Description:
This interdisciplinary conference will investigate the interaction of culture and the innate mind. To what extent are mature cognitive capacities a reflection of particular cultures and to what extent are they a product of innate elements? How do innate elements interact with culture to achieve mature cognitive capacities? How do minds generate and shape cultures? How are cultures processed by minds?

Themes:

1. Globalism and Identity Formation:
- The dynamics of identity and belonging
- Cosmopolitanism, globalisation and backlash
- The humanities and the construction of place
- First nations and indigenous peoples in first, third and other worlds
- Human movement and its consequences: immigration, refugees, diaspora, minorities
- Ecological sustainability, cultural sustainability, human sustainability
- Homo faber: the human faces of technology
- Global/local, universal/particular—discerning boundaries
- Differences: gender, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, race, class

2. The Modern and the Postmodern:
- Defining the modern against its 'others'
- The postmodern turn
- Nationalism, ethnonationalism, xenophobia, racism, genocide—the 'ancient' and the modern
- Governance and politics in a time of globalism and multiculturalism
- The causes and effects of war
- Metropolis: the past and future of urbanism
- Geographies of the non-urban and remote in the era of total globalisation

3. The 'Human' of the Humanities
- The human, the humanist, the humanities
- What is history?
- The philosophy of ends or the end of philosophy?
- Anthropology, archaeology and their 'others'
- The work of art in an age of mechanical reproduction
- Literary–critical: changing the focal points
- Ways of meaning: languages, linguistics, semiotics

4. Future Humanities, Future Human:
- Science confronts humanity
- Humanities teaching in higher education: fresh approaches and future prospects
- Schooling humanities: introducing history, social studies, philosophy, language, literature and the humanities to children
- Technologies in and for the humanities
- The purpose of the humanities in an era of contested ends
- The humanities in the 'culture wars': questions of 'political correctness' and the cultural 'canon'

Topics:
1) The Imperative of Ultimate Direction and Meaning
- The Search for a Foundation
- Taking Experience to Its Limit
- Absolutization and Openness
- Metaphysics and the Mystical Dimension
2) Unity and Plurality
- A Theory of Science
- Models and Methods
- Experiential and Experimental Methodology
- Metaphysics and Epistemology
3) Existential Commitment
- Ethics, Bioethics, and Law
- Society and Commitment
- Religion, Philosophy, and Culture
- Metaphysics and Experience
4) Teaching Philosophy
- Philosophy as Therapy
- Training in Critical Thought
- Philosophy and Ideologies
- Metaphysics and Education

Beschreibung:
Die Tagung fragt im Rückgriff auf Margret Boveri nach den persönlichen und kollektiven Attributionen von Freund und Feind, die einen Seitenwechsel oder ein falsches "Fraternisieren" zum Verrat werden lassen. Erweisen sich doch die Medien- und Kommunikationstheorien des 20. Jahrhunderts im Rückblick von der Figur des Verrats derart geprägt, dass die Frage zu stellen ist, wie das 21. Jahrhundert auf diesen Hintergrund der Medientheorie reagiert. Behält die Unterscheidung von Freund, Feind und Verrat ihre Wirkung auf aktuelle Entwürfe der Medientheorie – etwa in den abermaligen Vorwürfen, die Massenmedien (wie vormals die Demokratie) unterliefen jede Unterscheidung freundlicher und feindlicher Nachrichten, oder sie dienten vor allem (wie vormals die Propaganda) zu undurchschaubar verdeckten Operationen und Adressierungen? Oder zerfällt das terminologische Erbe des 20. Jahrhunderts in der Medientheorie zunehmend in seine Einzelteile – denen damit auch der zweischneidige politische Impetus der Charakterisierung einer "Gesamtgesellschaft" oder einer "totalen sozialen Situation" fehlen würde?

Themes:
In his ground-breaking book "World Poverty and Human Rights", Thomas Pogge argues that the current international institutional order plays a crucial role in the persistence of high levels of extreme poverty, and that those imposing this order are therefore responsible for depriving millions of their human right to basic necessities. Among the institutional arrangements he discusses are the international resource and borrowing privileges, which facilitate and encourage the undemocratic acquisition and exercise of political power, thus sustaining tyranny and corruption in many developing countries. Pogge buttresses his critique by detailing a variety of global institutional reforms that he claims would dramatically reduce poverty and oppression worldwide. This symposium will seek to examine Pogge's arguments and to assess some of the moral questions posed by global poverty.

