"Transforming Humanity: Fantasy? Dream? Nightmare? Conference on Biomedical Enhancements," Center for Inquiry, Penn Center for Bioethics and Penn Center for Neuroscience and Society, University of Pennsylvania, December 3, 2010.

This conference will bring together leading scholars to address technological, moral, and legal questions relating to biomedical enhancements. Enhancements of human capacities, such as an increased lifespan or improved cognitive abilities, are a source of significant controversy. Some see them as a welcome development; others are much more skeptical. What is the realistic potential of enhancements? What are the ethical limits, if any, on enhancements? How should they be regulated?

Speakers:

• Adrienne Asch (Yeshiva) and James Block (DePaul): The Mechanization of Politics: Rethinking Human Transformation
• Allen Buchanan (Duke): Breaking Evolution’s Chains
• Arthur Caplan (Penn): Fair or Foul: The Use of Enhancements in Sports
• Peter Caws (George Washington): What is Humanity, that We should be Worried about Transforming It?
• Martha Farah (Penn): Cyborgs, Superminds and Silliness: What are the Real Ethical Challenges for Neural Prosthetics?
• James Giordano (Potomac Institute): Neuroscience, Neurotechnology, and Strivings to Flourish
• Ronald A. Lindsay (CFI): The Ethics of Enhancements: Spurious Concerns and Genuine Uncertainties
• Maxwell Mehlman (Case Western): Can Humanity Survive Evolutionary Engineering?
• Jonathan Moreno (Penn): Enhancement and National Security
• John Shook (CFI): Challenges for a Neuroscience of Moral Enhancement
• Rosemarie Tong (UNC-Charlotte): Feminist Reflections on Looking Better and Living Longer

For more information, visit: http://www.centerforinquiry.net/research/.

Lennon, Kathleen. "Feminist Perspectives on the Body." STANFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PHILOSOPHY June 28, 2010.

In terms of the history of western philosophy, the philosophy of embodiment is relatively recent. For much of this history the body has been conceptualised as simply one biological object among others, part of a biological nature which our rational faculties set us apart from, as well as an instrument to be directed and a possible source of disruption to be controlled. Problematically for feminists, the opposition between mind and body has also been correlated with an opposition between male and female, with the female regarded as enmeshed in her bodily existence in a way that makes attainment of rationality questionable. “Women are somehow more biological, more corporeal, and more natural than men” (Grosz 14). Such enmeshment in corporeality was also attributed to colonised bodies and those attributed to the lower classes (McClintock 1995, Alcoff 2006, 103). Challenging such assumptions required feminists to confront corporeality in order to elucidate and confront constructions of sexual difference.

In developing philosophical frameworks for making sense of sexual difference feminist philosophers have provided accounts of the relationship between subjectivity, corporeality and identity which are applicable to other aspects of our corporeal existence. As Margrit Shildrick and Janet Price comment “What is required, and what has emerged over subsequent years, is a theory of embodiment that could take account not simply of sexual difference but of racial difference, class difference and differences due to disability; in short the specific contextual materiality of the body” (Price and Shildrick 1999, 5). Feminist theorists are therefore currently in active conversation with critical race theorists (Alcoff, Gilman, Gooding-Williams), theorists of (dis)ability (Inahara, Garland Thompson, Thomas, Wendell), and theorists concerned with aging, health and illness (Mairs, Toombs). Their concerns have also required an engagement with the philosophy of biology, as naturalising reductions of embodiment have been resisted, while the distinctive materiality of our embodied situations in the world has nonetheless been respected (Bleier, Fausto-Sterling, Birke). . . .

Read the rest here: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminist-body/.

"Religion and Politics of the Body," Second Biannual Conference, Nordic Society for Philosophy of Religion, University of Iceland, June 26-28, 2009.

Keynote Speakers: Bettina Bergo Raja Ben Slama Deadline for submission is April 1, 2009. Please submit your proposal in the form of an abstract of maximum one A4 page (250 words) to sigrthor@hi.is. For further information, visit the conference webpage here: http://www.hi.is/is/frettir/nspr.

