Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society

The 88th Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association was held at the University of Cambridge from 11 to 13 July 2014. The Joint Session is a three-day conference in philosophy that is held annually during the summer by the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association. It has taken place at nearly every major university across the United Kingdom and in Ireland. Since 1910, the Joint Session has grown to become the largest gathering of philosophers in the country, attracting prestigious UK and international speakers working in a broad range of philosophical areas. Inaugurated by the incoming President of the Mind Association, the Joint Session includes symposia, open and postgraduate sessions, and a range of satellite conferences. This podcast is a recording of the first symposium at the Joint Session - "Truth and Meaning" - which featured Ian Rumfitt (Birmingham) and Alan Weir (who was filling in for Gary Kemp). Ian Rumfitt studied philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford, and at Princeton University, and has taught it at Keele University, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and back at Oxford, where he was for seven years a Tutorial Fellow of University College. He has held a position at Birkbeck University of London since 2005. He works mainly in philosophy of language and logic, and in the history of analytic philosophy (Frege) with forays into metaphysics and the philosophy of mathematics. Gary Kemp is a senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow. He’s written books and papers on the Philosophy of Language and Philosophical Logic (recently: Quine versus Davidson: Truth, Reference and Meaning, and What is this thing called Philosophy of Language?), and a few papers in Aesthetics. He earned his Ph.D. in 1993 from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

The 88th Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association was held at the University of Cambridge from 11 to 13 July 2014. The Joint Session is a three-day conference in philosophy that is held annually during the summer by the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association. It has taken place at nearly every major university across the United Kingdom and in Ireland. Since 1910, the Joint Session has grown to become the largest gathering of philosophers in the country, attracting prestigious UK and international speakers working in a broad range of philosophical areas. Inaugurated by the incoming President of the Mind Association, the Joint Session includes symposia, open and postgraduate sessions, and a range of satellite conferences. This podcast is a recording of the inaugural address to the Joint Session - "Reasons for Belief, Perception and Reflective Knowledge" - which was delivered by the President of the Mind Association, Alan Millar (Stirling). Alan Millar received his first degree from the University of Edinburgh and then a Ph.D from the University of Cambridge. He was appointed to the University of Stirling in 1971, becoming a Professor of Philosophy in 1994. He has been Professor Emeritus at Stirling since 2010. In 2005 he was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is a member of the Editorial Board of The Philosophical Quarterly and has served on the Executive Committee of the Aristotelian Society. He is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Royal Institute of Philosophy. His main areas of interest are epistemology and the philosophy of mind and language, though he has made occasional contributions to the history of ethics that deal with ideas of Joseph Butler and John Stuart Mill. His publications include Reasons and Experience (Clarendon Press, 1991), Understanding People: Normativity and Rationalizing Explanation (Oxford University Press, 2004) and The Nature and Value of Knowledge: Three Investigations (Oxford University Press, 2010), co-written with Duncan Pritchard and Adrian Haddock.

Elizabeth Barnes has been a senior lecturer at Leeds since 2006. Before going to Leeds she was a PhD student in the Vagueness Project of the Arche AHRC Research Centre for the philosophy of logic, language, mathematics, and mind at the University of St. Andrews. Her main research interests are in metaphysics and ethics. This podcast is an audio recording of Dr Barnes' talk - 'Going Beyond the Fundamental: Feminism in Contemporary Metaphysics' - at the Aristotelian Society on 16 June 2014. The recording was produced by Backdoor Broadcasting Company in conjunction with the Institute of Philosophy, University of London.

Before joining the University of Edinburgh as Chancellor’s Fellow in January 2014, Alix Cohen taught at the universities of York and Leeds, having previously held a Junior Research Fellowship at Newnham College, Cambridge. She is the author of Kant and the Human Sciences: Biology, Anthropology and History (Palgrave, 2009) and has published papers on Kant as well as Hume and Rousseau. She is currently editing Kant’s Lectures on Anthropology: A Critical Guide (CUP, 2014) and Kant on Emotion and Value (Palgrave, 2014). Alix is also Associate Editor of the British Journal for the History of Philosophy and the Oxford Bibliography Online (OUP), and Executive Member of the British Society for the History of Philosophy and the UK Kant Society. This podcast is an audio recording of Dr Cohen's talk - 'Kant on the Ethics of Belief' - at the Aristotelian Society on 2 June 2014. The recording was produced by Backdoor Broadcasting Company in conjunction with the Institute of Philosophy, University of London.

