You are invited to the next Colloquia in our Fall 2021 Series on November 19, 2021, with Associate Professor Justin Clarke Doanne from Columbia University.
About the Event:
“Realism, Objectivity, and Evaluation”
Lecture by Justin Clarke Doane, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University
November 19, 2021
3:00-5:00 p.m, (via zoom)
Abstract:
“I will discuss Benacerraf’s epistemological challenge for realism about an area, F, like mathematics, metalogic, modality, or morality. I will argue that it should be understood as the challenge to show that our beliefs are safe, realistically construed — i.e., as the challenge to show that we could not have easily had systematically false ones. I will explain how F-pluralism — the view that there are a plurality of F-like concepts, all satisfied — can be understood as a response to Benacerraf’s challenge, so conceived. And I will show that moral, and more generally, normative pluralism is unsatisfactory in a telling way. One upshot of the discussion is a radicalization of Moore’s Open Question Argument. Another is that the concepts of realism and objectivity, which are widely identified, are actually in tension.”
About Justin Clarke Doane
Justin Clarke-Doane joined the Columbia department in 2014. His work centers on metaphysical and epistemological problems surrounding apparently a priori domains, such as morality, modality, mathematics, and logic. He is particularly interested in the similarities and differences between the areas. His aim is to understand the place of apparently a priori inquiry in our intellectual and practical lives.
He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, UK, an Adjunct Research Associate at Monash University, Australia, and has been Visiting Scholar at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IHPST), Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. The Philosopher’s Annual selected his papers as among the “ten best in philosophy” in 2012 and 2014.
For zoom link information, RSVP by November 17, 2021 to: phil.ugradengagement@ubc.ca
We are looking forward to welcoming you!
