BRITISH IDEALISM AND THE CONCEPT OF THE SELF
Date: 27th –
29th August, 2013
Bill
Mander. Harris-Manchester College Oxford.
Email:
Stamatoula
Panagakou. University of Cyprus and University of York
Email:
Idealism dominated
British philosophy during the last third of the nineteenth century, and
continued to be a significant force into the early
years of the twentieth. Its advocates, who worked across the full
spectrum of philosophical topics from metaphysics through ethics and political theory to the philosophy of
religion, both reflecting and influencing turn of the century culture and
society, included such figures as T.H.Green, Edward Caird,
F.H.Bradley, William Wallace, Bernard Bosanquet, J.M.E.McTaggart, Henry Jones,
D.G.Ritchie, J.H.Muirhead,
R.B.Haldane, J.S.Mackenzie, H.J.W.Hetherington and A.S.Pringle-Pattison.
The conference aims to
explore this tradition and its continuing relevance to modern thought by taking as its central theme the concept of the self in British Idealist thought.
Whether through
rethinking the metaphysical and epistemological relations between self and the
world, through engagement with contemporary psychological science, through
understanding it as something essentially social, through regarding its
finitude as the manifestation
of a deeper infinity, through considerations of its freedom and immortality,
or through exploring the inter-relations between individual personhood and the more universal
Absolute, notions of the self were always central to British Idealist
philosophy; and
contributions are sought exploring the many different manifestations of the
self in British Idealist thought in relation to society, politics and ethics, religion, aesthetics,
history, logic and metaphysics.
There are no restrictions in the
methodological or philosophical perspective to be adopted, and papers would be particularly welcome which connect together the thoughts of
different Idealist philosophers, or which link them to more contemporary
discussions of the self.
Accommodation will be
limited so early expressions of interest are welcomed. Abstracts of no more
than 500 words to be sent by 15 December 2012 to the conference organisers: