The 2008 Symposium:  Words, Bodies, War

(Unless otherwise noted, sessions will be in the Board of Trust Room, Sarratt Center,Vanderbilt University)

Thursday, 3 April

----participant arrivals

3:30—4:00pm:  Introductions and background:  John J. Stuhr, Director, APF

4:15—6:00pm:  SESSION I:   WORDS, POWER, PLURALISM
Speakers:
John T. Lysaker,
            Philosophy, University of Oregon
Kathryn T. Gines,
            African American & Diaspora Studies and Philosophy, Vanderbilt University
Cynthia Gayman,
            English and Philosophy, Murray State University
José M. Medina,
            Philosophy, Vanderbilt University

Words, power, pluralism:  Are words and languages, multiple and frequently contested, employed as weapons and powers to constitute (rather than merely represent) and legitimize some ways of seeing, speaking, and acting rather than others?  If communication is a kind of sharing or having in common, do multiple voices point to multiple and different communities (rather than a single Great Community) and, if so, how is it possible for different voices to register, ensure, even celebrate their differences without these differences being incommensurable, non-harmonious, even warring?  If one can "do things" with words, how and what should be done?

----dinner, on one’s own; reservation assistance provided for dinner and entertainment

Friday, 4 April

----breakfast on one’s own, at hotel or other

9:30--11:15am:  SESSION II:   WORDS, SIGNS, EXPERIENCES
Speakers:
Robert Innis,
            Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
Vincent M. Colapietro,
            Philosophy, Penn State University
Mary Magada-Ward,
           Philosophy, Middle Tennessee State University
Charles E. Scott,
            Philosophy and Center for Ethics, Vanderbilt University

Words, signs, experiences:  What is the relation between words, signs, language and experience?  Is Peirce correct that there is no thought without signs?  If words do not represent experience or the world, what do they do?  Is there a dimension of experience or the world that cannot be captured by, or in, language?  If so, does it follow that this dimension literally has no significance?  What is the importance, if any, of attending, in thought and through language to ways in which experiences outstrip that thought and language?  Is this importance political as well as ontological?  Is this importance always a kind of violence, of doing violence?

12noon:  SESSION III:  THEORIES OF SLAVERY (session at VU Law School)
Speaker:
Angela Davis,
            History of Consciousness, University of California, Santa Cruz and
            Visiting Professor of Philosophy and African American & Diaspora Studies, Vanderbilt University

(This lecture was arranged by several academic units at Vanderbilt, and the APF program schedule has been constructed to take advantage of this opportunity.  Lunch follows at the Law School.)

2:15--4:00pm:  SESSION IV:  BODIES, MEANINGS, IDENTITIES
Speakers:
Megan Craig,
            Philosophy, State University of New York, Stony Brook
Mark Johnson,
            Philosophy, University of Oregon
Jessica Wahman,
            Philosophy, Dickinson College
Jennifer L. Hansen,
            Philosophy, Gettysburg College

Bodies, Meanings, Identities:  What is the meaning of embodiment?  Is there anything like a universal or shared or even partly shared meaning?  Given different words, languages, cultures, what is the relation of the meaning or meanings of embodiment to multiple embodied meanings and different specific lives?  Further, what is the relation of embodiment to identity--or identities?  Are embodied identities results or products of political powers?  In turn, does embodiment have any political implications or consequences?  If so, how and what?  Are any of these implications democratic or pluralistic? 

4:15—6:00pm:  SESSION V:  BODIES, IDENTITIES, POWER
Speakers:
Nancy Tuana,
            Philosophy and Rock Ethics Institute, Penn State University
Caroline Joan S. Picart,
            English and Law, Florida State University
Harvey Cormier,
            Philosophy, State University of New York, Stony Brook
Kelly Oliver,
            Philosophy and Women’s Studies, Vanderbilt University

Bodies, Identities, Power:  How are body and identity linked?  Is body, or the meaning of specific bodies, at least in part culturally constructed?  Is the same true for identity and specific identities?  To what extent does the power of constructing body and identity rest with the self itself?  Or to what extent does this power rest with or depend on others--others in general but also, even more, specific others who exercise this power, a power perhaps not shared equally.  Is it important for a person to have some or much power over his or her own identity and the meaning of his or her body?  Why?  What are the political implications of this--generally or more specifically in terms of gender or race or class or ability age or sexual orientation or nationality or other axes of identity?  In particular, what are the implications for pluralism, for difference, and for democracy?

----dinner, on one’s own; reservation assistance provided for dinner and entertainment

Saturday, 5 April

----breakfast on one’s own, at hotel or other

10:00--11:45am:  SESSION VI:  RELATIVISM, WAR, JUSTICE
Speakers:
Mariana J. Ortega,
            Philosophy, John Carroll University
Melvin L. Rogers,
            Politics, University of Virginia
Michael Sullivan,
            Philosophy, Emory University
Nöelle McAfee,
            Philosophy, George Mason University, and Kettering Foundation

Relativism, War, Justice:  We live in a world marked by wars, terrorism, and institutional and personal violence.  In the face of these realities, what resources, if any, does democratic deliberation offer?  Given that our preferences and ways of life differ, are values simply relative to these different preferences?  Is a given person's view of justice simply one of these preferences?  Is there a way to sort through or build from these differences?  Was John Dewey correct that "democratic ends require democratic means?"  Whether you agree or disagree, is democracy itself just one of so many different preferences?  If there are reasons to be committed to democracy, what practices and actions should flow from that commitment today?

----lunch, on one’s own

1:15—3:00pm:  SESSION VII:  WAR, MANIPULATION OF CONSENT, DEMOCRACY
Speakers:
Eduardo Mendieta,
            Philosophy and Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center, State University of
New York, Stony Brook
William S. Lewis,
            Philosophy, Skidmore College
John J. Stuhr,
            Philosophy and American Studies, Vanderbilt University
Cynthia Willett,
            Philosophy, Emory University

War, the Manipulation of Consent, Democracy:  If powerful economic, political, military, and other elites often can successfully (even if not totally) manipulate consent (and perhaps dissent too), what is the relation of consent (e.g., majority vote) to genuinely democratic ways of life?  In contrast, is any notion of a non-manipulated and, thus, "free" consent merely utopian and naive--the sort of thing theorists congratulate each other for when they claim to operate outside the reach of manipulation and control?  Is war often one means of manipulating consent and/or one product of this manipulation?  If so, is there anything wrong with it--either in general or in specific cases?  How, if at all, is it possible to imagine an alternative?  How, if at all, is it possible to realize an alternative?  What would it mean to do any of this in a democratic way, and by whom and how would it be done?  

7pm:  Dinner, Sunset Grill  (2001 Belcourt Ave., Nashville; www.sunsetgrill.com)
            (transportation from hotel to restaurant and back will be arranged for anyone who so desires)

Sunday, 6 April

--participant departures