Ulrike Heuer is an Associate Professor in Philosophy at the University of Leeds having previously worked in the philosophy departments at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and Barnard College. She has also been a faculty fellow of the Center for Ethics at Harvard University, and of the Center for Ethics and Public Affairs at Tulane University. Her research focuses on theories of practical reasons, the relation of reasons and values, various problems in normative ethics, and philosophy of action. She is currently working on a project on the moral significance of intentions funded by the British Academy. This podcast is an audio recording of Prof. Heuer's talk - 'Intentions and the Reasons for Which We Act' - at the Aristotelian Society on 19 May 2014. The recording was produced by Backdoor Broadcasting Company in conjunction with the Institute of Philosophy, University of London.

Tim Button is a University Lecturer, and a Fellow of St John’s College, at the University of Cambridge. He has published articles in metaphysics, logic and philosophy of mathematics. His first book, "The Limits of Realism" (OUP, 2013), deals with the relationship between semantics and scepticism. It critically explores explores and develops several themes from Hilary Putnam’s work on realism and antirealism, notably: the model-theoretic arguments; the connection between truth and justification; the brain-in-vat argument; semantic externalism; and conceptual relativity. This podcast is an audio recording of Dr. Button's talk - 'The Weight of Truth' - at the Aristotelian Society on 12 May 2014. The recording was produced by Backdoor Broadcasting Company in conjunction with the Institute of Philosophy, University of London.

Eileen John is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick. Her research is in aesthetics and philosophy of literature, with particular interests in literature and knowledge, and some broader interests in personal autonomy, moral psychology, and conditions for ethical life. Recent papers are on second-personal constraints on love, the nature of our concern for fictional characters, and expressive thought in poetry. She directs Warwick’s Centre for Research in Philosophy, Literature and the Arts. This podcast is an audio recording of Dr. John's talk - 'Literature and Disagreement' - at the Aristotelian Society on 28 April 2014. The recording was produced by Backdoor Broadcasting Company in conjunction with the Institute of Philosophy, University of London.

Jessica Moss is Professor of Philosophy. She received her B.A. from Yale University and her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Princeton University (2004). Her primary area of research is ancient philosophy, especially ethics and psychology. Her article “Akrasia and Perceptual Illusion” was chosen for The Philosopher’s Annual as one of the ten best articles published in philosophy in 2009. Her book "Aristotle on the Apparent Good: Perception, Phantasia, Thought, and Desire" was published by Oxford University Press in 2012. Moss has previously held positions at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Oxford, and currently at NYU. This podcast is an audio recording of Professor Moss' talk - 'Plato's Appearance/Assent Account of Belief' - at the Aristotelian Society on 10 March 2014. The recording was produced by Backdoor Broadcasting Company in conjunction with the Institute of Philosophy, University of London.

Paul Faulkner is a senior lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield. His research interest is principally in testimony and trust. He is the author of 'Knowledge on Trust' (OUP 2011). This podcast is an audio recording of Dr. Faulkner's talk - 'A Virtue Theory of Testimony' - at the Aristotelian Society on 24 February 2014. The recording was produced by Backdoor Broadcasting Company in conjunction with the Institute of Philosophy, University of London.

Conor McHugh is a Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Southampton. He has published articles on a range of topics in epistemology and philosophy of mind, including self-knowledge, epistemic warrant, mental agency, doxastic control and freedom, epistemic responsibility, the aim of belief, and assertion. He is currently working on epistemic normativity and the nature of belief, on the normativity of attitudes more generally, and on related issues in value theory. He is an investigator on the AHRC-funded project ‘Normativity: Epistemic and Practical’ at the University of Southampton. This podcast is an audio recording of Dr. McHugh's talk - 'Fitting Belief' - at the Aristotelian Society on 10 February 2014. The recording was produced by Backdoor Broadcasting Company in conjunction with the Institute of Philosophy, University of London.