The copy of remittance that indicates the name or names of the participants should be sent either by e-mail in PDF (kboud714@ppp.uoa.gr) or by Fax (+30210 9923281) or by mail to the Secretariat of the Conference to the following address: K. Boudouris – 24th ICOP – 5 Simonidou Str. - 17456 Alimos - Greece.
Correspondence related to the Conference should be sent to following address: Professor Konstantine Boudouris, President of the Organising Committee, 24th International Conference of Philosophy, 5 Simonidou Str., 174 56 ALIMOS (ATHENS) – GREECE.
Persons living in North America (USA or Canada) or in Europe may contact for information on any matter relating to their participation in the Conference the following Academics:
1. Professor Gerasimos Santas 2. Professor Thomas M. Robinson
Honorary President of the IAGP Honorary President of the IAGP
University of California -Irvine Department of Philosophy
Department of Philosophy University of Toronto, 15 Huron St. 9th Floor
Irvine, California 92717 , USA. Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1
Tel.: 001 704-804-6145. Tel.: 416-978-2824. Fax: 416-978-8703.
E-mail: gsantas@benfranklin.hnet.uci.edu E-mail: tmrobins@chass.utoronto.ca
3. Professor Joanne Waugh 4. Professor David Hitchcok
Department of Philosophy Department of Philosophy
CPR 107 MacMaster University
University of South Florida 1280 Main St. West,
Tampa, Florida 33620, USA Hamilton,Ont.L8S1W7,CANADA
Fax: 813-974-5918. Tel.: 905-577-8492. Fax: 905-577-0385
E- mail: jwaugh@cas.usf.edu E- mail: hitchckd@mcmaster.ca
5. Professor Jeremiah Reedy 6. Professor Ronald Polanski
Honorary President of the IAGP Honorary President of the IAGP
Macalester College Department of Philosophy
Classics Department Duquesne University
1600 Grand Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15282, USA
Saint Paul, Min 55105-1899, USA
E-mail: reedy@Macalester.edu E-mail: polansky@duq.edu
7. Professor Linda Ardito 8. Professor Lambros Couloubaritsis
Honorary President of the IAGP Honorary President of the IAGP
Associate Provost Rue des Echevins 16
Dowling College B - 1050 Bruxelles
Oakdale, Long Island BELGIQUE
New York 11769, USA Tel.: 00322 6471195. Fax: 00232 6473489
E-mail: linda351@optonline.net E-mail: ousia@swing.be
9. Professor Christos Evangeliou 10. Professor John P. Anton
Honorary President of the IAGP Honorary President of the IAGP
Towson University University of South Florida
Department of Philosophy Department of Philosophy
and Religious Studies 10012 Oxford Chapel Drive
Towson, MD 21252 Tampa, Florida 33647, USA
USA Tel.: 813-991-7033. Fax: 813-907-8206
E-mail: CEvang@aol.com Email: hanton1@tampabay.rr.com
11. Professor John Poulakos 12. Dr. Aikaterini Lefka
Honorary President of the IAGP Boulevard D' Avroy 77/111
Communication Department B-4000, LIEGE- BELGIQUE
University of Pittsburgh E-mail: Aikaterini.Lefka@ulg.ac.be
Pittsburgh, PA 15260 , USA Tel.: 412-624-6567. Fax: 412-624-1878
1117 Cathedral of Learning
E-mail: poulakos@pitt.edu
Persons living Asia (Japan, Korea) may contact for information on any matter relating to their participation in the Conference the following Academics:
1. Professor Hideya Yamakawa 2. Professor Shigeru Yonezawa
Honorary President of the IAGP Honorary President of the IAGP
Tezukayama 1-24-7 1-8-2-1403 Takezono
631-0062 Nara City, Japan. Chukuba City
Tel.: 0742466933. Fax: 0742454946 305-0032 Japan
E-mail: fwhw2653@mb.infoweb.ne.jp E-mail: syone@human.tsukuba.ac.jp
3. Professor. Park, Chong-Hyun 4. Professor Lim, Hong-Bin
Honorary President of the IAGP Department of Philosophy
Seocho-Dong, Seocho-Gu Korea University
12-303 Woosung Apt Anam-Dong, Seongbuk-Gu
137-773 Seoul 136-701 Seoul, Korea
Korea Honorary President of the IAGP
E-mail: chhypark@yahoo.co.kr E-mail: limhb@korea.ac.kr
Persons living in Africa may contact:
Professor Anastasios Ladikos
President of the South African Society
For Greek Philosophy and the Humanities (SASGPH)
PO Box 392, University of South Africa (UNISA)
Pretoria 0003, South Africa
Tel: +27 (0) 12 429 6837- Fax:+27 (0) 12 4296766
E-mail: ladika@unisa.ac.za, ladikos@mweb.co.za
Any other person who has not already received the present Circular can get information (circular, forms etc.) related to the Conference from the home-pages of IAGP: http://www.hri.org/iagp/ or http://www.iagp.gr
In the belief that this Conference will present an exceptional opportunity for research into and clarification of topics of important philosophical concern, we hope that the Conference will also provide participants with an opportunity for true and sincere communication, recreation and leisure (schole). We look forward to seeing you in the famous island of Samos in the very heart of the Aegean Culture.
With best regards
On Behalf of the Organising Committee
Professor Konstantine Boudouris
President of the Organising Committee
MEXIQUE
ASOCIACION FILOSOFICA DE MEXICO
On Thursday October 13th the presentation of the Spanish version of Philosophy, A School of Freedom took place in Mexico City. The event was a great success.
The book presentation was held at the UAM´s main auditorium (Auditorio de Rectoría General de la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana), and it was presided over by Dr. Javier Velázquez (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Iztapalapa Campus, and co-editor of the spanish edition); Dr Luis Villoro, distinguished and well known Mexican philosopher and former Ambassador to UNESCO; Dra. Paulette Dieterlen current President of the Mexican Philosophical Association; Dr. Ricardo Guerrero, member of the UNESCO Office in Mexico; and Prof. Gabriel Vargas Lozano, director of the Centro de documentación en filosofía latinoamericana e Ibérica de la UAM-I. A message was also received from Dr. Oscar Brenifier.
Later in the same month, there was a special colloquium about the book during the International Congress of Philosophy (Oct 24-28 in Toluca), and there were various presentations of it at the UNAM and at the World Philosophy Day celebration and the Guadalajara Interantional Book Fair.
The book has already started having some resonance and impact in Venezuela, Panama, El Salvador and other countries in Latin America.
CEFILIBE (www.cefilibe.org)
RUSSIE
RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
We hereby announce publication and circulation of the Bulletin of the Russian Philosophical Society No. 3, 2011, 59, 256 pp. (Editor-in-Chief, Professor A.N. Chumakov; Executive Secretary, Professor N.Z. Yaroschuk).
The Editor's Column opens the issue. Under headline Tested by the Time some conclusions are made about 40 years of the history of the Russian Philosophical Society, and 15 years of the history of the Bulletin of the Russian Philosophical Society.
Read information The Approaching 6th All-Russian Philosophical Congress. The Congress will take place in June 27-30, 2012 at Nizhnii Novgorod. Its topic will be Philosophy in Contemporary World: Dialog of World-visions. Official web-site of the Congress: http://www.rfk2012.unn.ru. Some data is provided on the Organizing and Program committees of the Congress, on the preliminary program and on the conditions for participation.
