Summer Workshop on Pragmatism at Emory U.

INSTITUTE FOR THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY

2012 SUMMER WORKSHOP

EMORY UNIVERSITY, 4-14 JUNE 2012

PEIRCE, JAMES, AND THE ORIGINS OF PRAGMATISM

The Emory University Institute for the History of Philosophy will host its

fifth annual summer workshop on June 4–14, 2012 on the topic of “Peirce,

James, and the Origins of Pragmatism.”

Summer Workshops are designed to bring together a group of faculty scholars

specializing in specific areas of the history of philosophy for seminar

style workshop sessions focused on a shared reading list. Ten participants

and the co-directors meet in mornings and afternoons over the course of two

four-day weeks for directed discussions and participant led close readings.

The workshop format eschews the delivery of conference-style papers in favor

of a more open and group-based engagement with the texts at hand. In so

doing, the seeks to foster conversations that will inform future scholarly

work within the greater philosophical community. IHP’s past workshops have

focused on Vico and the Humanist Tradition, the Origins of Modernity,

Nietzsche and Heidegger on the issue of history, and religion and philosophy

in Neoplatonism.  This year’s readings will draw on seminal writings by

Charles S. Peirce and William James. The focus will be on Peirce’s

pragmaticism, semiotics, and logic, and on James’s pragmatism, psychology,

and ethics. The goal will be to situate pragmatism within the history of

philosophy, to understand the similarities and differences between Peirce

and James, to grasp connections between issues in epistemology and ethics,

and to assess the contemporary importance of pragmatic philosophy as it

draws on Peirce, James, or both. The workshop will use critical edition

texts by both Peirce and James.

The Institute is pleased to provide room, board, and travel expenses for all

participants accepted into the workshop. Guests will be housed near Emory’s

campus center, within easy walking distance to the central meeting location

in the Philosophy department.  A number of optional dinner excursions into

various neighborhoods of Atlanta are also planned.

To apply, scholars should send a cover letter addressing the relevance of

Peirce, James, and pragmatism

for their current and/or future scholarly work, and a CV to Professor Stuhr

at the address below by electronic or physical mail. The application

deadline is 13 January 2012 with decisions announced 1 February 2012. The

co-directors for 2012 are:

John J. Stuhr

Department of Philosophy, Emory University

214 Bowden Hall, 561 South Kilgo Circle

Atlanta, GA 30322 USA / jstuhr@emory.edu

Vincent M. Colapietro

Department of Philosophy, Penn State University

240 Sparks Building

State College, PA 16802 / vxc5@psu.edu