Summary of the 6th International Graduate Conference, "Worldly Matters: Issues in Applied and Socially Engaged Philosophy"

The Department of Philosophy hosted its 6th International Graduate Conference on April 1-2 with great success. The biennial IGC marks an important event in the Department’s life, which is traditionally organized by doctoral students and involves the engagement of both faculty and students acting as reviewers, commenters and helpers.

The selection process was very competitive as this year’s theme “Worldly Matters: Issues in Applied and Socially Engaged Philosophy” attracted a high number of submissions. The ten student speakers were picked from top universities in Germany, Romania, the United Kingdom and the United States, and gave presentations on a wide range of topics including the ethics of emigration and “brain drain”, negative stereotypes and belief-formation in humour, the phenomenology of intersubjectivity and depression, philosophical engagement with science, the compatibility of marriage with political liberalism, ethical concerns in providing sexual assistance to the severely mentally disabled, animal rights, whether adherence to liberal principles can lead to dogmatism, neuroenhancement vis-à-vis the authenticity of love, and the place of emotions in political contexts.

In addition to the ten talks by graduate students, the conference also featured two keynote addresses by Emma Bullock from CEU and Heather Douglas from the University of Waterloo (Canada), both of which inspired numerous questions and comments from the audience and overall a very stimulating discussion. Professor Bullock, a one-time presenter at the 3rd International Graduate Conference (2010), investigated the relationship between valid consent and moral transformation, and argued that valid consent was not sufficient for moral transformation in morally intolerable situations. Professor Douglas talked about the challenges of non-experts in assessing and trusting experts while taking into account the divided nature of epistemic labour, disagreement among experts and the fact that becoming an expert oneself was not a feasible solution.

The 6th International Graduate Conference drew a high number of attendees both from inside and outside CEU, thanks to whom the conference saw many lively discussions and spirited debates in the Q&A sessions as well as during the breaks. For pictures of the conference and the welcome reception, please visit the Department’s Flickr account.