New rubric Meet the 40th anniversary of the Russian Philosophical Society and the 15th anniversary of the Bulletin of the Russian Philosophical Society asks some members of the RPhS several questions related to the jubilees. The questions are answered by the President of the RPhS, academician V.S.Stiopin, the Vice-President of the RPhS, director of the Institute of Philosophy of the RAS, academician A.A.Guseinov, the Vice-President of the RPhS, academician V.A.Lektorsky, the Vice-President of the RPhS, corresponding member of the RAS, dean of the Department of Philosophy of the MSU, V.V.Mironov, the Vice-President of the RPhS, the chair of the St.Petersburg branch, Prof. Yu.N. Solonin, the member of the Presidium of the RPhS, Prof. N.Z.Yaroshchuk, the member of the Presidium of the RPhS, chair of the Dagestan branch, Prof. M.I.Bilalov, the member of the Presidium of the RPhS, chair of the Krasnoyarsk branch, Prof. V.I.Kudashov, the member of the Presidium of the RPhS, chair of the Don branch, Prof. T.G.Leshkevich, the member of the Editorial Board of the Bulletin, Prof. A.G.Pyrin. Read also The Space of the Russian Philosophical Society, or the Philosophy of Unity by Prof. D.V. Polezhaev (Volgograd) and Jubilees Come and Go but Life Goes On by Prof. M.D.Shchelkunov (Kazan).
Read Information from the RPhS Regional Branches and Organizations with detailed information about the Second All-Russian Youth Conference Youth and Interethnic Relations: Constructive and Deconstructive Trends (St.Petersburg); about the International Research and Practice Conference Culture, Language, Civil Society Institutions of the Indigenous Peoples of Russia: Resurrection, Preservation and Development in the Ethnocultural Context of the Siberian Region (Biisk, the Altay area); about preparations for the 6th All-Russian Philosophical Congress in the Baikal branch of the RPhS.
Read News from the Moscow Philosophical Society about the International Conference The Seventh Smirnov Readings in Logic held at the Department of Philosophy of the MSU; about the meeting with a Finnish philosopher and logician J.Hintikka at the Institute of Philosophy; about the International Methodological Seminar Environmental Ethics and Spiritual Ecology During the Global Crisis at the Moscow State Forest University.
Events and Comments analyze the traditional International Likhachev Readings on the Dialog of Cultures in the Time of Globalization (St. Petersburg Humanitarian University of the Trade-Unions) and the first graduates of Philosophy at the Dagestan State University.
Managing Education: Modern Approaches publishes Innovative Trends at a Classical Department of a Classical University by the corresponding member of the RAS, dean of the Department of Philsophy of the MSU V.V.Mironov and Prof. G.V.Sorina; and About One of the Most Important Tasks of Higher Education by Assistant Professor A.N.Gulyashinov (Izhevsk).
International Contacts informs in details about the meetings of a delegation of Chinese professors in social sciences with their Russian colleagues in Moscow and St.Petersburg.
For Philosophy in the Near Abroad read The Business of Odessa by M.I.Paskalova, Ph.D. and S.S.Romanenko, Ph.D. (Odessa, Ukraine) and Another Conference on Culture in Baku by A.A.Gezalov, Ph.D. (Baku).
Published By Way of Discussion are Names and Numbers by Assistant Professor A.D.Korolev (Moscow) and Biopolitics: Birth and Development by RPhS member N.N.Rodnova (Moscow).
To learn more about the Union of Philosophy and Natural Sciences read The Problem of Reality and the Quasi-Classical Nature of the Theory of Oscillations and Waves by the RPhS member E.Yu. Kalinin (Moscow).
Philosophical Anthropology presents Identity as a Psychological Mechanism by Prof. P.S.Gurevich and Prof. N.I.Kiyashchenko (Moscow) and Symbol and Image by E.M.Spirova, Ph.D. (Moscow).
Standpoint presents Modernization of the Image of Authority or Modernization of the Authority at Last by Assistant Professor V.M.Adrov (Moscow).
Read Global Studies for an information by Prof. A.G.Pyrin (Moscow) about a seminar on Philosophical and Methodological Aspect of the Global Studies, where New Trends and Forms of Fascist Propaganda by B.F.Kalachev, Ph.D. (Moscow) was presented.
Read Eurasianism: Prospects of Comprehension for an article by I.P.Savitsky about his father, the most famous Eurasianist P.N.Savitsky and the first part of Discussing the Eurasianist Ideology by L.G.Antipenko, Ph.D. (Moscow).
Eastern Philosophies are represented by Stalin's Model in the Studies of Chinese Academics by Jao Yang, Ph.D. (Bejing).
Feedback presents analytical and critical review of RPhS Bulletin 2011:2 by an independent observer Prof. V. F. Druzhinin (Moscow) and S. S. Peruanskii, Ph.D. (Moscow).
Polemics presents On Virtuos Lie by Prof. N.I.Gubanov (Tiumen) and Once again about Truth, Lie and Truth-seekers by Prof. D.I. Dubrovsky (Moscow) about On Imaginary Folk Wisdom by Prof. A.G.Myasnikov (Penza) published in the Bulletin 2010:4.
Read Responding our Publications for Strengthening Social Morality is the Way to Dealienation by the RPhS member V.I.Dolzhenko (Moscow).
Remark by Prof. A.G.Pyrin (Moscow) – The Culture of Stock Market is the Source of Income and by the RPhS member S.M.Larkova (St.Petersburg) – Judge: There is no Russian Culture in Russia!
Read Philosophical Prose for aphoristic thoughts by Michail Sergeev, Ph.D. (Philadelphia, the US).
Read Philosophers Joke Too for humoresques by Jose Verissimo Teiseira da Mata (Brazil) and Larissa Matros (the US).
The Poetic Page presents verses by N.Ya.Kovanova (Moscow).
Useful Information reports about The Days of Philosophy in St. Petersburg (17-19 November); about the All-Russian Conference The Temporary and the Eternal. Man in the Space of the Russian State: Mythology, Ideology, Sociocultural Practice (Velikii Novgorod, 13-14 December); about the International Semi-Distant Conference Russia Today: Humanization of Socio-economic Relations (Nizhnevartovsk, 6 March 2012).
Mentioned as Noteworthy is information about preparations for the 90th anniversary of A.A.Zinoviev and the 100th anniversary of V.S.Gott.
Labor Market. Vacancies. Job Search is introduced.
In Memoria presents The Knight of Conscious Milner-Irinin about the Moral Life of a Man by the RPhS member N.Ya. Kovanova (Moscow) to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Ya.A.Milner-Irinin.
See also book reviews, annotations, book announcements, information about new philosophical books, books and journals available at the RPhS Presidium, doctoral (6) and candidate (24) dissertations in philosophy defended in the third quarter of 2011.
Published also are letters of congratulations on jubilees and other notable events in philosophers' lives and obituaries.
As usual, the year's third issue contains information about the Russian Philosophical Society's organizational structure, comprising the Presidium, the Inspection Committee, 108 regional branches, 49 field branches, 39 primary units of the Moscow Philosophical Society, and 125 individual members; we also publish the complete RPhS membership list as of October 1, 2011 (4,498 members).
Read the information about the RPhS membership for 2012. Like in other issues of the Bulletin, it is explained that the Russian Philosophical Society counts as its members only those who have paid the yearly membership fee and have been consequently included in the current year membership list. They henceforward enjoy all the privileges of the Society members, including subscription to the RPhS Bulletin. Full membership lists are published yearly in RPhS Bulletin No. 3 for the year in question.
