POSTPONED INDEFINITELY: The Surrey Centre for Law and Philosophy has taken the difficult decision to postpone this workshop indefinitely due to the Covid-19 crisis. We hope to be able to update you in due course.

SURREY & HARVARD

Introduction

Immanuel Kant is notorious for his supposed indifference to the consequences of human actions. This reputation is due in part to an opaque 1797 polemical essay, On the Supposed Right to Lie from Benevolent Motives, in which Kant disputes Benjamin Constant’s claim that we have a right to lie to a murderer about the location of his intended victim. Whilst Kant’s argument is sometimes assumed to be ethical, it is a juridical analysis, the conclusion of which is that it is impossible to have a legal right to lie, although a lie does not necessarily wrong anyone in particular.

The premise of this pair of workshops is that Kantianism’s reputation for indifference to consequences is mostly undeserved, and that it regrettably deters many theorists from pursuing insights within Kant’s extraordinarily rigorous and fruitful normative framework. These trans-Atlantic workshops will convene scholars from the fields of philosophy, politics, and law to explore the various ways in which the actual or potential consequences of our actions have ethical and/or legal significance in the context of Kant’s normative philosophy.

Call for Abstracts (10 April Deadline):

The organisers welcome 500-1000 word abstracts from interested scholars on both sides of the Atlantic. Please send these to m.newhouse@surrey.ac.uk before midnight on [new date TBA] and indicate whether you would like to be considered for the workshop at Surrey or the workshop at Harvard.

Invitees will be notified on [new date TBA] Final papers should be submitted for pre-circulation by [new date TBA] for the Surrey workshop, and by [new date TBA] for the Harvard Workshop.

Organisers:

Dr. Marie Newhouse, Senior Lecturer in Law, Philosophy, and Public Policy, University of Surrey School of Law

Harvard co-organiser: Alice Pinheiro Walla, Professor of Philosophy, Bayreuth University, Visiting Scholar, Harvard Department of Philosophy

Format:

The format will be pre-read except for the keynotes.

Draft Schedule for Surrey Workshop:

Tuesday

12:00-12:30 – Arrivals and Boxed Lunch

12:30-13:45 – Presenter 1

13:45-14:00 – Break

14:00-15:15 – Presenter 2

15:15-15:30 – Break

15:30-16:45 – Presenter 3

16:45-17:00 – Break

17:00-18:30 – Keynote: Allen W. Wood

18:30 Drinks

19:00 Conference Dinner on Campus

Wednesday

09:45-10:00 – Arrivals/Coffee

10:00-11:30 – Book Workshop: ‘Truthfulness as a Formal Duty of Right’ in Kant's Supposed Right to Lie by Jens Timmermann (commenter TBA)

11:30-12:30 – Lunch

12:30-14:00 – Book Workshop: 'The Argument of Kant’s Essay, and Rigorous Consequences’ in Kant's Supposed Right to Lie by Jens Timmermann (commenter TBA)

14:00-14:15 – Break

14:15-15:45 – Presenter 4

15:45-16:00 – Break­

16:00 – 17:30 – Keynote: Ralf Bader

17:30 Drinks

18:30 Dinner on Campus