Penn State University
Graduate Conference in Philosophy
"Philosophy, Life, Death"
March 1st & 2nd, 2014
Keynote Speaker: Claudia Card (Emma Goldman Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Although Heidegger famously claimed that all philosophy is a philosophy of life, and thus the term Lebensphilosophie is redundant, there are times when life and death emerge as the explicit themes of philosophical discourse.
Aside from discussions of our primordial relationships to death, the themes of life and death can become ethically and politically thematic in explorations of biopower, biopolitics, or bioethics. And even if death continually defies the grasp of epistemological, phenomenological, and metaphysical investigations, explorations of the limits of our reach are nevertheless informative, for they tell us more of what it means to be alive and finite.
In an effort to represent the breadth of interests and excellence of scholarship of our philosophical community, the graduate students of Philosophy at the Pennsylvania State University invite submissions of papers which take “life,” “death,” or philosophy's relationship with either as its explicit and central themes.Aside from discussions of our primordial relationships to death, the themes of life and death can become ethically and politically thematic in explorations of biopower, biopolitics, or bioethics. And even if death continually defies the grasp of epistemological, phenomenological, and metaphysical investigations, explorations of the limits of our reach are nevertheless informative, for they tell us more of what it means to be alive and finite.
Possible topics include, but are by no means restricted to:
- The Metaphysics and Ethics of death and dying
- Biopolitics
- Human Animality and Non-Human Animals
- Finitude and Natality
- Works of mourning, eulogies, and memorials
- The work of art in relation to life and death
- Human flourishing
- Sexuality and Reproduction
- bios, zōē, and other concepts of life.
- Horrorism – Genocidal Violence, Torture, Terrorism, Slavery
- Biologism and Scientific Racism
We invite submissions from graduate students and independent scholars, regardless of tradition or historical focus. Submissions should consist of a 500 word abstract reflecting a 3000 word paper (to be presented in no more than 20 minutes), and should be prepared for blind review. Please include a separate cover sheet with your name, e-mail address, and institutional affiliation (or date and institution from which you have recently earned your PhD).
Abstract submissions should be sent no later than January 31st, 2014. Accepted papers should be submitted no later than February 21st, 2014.
Please send submissions to: pgso.psu@gmail.com
