Questioning ‘Western Philosophy’: Philosophical, Historical, & Historiographical Challenges (Conference)

28 April 14:00 to 30 April 18:30

Please see below for details of a conference to be convened at Worcester College, Oxford by Lea Cantor, Josh Platzky Miller, Sihao Chew, Jonathan Egid, Dmitri Levitin, and alicehank winham in April 2023

Circulated on behalf of Lea Cantor & Sihao Chew

 

Questioning ‘Western Philosophy’:

Philosophical, Historical, & Historiographical Challenges 

Call for Registration (In-person & Online Attendance) 

28th April–30th April 2023 

Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre Worcester College, University of Oxford

 

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Questioning ‘Western Philosophy’ will be the first international conference that subjects this concept to critical interrogation, asking whether it is legitimate, where it comes from, when and how it becomes widespread, and how it impacts our understanding of philosophy and its history. Building on work from, inter alia, the history of philosophy, global intellectual history, intercultural and comparative philosophy, critical philosophy of ‘race’, and decolonial studies, the conference will explore the concept of ‘Western Philosophy’ from philosophical, historical, and historiographical perspectives.

 

Confirmed speakers:

  • Peter Adamson (LMU Munich, DE / KCL, UK)
  • Linda Martín Alcoff (Hunter College / Graduate Center, CUNY, US)
  • Lucy Allais (​Johns Hopkins, US / Witwatersrand, ZA)
  • Yoko Arisaka (Hildesheim, DE)
  • Sarah Bernard-Granger (ENS de Lyon, FR)
  • Robert Bernasconi (Penn State, US)
  • Lea Cantor (Oxford, UK)
  • Saloni De Souza (UCL, UK)
  • Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Columbia, US)
  • Jonathan Egid (KCL, UK)
  • Kadir Filiz (Radboud University Nijmegen, NL)
  • Lewis Gordon (Connecticut, US)
  • Kimberly Ann Harris (Virginia, US)
  • Allan M. Hillani (New School for Social Research, US)
  • Lilith W. Lee (VU Amsterdam, NL)
  • Catherine König-Pralong (EHESS Paris, FR)
  • Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach (VU Amsterdam, NL / Konstanz, DE)
  • Dmitri Levitin (Oxford, UK)
  • Lin MA (Renmin, Beijing, CN)
  • Josh Platzky Miller (Free State, ZA)
  • Lerato Posholi (Basel, CH)
  • Christoph Schuringa (​​New College of the Humanities, London, UK)

Registration:

The Conference will take place in-person at Worcester College, Oxford, on 28th April (14:00-17:30), 29th April (9:00-18:30), and 30 April (9:00-18:30). 

In Person: A limited number of tickets for in-person attendance (which includes a drinks reception on Friday 28th, and coffee/tea and lunch on Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th) can be purchased here. 

Online: Alternatively, it is possible to register to watch the conference remotely in real time. To register to receive the link for the livestream recording, please complete this form.

 Conference abstracts can be consulted here.

Organizers: Lea Cantor (Oxford) & Josh Platzky Miller (Free State)

Assistant organizers: Sihao Chew, Jonathan Egid, Dmitri Levitin, & alicehank winham

In collaboration with Philiminality Oxford 

Visit our conference website for more information

The conference is generously supported by the British Society for the History of Philosophy; the Aristotelian Society; the Mind Association; the London Arts & Humanities Partnership; the UK Kant Society; the Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford; the Oxford Centre for Global History; the Oxford Centre for European History; the Oxford Centre for Early Modern Studies; All Souls College, Oxford; St Catherine’s College, Oxford; Worcester College, Oxford; the Maison française d’Oxford; and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

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Programme

 

Friday 28th April 2023

14:00-14:30 Registration (Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre Foyer, Worcester College)

14:30-15:00 Introductory remarks (Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre Auditorium, Worcester College)

Panel 1 – Contexts & Critiques (SNSC Auditorium)

15:00-16:00 Prof. Lucy Allais (Johns Hopkins, US / Witwatersrand, ZA) ‘Revisiting problematising western philosophy’  

16:00-17:00 Prof. Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach​ (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, NL / Konstanz, DE) ‘Appropriating, Borrowing and Retelling the Philosophical Story: Countering Conceptual Hegemony’