Themes:
- community and recognition
- inter-community conflict resolution
- community and economic justice
- the European Union as a model of community
- community and nationalism
- community and the market
- liberalism, communitarianism & beyond
- communities of resistance
- universalism vs. particularism
- community in post-1989 central & eastern Europe
- forgotten communities
- the local and the global

Topics:
- Security and Information Systems
- Biotechnology, Trade and Development
- Democracy, Trust and Global Institutions
- The Global Village Revisited
- Technology and Environment
- Technology, Sport and the Olympics Movement

Theme:
The theme permits to link cognitive, linguistic, social and political approaches to a phenomenon of long-standing interest in pragmatics and of current theoretical, as well as social and policy importance. The intention will be to focus the conference on making those links in a number of ways, ranging from choice of plenary speakers and special panels, to invitations to interested and relevant Canadians outside the academy. The theme is one which also fits the venue, given Canada's historical involvement in debates on such issues, and Toronto's profile as a major centre of new globalized urban multilingualism. However, it is meant here to go beyond traditional ideas about "multilingualism" understood as connecting linguistic difference primarily to ethnic or national distinctions, and rather to extend that concept to the links between language and all forms of social difference and social inequality.

Thema:
Die Internationalen Französisch-Deutschen Philosophie-Kolloquien haben sich zum Ziel gesetzt, die kontinentale Philosophie, insbesondere die französische Philosophie der Gegenwart, mit anderen Philosophietraditionen ins Gespräch zu bringen. Sie zielen auf eine größtmögliche Vielfalt im Hinblick auf den sprachlichen und philosophischen Hintergrund der TeilnehmerInnen. Das diesjährige Thema, "Was ist der Mensch?", bietet sich für ein solches Gespräch in besonderer Weise an: Nicht nur Kant zufolge ist die Frage nach dem Menschen die eigentliche Frage hinter allen anderen philosophischen Fragen. Sie lässt sich als treibende Kraft hinter den zentralen philosophischen Strömungen des 20. Jahrhunderts entziffern, welche von ihr auf untergründige Weise miteinander verbunden werden. Sie bewegt selbst noch jene Ansätze der Gegenwartsphilosophie, die den Begriff des Menschen in radikaler Weise problematisiert und für seine Abdankung plädiert haben. Das Kolloquium lädt dazu ein, sich nicht nur die Frage nach dem Menschen, sondern auch die Frage nach ihrer Relevanz für die Philosophie von heute erneut vorzulegen.

Sections:
1. Veda
2. Epics
3. Puranas
4. Agamas and Tantras
5. Vyakarana
6. Linguistics
7. Poetry, Drama and Aesthetics
8. Scientific Literature
9. Buddhist Studies
10. Jaina Studies
11. Philosophy
12. History and Epigraphy
13. Law and Society
14. Art and Archaeology

Panels:
- Holocaust and Indigenocide
- Lemkin, Indigenous Peoples, Empire
- Anthropology and Genocide
- Settler Colonialism
- German Colonialisms
- Post-Colonial Genocides
- Varieties of Colonial Genocide
- Genocide in Australia?

Description:
Presenters will be asked to address the following question: How have political concepts, theories and categories arising out of non-European and non-Western cultural contexts, and out of colonial and postcolonial histories, come to inform the canons of political theory in Europe and the West?

Description:
The conference is an important scholarly gathering dealing with the issues of nation-building in the world's societies. This year we encourage papers on the role of media in the nation-building processes in the European Union, United States, Russia, China, Israel, Serbia/Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq, as well as papers on the media’s role in the resolution of recent conflicts of national interests. Proposals may focus on particular cases of nation-building, theoretical questions, or cross-regional comparisons. Papers related to Internet resources and technologies that may facilitate research on nation-building are encouraged.

