To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the founding of the OUDCE
Philosophical Society by Dr Tony Chadwick, our usual Members'
Day was extended into a Members' Weekend.
Links in the below time-table activate MP3 audio recordings of the
corresponding talks. Talk recordings and supporting material are also
linked from talk summaries further below.
Peter Townsend: Taking Empiricism Seriously
To take empiricism seriously we must go
beyond Hume and assume nothing except experience. That, in turn, entails
identifying its basis, the elements of what Locke called 'impressions', the
fundamental building-blocks of our abilities to discern anything - let alone
any 'thing'. Not only that, we have to look to it for standards of correctness,
abandoning external criteria such as 'truth' or 'reality'. Does that mean we
cannot, ultimately, be mistaken? And what is the role of the a priori if
experience is all we have?
Audio recording (MP3 format)
Handout (Word .doc format)
Talk text (PDF format)
Simon Borrington: Chaos, Confusion and the Ordering of Pure Experience
Empiricism is an account of how we gain knowledge of
the world and, as such, it has all the appearances of epistemological
common-sense: 'it does what it says on the tin'. But what happens when the idea
is pushed to its most radical limits? To get a taste of how strange empiricism
can be I shall look at William James' 'A World of Pure Experience' with
particular focus on his ideas concerning 'continuous transition'.
Audio recording (MP3 format)
Handout (Word .doc format)
Slides (Word .ppt format)
Talk text (PDF format)
Barbara Wainwright: Noam Chomsky and the Abuses of Empiricism
It has long been accepted that our knowledge of
the external world is gained through the senses. Progress in science has relied
on the empirical method – observation, the formation of hypotheses and
experimentation to verify or reject these hypotheses. Noam Chomsky was not the
first to question this view of scientific progress, but he was the most
radical. I hope to defend his rejection of empiricism in the cognitive
sciences, and show that his conclusions are of vital relevance to philosophy.
Audio recording (MP3 format)
Handout (Word .doc format)
Slides (Word .ppt format)
Talk text not available.
Jonathan Harlow: Making Sense of Experienc
Given that our minds were never tabulae rasae,
and that some a priori concepts are needed to enable us to construct
knowledge from experiential data, Kant reckoned to determine the nature of
these by ratiocination. But studies of cognitive development and of language
use give us a not only a much fuller picture of the nature of our
preconceptions than we can adduce by pure reason, but also a different one. The
a priori is itself a subject for empirical investigation.
Audio recording (MP3 format)
Slides (Word .ppt format)
Talk text (PDF format)
Terry Duchow: Empiricism as an Ally for Knowledge
In considering the problem of knowledge as justified true belief,
empiricism with its emphasis on experience may be knowledge's best ally.
Considering that (1) experience is limited and (2) the mind is capable
of knowing the conditions that make experience, then knowledge may still
be possible. However, reason frames experience in meaningful ways. In
other words, knowledge can be compared to architecture. It is built on
experience and frames it while reflecting upon broader reality.
Audio recording (MP3 format)
Slides (PDF format)
Talk text (PDF format)
Peter Gibson: Is Absolutely Everything Known Empirically?
As a universal doctrine, empiricism must give an account
of the most difficult cases, so this talk will investigate an empirical account
of standard logic. It will be claimed that logic is neither eternal truths, nor
a mere invention like chess, but an attempt to map experience at a highly
general level. The basic ingredients of logic will each be examined, to see
whether a plausible connection can be made for each of them with the world we
encounter in daily life.
Audio recording (MP3 format)
Handout (PDF format)
Talk text (PDF format)
The Speakers
Simon Borrington studied philosophy as a mature student at
Middlesex Polytechnic back in the 80s when it was a centre for the 'Radical
Philosophy' movement. He embarked on postgraduate work under the guidance of
Jonathan Ree, but life got in the way. For thirty years philosophy has been a
persistent background noise to his engagement with the world and his stumbling
upon the OUDCE via the internet has provided a welcome opportunity (for him, at
least) to re-join the conversation.
Terry Duchow became interested in epistemology while pursuing an MA in
art history. He took OUDCE's "Theories of Knowledge" course in search
of an epistemology that can deal with knowledge in the cultural sciences. As a
research coordinator in a real estate appraisal practice in the United States,
he deals with business knowledge on an everyday basis
Peter Gibson has retired from a long tenure at the Royal Grammar School,
High Wycombe, where he taught English and Philosophy. He is now the Secretary
of the Philosophical Society, and is attempting to complete a PhD in
metaphysics at Birkbeck. He compiles philosophical ideas on a website called
philosophyideas.com. He also likes music and football.
Jonathan Harlow, now retired, has served in the Royal Artillery and the
Overseas Civil Service, worked as a business analyst and executive, and taught
History and Economics in a comprehensive school, a university and adult
education. He is much engaged in local history and got a PhD in 2008 with a
thesis on a 17th century Bristol merchant.
Peter Townsend read modern languages at Cambridge and graduated
from the Footlights into advertising. He later spent time in teaching, acting,
linguistics at SOAS, and freelance writing before retiring to Oxford and the
pleasures of arguing with other members of Philsoc. As a result, he now knows a
little about a lot.
Barbara Wainwright studied philosophy many years ago, and then later
turned to theoretical linguistics. She has been a member of the Philosophical
Society for over twenty years, and looks on Rewley House as her "Health Farm of
the Soul".
Bibliography
General: Wilfrid Sellars, Empiricism and the Philosophy of
Mind (1997 edition with intro & study guide), Harvard University
Press