17:00-17:30 Prof. Christoph Schuringa (New College of the Humanities, London, UK) ‘Canonization and Its Discontents'  

17:30 Drinks Reception (SNSC Foyer)

 

Saturday 29th April 2023

Panel 2 – Historiography A (SNSC Auditorium)

9:00-10:00 Prof. Robert Bernasconi (Penn State, US) ‘The Role of Races and Religions in the Rewriting of the History of Philosophy’

10:00-10:30 Ms Lea Cantor (University of Oxford) ‘The Origin Story of ‘Western Philosophy’’

10:30-11:00 Coffee & Tea Break (SNSC Foyer)

11:00-12:00 Prof. Catherine König-Pralong (EHESS Paris, FR) ‘Mapping (the History of) the Mind. Europe’s Self-Colonization’

12:00-12:30 Mr Jonathan Egid (King’s College London, UK) ‘The category of 'Western Philosophy': reflections from connected history’ 

12:30-13:30 Lunch (SNSC Foyer)

Panel 3 – Individual Figures (SNSC Auditorium)

13:30-14:30 Prof. Lin Ma (Renmin, Beijing, CN) ‘Heidegger on “Abendland” (West) as a Being-Historical Notion’

14:30-15:00 Dr Saloni de Souza (University College London, UK) ‘On Top of the World: Garcia de Orta on the Problems With “Western Philosophy”’

15:00-15:30 Dr Lilith W. Lee (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, NL) ​​‘Philosophising under King and Qing: Two Straits Chinese Critiques of ‘Western’ Philosophy’

15:30-16:00 Coffee & Tea Break (SNSC Foyer)

 Panel 4 – Historiography B (All speakers on this panel will be joining by video link / online)

16:00-17:00 Prof. Peter Adamson (Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, DE / King’s College London, UK) ‘Is Philosophy in the Islamic World “Western”?’

17:00-18:00 Prof. Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Columbia, US) ‘Translatio Studii and ‘non-Western’ Philosophy’

18:00-18:30 Dr Dmitri Levitin (University of Oxford) ‘The Strange Scholarly Origins of ‘Western Philosophy’, and an Uncomfortable Question’

 

Sunday 30th April 2023

Panel 5 – Inclusions & Exclusions (SNSC Auditorium)

9:00-10:00 Dr Yoko Arisaka (Hildesheim, DE) ‘Hermeneutics of Exclusion: Historiographies of the Histories of Philosophies’

10:00-10:30 Dr Daniel J. Smith (Memphis, US) ‘A Kantian Conspiracy in the Historiography of Philosophy’

10:30-11:00 Coffee & Tea Break (SNSC Foyer)

11:00-11:30 Sarah Bernard-Granger (ENS de Lyon, FR) ‘Western philosophy, or the national construction of a universal philosophy’

11:30-12:30 Lerato Posholi (Basel, CH) ‘Demarcating ‘Western philosophy’: beyond origins?’

12:00-13:00 Lunch (SNSC Foyer)

Panel 6 – Traditions & Canons (SNSC Auditorium)

13:00-14:00 Prof. Lewis Gordon (Connecticut, US) ‘Before ‘the West’ and Beyond: Ancient African and Contemporary Africana Philosophy’

14:00-14:30 Mr Kadir Filiz (Radboud University Nijmegen, NL) ‘Must Phenomenology Remain European?’

14:30-15:30 Dr Kimberly Ann Harris (Virginia, US) ‘The Relationship between African-American Philosophy and ‘Western Philosophy’’

15:30-16:00 Coffee & Tea Break (SNSC Foyer)

Panel 7 – Epistemology (SNSC Auditorium)

16:00-16:30 Dr Josh Platzky Miller (Free State, ZA) ‘Shirking Knowledge: Forms of Ignorance and the idea of ‘Western Philosophy’’

16:30-17:00 Allan M. Hillani (New School for Social Research, US) ‘Savage Hobbes: Anthropological Philosophy Against Philosophical Anthropology’

17:00-18:00 Prof. Linda Martín Alcoff (Hunter College / Graduate Center, City University of New York, US) ‘What comes after Eurocentrism’’

18:00-18:30 Closing (SNSC Auditorium)

End of Conference

19:00 Post-Conference Pub

 

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