CFA: Postdoctoral Fellowship in Philosophy, Wuhan University, China

A Two-Year, Fixed Term Postdoctoral Fellowship in Philosophy at Wuhan

A fixed-term research and teaching postdoctoral fellowship in philosophy is available from September 2009 for two years in the School of Philosophy at Wuhan University, China. The fellow will work in coordination with a faculty member at Wuhan. The successful candidate must have obtained his or her doctoral degree by May, 2009, no earlier than May, 2004. He or she will demonstrate potential for producing outstanding research in the areas of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, comparative philosophy, Chinese philosophy, phenomenology within the period of the Fellowship.  The candidate is expected to have an original, well-argued research proposal covering relevant topics, including publication plans for articles. Some knowledge of Chinese would be preferred, but not required. Considerations will be preferred to those candidates who obtained or will obtain their degrees at English-speaking universities.  All applicants will be informed of the result in the middle of July, 2009.

Job description:
(1) The fellow will teach one course per semester, two courses per academic year. The language of instruction is English. No knowledge for Chinese language is required.
(2) The fellow is required to be in residency for 2 years.
(3) The fellow should work to a goal of at least two articles accepted for publication by good journals and in press within the period of the Fellowship.
(4) At the end of the tenure, the fellow should finish a book-length work and defend it in front of the postdoctoral committee.

The grant consists of:
(1) A stipend of 3000 yuan per month for 24 months;
(2) A free housing;
(3) Health insurance (the same as faculty members’)
(4) Eligible for applying research fund in the amounts of 30,000-
50,000 yuan from the Ministry of Education of China.

Applications should include:
(1) Curriculum vitae with full information about degrees;
(2) Any publication or a writing sample;
(3) A 1500 word research proposal outlining the particular questions and issuesyou will address and your proposed lines of argument and methodology;
(4) Three reference letters sent or emailed directly from the referees. In your CV, please include the names and full contact details (including address, email and telephone) of 3 referees, who should be familiar with your academic work.

The deadline for the receipt of the application and references is June 1, 2009

Contact information:
Professor Changchi Hao,
School of Philosophy,
Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072,
China.
Email: changchi_hao@163.com

CONF CFP: Immanence and Materialism Conference, June 2009, University of London, UK

CALL FOR PAPERS: IMMANENCE AND MATERIALISM CONFERENCE

Date: 23 June 2009
Venue: Queen Mary, University of London
Call for papers deadline: 22 May 2009
All papers and enquiries to: s.j.choat@qmul.ac.uk
Keynote speakers:
Professor James Williams (University of Dundee)
Dr Ray Brassier (American University of Beirut)
Dr Alberto Toscano (Goldsmiths, University of London)

The concepts of immanence and materialism are becoming increasingly important in political philosophy. This conference seeks to analyse the connections between these two concepts and to examine the consequences for political thought. It is possible, as Giorgio Agamben has done, to make a distinction within modern philosophy between a
line of transcendence (Kant, Husserl, Levinas, Derrida) and a line of immanence (Spinoza, Nietzsche, Deleuze, Foucault). If we follow this distinction, then ?the line of immanence? might include Spinozist interpretations of Marx, Althusser?s aleatory materialism, and Deleuze’s superior empiricism. But what is the value of this work and
is it useful to distinguish it from ‘transcendent’ Philosophies? Distinctions between materialism and idealism are equally complex: Derrida, for example, might as easily be classed a materialist as an idealist. And where can we place more recent work like the critiques of Deleuze by Badiou and Zizek, or Meillassoux’s speculative materialism?

Papers may wish to consider the following questions:

What is materialist philosophy? How can it be distinguished from idealist philosophy, and is it useful to do so? Are all philosophies of immanence necessarily materialist?

Is it legitimate or useful to make a clear distinction between philosophies of immanence and philosophies of transcendence?

How have the concepts of immanence and materialism traditionally been conceived within political philosophy?

What, if any, are the political consequences of pursuing a philosophy of immanence?

Paper titles and a 300-word abstract should be sent by Friday 22 May 2009 to Simon Choat at s.j.choat@qmul.ac.uk, Department of Politics, Queen Mary.

Graduate papers welcome.

