Ethical Theory Conferences

Humanistic Perspectives on Moral Injury

April 11-12, 2019

Videos of conference presentations:

 

 

Conference on Overcriminalization
April 6-7, 2017
An interdisciplinary academic conference with features speakers David Boonin (Philosophy, University of Colorado, Boulder), Douglas Husak (Philosophy, Rutgers University), and Jelani Jefferson Exum (Law, University of Toledo). Presentations by Anna Roberts (Seattle University School of Law), Daniel Koltonski (University of Delaware), David Birks (University of Oxford), Keagan Potts (Western Michigan University), Benjamin Ewing (Duke University), Stephen Kershnar (SUNY-Fredonia), Jake Monoghan (University of Buffalo), Chad Flanders (St. Louis University), Wendy Calaway (University of Cincinnati), Jennifer Tillman (SUNY-Albany), Jennifer Baker (College of Charleston), Gustavo Beade (University of Buenos Aires). See program.

Publications emerging from this conference include:

Research conference to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the publication of John Rawls’s Political Liberalism.
May 12-13, 2016
In cooperation with the journal Ethics, principal papers from leading social and political theorists. Select papers later to appear in a special Ethics symposium issue. Featuring principal papers by Gerald Gaus (Philosophy, University of Arizona), John Skorupski (Moral Philosophy, University of St. Andrews), Sally Scholz (Philosophy, Villanova University), Erin Kelly (Philosophy, Tufts University), Paul Weithman (Philosophy, University of Notre Dame), and Rainer First (Political Theory, Goethe University). Discussants: Andrew Altman (Philosophy, GSU), Christie Hartley (Philosophy, GSU), William Edmundson (Philosophy, Law, GSU), Amy Baehr (Philosophy, Hofstra University), Mark van Roojen (Philosophy, University of Nebraska), Henry Richardson (Philosophy, Georgetown University).

Publications emerging from this conference include:

NEH Summer Seminar: “Liberty, Justice, and Equality in National and International Contexts”
June 4-28, 2012
This was a four-week National Endowment for the Humanities Seminar for College Teachers on political philosophy led by Andrew Altman and Christopher Heath Wellman. Fifteen participants were chosen from among eligible applicants.  The seminar featured appearances by Elizabeth Anderson (University of Michigan), Rae Langton (MIT), Michael Blake (U. of Washington), Samuel Freeman (U. of Pennsylvania), and, via Skype, Thomas Pogge (Yale),  who discussed their recently-published work and/or work-in-progress.

“Slavery and Freedom”
A One-day Faculty Seminar led by Orlando Patterson, Harvard University
April 6, 2012

“What Humanists Should Know About Islam and the Middle East”
A One-Day Seminar led by Juan R.L. Cole, Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History, University of Michigan
Date: Friday, October 2, 2009

Among all of the scholars and commentators in the U.S. who have written and spoken about Islam and the Middle East, Dr. Juan R.L. Cole stands out for his prodigious historical and cultural knowledge, his mastery of the pertinent languages, and above all, his incisive and reasoned assessment of matters whose discussion is too often enveloped in ignorance and irrationality.

The Jean Beer Blumenfeld Center for Ethics and the Middle East Institute are pleased to announce that Dr. Cole will be visiting GSU in order to discuss his work with our Arts and Sciences faculty. The seminar will take place on October 2, 9:30am to 4:30pm. There will be two morning sessions and two afternoon sessions. The discussions will center on readings from two of Dr. Cole’s books, _Sacred Space and Holy War_ and _Engaging the Muslim World_. Please obtain your own copy of the later book for the seminar. See the schedule below for the topics and readings for each session.

Conference on the Ethics of Philanthropy
September 24, 2010
Co-sponsored by Department of Economics, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. The conference will consider several themes in philanthropy, including who should give, how much, to whom for which purposes, how the money might be raised, and related ethical and practical issues. Panel discussants include several contributors to a forthcoming book on the topic, to be published by Oxford University Press. Panelists: Thomas Pogge (Philosophy, Yale), Leif Wenar (Philosophy, King’s College), Patricia Illingworth (Philosophy, Northeastern University), James Shulman (ARTStor).

