Kant and German Idealism: A Conference in Honor of Rolf-Peter Horstmann
Place: Cohen Hall 402, University of Pennsylvania (but see qualification below)
Date and time: Oct. 4, 2pm to 7pm; Oct. 5, 9:30am (coffee) to 4:30pm.
 
Schedule
Friday, Oct. 4 (opening remarks and first talk in Philosophy Library, 4th floor, Cohen)
2pm to 2:10: Opening remarks: Gary Hatfield (Penn)
2:10 to 3:20: Nabeel Hamid (Concordia): “Kant on Physicotheology”

ABSTRACT: You're wondering whether you turned the stove off. You're pretty sure you did, but just to be safe you check again. Then you check a third time. And then another time after that. And then a further time. And this keeps going. This sort of incessant checking and re-checking is not a model of rationality: it looks like a misuse of time and energy and might even be pathological. Is it epistemically acceptable behaviour though? It certainly doesn't feel as though you're thriving epistemically when you keep checking and re-checking on the stove.

Abstract: This paper is an attempt to develop an account of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s justification for and use of, what I will call, "democratic propaganda" – truthful propaganda that is aimed at promoting and fostering democratic political action by stirring the emotions. Interpreting it light of his broader work, I argue that King’s famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is a piece of democratic propaganda.

Topic:  The Wrong and the Bad: Towards a Rationalist Account of Moral Learning
 
Abstract:

Three Euthyphro Problems
 

Topic:  Conceptual Engineering: How Can We Do It?