January 23rd, 2010

Dear Colleagues,

We invite you to apply to our seminar “Aristotle on Truth and Meaning,” a National Endowment for the Humanities summer seminar for university and college teachers, to be held at San Diego State University in San Diego, California, from 21 June until 16 July, 2010. Our seminar will be devoted to the study of Aristotle’s semantic conception of truth and falsehood, both in light of his account of how human language and thought represent the world and in relation to other conceptions of truth and falsehood from those of his predecessors to those of leading contemporary philosophers. In Aristotle’s model of language and thought, linguistic assertions signify beliefs in the minds of language users. These beliefs represent the world and true beliefs represent the world the way it actually is (while false beliefs fail to do so). Aristotle’s theory of linguistic signification, representational thought, and truth are neatly integrated and provide a highly sophisticated account of how we represent the world. In order to understand his theory better, we shall examine relevant texts from his logical works, his physical and biological works, and his psychological works. The objective of our study of Aristotle’s theory of truth is to better understand how, exactly, Aristotle conceived of the relationship between language, thought, and reality. His theory will also be considered in the light of recent research in the related fields of philosophical semantics, metaphysics and the philosophy of mind. We will undertake a careful study of Aristotle’s texts and the most recent scholarship in these fields.

Please click here to download a PDF attachment that contains all of the relevant details. If you can’t open the attachment, or for further information, please contact us at mark.wheeler@sdsu.edu or 619-379-0686.

Best regards,

Deborah K. W. Modrak and Mark Wheeler

January 16th, 2010

This is a reminder of a call for papers from anyone working on any aspect of the epistemology or methodology of Aristotle’s Generation of Animals. Allan Gotthelf (HPS, University of Pittsburgh) and Devin Henry (Philosophy, University of Western Ontario) are putting together the Fifth Pittsburgh/London (Ont.) Workshop on Aristotle’s Generation of Animals, this one to be held at the University of Western Ontario on May 25-27, 2010. The theme of this workshop is Science and Methodology in Aristotle’s Generation of Animals.

The workshop, limited to 20-25 participants, will have two sorts of sessions: five two-hour sessions on broader topics, with a presenter, a lead questioner, and a chair guiding extended discussion; and five one-hour sessions on narrower topics with a presenter and a chair guiding extended discussion. Submissions are being sought for some of the one hour sessions.

Participants include (among others): Robert Bolton (Rutgers), Jim Hankinson (UT–Austin), Joe Karbowski (Notre Dame), Jim Lennox (Pittsburgh), Mariska Leunissen (Washington Univ.–St. Louis),  Sophia Connell (Cambridge), Kathleen Cook (Pittsburgh), Marguerite Deslauriers (McGill), David Ebrey (Northwestern), Henry Mendell (Cal.St.Univ.-LA), Greg Salmieri (UNC-Chapel Hill), Philip van der Eijk (Newcastle), and the organizers, Allan Gotthelf and Devin Henry.

Proposed papers should be readable in 20-30 minutes, ensuring ample time for workshop discussion. Please send a detailed abstract (one-page, single-spaced) to Devin Henry (dhenry3@uwo.ca). Accommodations and support for travel depends on our ability to secure outside funding.

DEADLINE: January 15, 2010 (notification by February 1).

For more information, please contact Devin Henry (dhenry3@uwo.ca) or Allan Gotthelf (gotthelf@pitt.edu).

November 25th, 2009

Greetings SAGP members. Just “click here” to download a PDF version of the SAGP Newsletter 2009/10.1. Enjoy!

October 27th, 2009

Greetings SAGP members. Just “click here” to download a PDF version of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy for the current academic year. Enjoy!

May 7th, 2009

Click here to download the flyer/announcement for the upcoming seminar series on Plato’s Sophist entitled “Plato on being, non-being, and falsity” taking place in June, 2009 at The University of St Andrews. For more information, please contact professor Sarah Broadie at sjb15@st-andrews.ac.uk