The Italian Cultural Institute in New York Announces
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Italian Cultural Institute in New York announces an International Conference ON THE ASHES OF POST-MODERNISM: A NEW REALISM Initiative of the Framework Program “Slowness and Quality” promoted by La Fondazione (NYC) Sponsored by Alitalia Italian Cultural Institute, New York Monday November 7, 2011 9:50am – 5:20pm NY, November 7, 2011 The recent years of economic crisis and geopolitical transformations have led post- modernism to a critical point. Tenets such as the one that reality is socially constructed and ceaselessly modifiable, and that truth and objectivity are untenable notions are increasingly showing signs of rejection by a growing number of thinkers. The “facts” cannot be reduced to interpretations and strike back claiming a “new realism”. World famous public intellectuals Umberto Eco and Hilary Putnam and prominent philosophers Akeel Bilgrami, Giovanna Borradori , Ned Block, Paul Boghossian , Petar Bojanic, Mario De Caro, Maurizio Ferraris, Markus Gabriel, Alvin Goldman, Armando Massarenti and Riccardo Viale will discuss the return of “strong” ideas after decades of “weak” thinking. Implications are not only logical, ontological, and epistemological, but also widely social, psychological, and ethical. Umberto Eco (born 5 January 1932) is an Italian expert of semiotics, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel “The Name of the Rose” (Il Nome della Rosa, 1980), an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory. He has also written academic texts, children's books and many essays. Eco is the founder of the Dipartimento di Comunicazione at the Università di San Marino , President of the Scuola Superiore di Studi Umanistici, Università di Bologna , member of the Accademia dei Lincei (since November 2010) and an Honorary Fellow of Kellogg College, University of Oxford . As of 2011, Eco is one of the world's best selling authors due to his novel “The Prague Cemetery”. Hilary Whitehall Putnam (born July 31, 1926) is an American philosopher, mathematician and computer scientist, who has been a central figure in analytic philosophy since the 1960s, especially in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of science. He is known for his willingness to apply an equal degree of scrutiny to his own philosophical positions as to those of others, subjecting each position to rigorous analysis until he exposes its flaws. As a result, he has acquired a reputation for frequently changing his own position. Putnam is currently Cogan University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University . Akeel Bilgrami is an Indian-born philosopher of language and of mind, and the author of “Belief and Meaning, Self-Knowledge and Resentment”, and “Politics and the Moral Psychology of Identity” (forthcoming, 2011), as well as various articles in Philosophy of Mind as well as in Political and Moral Psychology. Bilgrami is currently the Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University in New York. Ned Block is an American philosopher working in the field of the philosophy of mind who has made important contributions to matters of consciousness and cognitive science. In 1971, he obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard University under Hilary Putnam. He has, since 1996, been a professor in the departments of philosophy and psychology and at the Center for Neural Science at New York University (NYU). Paul Boghossian is professor of philosophy at New York University , where he held the chair for ten years (1994–2004). His research interests include epistemology, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. Petar Bojanic is a senior research fellow at the "Centre for Modern Thought" at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland) as well as the Institute of Philosophy and Social Theory , Belgrade. Giovanna Borradori (born Milan, Italy, in 1963) is Professor of Philosophy at Vassar College . Borradori is a specialist of Continental philosophy, Aesthetics, and the philosophy of terrorism. A crucial focus of her work is to foster new avenues of communication between rival philosophical lineages, including the analytical and continental traditions, liberalism and communitarianism, as well as deconstruction and critical theory. Mario De Caro is an Italian philosopher (b. 1963), who teaches Moral Philosophy at Università Roma Tre . Since 2000, he has also been teaching at Tufts University . He is interested in moral philosophy, the free-will controversy, theory of action, history of science, and Donald Davidson's and Hilary Putnam's philosophies. With David Macarthur he has defended a metaphilosophical view called liberal naturalism, which is now widely discussed (for a sympathetic presentation of this view see; for a critical one see ). Maurizio Ferraris is full professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the Università di Torino , where he is the director of Labont (Laboratory for Ontology). He is columnist for La Repubblica , one of the main Italian newspapers, the director of Rivista di Estetica and co-director of Critique . He is Directeur d’études at the Collège International de Philosophie , Fellow of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America and of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung . Markus Gabriel is Chair in Epistemology and Modern and Contemporary Philosophy at the Universität Bonn , Germany. He has published a number of books and journal articles in German, including “Der Mensch im Mythos” (De Gruyter, 2006), “Das Absolute und die Welt in Schellings Freiheitsschrift” (Bonn University Press, 2006) and “Skeptizismus und Idealismus in der Antike” (Suhrkamp, 2009) and is also co-author, with Slavoj Zizek, of “Mythology, Madness and Laughter” (Continuum, 2009) Alvin Ira Goldman (born 1938) is an American professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He has done influential work on a wide range of philosophical topics, but his principal areas of research are epistemology, philosophy of mind, and cognitive science. Armando Massarenti is born in Italy (1961) and he has taught Philosophy in the universities of Bologna, Lugano, Siena and Milan. He is responsible for the “Science and Philosophy” section in Il Sole-24Ore ‘s cultural supplement, where he analyzes, with a fresh and popular style, several aspects related to philosophy of science, ethics and politics. ********************************* Program 9:50am Introductory address: Riccardo Viale (Director of the Italian Cultural Institute 12:00pm – 12:20pm in New York / Università di Milano- Maurizio Ferraris (Università di Bicocca ) Torino) “Reality as Unamendableness” Morning Session 12:20pm – 12:30pm Discussion Chair – Armando Massarenti (Il Sole 24 Ore) 12:30pm – 12:50pm Umberto Eco (Università di Bologna) 10:00am – 10:30am TBA Conference opening: Hilary Putnam (Harvard University) in dialogue with 12:50pm – 1:00pm Mario De Caro (Università di Roma3 – Discussion Tufts University) “Realism and Reason” 1:00pm – 2:30pm Lunch break 10:30am – 10:50am Discussion Afternoon session 10:50am – 11:10am Akeel Bilgrami (Columbia University) Chair – Riccardo Viale “Realism and Practical reason” 2:30pm – 2:50pm 11:10am – 11:20am Paul Boghossian (New York Discussion University) “Does Relativism Matter?” 11:20am – 11:30am Coffee break 2:50pm – 3:00pm Discussion 11:30am – 11:50am Ned Block (New York University) 3:00pm – 3:20pm “Is Consciousness an Illusion?” Giovanna Borradori (Vassar College) “Which Truth Do Photos Tell? Realism 11:50am – 12:00pm and Human Rights” Discussion 3:20pm – 3:30pm Discussion 4:00pm – 4:20pm Gabriel Markus (Universität Bonn) 3:30pm – 3:50pm “The Argument from Facticity” Petar Bojanic (Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Belgrade/Birkbeck, 4:20pm – 4:30pm London) Discussion “Institution and the Law. Real, positive, concrete” 4:30pm – 5:10pm Alvin Goldman (Rutgers University) 3:50pm – 4:00pm Concluding Lecture Discussion 5:10pm – 5:20pm General discussion The Italian Cultural Institute of New York Founded in 1961, the Italian Cultural Institute of New York is an office of the Italian government, dedicated to the promotion of Italian language and culture in the United States through the organization of cultural events. Under the guidance of its trustees at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, its advisory board, and its staff, the Italian Institute of Culture of New York conforms to this commitment by fostering the cultural exchange between Italy and the US in a variety of areas, from the arts to the humanities to science. Central to the Italian Cultural Institute’s mission is a constant effort to encourage the understanding and enjoyment of Italian culture by organizing and promoting cultural events in collaboration with the most prominent academic and cultural institutions of the East Coast. The Italian Cultural Institute of New York focuses on the development of initiatives aimed at showcasing Italian excellence in various fields, such as science, technology, the arts and design. The development of academic exchanges, the organization and support of visual arts exhibitions, the grants for translation and publication of Italian books, the promotion of Italian studies, and the cooperation with local institutions in planning various events that focus on Italian music, dance, cinema, theater, architecture, literature, philosophy etc., are just a few examples of the Institute’s initiatives. In conclusion, the Italian Cultural Institute of New York provides an “open window” on the cultural and social aspects of past and current Italy. For more information please visit: [email protected] Press contact: Email: [email protected] tel: +1 212 879 4242 ext. 333 .