PG Work in Progress Seminar
About the WiPThe Postgraduate Work in Progress (WiP) Seminar is a student-organised session intended to provide all philosophy graduate students, and occasionally graduate students undertaking philosophy projects in other departments, with the platform to present and discuss their ongoing research. All philosophy PGs, whether MA, MPhil, or PhD, are encouraged to attend, and faculty members and visitors to the department are very welcome. No extensive knowledge of the week’s topic is necessary. The seminar offers an invaluable opportunity for graduates to present their work in a friendly, supportive, unassessed setting, and receive vital peer-review feedback and tips, allowing them to improve and practise defence of their work, as well as to get to know and socialise with fellow students and members of the wider department. Seminars normally take place on Thursdays, from 5:00pm until 6:15pm in S2.77, and can also be attended online on via Teams. The title and abstract for each talk along with a Teams link is circulated to all PG students on a Monday.The format will consist of a roughly 30-minute presentation of a paper, followed by a roughly 30-minute open discussion and Q&A. Current term scheduleA list of seminars occurring in the current academic term can be found below. Term 2 (2023-2024) Schedule
Thursday 11th January - Aurian De Briey - 'From Heidegger's social ontology to his answer to the technological challenge' Thursday 18th January - Emily Boocock - 'Some Characteristic Features of Extremist Ideology' Thursday 25th January - Chris Hall - 'Knowing What We're Doing' Thursday 1st February - Sara Gorea - 'Sideways music and sideways obligations' Thursday 8th February - Gustavo Ruiz da Silva - 'Paul Veyne: Elegiac Storiography' Thursday 15th February - Lumeng Liu Thursday 22nd February - Simon Gansinger Thursday 29th February - Efan Owen Thursday 7th March - Harland Cossons Thursday 14th March - Oscar North-Concar Previous term scheduleTerm 1 (2023-2024) Schedule
Friday 6th October - Clarissa Mueller - 'A Phenomenology of Neurodivergence' Thursday 12th October - Eve Poirier - 'Plausible Abstractions: The role of fiction, truth and history in Genealogy and State of Nature Philosophy' Thursday 19th October - Aurian de Briey - 'The Articulation between Liberty and Happiness' Thursday 26th October - Ben Campion - 'Videogame Photography Returns: Photography versus ‘the Photographic’ Thursday 2nd November - Elias Girma Wondimu - 'Mixed-Raced Inclusion: Revising Existing Definitions of Race' Thursday 9th November - Johan Heemskerk Thursday 16th November - Haley Burke Thursday 23rd November - Fridolin Neumann Thursday 30th November - Oscar North-Concar - 'A Problem For Objectivism in Ethics' Thursday 7th December - Marco Rienzi Notes for presentersThere is no strict minimum or maximum limit on paper length, and you may present an entire paper, a chapter of a thesis, an article, or outline the scope of a project, etc. The general recommendation is 3000-5000 words, as your work should be amenable to summation within 30 minutes. Please provide your title and abstract to the WiP organisers by the end of the Sunday on the week you are presenting.Please keep in mind that the seminar is best used to gather valuable suggestions with which to improve to your work, and to gain experience in presenting your work. As such, your work does not need to be a watertight, polished piece, but may be a draft or substantial set of notes. You are welcome to share work at all stages of the writing process. Contact the organisersIf you would like to present at the WiP or have any questions about it, please email both Chris Hall (Chris.Hall.1@warwick.ac.uk) and Grainne O'Shea (Grainne.O-Shea@warwick.ac.uk). |
Next talk: Thursday 8th February 2024, 5pm, S2.77Gustavo Ruiz da Silva: 'Paul Veyne: Elegiac Storiography'WiP Organisers 23/24: Chris Hall (Chris.Hall.1@warwick.ac.uk) Grainne O'Shea (Grainne.O-Shea@warwick.ac.uk) |
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Postgraduate Work in Progress Seminar: Lucy Barry: 'The Potential of Metaphor'
Metaphors can be recognised as offering an indirect way to achieve understanding of phenomena we find hard to comprehend or cannot express directly. However, claims about what is involved in the process of creating and interpreting metaphor, and the nature of what is produced, vary widely between different metaphor theories and linguistic traditions. According to traditional models, metaphorical meaning is conceived simply as a transformation of antecedent literal meaning in relation to an already present object. This way of understanding metaphor takes it to be an embellishment of discourse, but one that is unable to cover truth. But there are a number of theories that challenge this conception and attribute creative capacity to metaphor, claiming that it is possible that the use of metaphor can result in an instance of something that did not previously exist.
If it is the case that metaphor is able to exceed the boundaries of what is in an objective sense, reaching beyond facts and objects to redefine the world as a whole, whether it does this re-constituting the world, in the sense of introducing something wholly new, or by shedding new light on antecedently existing, but unavailable elements, is a matter for debate. It is the more radical, creative theories that Lucy will investigate, in order to establish whether certain kinds of metaphors can in fact be considered as, in some way, genuinely productive of meaning, and, if so, what kind of innovation this implies. And it will be seen that in the theories under consideration, the dichotomy between world constitution and world disclosure does not maintain; if a metaphor is to be truly innovative it will, in an important sense, both disclose and constitute reality.
The talk will be followed by discussion and drinks at The Dirty Duck. All are welcome.