The Bulletin's subscription index in the Rospechat Catalogue is 79643. Please, send your e-mail messages addressed to the RPhS Presidium and the RPhS Bulletin Editorial Board to rphs@iph.ras.ru. Our Internet websites are www.dialog21.ru; www.globalistika.ru; www.rosfilos.org. To contact the Editors, please call (495) 609-90-76 or (495) 697-92-98.
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We hereby announce publication and circulation of the Anniversary Bulletin of the Russian Philosophical Society No. 4, 2011 (Editor-in-Chief, Professor A.N. Chumakov; Executive Secretary, Professor N.Z. Yaroschuk) dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the RPhS and the 15th anniversary of the Bulletin.
The Editor's Column headlined On the Way to Civil Society opens the issue.
Read Approaching 6th All-Russian Philosophical Congress about the event to be held on June 27-30, 2012 at Nizhnii Novgorod. Its topic will be Philosophy in Contemporary World: Dialog of World-visions. Official web-site of the Congress: http://www.rfk2012.unn.ru. The decision of the Program committee of the Congress made on 18 November 2011 in St.Petersburg; the preliminary program and on the conditions for participation, information about members of the Organizing and Program committees, are published
Meet the 40th anniversary of the Russian Philosophical Society and the 15th anniversary of the Bulletin of the Russian Philosophical Society informs about the Anniversary meeting of the Presidium of the RPhS with activists representing local branches of the RPhS on 18 November 2011 in St.Petersburg; about the 1st Russian Philosophical Forum The New Project of Development of the Russian Civilization as a Historical Necessity: Philosophical Ideas and Concepts dedicated to the prospective development of Russian and the tasks of philosophy (13 December 2011 at the Russian Extramural Financial and Economic Institute). In addition to the previous issue answers to the questions about the jubilees are published provided by Prof. S.Ivanenkov, the member of the Presidium of the RPhS (St.Petersburg), Assistant Prof. T.Pokrovskaya, the chair of the RPhS branch at the Moscow State University, A.Korolev, Ph.D., the Main Academic Secretary of the RPhS (Moscow). Articles The Askin Readings in Saratov by Prof. B.Mokin (Saratov) and The Acme Age by Prof. M.Bilalov (Makhachkala) are published.
Read Information from the RPhS Regional Branches and Organizations for the information from Prof. A.Kuszhanova (St.Petersburg) about a roundtable on Making Scenarios and Prognoses of the Axiological Universe of the Globalizing Society held on 19 November 2011 in St. Petersburg; information from Prof. T.Kudriashova (Ivanovo) about the Russian Academic Conference on the problems of education from the position of cognitive science in Ivanovo; information from A.Shulyndina, Ph.D. (Nizhnii Novgorod) about the discussion on the presentation of a German philosopher Vladislav Soskin dedicated to the problems of anthropological concepts in the contemporary German philosophy held at the local branch of the RPhS.
Read News from the Moscow Philosophical Society about the academic readings on the UNESCO World Day of Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy and at the State Art Studies Institute of the Ministry of Culture; about the 5th international conference Pavlov and Hessin Readings – The Role of Philosophical and Economic Knowledge in the Formation of World Outlook of a Human and the Humanity at the Department of Philosophy of the MSU; about the 5th conference Philosophical Problems of Biology and Medicine: the Normative and the Descriptive at the MGMSU; about the meeting of the philosophical panel of the Central House of Scholars; about a seminar Social and Economic Problems of Urban Planning and Architecture at the MGSU.
Events and Comments informs about a roundtable Dialog between Buddhism and Quantum Physics at the Institute of Philosophy participated by Buddhist monks from Kalmykia and Tibet, Russian and foreign physicists and philosophers; about the international conference Science, Philosophy, Religion dedicated to Man in the Technical World: Challenges of the 21st Century at Dubna (Moscow oblast); about a roundtable Renaissance of the Life Values – Transition to the Highly Developed Civilization at the St. Peterburg Brahma Kumaris Center in the framework of the Days of Philosophy in St. Petersburg; about the international conference Living Ethics as the Impulse of the Creative Cosmic Evolution at the International Rerikh Center (Moscow); about the Russian conference The Place of Russian Literature and Culture in the Multinational Space of Russia (the Example of the Aksakovs) in Ufa.
Read Problems of Teaching Philosophy for Ph.D. Philosophy: Pledges and Lessons by Prof. F.Tzann-kai-si and Prof. L.Andreeva (Vladimir).
Managing Education: Modern Approaches publishes Freeware in the Educational System by D.Derzhavin, Senior Researcher (St.Peterburg); Adult Education: International Trends and National Peculiarities of Development by Assistant Prof. V.Galichin (Moscow).
Read Topical Issue for Social Conditions for Academic Development in Modern Russia by Prof. S.Ivashevskii (N.Novgorod).
International Contacts informs about the meetings with Iranian philosophers at the Financial University.
International Cooperation publishes The World Philosophical Forum in Greece by Prof. A.Maslikhin (Ioshkar-Ola) and I.Kondrashin, Ph.D. (Moscow).
For Academic Life in the Near Abroad read Humanitarian Art of Political Dialog by O.Agamirzoev, Ph.D. student (Baku) and Dialog of Cultures: Studies, Practices, Challenges by A.Gezalov, Ph.D. (Baku) about a conference in Kiev.
Published By Way of Discussion are And the Whole Life World is not enough by Prof. A.Krushanov (Moscow); Language and World by Prof. M.Blokh (Moscow); Essay and Treatise by Prof. E.Taisina (Kazan); The Problems of Finding Integrative Philosophy by Prof. V.Kholodnyi (Moscow).
To learn more about the Union of Philosophy and Natural Sciences read Are Superluminal Neutrinos Real? by L.Antipenko, Ph.D. (Moscow) and The Problem of Reality: Physics and Philosophy by S.Koniaev, Sc.D. (Moscow).
History and Philosophy of Science presents About Ontological Pluralism of Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics by V.Erekaev, Ph.D. (Moscow); Internet and the Information and Communication Reality by Yu.Chernovitskaya, Ph.D. and E.Kalinina (Moscow).
Important Discussion informs about discussing Lessons of Another Russian Revolution: the Collapse of the Liberal Utopia presented by Academician S.Glaziev at the Philosophical Club Biblo-globus.
Philosophical Anthropology presents Destruction of Identity by Prof. L.Bueva (Moscow).
Standpoint presents Are the Party and the Authorities United? by Prof. F. Tsann-kai-si (Vladimir).
Feedback presents analytical and critical review of RPhS Bulletin 2011:3 by an independent observer Prof. V. F. Druzhinin (Moscow) and S. S. Peruanskii, Sc.D. (Moscow).
Remark by Prof. A.G.Pyrin (Moscow) – Non-Conflicting Conflict Resolution.
Viewpoint by Prof. A.G.Pyrin (Moscow) on Demographic Explosion in Russia is Possible!
Read Philosophical Prose for continued aphoristic thoughts by Michail Sergeev, Ph.D. (Philadelphia, the US).
Read Philosophers Joke Too for humoresques by Viacheslav Vasin (Moscow) and parody by P.Gurevich (Moscow).
