Beyond the analytic-continental divide: Theology and Philosophy workshop

At the recent Centre of Theology and Philosophy workshop Metaphysics: First Philosophy after the Analytic-Continental Divide on 7 May 2016, members from the two departments of Philosophy and Theology and Religious Studies came together to discuss the status of metaphysics across the analytic-continental division in philosophy, bringing together scholars of a diverse range of philosophical traditions and expertise.

The day began with Mark Jago and Agata Bielik-Robson discussing the differences between the respective understandings of ‘metaphysics’ in analytic and continental traditions. This was followed by a panel on the attempts to recover ontology after Rudolf Carnap’s declaration of the ‘elimination’ or ‘overcoming’ of metaphysics, featuring presentations by Frederique Janssen-Lauret on W.V.O. Quine and Ruth Barcan Marcus in analytic philosophy, and Ian Bacher on Martin Heidegger in continental philosophy.

The workshop concluded with a conversation between John Milbank and Stephen Mumford discussing the future of metaphysics as what the intellectual tradition has known as ‘first philosophy’. In their final panel, Professors Milbank and Mumford reflected on their academic careers at Nottingham and the importance of the study of metaphysics not only in relation to the possibility of reconciling divisions between the analytic and continental traditions but also the future developments of the study of the wider humanities.

The workshop was organised by PGR student King-Ho Leung and sponsored by the Mind Association.