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

This conference aims to bring together prominent thinkers from phenomenology and other fields in philosophy, to discuss the relationship between phenomenology and naturalism. This relationship may vary from one field to another. It may be that phenomenology is compatible with naturalism in the philosophy of science, while the two approaches are incompatible in ethics. It would be interesting to examine whether this is the case and if so, why?

The conference aims to capture phenomenology’s main ideas in an accessible and non-jargonistic way, in order to provide an introduction to this rich tradition to philosophers working in other traditions. The conference also aims to examine phenomenology’s metaphysical underpinnings. It will ask: does phenomenology have a metaphysical commitment, and if so, what kinds of metaphysical commitments are compatible with phenomenology? Is there a restriction on the type of metaphysical view one may hold while practising phenomenology?

A final theme in the conference will be the question whether phenomenology is compatible with naturalism. A case in point is cognitive science, where the application of phenomenology has recently become popular, sometimes without sufficient attention to what conflicts there might be between phenomenology and the naturalistic basis of cognitive science. The invited speakers hold very different views on this issue. The conference will close with a roundtable discussion of this issue.

Speakers:
•Prof Thomas Baldwin (York)
•Prof Rudolf Bernet (Leuven)
•Dr Eran Dorfman (Berlin)
•Dr Iain Grant (UWE)
•Prof James Lenman (Sheffield)
•Dr Michelle Montague (Bristol)
•Dr Darian Meacham (Leuven)
•Prof Dermot Moran (UCD)
•Dr Seiriol Morgan (Bristol)
•Prof David Morris (Concordia)
•Prof David Papineau (KCL)
•Prof Matthew Ratcliffe (Durham)
•Prof Galen Strawson (Reading)
•Prof Fredrik Svenaeus (Södertörn)
•Dr Jon Webber (Cardiff)
•Prof Michael Wheeler (Stirling)
•Prof Dan Zahavi (Copenhagen)

Visit: http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/cahe/hpp/newsandevents/events/humanexperienceandnature.aspx.