JRNL CFP: Special Issue of Philosophical Papers, “Retributive Emotions”

Call for Papers: ‘Retributive Emotions’

Special Issue of *Philosophical Papers*
Guest Editor: Lucy Allais (Witwatersrand and Sussex)

Reactive attitudes are affective ways of viewing agents in response to the good or bad will that they demonstrate in their actions; retributive reactive attitudes, such as resentment, indignation, guilt, and contempt, are the subset of reactive attitudes that involve seeing the agent to whom they are directed as having done wrong. Philosophers have both defended and criticised the moral value of retributive reactive attitudes. Defenders have explored their intimate connections with self-respect, resistance to injustice, accountability, agency, and personhood, and some philosophers argue we cannot understand responsibility without these emotions. At the same time, both in philosophy and in popular culture it is often thought that dissolving or overcoming retributive emotions is both healthy and virtuous. Both views raise complex questions about the nature of retributive reactive attitudes. The aim of this special issue of *Philosophical Papers* is to explore this area, and with it, the complex role that the moral emotions play in our understanding of wrongdoing.

Possible topics for discussion include:

- Analyses of particular retributive attitudes.
- The intentional content of the retributive emotions.
- The significance and role of the ‘feeling’ part of retributive attitudes.
- The relation between retributive emotions and moral judgments.
- The relation between, on the one hand, having a particular emotional response to wrongdoing and, on the other hand, ‘properly’ grasping the wrongness of the wrong and the perpetrator’s culpability and ‘properly’ condemning this wrong.
- The relationship between retributive emotions and responsibility.
- The relationship between retributive emotions and punishment.
- The relationship between retributive emotions and forgiveness.
- The rational or moral culpability, if any, in not having retributive emotional responses, and whether there are differences between self-directed and other-directed retributive responses.
- The extent to which the retributive emotions are optional or avoidable.
- The possibility of having ‘positive’ reactive attitudes (e.g., gratitude) without having retributive reactive attitudes.

The deadline for receipt of submission is 30 June 2010. This special edition of *Philosophical Papers*, which will contain both invited and submitted papers, will appear in November of 2010.

Authors are encouraged to submit manuscripts electronically, as a pdf or word-document attachment, prepared for blind review, emailed to <philosophical.papers@ru.ac.za>. Authors should include their full name, affiliation, and address for email correspondence with their submission.

Further enquiries can be addressed to Lucy Allais (Lucy.Allais@Wits.ac.za) or Ward Jones, Editor, *Philosophical Papers* (w.jones@ru.ac.za).

CONF CFP: International Darwin Conference, University of Bradford, UK

The University of Bradford, in conjunction with Bradford City Council, will hold an International Darwin Conference at the University’s Norcroft Centre, on September 24-26, 2009. Confirmed keynote speakers are Gerald Edelman, Steve Jones, Anthony O’Hear and Denis Walsh. This conference will focus on the following themes:

1.      Darwinism in Approaches to the Mind: Evolutionary Psychology, neural Darwinism, emergentist models of the mind.

2.      Darwinism in the Social Sciences: Darwinian approaches in economics, the evolution of social cooperation, social Darwinism, meme theory, ethics.

3.      Darwinism in the Life Sciences: the unit of selection problem, Darwinian methodology; human evolution, non-genomic inheritance.

4.      Reception of Darwinism: the reception of Darwinism in Britain and Europe today and in the 19th century.

The organizers invite all those interested in presenting a paper to submit an abstract (250-300 words). The deadline for abstracts is May 15, 2009. Please submit your abstracts to

Darwin2009@brad.ac.uk

Decision on acceptance: June 19, 2009

The full conference fee will be £85, which includes a conference pack and conference dinner. Details of how to pay will be announced by May 15. Concessions will be available.

The following website contains further information:

http://www.brad.ac.uk/ihs/Darwin2009/

Please circulate as widely as possible, if you can.

Please note also that Bradford City Council is holding a number of Darwin-related events throughout the year and there will be activities complementary to the conference (public lectures etc.) coinciding with this meeting. Further details of these will be announced separately.

BOOK CFP: Ethics: A University Reader, Progressive Frontiers Press

The Progressive Frontiers Press, the Publishing House of the Philosophical Frontiers Journal, is preparing a number of books for publication. We are currently inviting authors to contribute to our book ‘Ethics: A University Reader’ (Working Title). We have already secured authors for many of the chapters, but are still seeking suitably qualified individuals to write the following:

The History of Ethical Thought
Utilitarian Ethics
Ethics of Care
Rights
Contractualism

If you are interested in writing any of the above, then please contact me at contact@frontierspublications.com with a copy of your academic CV and a statement of interest.

