CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS

2024 DIGITAL ARTIFACTS CONFERENCE

February 28-29, 2024, held at the University of Neuchâtel, organized by Alexandre Declos (University of Neuchâtel).

  • Wybo Houkes (Eindhoven University of Technology) and Jeroen de Haas (Avans & Eindhoven University of Technology), “Can’t software malfunction?”

  • Simon Evnine (University of Miami), “Digital Artifacts: The Sad Tale of My Failure to Understand”

  • Janna Hastings (University of Zurich) & Marie Johanna Wonsy (University of St-Gallen), “Navigating Paradoxes: Digital Artifacts in Hospitals”

  • Elisa Caldarola (University of Turin), “NFTs and artistic practice”

  • Alexandre Declos (University of Neuchâtel), “On the ontology of videogames”

  • Claus Beisbart (University of Bern), “An ontological analysis of computer simulations”

  • Enrico Terrone (Università di Genova) & Nick Young (Università di Genova), “Through a Textbox Darkly. The Metaphysics of Large Language Models”

  • Nele van de Mosselaer (Tilburg University), “The Fictionality of Digital Artefacts”

  • Nurbay Irmak (Bogazici University), “Artifacts without makers: Generative artificial intelligence and the question of authorship”

2022 Symposium on Artifacts

July 18-21, 2022, organized by Kathrin Koslicki and Marco Marabello (Université de Neuchâtel) at SoPhA 2022, the ninth congress of the French speaking society for analytic philosophy.

  • Speaker: Asya Passinsky (CEU), “Artifacts and Social Objects”.

  • Speaker: Michael Raven (University of Victoria), “The Dynamics of Artifacts”.

  • Speaker: Enrico Terrone (University of Genoa), “Goodbye Art, Goodbye Aesthetics?”.

SE2020: Re-Evaluating Social Essences Workshop (4th Annual MC Meeting)

April 30-May 2, 2021, organized by Micheal Raven (University of Victoria), held online due to COVID travel restrictions.

  • Speakers: Heather Alexander and Jonathan Simon (Université de Montréal), “Statelessness and the Social Ontology of State Membership”; Commentator: Frank Hindriks (University of Groningen)

  • Speaker: Jude Buckner (Duke University), “Know Thyself: Epistemology and Identity Politics”; Commentator: Elise Woodard (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)

  • Speaker: Rachel K. Cooper (University of California, Irvine), “Social Kinds* and Social Groups”; Commentator: Aaron Griffith (College of William and Mary)

  • Speaker: Rebecca Mason (University of San Francisco), “Social Kinds are Essentially Mind-Dependent”; Commentator: Irem Kurtsal (Allegheny College)

  • Speaker: James Miller (Durham University), “Words, Species, and Kinds”; Commentator: Simone Evnine (University of Miami)

  • Speaker: Asya Passinsky (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), “Social Essentialism”; Commentator: Kate Ritchie (City College of New York)

  • Speaker: Angela Zhao (University of British Columbia), “Women as Victims of ‘Misogyny’: Re-centering Marginalization”; Commentator: Charlotte Witt (University of New Hampshire)

  • Keynote Speaker: Ásta (San Francisco State University), “What is Sex and What Do We Want it to Be?”

  • Keynote Speaker: Brian Epstein (Tufts University), “Anchoring, Essence, and Real Definition”

  • Keynote Speaker: Muhammad Ali Khalidi (City University of New York), “Language and Social Ontology”

  • Inaugural Alumni Speaker: Kit Fine (New York University), “The Concept of Gender Identity”

2019 Conference on Essentialism and Anti-Essentialism (3rd Annual MC Meeting)

September 26-29, 2019, Banff Centre, organized by Kathrin Koslicki (Université de Neuchâtel). More info here.

2018 Conference on Language and Essence (2nd Annual MC Meeting)

October 5-7, 2018 , Victoria, British Columbia, organized by Margaret Cameron (The University of Melbourne) and Michael Raven (University of Victoria). Keynotes:

  • Charlotte Witt (University of New Hampshire), “A Tale of Two Essentialisms”

  • Gideon Rosen (Princeton): “Knowledge of Essence”

  • Calvin Normore (UCLA): “The What, the Which, and the Who: Essence Now and Then”.

More info here.

2017 Hylomorphism Conference (1st Annual MC Meeting)

May 11-14, 2017, Banff Centre, organized by Kathrin Koslicki (Université de Neuchâtel). More info here.

Invited Symposium: Metaphysics of Artifacts

March 31, 2016, Pacific Division Meeting, American Philosophical Association, San Francisco, organized by Michael Raven (University of Victoria)

  • Chair: Raul Saucedo (University of Colorado-Boulder)

  • Speaker: Philip Corkum (University of Alberta) “Explaining Artifacts”

  • Commentator: Simon Evnine (University of Miami)

  • Speaker: Jessica Wilson (University of Toronto) “The Emergence of Artifacts”

  • Commentator: Asya Passinsky (New York University)

  • Speaker: Margaret Cameron (The University of Melbourne) “The Moving Cause of Artifacts: The Role of Technē in Metaphysical Explanation”

  • Commentator: Adam Crager (University of California, Los Angeles)

2015 Metaphysics Workshop, "Artifacts and Metaphysical Explanation"

May 17-20, 2015, Banff Centre, organized by Kathrin Koslicki (Université de Neuchâtel). More info here.

Speaker Series

2023 “De Anima” Speaker Series

Speaker series held at the University of Neuchâtel during the Fall 2023, organized by Kathrin Koslicki (Université of Neuchâtel), in conjunction with an MA seminar on Aristotle’s De Anima, with support by the Paul Schmitt Foundation.

  • September 26, 2023: Klaus Corcilius (University of Tübingen), “Hylomorphism and the Causal Role of the Soul in Aristotle”

  • October 10, 2023: Caleb Cohoe (MSU Denver), “Aisthēsis and Noēsis as Perfect Activities: Connecting Energeia with Ways of Being and Living”

  • October 23, 2023: Chris Shields (UC San Diego), "Good, Bad, Better, Worse"

  • October 24, 2023: Chris Shields (UC San Diego), “For the Sake of the Soul”

  • October 31, 2023: Paolo Natali (University of Geneva), “Appearance and Belief in Aristotle’s De Anima”

  • November 14, 2023: Samuel Meister (University of Tübingen), “How to Define an Affection of the Soul with Aristotle”

  • November 21, 2023: Marc Gasser-Wingate (Boston University), "Aristotle on Perception, Pleasure, and the Good"

2016/2017 "Current Research in Metaphysics & Epistemology" Speaker Series

University of Alberta, organized by Kathrin Koslicki (Université de Neuchâtel).

  • September 13, 2016: Allen Hazen (University of Alberta), "Some philosophical choices in modal logic"

  • October 4, 2016: David Liebesman (University of Calgary), "Neo-Fregean Category Theory"

  • October 18, 2016: Bernard Linsky (University of Alberta), "On the Contingently Non-Concrete and the Simplest Quantified Modal Logic"

2015/2016 "Current Research in Metaphysics & Epistemology" Speaker Series

University of Alberta, organized by Kathrin Koslicki (Université de Neuchâtel). More info here.

2014 "Current Research in Metaphysics" Speaker Series

University of Alberta, Fall 2014, organized by Kathrin Koslicki. More info here.