Themes:
- the sources, origins, and causes of war; why and how do wars begin?
- the 'control' of warfare; how is and should warfare be conducted? What are the limits of conflict? Are there any prohibitions in fighting a war? Security issues; protection issues; borders and boundaries
- the nature of warfare; strategy and strategic thought; changes and the implications of changes in the ways wars are fought; the influence and effect of technologies; changes in the nature and role of military personnel; information and information warfare
- types of warfare – land, sea, air, space, chemical, biological; guerrilla warfare; 'total' warfare; genocide, ethnic cleansing; terrorism; preemptive war; scorched earth; war crimes; crimes against humanity
- the extent of war; blockades, sanctions, defence expenditure and the impact on social and public policy
- the 'ethics' of war; just war; deterrence; defence and self-defence; the influence of nationalism; the place of human rights; societies and the military; increases in moral sensibilities – qualms about carpet bombing, collateral damage; the important role of religion, the church, and the intellectual elite in multi-ethnic conflict
- the experience of war; art, literature, music, poetry, and the theatre; the role of the media – journalism, radio, television, the internet; propaganda; representing the realities of war versus 'national interest' – images of the heroism, glory, tacit and explicit justifications of war
- the prevention of war; the role of conflict resolution; avoiding war; peace-keeping; the role and importance of law and international legal order; the rise and impact of non-violent movements

Goals:
- To bring together international educators and scholars to share ideas and experiences from diverse interdisciplinary perspectives on communication across cultures.
- To provide a forum for the exchange of scholarly research on issues relating to communication across language and culture.
- To disseminate through monographs, journals and web sites, recent research and thinking on emerging issues relating to language and culture.
- To bring different academic disciplines together to share theoretical insights and findings about communication across cultures.

Themes:
It has been considered that the issues and topics to which Donald Davidson and various thinkers in Chinese philosophical tradition have somehow made their distinct contributions include (but not limited to) the following: (i) the relations among language, thought, and reality; (ii) philosophical issue of truth; (iii) meaning and reference; (iv) understanding and interpretation; (v) knowledge, skepticism, and objectivity; (vi) actions and events; (vii) philosophy of mind; (viii) problem of human rationality; (ix) irrationality and practical reasoning; and (x) issue of metaphors. Prospective contributors might consider contributing their papers on those issues/topics in regard to constructive dialogue and engagement between Davidson’s philosophy and Chinese philosophy.

Description:
This conference will focus on the relationships between people's notions of place and politics. We envision papers that range from the impact of place upon local politics to those that ask questions about how the growth of global connections has affected ideas of place and politics. The location of the meeting in Hawaii informed our choice of conference emphasis and we encourage sessions on the Pacific Rim, from those that examine the importance of place in the history of native people to studies of imperialism in the Pacific. We also hope to see papers that consider these issues in regions around the world and from all fields in history, traditional and new.

Themes:
- Ways of Thinking (Epistemology)
- Ways of Interpreting (Hermeneutics)
- Rights and Duties
- Cultural Foundations and Civil Society
- Pluralism and Tolerance
- Dialogue versus Hegemony: Cooperation versus Conflict

Plenary Sessions:
- The Role of Philosophy: Enlightenment, Post-modern Thought and Other Perspectives
- New Developments in Science and Technology: Ethical and Philosophical Challenges
- Globalisation and Cultural Identity
- Human Rights, the State and International Order

Symposia:
- Inequality, Poverty and Development: Philosophical Perspectives
- Violence, War and Peace
- Democracy and its Future: Citizenship and Civil Society
- Human Rights: Concepts, Problems and Prospects
- Philosophy in Turkey

Sections for Contributed Papers:

Main problem areas:
1. Logical Analysis of Legal Argumentation
2. Reality, Truth and Knowledge in the Normative Sphere
3. Different Societies: Diversity and Common Ground
4. Political Legitimacy and the Just Society
5. Political Power, Legal Authority and Morality
6. Injustice, Power and the Law
   (Includes discussion on Justice to Future Generations)
7. Organised Political Violence
8. New Technologies for Law and Politics
9. Legal Theory and Philosophy
10. Globalisation, Human Rights and Minorities
11. Law and Economics and Legal Scholarship

Description:
The Conflict Research Society is seeking to extend its existing role as the meeting place of choice for professionals working from all disciplines who share an desire to develop a better understanding of the processes, implications and management of conflict in all arenas. The conference is intended as a forum in which the future agenda for conflict researchers working in an increasingly challenging context will be teased out. We invite prospective contributors to send abstracts on any aspect of conflict research. This includes for example, reports of research in the field, accounts of interventions, theoretical developments, literature reviews, or pedagogical proposals.

