The (women) In Parenthesis Online Work in Progress Seminar Series 2024-5

The (women) In Parenthesis Online Work in Progress Seminar Series 2024-5 Our first speaker, Peter West, will be presenting: ‘Thinking as Human Beings, with Stebbing, Macdonald, Emmet, Murdoch, and Midgley’ On Tuesday, 15th October 2024, 3pm - 4.30pm UK time

Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/91391091203?pwd=wXUGpcGflTvlc5Gqvmb8yVK3JEUsAL.1 All welcome!

Abstract : I will be presenting a draft of a book chapter. The book is provisionally titled Thinking as Human Beings: Women and the Story of 20th Century Philosophy and will give an account of the lives and ideas of three 'first generation' women in 20th Century British philosophy, while also exploring the role that 'stories' and 'story-telling' play in the history of philosophy. The book focuses on Susan Stebbing, Margaret Macdonald, and Dorothy Emmet - figures who were all institutionally central to 'analytic' philosophy in the first half of the 20th Century. In this chapter, I join the dots between the story of these 'first gen' women and the story of a 'second gen', a.k.a., the Wartime Quartet. Specifically, I demonstrate that if we focus on how Stebbing, Macdonald, and Emmet - along with Midgley and Murdoch - conceived of philosophical inquiry, then evidence of a counter-tradition in 20th Century British thought emerges. All these women reject what I call the 'austere conception of philosophical inquiry', which lies behind key developments in the analytic tradition, in favour of a few on which, when we engage in philosophical inquiry, we think as human beings, rather than purely rational agents.

Upcoming talks:

1. 10th December 2024: Ian James Kidd, ‘Midgley, Wickedness, and Vices’

11th February 2025 10am GMT note special time: Peter Robinson, 'Philosophic Plumbing of the Australian Vocational Education Framework’ 

8th April 2025: Nicola Holt, ‘Iris Murdoch, Susanne Langer and the Great Transformer’ 

3rd June 2025: Chiara Pellegrini, ‘Discussing Relationality Starting From G.E.M. Anscombe.'

Sessions will take place from 3pm to 4.30pm UK time on zoom, with the exception of 11th February 2025, when we will meet at 10am UK time. To download the programme, check our website here.

For questions, email us at info@womeninparenthesis.co.uk

Thanks, The In Parenthesis Board