The Poetic Page presents verses by Mikahil Zhikharevich (Pskov); V.Ivanov (Moscow); Viacheslav Vasin (Moscow), Tatiana Rushchina (S.Peterburg), Valerii Sagatovskii (Belgorod) and Boris Rezhabek (Moscow).
Read Our Contemporaries for an article about academic works of Prof. E.Taisina (Kazan) by Prof. M.Bilalov (Makhachkala).
In Memoria presents an article about life and works of Yurii Karyakin by A.Katsura, Ph.D.
Read Jubilee to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trial.
See also book reviews, annotations, book announcements, information about new philosophical books, books and journals available at the RPhS Presidium, doctoral (13) and candidate (52) dissertations in philosophy defended in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Published also are letters of congratulations on jubilees and other notable events in philosophers' lives and obituaries.
As usual, the year's fourth issue contains information about the Plan of Conferences of the RPhS for 2012 (86) and about the Russian Philosophical Society's organizational structure (additionally to No 3): 4 regional branches, 3 field branches, 1 primary unit of the Moscow Philosophical Society; we also publish the complete RPhS membership list (5,768 members).
Read the information about the RPhS membership for 2012. Like in other issues of the Bulletin, it is explained that the Russian Philosophical Society counts as its members only those who have paid the yearly membership fee and have been consequently included in the current year membership list. They henceforward enjoy all the privileges of the Society members, including subscription to the RPhS Bulletin. Full membership lists are published yearly in RPhS Bulletin No. 3 for the year in question.
The Bulletin's subscription index in the Rospechat Catalogue is 79643. Please, send your e-mail messages addressed to the RPhS Presidium and the RPhS Bulletin Editorial Board to rphs@iph.ras.ru. Our Internet websites are www.dialog21.ru; www.globalistika.ru; www.rosfilos.org. To contact the Editors, please call (495) 609-90-76 or (495) 697-92-98.
SÉNÉGAL
Le 17 novembre la Société Sénégalaise de Philosophie SO.SE.PHI a célébré la Journée mondiale de la Philosophie sur le thème du "Dialogue des cultures". Le public, divers dans sa composition, est venu nombreux. Les Sénégalais ignoraient l'existence d'une Journée mondiale de la Philosophie instaurée par l'UNESCO; mais les télévisions publiques et privées s'étant largement fait l'écho de la Journée organisée par la SO.SE.PHI, un large public a été touché. Nous comptons publier les communications, au nombre de huit.
-- Pr Mbengue Ramatoulaye Diagne
INTERNATIONAL SOCIETIES
ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONALE DES PROFESSEURS DE PHILOSOPHIE (AIPPh)
À la fin de l'année 2011 je vous souhaite une joyeuse fête de Noël et une bonne Nouvelle année.
L'année 2011 était avec assez de succès pour notre AIPPh.
En février, la délégation de l'AIPPh avec notre vice président Herman Lodewyckx, notre secrétaire Riccardo Sirello, le président de la Sociedad de Profesores de Filosofia Luis María Cifuentes Pérez et moi-même était la plus grande pendant la « Réunion régionale de haut niveau sur l'enseignement de la philosophie « de l'UNESCO à Milano. Vous trouvez les recommandations y résolues et ma contribution comme les textes mentionnés dans cette lettre dans notre page d'accueil.
En mars, j'étais nommé comme co-chair de la section « L'enseignement de la philosophie » du Congrès Mondial de la Philosophie en 2013 à Athènes par le président da la FISP William McBride. En juin, j'ai eu une conférence sur le programme de l'UNESCO et l'éducation nationale à Vienne. En septembre nous pouvions publier la documentation de notre congrès à Leusden dans une forme imprimée et électronique.
Le point culminant de l'année 2011 fut notre congrès international sur la tolérance au début d'octobre à Münster, organisé avec l'Akademie Franz Hitze Haus et notre membre Mme Gabriele Münnix. L'année prochaine nous publierons un livre électronique sur cette réunion tellement fructueuse.
En octobre, la Deutsche Gesellschaft für Philosophie (DGPhil) présentait l'AIPPh dans sa lettre circulaire comme sujet principal.
En novembre, notre secrétaire Riccardo Sirello et le membre de notre conseil d'administration Pekka Elo organisaient des journées de la philosophie impressionnantes selon l'UNESCO à Savona et à Helsinki. Je suis très content que j'aie pu y contribuer avec des conférences sur Kant à Helsinki et sur Hannah Arendt par skype.
Grâce aux efforts de notre membre Mme. Monika Krah-Schulte, il y a maintenant un curriculum de philosophie complet de la première à la terminale, c'est-à-dire pour 12 ou 13 années scolaires, dans le Land Schleswig-Holstein. Je cherche une possibilité de le faire traduire au moins en anglais.
Je remercie beaucoup notre trésorier Edgar Fuhrken pour son soin pour notre page d'accueil, qui devient de plus en plus important dans le réseau philosophique. Aussi notre réseau Linkedin, guidé par notre vice président Herman Lodewyckx, agrandi toujours.
Les préparations pour notre congrès international prochain avec l'assemblée générale à Eichholz près de Bonn, organisé avec la fondation Konrad Adenauer, vont bien. Il aura lieu du 1er au 4 novembre 2012 avec le sujet stimulant « Les décisions politiques entre rationalité et prétention de sagesse ». Je peux dire déjà maintenant, que vous aurez des conférences avec des philosophes de très haut niveau. J' enverrai le programme avec l'invitation en février 2012.
À la fin de cette lettre, j'ai le devoir triste de vous communiquer que notre Président d'honneur Marcel Franz Fresco est mort à Leiden le 16 décembre, âgé de 86 ans.
Werner Busch, Président
Am Ende des Jahres 2011 wünsche ich Ihnen ein besinnliches Weihnachtsfest und alles Gute für das neue Jahr.
Das Jahr 2011 war für unsere AIPPh ziemlich erfolgreich.
Im Februar war die Delegation der AIPPh während der hochrangigen UNESCO-Konferenz zum Philosophieunterricht in Europa und Nord-Amerika in Mailand mit unserem Vizepräsidenten Herman Lodewycks, unserem Sekretär Riccardo Sirello, dem Präsidendenten der Sociedad de Profesores de Filosofia Luis María Cifuentes Pérez und mir selbst die größte. Die dort beschlossenen Empfehlungen und meinen Beitrag sowie die anderen in diesem Brief genannten Texte finden Sie in unserer Homepage.
Im März wurde ich vom Präsidenten der FISP William McBride zum co-chair der Sektion Philosophieunterricht des Weltkongresses der Philosophie 2013 in Athen berufen. Im Juni hielt ich in Wien einen Vortrag zum Programm der UNESCO im Verhältnis zur nationalen Erziehung. Im September konnten wir die Dokumentation des Kongresses in Leusden in wenigen gedruckten Exemplaren und im Übrigen elektronisch veröffentlichen.
Den Höhepunkt des Jahres 2011 bildete unser internationaler Kongress zur Toleranz in Münster, organisiert mit der Akademie Franz Hitze Haus und unserem Mitglied Gabriele Münnix. Im kommenden Jahr werden wir zu diesem überaus fruchtbaren Treffen ein E-book veröffentlichen.
Im Oktober stellte die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Philosophie (DGPhil) die AIPPh als Hauptbeitrag in ihrem Newsletter ausführlich vor.