Description:
The purpose of the conference is: to examine critically the values and practices that historically have guided the negotiation of identity, both practical and ideal, in different Asian contexts; to consider how these values and practices play into the conception and exercise of authority; and to assess their contemporary relevance in an era of rapidly globalizing interdependence.
Papers are invited that examine historical and/or contemporary dimensions of East, Southeast, and South Asian cultures of authority. Broad areas of consideration include the concepts and practices associated with the cultivation and expression of authority by authoritative persons; the representation of authority in literature and the arts; the political and social practices through which authority has been institutionalized and conserved; and, the resources for dissent and the negotiation of authoritative social, political and cultural change. Traverse themes would include, for example: the relationship between authority and the family; the role of authority in education; the authority of countercultures; and the authoring of gender, religious, and ethnic identities.

Themes:
- Resistance: Neo-Liberalism; Vigilantes; 'Terrorists/Terrorism'; Eco-Resistance; Youth-and-Violence
- Security, Conflict and Domination: (Il)licit Capitalism; Gender Violence; Africa post-9/11
- Globalisation, Partnership and Imperialism: NEPAD; NGOs; Resources (including land); Poverty Reduction Strategy Programmes/Processes (PRSPs)
- 'Instrumentalising' Imperialism
- Aid, Exploitation and Control: Corruption; Post-Conflict Reconstruction; 'Draining' Africa (brains, trade, money laundering)
- Struggles of Accumulation: The Built Environment; Resources; Production/Privatisation
- Ideology and Culture: Gender Relations 'in an African pot'; Religions; Networks; Moralising Intervention; AIDS; 'Democracy/Democratisation'

Description:
The general aim of this conference is to provide a forum for discussion for the work being done on the capability approach and to enhance the network of researchers that has emerged from the previous meetings. In this third conference a special emphasis will be given to the concept of sustainable development.

Main topics:
1. Global justice
2. Socially sustainable development
3. Poverty, the Environment and Sustainable Freedom
4. Capability approach from a dynamic perspective

Descripción:
El propósito general del encuentro desemboca en comprender nuestro tiempo para estar en condiciones de afrontar los retos que esto supone desde la conciencia cristiana y desde nuestra condición de laicos. Buscamos ensanchar aquél propósito y, desde nuestro espíritu universitario, queremos proponer un horizonte de pensamiento que, respondiendo a los retos de nuestro tiempo, inspire a la sociedad a cabalgar sobre la dignidad, la libertad y la creatividad como modos de vivencia y convivencia en los diversos ámbitos de la actividad humana.
El objetivo general es plantear, discutir y proponer cómo pueden abrirse los horizontes de la dignidad humana para conducir y encauzar la cultura actual hacia metas de justicia y de paz. Como centro de cultura, gestor y transmisor de conocimiento, nos interesa suscitar una reflexión seria sobre los retos que impone la sociedad del siglo XXI a la libertad y a la creatividad.

Description:
The Center for the Study of Citizenship promotes research and intellectual exchange about citizenship among a global community of scholars, students, practitioners, and the general public.

Description:
Peace accords in ethnic conflicts generally mark only two achievements. First, they indicate an agreement in principle between conflicting groups. Second, they set out an agenda, and often timetables, to implement change. They are a start, not a conclusion. Many peace processes collapse, not only during the early stages when suspicions are most high, but when most people think the deal has been made. The banal truth is that it takes time to make fundamental changes, and that delay leaves a vacuum. The vacuum is filled by threats that may overturn the agreement: violence from spoilers; disputes over new institutions; problems associated with conflict transformation; underlying fears and suspicions. These are among the concerns of the conference.
The three main themes – violence, young people, and truth-telling – will form the core of the conference. The conference organizers are eager to consider the inclusion of papers on these three themes, as well as on other post-accord issues.

