https://ecomresearchgroup.com/kinds-of-action/

ECOM’s 4th Graduate Conference, Feb 25, 2023

Keynote speakers:

• Prof. Lucy O’Brien (Philosophy, UCL)
• Prof. John Schwenkler (Philosophy, Florida State University)

Registration form is here. Deadline for submissions is Jan 8!

Call for papers

On the philosophically received view, actions form a special subset of behaviors: they are behaviors motivated by reasons. Reasons, in turn, have often been construed in terms of agents’ propositional attitudes. This view has come under pressure in recent years, in part because it appears to exclude the behaviors of very young humans and nonhuman animals from the realm of action proper. The aim of “Kinds of Action” – to be held online on Sat Feb 25, 2023 – is to generate interdisciplinary discussion on varieties or types of action (and agency) that are of interest to philosophers, psychologists, linguists, and anthropologists, among others. We encourage contributions that discuss the notion of action as it has been used in different domains. Below are some examples of potential topics (in no particular order):

• Typologies of action
• The relation between action and (mere) behavior or bodily movements
• Actions, intentions, and reasons
• Rational action
• The relation between action and practical reasoning
• Primitive agency
• Continuities and discontinuities between human and nonhuman action
• Intentional action and self-knowledge
• ‘Group action’

Submission Guidelines

We invite abstracts – roughly 1,000 words, excluding references – of short papers, suitable for a 30 min presentation, by graduate students and postdocs. Presenters will be asked to send the recording of their talks. The videos should not exceed 20 mins to allow for 10 min discussion.  The papers should be relatively accessible to an interdisciplinary audience and avoid overly technical discussion of ‘in-house’ issues/debates.

Abstracts should be prepared for blind review and include the title of the paper; they should make clear both the topic and the main arguments of the paper. Please send a separate cover sheet with the title of the paper, author’s name, affiliation (if any), and contact information.

Abstracts+cover sheets should be sent to Aliyar Ozercan (aliyar.ozercan@uconn.edu) by January 8 (midnight). Notifications of acceptance will be sent no later than January 22.