August 15-18, 2012, Uppsala, Sweden
Subjectivity, consciousness, self-awareness, and the intentional
aspects of perception and apprehension are popular topics in the
contemporary philosophy of mind. A common thread amongst the various
approaches to them has been dissatisfaction with the Cartesian
paradigm of a self-constituted subject that is perfectly free in its
volitions and epistemically transparent to itself, typically
presented as standard for the modern age. Working from the opposite
end, historians of philosophy and ethicists have noted that ancient
and medieval ethics operated in a strikingly different
understanding of self. Far from subscribing to the Cartesian
notion, pre-modern moral philosophy generally took its cue from
the assumption that human selfhood is socially construed. Our
instinctive apprehension and evaluation of reality has as much to
do with our upbringing as it does with our conscious acts of
cognition and evaluation.
It is in the Middle Ages that these two lines of thought converge.
Historians of philosophy have noted that Descartes¹ understanding of
subjectivity did not develop in a vacuum; rather, it represents
the culmination of medieval debates, which in turn build on
ancient precedents. At the same time, the virtue ethics tradition
underwent significant transformations, thanks in part to pressures
arising from religious and legal considerations. These include a
preoccupation with the freedom of choice and one¹s culpability for
the character one acquires.
The present conference invites abstracts for submissions relating to
these issues in Antiquity, the Latin and Arabic Middle Ages, and
the Early Modern period. Relevant questions to consider are, for
example: descriptions and explanations of consciousness and self-
consciousness; degrees of self-consciousness; the conceptual shift
from soul as the form of the human body to human self; human selves
and the divine self; techniques of the self, constructability of
the self; social conditioning of human selfhood; and the dual
concept of microcosm and macrocosm.
The submissions will be allotted 30 minutes for presentation and
discussion. An abstract of max. 300 words should be sent for
confirmed keynote speakers include Calvin Normore and Udo Thiel.
Uppsala is located about 70km north of Stockholm (20-30 minutes from
Arlanda airport). The fourth largest city in Sweden, Uppsala is an
historical treasure with beautifully preserved monuments from both
the pre-Christian and the Christian era. Uppsala University is the
oldest in Scandinavia and presently a leading international centre
of higher learning and research.
The conference is jointly financed by the University of Jyväskylä
and Uppsala University, and organized by two research groups, SSALT
(Subjectivity and Selfhood in the Arabic and Latin Traditions) in
Jyväskylä and Understanding Agency in Uppsala.
