Just Philosophy 2: Race, Gender, and Class in Philosophical Practice
Department of Philosophy, University of Nottingham
Organisers: Katharine Jenkins, Ian James Kidd, Aness Webster
All are welcome: register for free on the Eventbrite page.
Wednesday 8th November 2017
10:30 - Humanities Atrium
Tea and coffee
11.00 - Humanities A01
Why is Philosophy Unjust? How Can We Make it Just?
Katharine Jenkins, Ian James Kidd, Aness Webster
12.00 - Humanities Atrium
Lunch
1.00 - Humanities A01
“I need to give it some feeling”: emotions and self-esteem in academic philosophy
Anna Bortolan (University College Dublin)
The aim of this talk is to explore the role played by affectivity in epistemic experience and to highlight the relevance of the insights gained through this exploration for the way in which we conceive of and structure our work and professional interactions as academic philosophers. I will start by examining how affective states are involved in intellectual experience, focusing in particular on the so-called “epistemic emotions” and “epistemic feelings”, such as the feeling of knowing, curiosity, wonder, certainty, and doubt. I will suggest that while existing accounts of these affects correctly identify some of the ways in which they impact on epistemic experience and performance, some of their features need to be further explored.
More specifically, I will draw attention to the relationship which exists between epistemic affects and other forms of affective experience, in particular self-conscious emotions such as pride, shame, and guilt and various feelings and evaluations which are often associated with the experience of self-esteem. I will then proceed to present a phenomenological account of self-esteem, highlighting various ways in which this experience can modulate epistemic emotions and feelings, and ultimately have an influence also on epistemic agency and autonomy. I will then consider how some of the practices related to the acquisition, development, and communication of knowledge in both teaching and research contexts in academic philosophy may affect self-esteem and related emotions, advancing some suggestions as to what strategies may be employed in order to sustain and nurture this experience in the profession.
Chair: Aness Webster
2:30 - Humanities Atrium
Tea and Coffee
3.00 - Machicado Suite, Willoughby Hall
What Knowers Know Well: Why Feminism Matters to Archaeology – and to Philosophy
Alison Wylie (University of British Columbia, Canada)
Neglected questions about women, gender, and sexuality have been on the archaeological agenda since the late 1980s, and gender-inclusive archaeology has transformed what we know about the past. But some of its strongest advocates deny that they are engaged in feminist scholarship or in any way influenced by feminist politics. I question their conviction that research is only credible if it is ostensibly ‘value free’, and argue that the critical insights of a feminist standpoint are a crucial resource, and not just in archaeology. I make the case for rethinking ideals of objectivity in terms that counter epistemic injustice and mobilise the situated interests and experience of diverse knowers, a conclusion that applies as much to philosophy as to the social and historical sciences.
Chair: Katharine Jenkins
5:15 - Humanities C-Floor Atrium
Reception