A striking fact about us humans is that we can be guided by norms. We invoke norms to assess our ways of thinking and acting, and to praise and blame our fellow human beings. Norms have also played an important role in systematizing and organizing our thinking about the world that surrounds us, and in helping us better to understand nature and society.

The purpose of this meeting is to establish a new research program, which will take a systematic look at the historical background to the distinction between norms and nature. It will explore how philosophers viewed the relationship between norms, both epistemic and practical, and nature from the time of Plato and Aristotle in Ancient Greece to David Hume in the eighteenth century.

Schedule

Thursday, May 10, 2018

Venue: Gula villan

16:30-18:00:

Chair: Henrik Lagerlund (Stockholm)

Calvin Normore (UCLA): Norms in Nature and the Nature of Norms: How ‘Law’ became Ambiguous

Friday, May 11, 2018

Venue: Gula villan

9:00-10:00:

Chair: Svavar Svavarsson (Reykjavík)

Francesca Masi (Ca’ Foscari): Norms and Atoms: Epicurus on Agency

10:00-10:30: Coffee

10:30-11:30:

Chair: Tomas Ekenberg (Uppsala)

Peter Adamson (LMU/KCL): Against Nature: Two Critics of Naturalism in the Islamic World

11:30-12:30:

Chair: Peter Kail (Oxford)

Michael Gill (Arizona): Shaftesbury on Nature, Religion, and Aesthetic Norms

12:30-1:30: Lunch

1:30-2:30:

Chair: Mikko Yrjönsuuri (Jyväskylä)

Helen Hattab (Houston): Hobbes and Spinoza on Constructing a Science of Virtue without Universal 'Humanity'

2:30-3:00: Coffee

3:00-4:00:

Chair: Miira Tuominen (Jyväskylä)

Martina Reuter (Jyväskylä): Gender as a Battlefield of Norms and Nature

4:00-5:00:

Chair: Øyvind Rabbås (Oslo)

Katja Vogt (Columbia): Good for Human Beings in Aristotle

Saturday, May 12, 2018

Program planning meeting (closed meeting)

Venue: Gula villan

9:30-10:30:

Welcome and Introduction by Henrik Lagerlund

10:30-11:00: Coffee

11:00-12:00:

Discussion: Norms and Nature in Ancient Philosophy

Chair: Gösta Grönroos (Stockholm)

12:00-13:00: Lunch

13:00-14:00:

Discussion: Norms and Nature in Medieval Philosophy

Chair: Henrik Lagerlund (Stockholm)

14:00-15:00:

Discussion: Norms and Nature in Early Modern Philosophy

Chair: Jonas Olson (Stockholm)

15:00-15:30: Coffee

15:30 -16:30:

Overview and overarching research questions by Henrik Lagerlund