Im November organisierten unser Sekretär Riccardo Sirello und das Mitglied unseres Vorstandes Pekka Elo in Savona und Helsinki beeindruckende Tage der Philosophie im Sinne der UNESCO. Es erfüllt mich mit Genugtuung, dass ich mit Vorträgen zu Kant in Helsinki und zu Hannah Arendt über Skype dazu beitragen konnte.
Dank der Bemühungen unseres Mitgliedes Monika Krah-Schulte gibt es jetzt in Schleswig-Holstein einen vollständigen Philosophielehrplan von der ersten Klasse bis zum Abitur. Ich suche nach einer Möglichkeit, ihn zumindest in Englisch übersetzen zu lassen.
Ich danke unserem Schatzmeister Edgar Fuhrken vielmals für die Betreuung und Anpassung unserer Homepage, die für das philosophische Netz immer wichtiger wird. Unser Netz Linkedin, das unser Vizepräsident Herman Lodewyckx betreut, vergrößert sich ständig.
Die Vorbereitungen für unseren nächsten internationalen Kongress, den wir vom 1. bis 4. November 2012 in Eichholz bei Bonn zusammen mit der Konrad Adenauer Stiftung zum anregenden Thema „Politische Entscheidungen zwischen Rationalität und Weisheitsanspruch" veranstalten, entwickeln sich gut. Ich kann jetzt schon sagen, dass Sie Vorträge auf sehr hohem Niveau erleben werden. Das Programm mit der Einladung schicke ich im Februar 2012.
Am Ende dieses Briefes habe ich die traurige Pflicht Ihnen mitzuteilen, dass unser Ehrenpräsident Marcel Franz Fresco am 16. Dezember in Leiden im Alter von 86 Jahren verstorben ist.
Werner Busch, Präsident
At the end of 2011, I wish you a Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year.
The year 2011 was quite successful for our AIPPh.
In February, during the high-level Conference of UNESCO in Milano about the teaching of philosophy in Europe and North America the delegation of the AIPPh with our Vice President Herman Lodewycks, our Secretary of Riccardo Sirello, the President of the Sociedad de Profesores de filosofia Luis Maria Cifuentes Perez and me was the largest. For the recommendations agreed on, my contribution, as well as the other texts referred to in this letter, cf. our home page.
In March I was appointed to co-chair of the section of philosophy teaching of the World Congress of philosophy in Athens 2013 by the President of the FISP William McBride. In June, I gave a presentation in Vienna on the program of UNESCO and national education. In September, we could publish the documentation of the Congress in Leusden in just a few printed copies and also electronically.
Our International Congress on tolerance was the climax of 2011 in Münster, organized together with the Academy Franz Hitze House and our member Gabriele Münnix. In the year to come, we will publish an E-book to this very fruitful meeting.
In their newsletter in October, the German Gesellschaft für Philosophie (DGPhil) presented a major contribution in their newsletter about the AIPPh.
Our Secretary Riccardo Sirello and our member of the Board Peka Elo organized impressive days of philosophy in the sense of UNESCO. It fills me with satisfaction that I could help with lectures on Kant in Helsinki and on Hannah Arendt on Skype.
Thanks to the efforts of our Member Monika Krah-Schulte a complete philosophy curriculum from the first class to Abitur is published now for schools in Schleswig-Holstein. I will try to find a way to translate the text at least into English.
Many thanks to our treasurer Edgar Fuhrken for his care for our homepage and his efforts to adopt it to future needs which lie in establishing a sort of philosophical net. Our group in the network of LinkedIn, cared for by our Vice President Herman Lodewyckx, continues to grow.
The preparations for our next International Congress which will be held in Eichholz, near Bonn from November 1 to 4 2012 in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung on the stimulating theme "Political decisions between rationality and claim for wisdom" are on a good way. I can promise that you will experience presentations on a very high level. I'll send the program with the invitation in February 2012.
At the end of this letter I have the sad duty to inform you that our Honorary President Marcel Franz Fresco died in Leiden at the age of 86 on 16 December.
Werner Busch, President
COUNCIL FOR RESEARCH IN VALUES AND PHILOSOPHY (RVP)
Message from the President:
The work of the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy (RVP) has been advancing rapidly with the needs of the times. You will find greater detail on the following pages, but here is a quite summary of some key themes, all of which are also designated regional conferences of the International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP).
New Regional Centers: Their development enables greater structure for the RVP network in promoting research in philosophy related to the global character of life today. In addition to the RVP headquarters in Washington, D.C., RVP regional centers were inaugurated in 2011 at Notre Dame University, Beirut, and Fudan University, Shanghai. New RVP Centers will be inaugurated in 2012 at the People's Friendship University of Russia, Moscow, and at Renmin (People's) University of China, Beijing.
Seminars: Three to five week seminars for research in 2012 will be held in the Spring and Fall in
Washington, D.C. and in the Fall in Beirut.
A Set of Research Teams is carrying out a yet more extended three year project with Charles Taylor on
the evolution of value horizons described in his A Secular Age.
Publications: 11 new volumes expand the 250 volume series with the results of the work of research
teams in the RVP network in all parts of the world.
This issue of the RVP newsletter is a report on the work accomplished in 2011 and in process. Especially it is a expression of thanks and an invitation to philosophers, thinkers and scholars across the world to join in this effort and put their special creative competencies at the service of their people in this time of dynamic change. Please write of your interests in participating in the programs listed below and/or developing further work.
The RVP wishes to thank the Ford, H&L Bradley and Raskob Foundations, as well as the OSVI and OST for their generous support.
George F. McLean
December 2011
SEMINARS IN 2012
Spring Seminar 2012, Washington, D.C
Washington, D.C. March 26-April 6, 2012: "Role of Religions in Public Discourse: Recent
Development in the Thought of Jurgen Habermas" Throughout his lifetime Jürgen Habermas has stood firmly for the role of reason in philosophy and indeed in life itself. This has led him to take a positive interest in the role of reason in social communication. It has also constituted him as the ever vigilant guardian against any efforts seeming to compromise the role of reason in public life, whether in terms of an historical and cultural hermeneutics or the role of religion. Hence his efforts to find a proper role for religion in relation to the liberal state have been especially significant.
The present seminar will not only review Habermas' relatively recent efforts to see how religion can serve as an auxiliary to public discourse. It will go further and deeper by examining especially his most recent study of myth and ritual. Presented in Washington in October 2011, this was an archeology of the very constitution of human consciousness through myth, symbol and ritual as these made it possible for our ancestry to transcend the ego and become finally and truly human through establishing social relations. This takes religion beyond a periphery and auxiliary role to recognize its essential place in the very germination of all social life.
Hence, this seminar on "Religion in Public Discourse" will treat such issues as the relegation of religious horizons behind Rawls' veil of ignorance, and the resultant search for ways in which it can re-enter the public sphere. Especially it will focus on Habermas' latest hypothesis that indeed religion can never be separated from public life because it has been foundational of human life from the beginning, as is recounted in the Hindu and the Abrahamic creation narratives.
Applications for participation in this seminar should be sent by email by January 15, 2011, to cua-rvp@cua.edu. Participants will cover their own travel; the RVP will provide room and board during the seminar.
