Boole Lectures in Philosophy
Semester 2, 2022-23 (*Updated*!)
- February 1st, 3-5pm: "Making the State Responsible" -- Miguel Garcia Godinez (UCC)
- February 13th, 4-6pm: "Love, Hate & Eros" -- Kevin Mulligan (Università Della Svizzera Italiana) (NB: This talk takes place in the Dora Allman Room)
- March 15th, 3-5pm: Climate Change is an Emergency. What Difference Does That Make? -- Alice Evatt (University of Oxford).
- Abstract: Climate Change is an emergency. So what? Since approximately 2019, "climate emergency" has become the standard term we use to denote the issue. And yet, this terminological change has not seemed to make much of a difference. For the most part, our approach and response to the issue has remained business as usual. Is climate change a genuine emergency? If so, what difference, if any, does or should the fact that climate is an emergency make? In this talk I draw out several key differences. First, emergencies carry consequences for action: if something is an emergency, it is not enough to say that we ‘ought’ to act; we must act. Second, emergencies demand a shift in focus from blame, responsibility and justice to action and problem resolution. Third, emergencies can justify extreme measures and states of exception that undermine democratic procedures and civil liberties, but, importantly, they do not unconditionally necessitate them. I conclude by canvassing some climate responses that the emergency, I argue, would currently justify — the mundanity of these responses, such as a universal carbon tax, may be surprising to some.
- March 30th, 5-6.30pm: “Psychosis in schizophrenia: poor reality testing or double bookkeeping?”
- Abstract: This talk explores how psychosis manifests experientially in schizophrenia. The talk sheds a critical light on the current definitions of psychosis, delusion, and hallucination, and it proposes that to faithfully understand psychosis in schizophrenia, we must reconsider the idea that psychosis simply amounts to a failure of reality testing. To obtain an experientially more faithful understanding of psychosis in schizophrenia, it may be helpful to revive the old clinical concept of double bookkeeping and consider its connection to psychosis.
- Abstract: This talk explores how psychosis manifests experientially in schizophrenia. The talk sheds a critical light on the current definitions of psychosis, delusion, and hallucination, and it proposes that to faithfully understand psychosis in schizophrenia, we must reconsider the idea that psychosis simply amounts to a failure of reality testing. To obtain an experientially more faithful understanding of psychosis in schizophrenia, it may be helpful to revive the old clinical concept of double bookkeeping and consider its connection to psychosis.
- April 5th, 3-5pm: "The 'Author of Nature' and the Editor of Nature": C.D. Broad on Psychical Reseach -- Joel Walmsley (UCC)
- Abstract: Despite his extensive work on mainstream philosophical issues, C.D. Broad (1887-1971) has become infamous for his lifelong interest in the spooky topics of “psychical research,” and perhaps even neglected and disdained because of it. In this talk, first, I’ll explain (and partially excuse) Broad’s fascination with psychical research on both historical and his own meta-philosophical grounds. Second, I’ll show that paying closer attention to Broad’s interests in parapsychology also sheds important light on his mainstream work in philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and philosophy of time.
(Click here for a printable PDF of the poster: Boole Lectures Poster)