Further details are available below.

Ethics: A University Reader (Working Title). Information and Guidelines.

Focus

The book is intended to serve as a core university reader, which will discuss key issues in ethics. Chapters will be non-biased discussions of various themes, which will introduce the reader to the key concepts, theories and thinkers that are specific to the theme of the chapter in question.

The chapters should be written for an audience that has some philosophical knowledge, but which is not extensive. Therefore, approximate what you think a second year undergraduate student would be able to understand and engage with.

Each chapter should “stand-alone” in the sense that it will be possible to read the chapter in isolation from the rest of the book.

Word Count

Chapters should be between 7500 and 9000 words in length (excluding references/bibliography).

Therefore, chapters should be concise and clearly structured.

Deadlines

The provisional deadline for proposals for an assigned chapter’s content is the 1st of May, with the completed draft of to be submitted by the end of August. This will ensure that the book can be brought to market by the end of the year.

Commitment

If you agree to write a chapter then it is essential that you meet the deadlines in question.

Copyright

The book will have an international copyright license. However, authors may reproduce their chapters, or portions thereof, elsewhere with the proviso that this book is referenced as the first version of the publication.

Distribution

The book will be distributed internationally. It will be made available through online retailers and in selected bookstores.

Proceeds

The first £6,000 generated from sales will be used to fund the Philosophical Frontiers Conference, which will take place in 2012. All subsequent post-production earnings will be evenly split between the contributors.

Queries

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact me at contact@frontierspublications.com

Other Contributors

Once the full list of contributors is finalised, this will be circulated to all contributors.

CFA: Research Studentships in Modern European Philosophy, Middlesex University, UK

The Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Middlesex University is to offer two Research Degree Studentships for full-time students to be taken up at the start of the autumn term, September 2009. The awards are for a period of three years, subject to annual monitoring.

The Studentship is granted for UK and EU-level tuition fees for full-time research degree students and an annual living grant of £15,000. Non-EU students are eligible to apply, but if successful will need to make their own financial arrangements to cover the difference in fees. The successful applicants may be asked to undertake an average up to 40 contact hrs per annum over three years (not more than 60 hours in any one academic year) of undergraduate teaching, or an equivalent amount of research assistance or research administration in the CRMEP, as a part of their Studentship.

Proposals are invited for research in any area of Modern European Philosophy consistent with the aims of the Centre and the interests and expertise of supervisory staff. For further information about staff interests and expertise, go to: www.mdx.ac.uk/www/crmep/ Eligibility Applicants are expected to hold a good honours degree and to have completed a postgraduate qualification (MA or equivalent) in Philosophy or a related discipline relevant to their research by the time of taking up the award.

Application procedure

All applicants should complete and submit a standard, School of Arts and Education, Research Degree Application Form http://www.mdx.ac.uk/research/degrees/apply.asp paying particular attention to the requirements of the Proposal. In addition, they should include a letter of application making their case for the award of a Studentship.

*     Deadline for receipt of an applications is noon, 1 May 2009. To: Administration Officer, School of Arts & Education, Research office, Trent Park campus, Bramley Road, London N14 4YZ, T: 020 8411 6349, F: 020 8411 4608, E: c.alleyne@mdx.ac.uk

*     For further inquiries about these Studentships, contact Professor Peter Osborne on p.osborne@mdx.ac.uk

Philosophy at Middlesex was grade 2.80 in RAE 2008, with 65% of the research activities judged to be in the top two grades of 4* (‘world-leading’) and 3* (‘internationally excellent’).