Areas temáticas:
- Construcción del sujeto
- Teoría y función utópica
- Teoría y práctica de la integración
- Estados nacionales y transnacionalización
- Civilización, barbarie y humanización
- Expresión artística y sociedad
- El pensamiento latinoamericano ante el cambio social

Description:
The international order has for foundations a number of basic norms that ensure its coherence and legitimacy. To fully comprehend international norms means in the first place to ask one-self some questions about the meaningfulness of these norms to the social actors (states, international organizations, transnational entities), and their justifiable grounds. The major challenge of the 21st century will be to generate for these questions novel responses, in a political and economic environment characterized by salient inequities and fast technological and ecological changes.
Political science can and must make its contribution because it looks at international norms in the light of an analysis of the structures and decision-making processes at the global level, also taking into account prevailing ideologies. Philosophy, particularly political ethics, explores the ideal world – the ethical norms – in contrast to the real world. Finally, international law evaluates the meaning and the legality of international judicial norms.

Topics:
- What is "terrorism"?
- Do recent terrorist attacks constitute a fundamentally "new" kind of terrorism?
- How does our concept of terrorism predispose us to look for technological solutions to non-technological problems?
- In what way(s) does terrorism pose a specifically philosophical threat to modernity?
- Why might describing the fight against terrorism as a "war on terror" be misleading (or even dangerous)?
- In the fight against terrorism, how can we avoid engaging in terroristic actions ourselves?
- Are "targeted killings" and preemptive military strikes morally legitimate responses to terrorism?
- Do the principles of "just war theory" apply to the fight against terrorism?
- Should terrorists be treated as enemy combatants or as criminals?
- Is torture interrogation of terrorists ever morally justified?
- In a time of personal and national insecurity, why is a reasoned approach to understanding terrorism more essential than ever?

Themes:
- phantom communities
- deterritorialised communities
- virtual communities
- communities without unity
- elusive communities
- communities of strangers
- communities of, or in, dissensus
- imagined and imaginary communities

Areas:
1. Political
Currently political wisdom seems to lag behind economic forces which generate cross border institutional etworks. United Nations efforts coexist with the emergence of a super power while at the same time national sovereignties proclaim stridently their own separate identities and older sovereignties face the problem of fissiparous tendencies within their own borders. Migrations introduce the extra territorial factor into culture, giving rise to multiple allegiances. Can all these be reconciled?
2. Economic
The main issues are a how major trends in dominant economies affect the many weaker economies. Focus will be on pluralism as seen in mixed economies and the influence of world economic forces on the two thirds world.
3. Social
Special reference will be made to the marginalised who fall outside the consumerist culture of the relatively prosperous. Identifying the problems and advantages of multi-cultural societies will be a key aim. The relationship between pluralism and social pathology will also be explored.
4. Religion
Is religion a hitherto unutilised resource for bringing about a better world or is it a regressive force seen at its worst in authoritative regimes and fundamentalist mind sets? Can religion step in and unify the fragments? Can humans live without certainties? Does pluralism mean fragmentation? Is a peaceful religiously plural society problematic?
5. Literature
Is the basic concept of contemporary pluralism reinforced by recent moves in literary criticism e.g., the language of fragmentation, deconstruction. The project will explore pluralist and non-pluralist trends in contemporary fiction. The fate of little traditions will also be examined.
6. Pluralism in medicine
How has pluralism influenced and affected developments in medicine and medical practice? Why has there been such tremendous growth in alternative systems of medicine and therapy?

Description:
The aim of the event is to bring together people thinking about and working towards local and global reconciliation in order to establish an ongoing framework that allows us to share experiences and to work together. The topics addressed will include: the concepts of 'reconciliation' and 'civil society'; political action, reconciliation and the roles of local and global politics; the problem of terrorism and cultural, political and religious responses to it; and issues of culture, citizenship and democracy.

