The International Graduate Conference in Philosophy at the University of Toronto has been held every year since 2001, making it among the longest running conferences of its kind in Canada.
2011: Freedom & Freedoms: Uniting State, Responsibility, and Will
Eleventh Annual International Graduate Conference in Philosophy
University of Toronto
April 15-16, 2010
Keynote Speaker: Philip Pettit, Princeton University
What is freedom? Is there (or ought there be) a single, unified understanding of 'freedom' across all areas of philosophical inquiry, or does the meaning (and perhaps also the importance) of 'freedom' depend on one's particular philosophical starting point? Why, to what extent, and in what respects, should we be concerned with freedom? Who has a sufficient degree of freedom and how ought we enhance the freedom of those who don't have enough?
2010: Social Bonds: From Self to Polis
Tenth Annual International Graduate Conference in Philosophy
University of Toronto
May 14-15, 2010
Keynote Speaker: Raymond Geuss, University of Cambridge
How are the social, political, and moral demands of "life together" conditioned by what we feel for one another? Do our affective ties to each other represent certain limitations on ethics and politics, or, on the contrary, their very foundations? To what extent are these social bonds perspicuous to reason and philosophy?
2009: Action, Agency and Explanation
Ninth Annual International Graduate Conference in Philosophy
University of Toronto
May 8-9, 2009
Keynote speaker: John McDowell, University of Pittsburgh
Understanding human agents and explaining how and why they act as they do have been, throughout the history of philosophy, central projects in areas ranging from metaphysics and epistemology to moral and political theory. Recent interest in explaining action in terms of one's membership in a form of life and one's situation in a set of practices has brought the topic of action once more to the forefront of philosophical discussion. The philosophy graduate students at the University of Toronto invite papers from all areas of philosophy that deal critically with issues of action and agency.
Eighth Annual International Graduate Conference in Philosophy
University of Toronto
May 9-10, 2008
Keynote speaker: Robert Pippin, University of Chicago
We welcome papers from all philosophical perspectives on how human experience bears on metaphysical, logical, scientific, aesthetic, or moral truth. We especially welcome papers that attempt to connect diverse philosophical traditions, such as the analytic/continental divide or distinct areas in the history of philosophy, and papers that attempt to bridge philosophy with related fields, such as literature, cognitive psychology, biology, or religion.
Seventh Annual International Graduate Conference in Philosophy
University of Toronto
May 18-20, 2007
Keynote speaker: Christine Korsgaard, Harvard University
Accounts of agency and identity figure prominently in nearly all areas of philosophy, from metaphysical debates concerning the continuity of personhood over time to moral debates about the unity of agency. The aim of Agency and Identity is to bring together philosophers working on these different but related questions.
Sixth Annual International Graduate Conference in Philosophy
University of Toronto
May 12-14, 2006
Keynote speaker: Myles Burnyeat, University of Oxford
The links and rifts between epistemological, metaphysical and normative concepts of law go too often undiscussed. However, these often divergent concepts share the same root. Highlighting this common heritage, the Freedom and Law conference calls on graduate philosophers to share with each other current intra-disciplinary relationships between freedom and law. And it calls on graduate historians of philosophy and science to elucidate the history of our current concepts.
Fifth Annual Graduate Conference in Philosophy
University of Toronto
May 13-15, 2005
Keynote speaker: Simon Blackburn, University of Cambridge
This year's conference will focus on the intersection of value theory and rational inquiry. How do values (moral, aesthetic, and intellectual) influence the questions we choose to ask, and the ways we attempt to answer them? What questions ought we to be concerned about, and why? Finally, to what extent can the theory of value itself be a subject of rational inquiry?
2004: Perception and Experience
Fourth Annual Graduate Conference in Philosophy
University of Toronto
May 14-16, 2004
Keynote speaker: John Haugeland, University of Chicago
Reflecting the diversity of interests within the philosophy department at the University of Toronto, we welcome papers from graduate students in all areas of philosophy, including: philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics, philosophy of religion, ethics, social and political philosophy, history of philosophy, continental philosophy, phenomenology.
Third Annual International Graduate Student Conference in Philosophy
University of Toronto
May 2-4, 2003
Keynote speaker: Jan Narveson, University of Waterloo
We encourage submissions from graduate students in all areas of philosophy:
analytic and continental, western and non-western.
Creative interpretation of the theme is welcomed.
Some relevant topics include (but are not limited to):
- What are the advantages / disadvantages of methodological & theoretical pluralism in the sciences?
- Ontological vs. epistemological pluralism: Which does irreducibility entail?
- Plural approaches in philosophy of mind: how should we understand the contributions of psychology, AI, neuroscience?
- Are pluralistic theories of value illuminating, or just incoherent?
- Should a pluralist state tolerate intolerant groups?
- What is the relationship of pluralism to relativism? To truth?
- Are plural and conflicting conceptual schemes epistemically viable?
- How do different methodological approaches in philosophy (historical, analytic, sociological) relate to one another? How might they be reconciled?
An International Graduate Student Philosophy Conference
University of Toronto
May 3-5, 2002
Keynote speaker: James Tully, University of Toronto
This conference aims to reflect the diversity of interests within the philosophy department at the University of Toronto. We encourage submissions from graduate students in all areas of philosophy: analytic and continental, western and (especially) non-western. Submissions are invited on all topics, but preference will be given to papers relating to the broad theme of "the legitimate state". Creative interpretation of the theme is welcomed. In keeping with this theme, some issues that might be addressed are:
- What is the justification of state power?
- What legitimates state coercion?
- What norms govern relations between states?
- How can state power be legitimized given the fact of reasonable pluralism?
- How can we reconcile the competing demands of citizens living in multi-ethnic, poly-national states?
- Is the language of rights the most effective way to address issues of basic justice?
- Representation and the state
- When is a state obliged to aid non-citizens living outside its borders?
- What obligations do states have to the citizens that comprise it?
- When is civil disobedience justified?
An International Graduate Student Philosophy Conference
University of Toronto
May 4-6, 2001
Keynote speaker: Emmanuel Eze, DePaul University