CFA: Human Rights Fellowships, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

Call for Applications

Human Rights Fellowships
Program on Human Rights and Justice,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA (USA)

MIT’s Program on Human Rights and Justice offers in-residence fellowships for academic year 2009-10. Fellowships are for post-docs, practitioners, and government
and multilateral agency officials. The fellowship fee is $3,000 for one semester, $5,000 for the entire academic year (September through May), paid by the Fellow or his/her
sponsoring institution to MIT. The residency includes office space at the MIT Center for International Studies (CIS), all library privileges, access to courses, and all other campus
activities. Fellows typically interact with the entire academic community of the greater Boston area, and would be expected to give a seminar presentation during their tenure.
The PHRJ Fellows have in the past come from U.N. Agencies, other universities, and NGOs. No financial aid is available, and Fellows are responsible for their own housing and living expenses. CIS is a multi-disciplinary research center addressing many global issues. Applications should include a CV and letter explaining their interest in the fellowship, with two references listed. There is no deadline.

Contact:

John Tirman
Center for International Studies
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Building E38-210
292 Main Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA
Phone: +1 617 253-9861
Fax:   +1 617 253-9330
Email: tirman@mit.edu
Web: http://mit.edu/cis

CFA: Visiting Fellowship at the Joseph L. Rotman Institute of Science and Values, University of Western Ontario, Canada

Joseph L. Rotman Institute of Science and Values

The Visiting Fellows Program

Visiting Fellowships are open to scholars with a PhD. degree pursuing a research project that engages contemporary science from ethical, epistemological, or historical perspectives. Visiting Fellows will have no formal duties, but they will be expected to participate actively in the intellectual community of the Rotman Institute. Visiting Fellows will be asked to give a talk describing their research project, and they are encouraged to participate in the many reading groups, seminars, talks, and other ongoing projects at the Rotman Institute. They are required to reside in London, Ontario during the Fellowship and to make regular use of their office at the Rotman Institute.

Visiting Fellows will be provided with an office, computer, full library access, and minimal office support. They will be paid a supplementary stipend of $1,000 – 1,300 per month. They can participate in the activities of the Department of Philosophy including colloquia and graduate seminars (with instructor permission). The University of Western Ontario’s Department of Philosophy is one of the most distinguished departments in Canada.

How to Apply

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. However, to insure full consideration for a Visiting Fellowship beginning in September 2009 applications should be received by July 1st. Applications will continue to be reviewed throughout the year, within space and funding constraints. Interested applicants are encouraged to inquire about possible openings at any time of year.

Applications should include:

1.      A cover letter stating interest in a Visiting Fellowship, which also describes the proposed term of the Fellowship, sources and amount of external funding (e.g. sabbatical pay), and an indication of need for supplementary funds.

2.      Curriculum Vitae.

3.      Description of the research to be undertaken during the term of the Fellowship.

4.      Sample of written work (hard copy, or link to a website).

5.      For Junior Applicants: list of 2-3 referees familiar with your work.

Applications and inquiries should be addressed to:
Prof. Charles Weijer
Director, J.L. Rotman Institute of Science and Values
Department of Philosophy
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario, CANADA N6A 3K7
Email: cweijer@uwo.ca

CONF CFP: Terror and the Challenges to Nation-State, October 2009, Lisbon

Call for Papers: Terror and the challenges to nation-state
Lisbon 29-30th, October 2009
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas – Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Convenor:
Prof. Diogo Pires Aurélio (Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, UNL Lisbon)

Keynote speakers:

Ken Booth (University of Wales, British Academy)
Andrew Silk (University of East London)

Call for Papers
(30 minutes)

The conference aims to assess the state of current research on terrorism and its challenges to nation state. The conference will be held at the Faculty of human and social sciences – New University of Lisbon, Portugal, on the 29 and 30th of October, 2009.

International terrorism is a historical phenomenon without precedent. To think its relation to States intertwined in an international community is the aim of the conference, relating such phenomena to philosophical and religious concepts determinant in western thought and to assess the changes that actual historical experience implies to such concepts. Political philosophy is thus the privileged field to such an approach:

(1) Retrieving sacrificial violence theories as a negative way of communication with the concept of totality and time transcendence and social differentiation – from ideological terrorism with no territorial claims to eco-terrorism.

(2) Developing an analysis of the changes brought about at the level of state sovereignty, understood as the last juridical resort and as the monopoly of violence, together with a reflection on trans-national security measures and their legitimacy at intra-state level.

Selected papers will be published in hard copy.

Abstracts of max. 500 words in length should be submitted to terror_nationstate@yahoo.co.uk by 30th June.

Panels will be arranged on the basis of the papers received according to homogeneity of content.

No funding provided.

Enquiries relating to any subject should be sent to the e-mail address indicated above.