International conference on the ‘Somerville group’—i.e. a group of philosophers including Elizabeth Anscombe, Iris Murdoch, Mary Midgley and Philippa Foot.

Recently there has been a surge of interest in the so-called ‘Somerville group’, or ‘quartet’—i.e. a group of philosophers including Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe, Iris Murdoch, Mary Midgley and Philippa Foot. This conference aims to act as a platform for showcasing research about the Somerville philosophers, either as a group or as individuals in order to aid in the collective undertaking of surveying the state-of-the-art of current research and outline how to move forward. Topics might include, but are not limited to: the Somerville philosophers’ predecessors and contemporaries, their influence and legacy, their usage of historical, or genealogical, modes of argument and use of history, their contributions—either individually or as a group—to moral philosophy, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and other sub-fields of philosophical inquiry, as well as interventions in the ongoing debate about the benefits and potential pitfalls involved in regarding the four as a group. We also welcome contributions pertaining to the Somerville philosophers by scholars from outside philosophy and the history of philosophy such as for example intellectual history, gender studies, and comparative literature.

 

Friday 13 June

13.00                Welcome

Jonas Hansson and Frits Gåvertsson

13.15-14.30:     Keynote address: Clare Mac Cumhaill (Durham University) & Rachael Wiseman (University of Liverpool): Irrelevant Intrusions: Conversations on the History of Philosophy

14.30-14.45      Coffee Break

14.45-15.15:     Anne-Marie Søndergaard Christensen (University of Southern Denmark): Foot and Murdoch: Conversations on the Contextualisation of Goodness

15.15-15.45      Colette Olive (University of Leeds): Is loving attention compatible with reciprocation?

15.45-16.00:     Coffee break

16.00-16.30      Frits Gåvertsson (Lund University): Troubleshooting Genealogies

16.30-17.00      Alan Tapper (Curtin University): The Kovesi connection: a summary and some questions

17.00-17.30      Jonas Hansson (Lund University): The Role of Anscombe and Murdoch in the Emergence of Anglo-American Historical Philosophy

 

Saturday 14 June

10.00-10.30      Enrico Galvagni (University of Edinburgh): Hume and Midgley on human nature, reason, and morality

10.30-11.00      Elizabeth Mackintosh (University of Winchester): Mary Midgley: Listening as Animals and Film-Philosophy

11.00-11.30      Eyja M. J. Brynjarsdóttir (Háskóli Íslands/University of Iceland): Mary Midgley on Animals, Humans, and Moral Scope

11.30-13.00      Lunch

13.00-13.30      Emily Lemmon (University of Iowa): Fictional Literature and Perspectivalism through the lens of Iris Murdoch

14.00-14.30      Antonio Chacón Moreno (University of Illinois): Anscombe’s anti-Aristotelianism

14.30-15.00      Sarah Drews Lucas (University of Exeter): Receiving Agency: The Radical Feminist Potential of Murdochian Ethics

15.00-15.15       Coffee break

15.15-15.45      Jean-Gabriel YOU (Sorbonne): Iris Murdoch and our need for metaphysical theorising

15.45-16.15      Jack Webber (MIT): Murdoch on Ideal Limits

 

Sunday 15 June

10.00-10.30      Cathy Mason (Central European University): Ethics and Action in Anscombe and Murdoch

10.30-11.00      Duncan Richter (Virginia Military Institute): Anscombe Against Shallowness

11.00-11.15      Coffee break

11.15-11.45      Georgina Raventós (University of Barcelona): Grounding Morality in Anscombe: From Virtue to Final Ends

11.45-12.15      Sasha Lawson-Frost (Durham University): Anscombe and Weil on limitless objectives

 

Philevent: https://philevents.org/event/show/126806