2010 NEH Summer Seminar
June 1-25, 2010
Philosophical Perspectives on Liberal Democracy and the Global Order. This was a four-week National Endowment for the Humanities Seminar on political philosophy led by Andrew Altman and Christopher Heath Wellman. Sixteen participants (fourteen faculty and two graduate students) were chosen from among eligible applicants interested in liberalism, democracy and international justice. The seminar featured appearances by Arthur Applbaum (Harvard), David Estlund (Brown), Debra Satz (Stanford), and Thomas Pogge (Yale), who discussed their recently-published work and/or work-in-progress.

Seminar: Race and Racism in America
April 3, 2009
Dr. Lawrence D. Bobo, W.E.B. Dubois Professor of Social Sciences at Harvard University, lead a one-day seminar on “Race and Racism in America.”

RULES OF WAR CONFERENCE
October 27, 2007
Principal panelists:
Derek Jinks, University of Texas-Austin
Frances Kamm, Harvard University (A later version of her paper appears in Philosophy & Public Affairs, Volume 36, Issue 2, p 157-186.)
Steven Lee, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Jeff McMahan, Rutgers University
Madeline Morris, Duke University

THE PHILOSOPHY OF JOHN FINNIS
March 23-24 2007
Leslie Green, York University: The Duty to Govern
Mark Murphy, Georgetown University: Finnis on Nature, Reason, God
Michael Perry, Emory University: Morality and Normativity
Veronica Rodriguez-Blanco, University of Birmingham: Is Finnis Wrong? Understanding Normative Jurisprudence
Steven Smith, University of San Diego: Persons Persuing Goods
Respondent: John Finnis, University of Notre Dame
Discussants:
Larry Alexander, University of San Diego
Andrew Altman, Georgia State University
Andrew I. Cohen, Georgia State University
William Edmundson, Georgia State University

BERNARD WILLIAMS: A Philosophical Commemoration
March 17-18, 2006
Speakers:
John Deigh, University of Texas, Austin
Michael Green, University of Chicago
Adrian Moore, Oxford University
Martha Nussbaum, University of Chicago
Michael Stocker, Syracuse University
Discussants:
Jonathan Adler, City University of New York
Sarah Buss, University of Iowa
Donald Hubin, Ohio State University
Mark Jenkins, Johns Hopkins University
Christopher Kutz, University of California, Berkeley
Anthony Long, University of California, Berkeley
Henry Richardson, Georgetown University

JOEL FEINBERG MEMORIAL CONFERENCE
* Select papers have appeared in Legal Theory , Volume 11, Issue 03, September 2005.
April 1-2, 2005
Principal panelists:
Russ Shafer-Landau (Wisconsin): Liberalism and Paternalism
Christopher Heath Wellman (Washington University, St. Louis): Feinberg’s Two Concepts of Rights
Patricia Smith (CUNY), Feinberg and the Failure to Act
John Gardner (Oxford; Yale), The Varieties of Responsibility
Richard Arneson (UCSD), Joel Feinberg on Paternalism
Gerald J. Postema (UNC-Chapel Hill), Politics is About the Grievance: Feinberg on the Enforcement of Morals
Respondents:
Larry Alexander, University of San Diego
Andrew Altman, Georgia State University
Jules Coleman, Yale, NYU
William Edmundson, Georgia State University
Heidi Malm, Loyola University, Chicago
George Rainbolt, Georgia State University
Guest Respondents:
A. Jason Cohen, James Madison University
Ani Satz, Emory University