Fall Seminar 2012, Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C. September 24-October 26, 2012: "Building Community in a Mobile/Global
Age". Domestic migration and international immigration have long been integral to growth and
development world-wide. Cities and even countryside now become cosmopolitan and international. Current political unrest and the economic recession have changed the rules of the global, regional, and local practice so that in this process the immigrant or refugee has, in many cases, become the victim. The fall RVP seminar in Washington will examine the global phenomenon of global migration, and the needed correlative, "hospitality." Too often, the so-called 'alien' is objectified, as a commodity of production and deemed 'useful' or 'legal,' depending on her/his perceived-role in the production cycle. A hermeneutical approach, allowing for the unveiling of 'prejudices' and the dignity of the human person, can open an alternative way for our mobile/global age. Readings will trace a path in Eastern and Western philosophy from Confucius and the Greeks, through Aquinas and Ibn Kaldun, to such recent thinkers as Gadamer and Levinas. Throughout, the seminar will seek to respond to life in our current mobile/global age with its need for community and hospitality. Applications for participation in this seminar with vita and bibliography should be sent by email by March 1, 2012, to cua-rvp@cua.edu. Participants will cover their own travel; the RVP will provide room and board.
Fall Seminar 2012, Beirut, Lebanon
Beirut, Lebanon, October 1-26., 2012: "The Value of Forgiveness in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Philosophy". As globalization continues to effect wide scale relocation of many people worldwide, a process that increases the vulnerability of a significant number of people, the present economic crisis has only compounded the problem. One result is that local, regional, and international conflict is on the rise. At the same time, such movement of peoples both domestically and internationally is inevitable and has long been important for world-wide progress. Philosophical work on the idea of global justice, as a reaction to this challenge, is not wanting, and much progress has been made in the attempt to apply global justice to various concepts of international law. But what still seems to be lacking, is further research on how values such as compassion and forgiveness complement the value of justice, and on how this complementary relation can be introduced into systems of law. In this regard, the rich philosophical traditions of the Abrahamic religions have much to offer. Applications for participation in this seminar should be sent by email by March 1st, 2012, to edwardjosephalam@yahoo.com and ealam@ndu.edu.lb. Participants normally cover their own travel; the RVP will provide room and board during the seminar. The seminar will be held at the RVP Center at Notre Dame University-Louaize, Lebanon.
CONFERENCES AND NEW RVP CENTERS IN 2012
The Russian Republic
Washington, D.C., January 25-27, 2012:"In Search of Culturally Based Civil Society". This conference is intended as a constructive exchange of views on trends in the concept of civil society. It will join a range of philosophical and political traditions. The conference will consider the theory of civil society and its relevance to the acute and specific problems of modern society. The concept of civil society was widely used in academia, journalism and political discussion in the late 1980s and the first half of 1990s. It then faded into the background and was reduced to a narrow formula, indicating a certain number of supposedly
popular non-governmental organizations. It thereby lost its theoretical significance and potential importance for understanding contemporary society. In the current global economic crisis, civil society is both needed and itself in need of fundamental rethinking and deeper cultural roots. It is necessary to restore the theoretical concept of civil society in order to discover and explore its heuristic potential for responding to the crises being experienced in most important and controversial socio-political and ideological processes unfolding on the global level.
The main topics of the conference: Philosophical and cultural foundations for civil society; formation of civil society in post communist and developing countries: achievements, peculiarities and contradictions; Russian civil society and the state: dialectics of interrelation or path to dependency.
Applications for participation in this conference should be sent by email by January 15, 2011, to cua-rvp@cua.edu . Participants will cover their own travel, the RVP will provide room and board during the seminar. For further information please contact Professor Yuriy Pochta, yuriy_us@hotmail.com at the People's Friendship University of Russia, and cua-rvp@cua.edu .
Moscow, Russia, April 19-21, 2012: "Philosophy and Spirituality across Cultures and Religious Traditions". The present development of a global outlook presents both challenges and opportunities. A new sense of individual identity can not only enrich the sense of personal dignity but endanger the social foundations upon which the values and virtues of a culture rests. In turn, this can lead to a period of confusion, anomie and even lawlessness. This is especially true for the young who lack a mature experience of the values of their own tradition while encountering the unfamiliar and as yet unassimilated values of others. The conference will seek to explore the deeper spiritual roots of the cultures East and West. In particular it will search for ways of understanding what it means to be human, or a philosophical anthropology; how human life can be lived with justice, dignity and responsibility, or a philosophical ethics; and the spiritual foundations of values and virtues, or a metaphysics for our global times.
In this light papers are invited for the following four sessions: 1.Contemporary Challenges to traditional Values and Virtues; 2. Philosophical Foundations for Human Dignity and Meaning; 3. The Integration of Philosophies and Spiritualities: East and West; and 4. The Role of Religion in the Life of a Secularized World.
For further information please contact Professor Ruzana Pskhu r.pskhu@mail.ru at the People's
Friendship University of Russia and cua-rvp@cua.edu
A Joint Center of PFUR and RVP in Moscow, Russia
A Joint Center of The People's Friendship University of Russia (PFUR) and The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy (RVP) is in preparation in Moscow. Russian People's Friendship University (RPF) is especially well placed for this work due to its rich scholarly resources, among which the following stand out:
1/ It is unquestionably one of Russia's premier universities. 2/ Its long tradition as the center for the Russian engagement with the cultures of Africa, Asia and Islam. 3/ Its ability to explore the spiritual foundation of these many civilizations. 4/ Its location in Moscow with its special sensibility to the evolving mindsets of the many parts of the world, now coming together to form the new global order. The Nature of the Center: (1) Structure: A center under the Provost with an inter-departmental mission of stimulating scholarship in relation to national and global cultural change. (2) Personnel: two or three permanent scholars with a set of related interns and appropriate administrative personnel.
Ulan-Ude, eastern Siberia, Russia
Ulan-Ude, eastern Siberia, Russia, June 7-8, 2012: "Interrelation of Eurasian Cultures in a Global Age". The lake Baikal region of Burgyat is a land of many engagements. To the East it faces Japan, to the west it is part of the Russian Federation and to the South it relates to Mongolia and the great people of China. How is it to understand and live these complex intercultural relationships? This calls for achieving the needed understanding of self, of other -- or is it the myriad others-- and of the interrelation of the two.
The relatively new science of hermeneutics may be able to play a helpful role in this. Particularly, as global interaction and its related technologies develop, isolation is no longer a protection or a desirable alternative. Understanding complementary relations with neighboring peoples and being able to take pride in the ability to relate to them becomes not only possible but imperative. Indeed, in the communication of global age relations now are not only to neighboring people but to peoples everywhere. The issue then is one of knowledge and will, of ethics and metaphysics, of philosophy and religion. All these will be explored for their hermeneutic significance in this conference.
For further information contact Professor Irina Boldonova (irina_duncan@mail.ru ) at the Buryat
State University and cua-rvp@cua.edu
The Lao People's Democratic Republic
Vientiane, Laos, May 21-22, 2012: "Cultural Traditions and Goals for Human Development". This theme has itself evolved in three broad strokes. At first development was understood as an economic phenomenon. Second it was noted that as development projects could have relatively brief or even negative effect it was necessary to plan with a view to their sustainability. Third the United Nations agencies discovered that a major indicator of such sustainability was whether in the planning those affected were consulted so that their cultural traditions and expectations could be taken into account. All of this was brought together by the Indian scholar, Amartya Sen, in his focus on human capabilities as both processes and opportunities which enable people to do and be what they value, for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize in economics. To investigate this issue papers for the conference are invited for four sub-themes: (1) what should be considered authentic development, (2) the conditions for sustainable development, (3) how can cultural traditions enable development, and (4) the significance of this for intercultural relations in global times within Southeast Asia and with other world regions in terms of economics, politics and human dignity.
