For the last couple of years I've had something of a fascination with impossible objects and the representation of impossible objects. One of my favorites is the Penrose "impossible" triangle. The Penrose triangle was used by MC Escher in his famous "Waterfall" lithograph, and it appears in plenty of other "impossible" works.

The other day I discovered a web site that has a printable pdf that you can print out and use to build your own impossible triangle. The design works best when used with heavier paper.

I'm in beautiful and sunny Amsterdam right now for the International Conference on the Value of Knowledge, or in the case of my paper the value of skepticism. (Here is the Facebook Event.) The conference starts on Monday afternoon with Alvin Goldman's key note "Two Conceptions of Justification Value". He'll be followed over the next two days by Ernest Sosa, Jonathan Kvanvig, Duncan Pritchard, and a plethora of parallel sessions. The conference is sure to be hot with such a star line-up of speakers. I'm hoping to get in a bit of live blogging during the sessions and I'll be putting up pictures on the Facebook page.

Friday, November 30, and Saturday, December 1, Northwestern University will be hosting the first annual Midwest Epistemology Workshop. The hope is that the workshop will be an annual event, hosted by a college or university in the Midwest, where epistemologists will present and discuss recently completed work or work in progress that is close to completion.

The first workshop will consist of nine nonconcurrent sessions, each involving a presentation of approximately 40 minutes followed by 40 minutes of discussion, and a longer keynote address.  Ernie Sosa (Rutgers) has agreed to give the keynote address.  Robert Audi (Notre Dame), Al Casullo (Nebraska), Richard Fumerton (Iowa), Sandy Goldberg (Northwestern), John Greco (Saint Louis University), David Henderson (Nebraska), Jennifer Lackey (Northwestern), Matt McGrath (Missouri), and Baron Reed (Northwestern) have agreed to present papers.  There will also be a banquet on Friday evening.

All philosophers with an interest in epistemology, irrespective of their geographical location, are invited and encouraged to participate.

The Society of Analytical Feminism is sponsoring a conference in Lexington, KY, April 4-6, 2008.  The Society invites the submission of papers that address feminist issues in any area of philosophy, including philosophy of language, philosophy of science, metaphysics, race theory, normative ethics, metaethics, Kantian ethics, social and political philosophy, philosophy of law, Ancient philosophy, rational choice theory, and epistemology.  The general theme of the conference is an examination of the relationship between analytical feminism and these areas of philosophy, including contributions that analytic feminist philosophy has made to these areas and ways in which it may have changed approaches to problems in these areas.

"In every history of philosophy for students, the first thing mentioned is that philosophy began with Thales, who said that everything is made of water. This is discouraging to the beginner, who is struggling — perhaps not very hard — to feel that respect for philosophy which the curriculum seems to expect."

Language, Knowledge and Metaphysics

Padua, 10th-12th September 2007

Background and Rationale

In substitution for the mid-term thematic conferences hitherto organised by the Italian Society for Analytical Philosophy, the Society's Steering Committee proposes to further interaction among younger scholars and researchers in philosophy, both from Italy and elsewhere, by promoting the first in series of graduate conferences, in this instance to discuss topics in metaphysics, the philosophy of language and the theory of knowledge, all construed as broadly as possible. The keynote speakers in these three general areas are:

• Knowledge: Timothy Williamson (Oxford University)
• Metaphysics: Kevin Mulligan (University of Geneva)
• Language: Paolo Leonardi (University of Bologna)

With the aim of including as many contributions as possible, the conference will be structured around plenary sessions with the keynote speakers and pairs of parallel sessions dedicated to contributed papers. The intention is that contributed papers should last around 30 minutes and allow around 15 minutes for discussion.

The language of the conference is English.

Range of Topics

• Language: meaning; truth; truth-conditions and assertibility; sense and reference; semantics and syntax; form and content; the language of thought; metaphor...
• Knowledge: scepticism; foundationalism and coherentism; internalism and externalism; holism and indeterminacy; justification; the a priori; perception; memory; induction; other minds...
• Metaphysics: particular and universal; things, facts and events; mind and body; time, identity and cause; possible worlds; God...

Deadline **June 15th 2007**

Webpage of the conference: http://www.filosofia.lettere.unipd.it/analitica/grad-conf/

The 2007 annual meeting will be held October 5-6 at Hotel Fort Des Moines, Des Moines, IA

Keynote Speaker: Scott Soames
University of Southern California

Papers and abstracts are to be submitted as attachments to an email message to the program chair:

Matthais Steup
Department of Philosophy
St. Cloud State University
St. Cloud, MN 56301

Papers are limited to 3,000 words, and must include a word-count on the title page.

No author-identifying references should appear in the body of the paper. Abstracts should not exceed 150 words.

Deadline for submissions is June 15, 2007

Last night I learned that my paper on the value of skepticism has been accepted for the Value of Knowledge conference this summer in Amsterdam. I'm looking forward to seeing how the conference program shapes up, but the lineup of keynote speakers for the conference is already very impressive in that it includes Alvin Goldman, Ernest Sosa, Jonathan Kvanvig, and Duncan Pritchard. Now I just need to figure out funding the trip. I'm hoping I can swing a stay at the hotel for philosophers. No kidding. Check out the Hotel de Filosoof.

Call for Papers

Traditionally, logic and mathematics have been considered exemplary cases of fields in which our knowledge is a priori.  Consequently, questions about the epistemological status and ontological import of logical and mathematical truths have recurred throughout the history of philosophy.  This is a call for papers dealing with questions of the epistemology and ontology of logic and related disciplines.  Themes of interest include: the nature of logic and mathematics, the nature of logical and mathematical knowledge, the relationship of logic to ontology, and the question of how our minds are able to think about and come to know logical and mathematical truths.  Papers from any tradition (continental, analytic, pragmatic) and from any perspective (problem-based, historical, and exegetical) are welcome.   However, ideal papers will address at least two of the following issues: logic, ontology, mind, epistemology, and will be thesis-driven in nature.  

Papers should be 10-15 pages (no more than 35 minutes reading time), include an abstract and be suitable for blind review, and be accompanied by a title page containing:

a.    Paper Title
b.    Author’s name
c.    Academic status and affiliation
d.    Contact information (preferably e-mail)

Please send electronic copies in Word or PDF format to Andrew Spear (make sure to write “Logic Conference” in the subject-line).  

Submission Deadline: Friday August 3, 2007

For Information, Please Contact Andrew Spear or Amanda Hicks, or visit the Conference Web-Site.

Sponsors: SUNY Buffalo Graduate Philosophical Association; SUNY at Buffalo Philosophy Department; C.S. Peirce Professorship in American Philosophy.