Description:
The conference aims to bring together scholars in the humanities, theoretical social sciences and critical legal theory to discuss the applicability of recent treatments of the question of responsibility in Continental Philosophy to contemporary issues. In particular, it addresses the theme of responsibility in the absence of an identified subject of action. The importance of this theme is that it provides a possible means of conceptualizing responsibility apart from the determination of individual or legal culpability.
For this conference, we seek papers that either extend theorization of un-assumable responsibility, or consider its practical value for analysing contemporary ethical and political problems. Issues to which this theme might be applied include, but are not limited to, hospitality to strangers and refugees, forgiveness and reconciliation in contexts of past injustice, responsibility in the context of new bio-technologies, consideration of war crimes and of collective guilt, social responsibility for sexist or racist speech and actions, or state legitimation and political violence.

Description:
The aim of the confrence is to assess how globalisation has affected the present types of government interventions. Does globalisation render government's decision-making style more adversarial? Is there a stronger reliance on liberalised markets? Do proactive multinationals assume former roles of government, such as promoting sustainable development, in order to position themselves as ethicaly correct companies? Important questions, since the effectiveness of government policies depends on the appropriateness of the available tools to affect decisions by producers and consumers. The process of rapid globalization which has been going on for more than a decade has inevitable led to changes in the choice of government interventions and the ways they are implemented. But what changes have taken place so far? By whom have they been initatied? And how succesfull have they been? Taking stock of these changes is the central focus of this conference.

Themes:
- Globalization of Cultures
- Expanding the Frontiers of Culture
- Localization and Cultural Identities
- Toward a New Cultural Contract: Common Values for the Survival and Prosperity of Humanity.

Temática general de simposios:
1) Globalización y sus fenómenos desde el punto de vista de estudios sobre latinoaméricanos y el Caribe
2) Consecuencias de los avances científicos, informáticos y tecnológicos
3) Crisis y reformas, desarrollo sostenible y medio ambiente
4) Movimientos sociales, conflictos étnicos y relaciones de género
5) Cambios sociales y demográficos, urbanización y migraciones internas e internacionales
6) Democratización, crisis y reformas póliticas, gobernabilidad y estado de derecho
7) Nuevas tendencias en las relaciones internacionales y la integración regional
8) Gente y cultura: artes, folklores, lenguas y literatura ante la globalización
9) Educación en la era de la globalización
10) Nuevas agendas regionales y universales

Themes:
- Theoretical Reflections: Are "Islam" and the "West" Meaningful Categories?
- New Paradigms for the Study of Islam and the West
- Ethnographic Studies of Muslim Communities in Western Countries: Past and Present
- Comparative Studies of Muslim Communities in Europe and North America
- Muslim Presence in the West: Implications for Public and Foreign Policy
- Implications of Muslim Presence in the West on Muslim Countries
- Coming of Age of Muslims as Political Players
- The Impact of Islam and Muslims on Future World History Events
- Historical Events and their Impact on the Contemporary Muslim Experience
- Institutionalization of Islam in the West
- Anti-Muslim Polemics: Past, Present and Future
- New Fiqh for Muslims as Minorities in the West
- Muslim Women and the Family in the West
- Hybridity, Identity and Assimilation
- Muslim Stereotypes in the Western Media: Coverage and Response

Themes:
- Is violence part of human nature?
- War, civil war, terrorism and the metropolis
- Policies of extermination
- Religion, religious institutions, and their role in curtailing or propelling violence; religious fundamentalism and violence
- Institutional life – including schools and hospitals
- Ethnicity, nationalism, and sub-nationalisms; racism and violence
- Violence in the private domain – abuse of women and children
- Violence in the public domain – the legitimation of violence, law, concepts of punishment, capital punishment
- State violence – militarism and arms competition
- Market economy and globalization; poverty and violence
- Violence and modernity – the role of science and technology
- Youth and violence – gang violence, children soldiers, hooliganism
- Can there be a culture counter to the culture of violence and how is it to be promoted?

Description:
The Symposium, as starting point, intends to discuss the several religions, the presence of the religious motivation in the society and the multiple experiences of the religious person in different realities and cultures. The event will be a privileged space in which to share experiences and the theoretical and methodological progress among researchers, above all those that develop their work about the Americas, the Symposium will, however, be open to all researchers and to those interested in the cultural-religious phenomenon. We intend to stimulate comparative inter-religious, intercultural, inter-disciplinary, inter-artistic and, above all, supranational studies.