For further information please contact Professor Khamphon Bounnady, Director of the Institute of Political Sciences, the Laotian Academy of Social Sciences (kbounnady@yahoo.com ).
The People's Republic of China
Wuhan, China, May 25-27, 2012: "Transcendence and Immanence in Confucianism and Christianity". Immanence and transcendence have always been key elements of a religious vision. In Christianity they are correlative rather than contradictory; thus the greater the transcendence the greater the immanence or presence of the divine in all creation, including the human heart. There could be special insights in this regard in Confucianism and other Chinese philosophies. Despite the insistence of many that there is no transcendence in the Christian sense, there is much in Chinese culture about Heaven, the Temple of Heaven and "all under Heaven". Moreover the strong notion in Chinese culture of an inner transcendence suggests that there may be important mutual contributions with the Christian notion of a correspondence of transcendence with immanence. This is an issue not only of special promise in these days of global interchange, but of the need to assure human dignity in times which can prove to be dehumanizing. Hence the topic promises to be of special interest and of important value for our times.
The conference will be held at School of Philosophy, Wuhan University. For further information
please contact Professor Huang Chao: hcdj2000@yahoo.com.cn with copy to cua-rvp@cua.edu .
Wuhan, China, May 29-30, 2012: "Dialogue and Cooperation among Cultures and Civilizations". Today, economic models for development often raise new challenges. In particular some educational models restrict people's ability to reach more deeply into the philosophical and social roots of their cultural identities, and hence impede their application to the issues of the times. This can slow progress and deaden the creative imagination, while failing to protect against egoism, social inequality and mutual antipathies. Yet these challenges can also entail new and unexpected opportunities as they call the new vision and commitment needed in order to navigate peacefully our changing world. This, in turn, requires rethinking the place and role of the various philosophical traditions with a view to their enrichment and/or more appropriate and progressive application in these times of global interchange. This calls urgently for philosophical attention. Such an effort needs to be a matter not of attenuating or abstracting from the humanities and their philosophical foundations, but of more fully appreciating and bringing to bear, these cultural resources for facing present challenges.
The conference will be held at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. For further information please contact Professor Ouyang Kang (Vice President of the HUST): kouyang@mail.hust.edu.cncn )and Professor Gang Chen ( mgchen@mail.hust.edu.cn ) .
Beijing, China, June 2-3, 2012: "Traditional Values and Virtues in Social Life Today". The transition from traditional to modern society which has lasted some four centuries draws different sectors of human society into an almost synchronous process of globalization. Compared to traditional society, however, modernization is also a utilitarian pursuit of material interests and desires, which has led to a weakening of traditional morality. Alasdair MacIntyre has described our times as coming 'after virtue'. This suggests that the process of globalization raises such questions as: - the relation of values and virtues, - the relation of both to culture and religion, - whether in contemporary society traditional moral virtues have lost their vitality, and if so - how to renew these by values as foundations for a contemporary moral life. With him, since the 1980s many ethicists in the West have gone back to Aristotle to advocate a 'virtue ethics,' which has now become an important contemporary school. For China this raises the question of the position of its traditional values and virtues in contemporary social life: do they respond to the moral issues of modern society; and to what extent do changing values provide the additional resources needed for a global ethic. All this calls for research in ethics that examines the human predicament in contemporary society and rediscovers from the tradition the significance of human values and virtues for life today.
This conference will be held at Renmin (People's) University of China in Beijing. For further information please contact Prof. Gong Qun: gongqun@ruc.edu.cn or gongqun2001@yahoo.com
Beijing, China. A Joint Center of The Renmin (People's) University of China (RUC) and The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy (RVP) will be inaugurated at the June 2-3 conference in Beijing. The purpose of the center is to think ahead and develop insights for this global age. In the past China's concern for others has been represented by constructing Parliament buildings, stadiums, etc., in many developing countries. Now China needs to project itself as an attractive model in which others have confidence and which they welcome to take an active, indispensable and leading position in shaping the global future. Renmin University of China is ready to play this central role. To do so there is now need for a center to harvest and integrate the separate contributions of Renmin University's other centers for the study of China's classical and modern heritages and to relate these to scholars across the world. This will help project China into its rightful position as a global partner which is especially admired, welcomed economically, politically and culturally everywhere, and able to lead in global affairs. The center will be under the leadership of the School of Philosophy, the Renmin (People's) University of China in Beijing.
The Republic of Austria
Vienna, Austria, June 18-20, 2012: "Faith in a Secular Age". This is the continuation of the project launched in November 2009. Currently, two research teams are completing work on the themes of transhumanism and the socio-political order respectively. This conference follows a meeting in Vienna last June which explored the contemporary challenges in religion and spirituality. It will initiate another set of research teams to work on related issues.
For further information please contact: cuarvp@cua.edu .
The Republic of Poland
Poznan, Poland, September 13-14, 2012: "Identities and Modernization". The aim of the conference is to explore the role of individual and collective identities in processes of modernization in multiple civilizations and cultures. Modernization was understood first of all as an economic and technological phenomenon pursued by contemporary societies throughout the world. This caused problems for traditional communities and identities, which are weakening or transforming into new forms.
Hence, the conference invites discussion among others: (1) Which characteristics of collective (social, religious, cultural, political) identities can enable innovation, and which impede modernization? (2) How to avoid negative effects of modernization upon social and cultural identities? (3) Is it possible to promote the sustainability of particular cultural identities while developing global cohesion?
The discussion of these problems will contribute to a better understanding of the current state of globalization, with, on the one hand, individualistic processes and, on the other hand, traditional
collective identities. Can the heritage of values and norms, customs and beliefs and the struggle to persist and to enable societies to evolve as unique subjects, despite the stress of global forces?
This conference will be held at the Institute of Philosophy, Adam Mickiewicz University. For further information please contact Professor Tadeusz Buksinski at The Institute of Philosophy, Adam Mickiewicz University: tabu@amu.edu.pl and cua-rvp@cua.edu .
RVP WORK IN 2011
Spring and Fall Seminars
Washington, D.C., August 24-September 26, 2011: "Responsibility Personal and Social: Foundations for Life in a Global Age". The human search to understand in order to control contains an unfortunate inbuilt reductionist dynamic. If the religious order leads to the mystery of divine life, religious research turns rather to the human as the more familiar and patent. Similarly if the human contains the mysteries of human freedom, the search for clarity turns rather to differences, disjunctions and conflicts, to what is necessary and necessitated about human life as the physical sciences remain the paradigm of human sciences. In this process what is lost sight of is responsibility either for others or even for oneself; one's actions and ethics become fields of mechanics.
At the same time the developments of human knowledge put ever greater power into human hands such that the destructive power in the world is uncontrolled and grows exponentially. This becomes ever more obvious not only in military terms, but in economics and politics, such that we live in a situation of increasing terror based less in others than in ourselves.
This calls for a rediscovery of human responsibility as the basis for an ethical order for guiding human life and action. Such was the goal of the seminar on responsibility, both personal and social as the foundation of life in a global age. Its aim was to foster an understanding of being human as the condition of being a member of society — as family, community, and indeed as global whole. Its focus was upon the realization of an holistic sense of human existence that promotes empathetic understanding and a constructive peace among human beings, cultures and nations, religions and civilizations. For this the seminar studied especially the thought of Emmanuel Levinas in Otherwise Than Being and Beyond in order to uncover a foundational self-responsibility in relation to neighbor and a willingness to assume radical openness to the transcendent.
