Royal Institute of Philosophy Conference 2010 - HUMAN NATURE

Tuesday 15 June 2010 14:00 - Thursday 17 June 2010 17:00

Open to all

Of particular interest to: Staff - teaching / Staff - research / Staff - support / Current students - undergraduate / Current students - postgraduate taught / Current students - postgraduate research / Academic community / Alumni / Media

Location

The Main Lecture Theatre (B1/01) , Harcourt Hill Campus

Details

Conference Theme

The Royal Institute of Philosophy has been organizing themed conferences promoting the public understanding of philosophy since 1969. Oxford Brookes University is pleased to be hosting the 32nd RIP conference, on the theme of Human Nature.

An understanding of Human Nature has been central to the work of some of the greatest philosophical thinkers including Plato, Descartes, Hume, Hobbes, Rousseau, Freud, and Marx. In more recent years writers as diverse as Steven Pinker, Ian McEwan, Philip Pullman, Simon Baron-Cohen, Mary Midgley, and Edward O. Wilson have all expounded their views on related issues with much passion. Questions such as ‘what is human nature?’, ‘is there such a thing as an exclusively human nature?’, ‘through what methods might we best discover more about our nature?’, and ‘to what extent are our actions and beliefs constrained by it?’ are of central importance not only to philosophy and science, but to our general understanding of ourselves as part of the human species.

This conference aims to address key issues and taboos surrounding the theme of human nature by bringing together philosophers working in a multitude of areas including the philosophy of cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, the philosophy of biology, psychoanalysis, ethics, developmental psychology, philosophy of mind and action, the philosophy of psychology, and the history of philosophy.

For a list of previous RIP conferences please click here

Speakers

• Stephen Boulter (Oxford Brookes University)
• Mark Cain (Oxford Brookes University)
• Beverly Clack (Oxford Brookes University)
• John Cottingham (University of Reading and Heythrop College, London)
• Tim J. Crow (Prince of Wales International Centre and University of Oxford)
• John Dupré (University of Exeter)
• Hans-Johann Glock (University of Zürich)
• P.M.S. Hacker (St. John’s College, Oxford)
• Wolfram Hinzen (University of Durham)
• Peter Kail (St. Peter’s College, Oxford)
• Richard Samuels (Ohio State University)
• Kim Sterelny (ANU and Victoria University at Wellington)

Paper titles to be confirmed in Spring 2010. The conference proceedings shall be subsequently published by Cambridge University Press as a supplement to the Institute’s journal, Philosophy.

Location

The conference will take place in the main lecture theatre (B1/01) at Oxford Brookes University’s Harcourt Hill campus, home of the Westminster Institute of Education (WIE) where philosophy is housed among related subjects such as religion, cultural studies, and education. The campus is extremely well located, a mere 15-20 minutes by taxi or bus from Oxford rail station and the city centre. The campus also provides onsite parking and excellent accommodation and catering at reasonable prices.

• Directions and local transport information are available here
• A campus map is available here

Oxford Brookes University has been named leading modern university by the Sunday Times University Guide for the past nine years and is now placed as one of the UK’s top 50 universities in the guide, ahead of many traditional universities. The guide recently praised Brookes for 'strong teaching that no other modern university and few older universities can rival'. WIE’s interdisciplinary research project on Human Nature and linked MA in Mind, Brain and Learning, were established in 2006. In 2008 we received University funding for a three-year early career fellowship in philosophy with a specific reference to human nature, leading to a permanent lectureship.

Registration and Accommodation

The registration form for the conference is available here.

Graduate students are eligible for Analysis Trust covering up to 50% of full cost of registration and accommodation.

Please apply by emailing Constantine Sandis before completing the registration form.

For a list of information pertaining to nearby hotels and hostels please click here