DISABILITY
* Select papers have appeared in Ethics 116 (1), 2005.
May 7-8, 2004
Papers presented:
Lawrence Becker – Reciprocity, Justice, and Disability
Dan Brock – Is Selection of Children Wrong?
N. Ann Davis – Invisible Disability
Leslie Francis – Understanding Their Good By, With, and For People with Significant Cognitive Disabilities
Eva Kittay – The Ethics of Philosophizing: Cognitive Impairment at the Margins of Moral Personhood
Jeff McMahan – Preventing the Existence of People with Disabilities
Anita Silvers – Contracting with Trust: Resolving the ‘Outlier Problem’ by (Re)Modeling Social Contract Theory
David Wasserman – Failing to ‘Prevent’ Impairments by Genetic Testing: Is it Wrong? Is Anyone Wronged?
Principal Speakers:
Lawrence Becker – College of William & Mary
Dan Brock – Harvard University
N. Ann Davis – Pomona College
Leslie Francis – University of Utah
Eva Kittay – SUNY, Stony Brook
Jeff McMahan – Rutgers University
Anita Silvers – San Francisco State University
David Wasserman – University of Maryland
Discussants:
Richard Arneson – University of California, San Diego
Sarah Goering – University of Washington
Agnieszka Jaworska – Stanford University
Ani Satz – Emory University
Jonathan Wolff – University College London
Sophia Wong – Long Island University, Brooklyn

TERRORISM AND JUSTICE
* Select papers have appeared in Ethics, Volume 114, Number 4, July, 2004.
April 4-5, 2003
Principal Speakers:
C.A.J. Coady, University of Melbourne
Frances Kamm, New York University
Onora O’Neill, Cambridge University
Saul Smilansky, University of Haifa
Michael Stocker, Syracuse University
Yael Tamir, Tel Aviv University
Jeremy Waldron, Columbia University
Noam Zohar, Bar Ilan University
Discussants:
Andrew Altman, Georgia State University
Sissela Bok, Harvard University
David Cop, Bowling Green State University
N. Ann Davis, Pomona College
John Deigh, Northwestern University
Jonathan Glover, Kings College London
Jeff McMahan, University of Illinois
David Miller, Oxford University
David Rodin, Oxford University
Andrew Valls, Morehouse College

G.E. MOORE CENTENARY
* Papers later appearing in Ethics, Volmne 113, Number 3, April, 2003:
April, 2002
Steven Darwall, “Moore, Normativity, and Intrinsic Value
Connie S. Rosati, “Agency and the Open Question Argument”
Nicholas L. Sturgeon, “Moore on Ethical Naturalism”
Frank Jackson, “Cognitivism, A Priori Deduction, and Moore”
Michael Smith, “Neutral and Relative Value after Moore”
Thomas Hurka, “Moore in the Middle’
Jonathan Dancy, “Are There Organic Unities?”
Donald H. Regan, “How to be a Moorean”

URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
* Papers later appearing in a special volume of Journal of Social Philosophy, Volume 34, Numer 1, Spring. 2003: (Andrew Light and Christopher Wellman, guest editors)
April 13-14, 2001
Participants:
Bill Lawson, Michigan State University
Avner de-Shalit, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Senior Lecturer in Politics) “Philosophy Gone Urban: Reflections on Urban Restoration”
Clare Palmer, University of Stirling (Religious Studies) “Placing Animals in Urban Environmental Ethics”
Bryan Norton, Georgia Institute for Technology
Andrew Light, New York University “Urban Ecological Citizenship”
Scott Pratt, University of Oregon
Richard Dagger, Arizona State University (Political Science) “Stopping the Sprawl for the Good of All: The Case for Civic Environmentalism”
Karsten Harries, Yale University
Diane Michelfelder, Utah State University “Valuing Wildlife Populations in Urban Environments”
Robert Bullard, Clark Atlanta University (Sociology)

HATE CRIME LEGISLATION
April 13-14, 2000
Papers published in Law and Philosophy, Volume 20, Number 2, March, 2001.
Andrew Altman, George Washington University, The Democratic Legitimacy of Bias Crime Laws: Public Reason and the Political Process
Heidi Hurd, University of Pennsylvania (Law), Why Liberals Should Hate Hate Crime Legislation”
Claudia Card, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Is Penalty Enhancement a Good Idea?
Dan Kahan, Yale University (Law), Three Free Speech Fallacies
Michael Blake, Harvard University, Geeks and Monsters: Bias Crimes and Social Identity