The seminar participants came from such countries as Bulgaria, Belgium, Canada, China, Italy, Lithuania, USA, Vietnam (saee http://www.crvp.org/seminar/2011/seminar-11-participants.htm ). The seminar was conducted by Professor João J. Vila-Chã, Professor of the Gregorian University, Rome, and RVP Vice President for Programming. With his expertise in Levinas Professor Vila-Chã led the seminar participants in a careful reading of Levinas' work and a detailed discussion of his thought on the "Other". The seminar participants presented papers which fostered intensive discussions in relation to the issue of responsibility in the understanding of various cultures and civilizations. These papers will be published in the RVP series "Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change" along with those of previous conferences.
The seminar was enriched by three lectures, two of which were given by Professor Richard A. Cohen, Professor of Philosophy, University at Buffalo, on "Levinas' Philosophy" and the "Metaphysics Import of Otherwise Than Being and Beyond". Professor Cohen, a leading specialist on Levinas, has published extensively on his thought: LevinasianMeditations: Ethics, Philosophy, and Religion. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 2010; Ethics, Exegesis and Philosophy: Interpretation After Levinas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001; Ricoeur As Another: The Ethics of Subjectivity, Richard A. Cohen and James L. Marsh, eds. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001, etc. He led off his presentation from the position of Zeno following the multiple and discrete to the Levinas' fundamental sense of the need to relate to others as the very condition of humanness, thereby opening the issue of the further resources of unity in the creator and goal of human life.
A third lecture was by Professor Vincent Shen, Lee Chair Professor of the University of Toronto and RVP Executive Board member, on "Confucian Altruism, Generosity and Justice: A Response to Globalization". Specifically, Professor Shen gave a detailed elaboration of the notion of "Strangefication" in this global age, where one encounters people increasingly different from themselves. This calls for the promotion of such traditional values and virtues as generosity, benevolence, compassion, love, etc. Professor Shen's lecture echoed Levinas' thought on the "other" and complemented the seminar's focus from the Chinese perspective.
The seminar participants were invited by the Graham family for lunch at Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. During the lunch, the related issue of immigration emerged; the seminar participants had an intensive discussion and debate on the issue of immigration policies, how immigrants have been treated in different countries, how migrant workers from the countryside to big cities have encountered many problems, leading to a recognition of the need to explore further the notion of hospitality in relation to the other. This issue will become the focus for the 2012 RVP fall seminar in Washington, D.C.
Beirut, Lebanon, May 18-31, 2011: "Philosophy and Mysticism between Europe and Asia: The Cosmopolitan Dimensions of Islamic Thought and Spirituality". The RVP Center at Notre Dame University-Louaize, Lebanon, in conjunction with the Iranian Institute of Philosophy (IIP), Tehran, held an intensive 3 week seminar both at the campus of Notre Dame University and at the Cedars Institute in North Lebanon. Leading Christian and Muslim scholars from all parts of the world met to present scholarly papers and discuss texts, focusing on the topic "Freedom, Modernity, and Islam." The findings of the seminar will be published in the CRVP book series "Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change". The inauguration of the new RVP Center at Notre Dame University took place as the culminating event of the seminar. The seminar participants were also invited by The Sapiential Knowledge Institute For Religious & Philosophical Studies in Beirut to hold part of the seminar at their headquarters in Beirut, which was very fruitful. One notable and concrete result of these meetings was the Institute's decision to undertake an Arabic translation of the main text of the seminar, Freedom. Modernity, and Islam by Richard Kuri. The new RVP Center plans to hold annual extended seminars in Lebanon modeled after the annual fall seminars in Washington D.C., that have been held there for the last 30 years.
[To be continued.]
KARL JASPERS SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA
The Karl Jaspers Society of North America has scheduled the following program in conjunction with the Annual Meetings of the American Philosophical Association:
108th Annual Meeting Eastern Division APA Washington, DC
December 27-30, 2011
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel
Session 1: Author Meets Critics
Wednesday December 28, 2011
7:30 – 10:30 p.m.
Chair: Gregory J. Walters, Saint Paul University-Ottawa
Author: Alina Feld, Long Island University
Melancholy and the Otherness of God: A Study of the Hermeneutics and Therapy of Depression, Lexington Books, 2011.
Critics: Thomas J.J. Altizer, State University of New York at Stony Brook
Michael Raposa, Lehigh University
Tom Rockmore, Duquesne University
Elena Bezzubova, UC Irvine
Edward S. Casey, SUNY Stony Brook
Malek K. Khazaee, California State University at Long Beach
Session 2: Shiite Islam's Jurisprudence in Hermeneutic Perspective
Thursday December 29, 2011
7:00 – 10:00 p.m.
Chair: Helmut Wautischer, California State University at Sonoma
Presenters: Mohammad Reza Emam, University of Tehran
"Relation between philosophy and law in Islam"
Mohammad Reza Rezvantalab, University of Tehran
"Philosophy in Islam and the West"
Ali Asgariyazdi, University of Tehran, asgariyazdi@yahoo.com
"Characteristics of Islamic philosophy"
Mohammad Taghi Sobhani, Research Center of Science & Islamic Studies at Qom, Iran,
"Islamic Philosophical Foundations for World Peace and Justice from a Shi'a Perspective"
Reza Berenjkar, Tehran University at Qom, Iran
"Instrumental Reason in Islamic Thought"
Hadi Sadeghi, Hadith Sciences College at Qom, Iran
"The Rationality of Belief in Action"
Discussants: Ali Mo'allem Damghani, Iranian Academy of the Arts, Tehran
Charles Butterworth, University of Maryland
Dimitri Gutas, Yale University
Philip Clayton, Claremont School of Theology
86th Annual Meeting Pacific Division APA Seattle, WA
April 4-7, 2012
Westin Seattle, 1900 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101
Session 1: Author Meets Critics
Thursday, April 5, 2012
7:30 – 10:30 p.m.
Chair: Alan M. Olson, Boston University
Author: Tomoko Iwasawa (Reitaku University, Japan)
"Tama in Japanese Myth: A Hermeneutical Study of Ancient Japanese Divinity" (University Press of America, 2011).
Critics:
Michael Palencia-Roth (University of Illinois)
Fabio Rambelli (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Purushottama Bilimoria (University of California, Berkeley)
Helmut Wautischer (California State University, Sonoma)
Session 2: The Hermeneutics of Jaspers, Sartre, and Heidegger
Saturday, April 7, 2012
7:00 – 10:00 p.m.
Chair: Helmut Wautischer (Sonoma State University), helmut.wautischer@sonoma.edu
Presenters: David P. Nichols (Saginaw Valley State University), nicholsd@msu.edu
"The God of the Existentialist Philosophers: Fate, Freedom, and Mystery"
Kile Jones (Claremont Lincoln University), storiestold1@yahoo.com
"All the Consequences of This: Why Atheistic Existentialism is more Consistent than Religious Existentialism"
Discussants:
Chung-ying Cheng (University of Hawai'i, Manoa)
Purushottama Bilimoria (University of California, Berkeley)
Eric M. Dale (Emerson College)
Catharina Stenqvist (Lund University, Sweden)