NEWS
"Problems of Being and Existence" – Tim Crane, Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy, University of Cambridge.
Lecture 1 Existence, Being and Being-So September 27, 15.15-17, Hörsal E, Humanities Building
Lecture 2 Existence and Quantification Reconsidered September 28, 13.15-15, Hörsal F, Humanities Building
Lecture 3 The Singularity of Singular Thought September 29, 12.15-14, Hörsal E, Humanities Building
The Philosophical Society Discussion with Tim CraneSeptember 28, 19.15-, Room C 204, Humanities BuildingAll interested are invited to participate in this discussion, where one can raise issues that concerns the Burman Lectures, and/or aspects of Prof. Crane's work.
Abstract What is it for something to exist, or have being? Contemporary analytic philosophyhas not had much to say about this question, on the basis either that 'exists' has astraightforward logical analysis, or that it is too simple or fundamental to be furtherexplained or analysed. These lectures will argue that consideration of the representation of the non-existent shows that more needs to be said about existence itself. The lectures will discuss the following questions: what is the relationship between existence and having properties ('being-so')? What is the relationship between our talk about existence and our talk about quantity (quantification)? What is it for a thought to be 'singular' and can there be singular thoughts about things that do not exist? It will be argued that some things do not exist, but these things do not have a nature, and that it is possible to have singular thoughts about things that do not exist.
Arranged by The Department of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies, Umeå University
The Burman Lectures started in 1996, on the initiative of Prof. Inge-Bert Täljedal,then Mayor of Umeå and later Vice-Chancellor of Umeå University. The lectures commemorate Eric Olof Burman (1845-1929), who was born and raised in Umeå and later became professor of practical philosophy in Uppsala 1896-1919. Burman is nowadays mostly remembered as the teacher of Axel Hägerström.
Previous Burman Lectures
2009 Prof. Jerry Fodor, Rutgers, What Darwin Got WrongLecture 1: What kind of theory is the Theory of Natural Selection? Lecture 2: The problem about ‘selection-for’
2008 Prof. Susanna Siegel, Harvard, The Nature of Visual ExperienceLecture 1: The varieties of perceptual intentionality Lecture 2: The contents of visual experience
2007 Prof. Alex Byrne, MIT, How do we know our own minds?Lecture 1: Transparency and Self-Knowledge Lecture 2: Knowing that I am thinking
2006 Prof. Jonathan Dancy, University of Reading and University of Texas, AustinLecture 1. Reasons and Rationality Lecture 2. Practical Reasoning and Inference
2005 Prof. Ned Block, New York University, Consciousness and NeuroscienceLecture 1. The Epistemological Problem of the Neuroscience of Consciousness Lecture 2. How Empirical Evidence can be Relevant to the Mind-Body Problem
2004 Prof. John Broome, Oxford, Reasoning
2003 Prof. Wlodek Rabinowicz, Lund, Värde och passande attityder
2002 Prof. Kevin Mulligan, GenèveLecture 1. Essence, Logic and Ontology Lecture 2. Foolishness and Cognitive Values
2001 Prof. Hubert Dreyfus, BerkeleyLecture 1: What is moral maturity? A Phenomenological Account Of The Development Of Ethical Expertise Lecture 2: The primacy of the phenomenological over logical analysis: A Merleau-Pontian Critique of Searle's Account of Action and Social Reality
2000 Prof. Herbert Hochberg, University of Texas, AustinLecture 1. A Simple Refutation of Mindless Materialism Lecture 2. Universals, Particulars and the Logic of Predication
1999 Prof. Susan Haack, University of Miami, The Science of Sociology and the Sociology of Science.Lecture 1. Social Science as Semiotic. Lecture 2. Sociology of Science: The Sensible Program.
1998 Prof. Howard Sobel, University of TorontoLecture 1: First causes: St. Thomas Aquinas's 'Second way'. Lecture 2: Ultimate reasons if not first causes: Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz on 'the Ultimate Origination of Things'.
1997 Prof. Ian Jarvie, York University, Science and the Open Society
1996 Prof. David Kaplan, UCLA What is Meaning: Notes toward a theory of Meaning as Use