MEDICAL PRIVACY IN THE INFORMATION AGE
November 5, 1999
Proceedings published in Biomedical Ethics Reviews: Privacy and Health Care, James M. Humber and Robert F. Almeder (eds.) Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, 2001.
Charity Scott, Georgia State University (Law), Is Too Much Privacy Bad for Your Health?
Mark E. Meaney, Center for Ethics in Health Care, St. Joseph’s Health System, Atlanta, Data Mining, Dataveillance, and Medical Information Privacy
David Korn, Senior VP, Division of Biomedical and Health Sciences Research, AAMC, Medical Information Privacy and Conduct of Biomedical Research
Ray Moseley, University of Florida College of Medicine, Privacy and Insurance: Can You Mix Oil and Water?”
Margo P. Goldman, Director of Policy Development, National Coalition for Patient Rights, Medical Privacy in the Information Age: Policy Solutions
Patrick Fitzgerald, Louisiana State University, Privacy and Equality

THE MACHETTE CONFERENCE ON THE MORAL AND LEGAL LIMITS OF SAMARITAN DUTIES
June 18-19, 1999
Papers published in Law and Philosophy, Volume 19, Number 6, November, 2000.
Frances Kamm, New York University, Does Distance Matter Morally to the Duty to Rescue?
Heidi Malm, Loyola University Chicago, Bad Samaritan Laws: More Hype Than Help?
Arthur Ripstein, University of Toronto, Three Duties to Rescue: Moral, Civil, and Criminal
David Schmidtz, University of Arizona, Islands in a Sea of Obligation: The Nature and Limits of the Duty to Rescue

HOMELESSNESS
May 14-15, 1998
Jeremy Waldron, Columbia University (Law), Homelessness, Community, and Denial
Bob Ellickson, Yale University (Law), Panhandling and Public Spaces

THE MACHETTE LECTURES ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
May 1-2, 1997
Beauchamp published in The Journal of Ethics, Volume 2, Number 2, 1998.
Susan Haack, University of Miami, The Best Man for the Job May Be A Woman…and Other Alien Thoughts on Affirmative Action in the Academy
Tom Beauchamp, Georgetown University, In Defense of Affirmative Action

POLITICAL VIOLENCE
April 11-12, 1996
Published in The Journal of Ethics, Volume 1, Numbers 2 & 4, 1997.
Robert Audi, University of Nebraska, Preventing Abortion as a Test Case for the Justifiability of Violence
C.A.J. Coady, University of Melbourne, Objecting Morally
Virginia Held, Hunter College, City University of New York, Political Violence and the Media
Thomas Hill Jr, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Kantian Perspective on Political Violence
Richard W. Miller, Cornell University, Killing for the Homeland: Patriotism, Nationalism, and Violence
Burleigh T. Wilkins, University of California, Santa Barbara, A Third Principle of Justice

FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY
April 13-14, 1995
Published in The Journal of Ethics, Volume 1, Number 1, 1997.
Keith Lehrer, University of Arizona, Freedom, Preference, and Autonomy
Michael E. Bratman, Stanford University, Responsibility and Planning
John Martin Fischer, University of California-Riverside, Responsibility, Control, and Omissions
Margaret Gilbert, University of Connecticut-Storrs, Group Wrongs and Guilt Feelings
Carl Ginet, Cornell University, Freedom, Responsibility, and Agency

AFRICAN-AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
April 22-23, 1994
Published in The Journal of Ethics, Volume 1, Number 3, 1997.
Bernard Boxill, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Populism and Elitism in African-American Political Theory
Leonard Harris, Purdue University, Alain Locke and Community
Howard McGary, Rutgers University, Racism, Social Justice, and Interracial Coalitions
Lucius Outlaw, Haverford College, Africana Philosophy
William E. Lawson, Michigan State University, Property or Persons: On a ‘Plain Reading’ of the United States Constitution