CFP: "Perspectives on Intercorporeality and Intersubjectivity," University College Dublin, June 6-7, 2008.

The recent surge of interest in the body and embodiment studies has helped establish the body as a site of legitimate philosophical investigation. The contributions of phenomenologists such as Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and their many contemporary commentators, have helped provide a powerful framework for the analysis of the body. This framework is not limited to research by philosophers – but extends to other fields such as women’s studies, psychology, sociology, cognitive science and literary theory, among others. This conference is intended to be an interdisciplinary forum for the exchange of ideas on the theme of intercorporeality and intersubjectivity, exploring the manners and modes in which subjects relate to each other as embodied beings. Intercorporeality is an important theme which has come up in fields as diverse as management studies, artificial intelligence, ethics and education and warrants further theoretical investigation. Exploring intercorporeal relations will elucidate and enrich our understanding of intersubjective encounters and the role they play in establishing and constituting philosophical themes such as identity, ethics, subjectivity, cognition and discourse. Further information: http://www.ucd.ie/philosophy/iiconference/.

CFP: "Biological Explanations of Behavior: Philosophical Perspectives," Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany, June 12-15, 2008

This conference will be organized around three general themes: explanations in behavioral genetics, developmental explanations of behavior, and the evolution of behavior. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following: evolutionary explanations of human and animal behavior (e.g., altruism), causal claims in behavioral genetics, behavioral traits as natural kinds, logical analyses of arguments in evolutionary psychology, and comparisons of the different ways that biologists from different disciplines explain behavior. In addition, we welcome papers that include philosophical analyses of concepts central to biological explanations of behavior, such as innateness, imprinting, and particular behavioral traits. The conference will begin with a keynote address that is intended to set the agenda for the conference. On each of the three following days, there will be a plenary lecture in the morning in accordance with the theme for the day, which will then be followed by topical sessions of contributed papers. The conference sessions will be organized in series (rather than in parallel sessions) so that participants will have the opportunity to attend all presentations. While this means we will accept fewer papers, we believe that this will lead to a more coherent conference with more intensive participation from all attendees. Program: Thursday, June 12: Registration & evening keynote address, Keynote lecture by Helen Longino; Friday; June 13: Day theme: explanations in behavioral genetics, Plenary lecture by C. Kenneth Waters & 3 sessions with 3 contributed papers each; Saturday, June 14: Day theme: developmental explanations of behavior, Plenary lecture by Colin Allen & 3 sessions with 3 contributed papers each; Sunday, June 15: Day theme: the evolution of behavior, Plenary lecture by David Sloan Wilson & 1 -- 2 sessions with 3 contributed papers each. This conference is organized by Kathryn Plaisance and Thomas Reydon, and is jointly sponsored by the Center for Philosophy and Ethics of Science (ZEWW) at the Leibniz University of Hannover and the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science (MCPS) at the University of Minnesota. Publication of a small selection of papers delivered at the conference is planned to appear as an edited volume of the Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, to be edited by Kathryn Plaisance, Thomas Reydon, and C. Kenneth Waters. The volume will include papers by the keynote speaker and each of the plenary speakers. In addition, there will be room for four to six contributed papers, based on quality and fit. The deadline for paper submissions will be several weeks after the conference, and decisions about publication will be made promptly. Please submit an abstract of up to 500 words to beb@ww.uni-hannover.de. We prefer that you attach a Word document that includes your contact information (Name, Department, Institution, Email) followed by your abstract. The deadline for submission is December 1st, 2007. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out in February, 2008. For more information, please visit http://www.unics.uni-annover.de/zeww/beb.conf.eng.html Dr. Thomas Reydon, Center for Philosophy and Ethics of Science (Zentrale Einrichtung für Wissenschaftstheorie und Wissenschaftsethik), Leibniz University of Hannover, Im Moore 21, D-30167, Hannover, Germany Web: http://unics.rrzn.uni-hannover.de/zeww Mail: reydon@ww.uni-hannover.de Associate Editor (philosophy of biology and book reviews),Acta Biotheoretica, http://www.springeronline.com/mail: t.a.c.reydon@biology.leidenuniv.nl