Cfp: "Human Experience and Nature: Examining the Relationship between Phenomenology and Naturalism," Royal Institute of Philosophy Conference 2011, University of the West of England, August 31-September 2, 2011.

Questions about the relationship between consciousness and the natural world have been at the centre of many philosophical debates. How can we relate first- and third-person data? Is it possible to explain exhaustively consciousness in naturalistic terms? What metaphysical view can best account for human experience? These questions have been the driving force of much recent philosophical work. Within this broad field, one issue in particular has been underexplored. This issue is the relationship between phenomenology (as a philosophical method for describing lived experience) and the broadly accepted idea that philosophy should be consistent with a naturalistic worldview.

Phenomenology is a rich philosophical tradition providing a method to explore human experience and consciousness. Nonetheless, some philosophers have been sceptical about phenomenology’s contribution to philosophy and have attributed anti-naturalist and anti-scientific views to it. The aim of this conference is to ask: is this scepticism towards phenomenology justified? This conference aims to bring together prominent thinkers from phenomenology and other fields in philosophy, to discuss the relationship between phenomenology and naturalism.

Speakers:

Prof Dan Zahavi (Copenhagen)
Prof Thomas Baldwin (York)
Prof David Papineau (KCL)
Prof Dermot Moran (UCD)
Prof Matthew Ratcliffe (Durham)
Prof Michael Wheeler (Stirling)
Prof James Lenman (Sheffield)
Dr Jon Webber (Cardiff)
Prof Samir Okasha (Bristol)
Dr Eran Dorfman (Frei university Berlin)
Dr Iain Grant (UWE)
Prof Fredrik Sveneaus (Linköping)
Dr Seiriol Morgan (Bristol)
Prof Rudolf Bernet (Leuven)
Prof Alison Assiter (UWE)
Dr Darian Meacham (Leuven)

For further information, email: havi_carel@hotmail.com.