Philosophy Conference
On 30th June 2022, Tallis hosted a philosophy conference in partnership with The Royal Institute of Philosophy. Why philosophy? A range of eminent speakers tackled the relationship between philosophy and other disciplines. Young people from across the borough were invited to attend for a day of thoughtful puzzlement.
Why Philosophy? conference
Speakers:
- Ben Colburn (University of Glasgow)
- Katherine Jenkins (University of Glasgow)
- Tommy J Curry (Edinburgh University)
- Mary Leng (University of York)
- Tom Stern (University College London)
- Craig Lundy (London Metropolitan University)
- Martin Savransky (Goldsmiths University of London)
The event:
Thomas Tallis is proud to have received funding from the Royal Institute of Philosophy to host a one-date conference exploring philosophical ideas and their relationship to some of the big issues facing the world today. We have eminent academics, working in top university departments, from across the country coming to deliver talks on their areas of specialism. These include talks in philosophy and mathematics, the environment, feminism, race, history, the theatre, and politics.
This is an unprecedent opportunity to get the university experience first-hand from world leading academics. The ideas students will be exposed to will serve as a rich resource when coming to write university UCAS statements which require an engagement with academic ideas beyond the bounds of the curriculum. This conference is, therefore, a central part of the school’s package of support for yr 11 and 12 students in a position to make an ambitious application to a top university.
This is an unprecedent opportunity to get the university experience first-hand from world leading academics. The ideas students will be exposed to will serve as a rich resource when coming to write university UCAS statements which require an engagement with academic ideas beyond the bounds of the curriculum. This conference is, therefore, a central part of the school’s package of support for yr 11 and 12 students in a position to make an ambitious application to a top university.
Detailed Rationale:
Encountering other disciplines has been central for philosophy and its conceptual practice. Throughout its trajectory, from its classical past to the recent calls for decolonisation and gender equality, philosophy has engaged with the arts, literature, politics, the sciences, mathematics, psychoanalysis and cultural theory. In this sense, its relationship with other disciplines has never been simply restricted to the hierarchy implied in the classical trope ‘Philosophy of’. Rather, in conversing with other practices, philosophy has discovered modes of thought that have inevitably affected its own self-conception. Indeed, it is hard to imagine Nietzsche without tragedy, Whitehead without mathematics, Bergson without physics, Spivak without feminism and race theory, Fanon without political theory and psychoanalysis, to name a few. And yet it has been clear that other habits of creating and thinking have not always been happily engaged. Ever since the expulsion of poets and dramatists from Plato’s vision, Kant’s problematic portrayal of race or the continuing absence of women thinkers from the canon, philosophy has had to come to terms with its claim to intellectual superiority as well as its claim to power. On the other end of this, it has also recently come to experience the paradox of its own vulnerability precisely because of this claim. At the same time that philosophical ideas fuse with those of other disciplines, philosophy’s own disciplinary boundaries are constantly being diffused. Productive encounters with other ways of thinking and doing have thus been taking place alongside closures of philosophy departments and the increasing emergence of pop-philosophy in a capitalist economy of wisdom being sold in the form of self-help formulas.
Conscious of this double bind, the proposed conference will try to imagine a rigorous future for philosophical thinking beyond disciplinary purism but also beyond the risk of populism. Thinking and/with Philosophy will therefore seek to consider a variety of themes including but not restricted to: the relation between philosophy and its various outsides; the question of thinking within, without or between disciplines; the question of non-philosophical thought; the place of artistic and scientific practice in philosophy and vice versa; the confluence of philosophical and mathematical thinking; feminism and philosophy; the encounter between philosophy and theories of race; philosophy and history; philosophy and political theory.
In hosting this conference, we aspire to engage a diverse audience including philosophers and non-philosophers, teachers and A-Level students of all subjects. As such, this event would promote philosophy in a number of different ways. First, it would provide specialist support for students studying A-level philosophy, and an element of ongoing professional development to support teachers who are (or are interested in) teaching the same. Some sessions would be linked to the content of the school syllabus for this reason, albeit that the aim would be to go beyond what is already covered in classes. Second, it would promote philosophy to people whose centre of gravity is in different subjects. Sessions at the conference would explore both how philosophical themes are connected to topics in (e.g.) mathematics, physics, history and literature. The event would also thereby demonstrate how philosophical reasoning is valuable for students studying diverse disciplines. As before, part of this aim would also be teacher-focused, encouraging teachers in other subjects to identify these intellectual connections with philosophy too. Third, the event as a whole aims to encourage students - whether or not they have studied Philosophy formally yet - to see philosophy as a live option for them in the future. That might mean studying the subject at university, and we hope to facilitate informal conversations with academics in the area which might help answer questions students might have about that possible pathway. But more generally we aim to show how the questions of philosophy, and its typical methods of inquiry, can enrich life even when someone isn't studying the subject formally (or even studying at all).
Conscious of this double bind, the proposed conference will try to imagine a rigorous future for philosophical thinking beyond disciplinary purism but also beyond the risk of populism. Thinking and/with Philosophy will therefore seek to consider a variety of themes including but not restricted to: the relation between philosophy and its various outsides; the question of thinking within, without or between disciplines; the question of non-philosophical thought; the place of artistic and scientific practice in philosophy and vice versa; the confluence of philosophical and mathematical thinking; feminism and philosophy; the encounter between philosophy and theories of race; philosophy and history; philosophy and political theory.
In hosting this conference, we aspire to engage a diverse audience including philosophers and non-philosophers, teachers and A-Level students of all subjects. As such, this event would promote philosophy in a number of different ways. First, it would provide specialist support for students studying A-level philosophy, and an element of ongoing professional development to support teachers who are (or are interested in) teaching the same. Some sessions would be linked to the content of the school syllabus for this reason, albeit that the aim would be to go beyond what is already covered in classes. Second, it would promote philosophy to people whose centre of gravity is in different subjects. Sessions at the conference would explore both how philosophical themes are connected to topics in (e.g.) mathematics, physics, history and literature. The event would also thereby demonstrate how philosophical reasoning is valuable for students studying diverse disciplines. As before, part of this aim would also be teacher-focused, encouraging teachers in other subjects to identify these intellectual connections with philosophy too. Third, the event as a whole aims to encourage students - whether or not they have studied Philosophy formally yet - to see philosophy as a live option for them in the future. That might mean studying the subject at university, and we hope to facilitate informal conversations with academics in the area which might help answer questions students might have about that possible pathway. But more generally we aim to show how the questions of philosophy, and its typical methods of inquiry, can enrich life even when someone isn't studying the subject formally (or even studying at all).
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