Philosophy and Economics, University of Vienna

06/04/2023

We wish you happy easter holidays!

𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝟏𝟕𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥!

DE (English Version below)
Bald ist Ostern - und darum nehmen wir euch mit auf Ostereiersuche! 🐰 In unserem Wissenschaftsmagazin Rudolphina hat der Osterhase in verschiedenen Artikeln Ostereier versteckt. 📖 Findest du alle? Dann schick uns das richtige Losungswort an [email protected] und mit etwas Glück kannst du ein Uni Wien-Strandtuch für den Sommer gewinnen! ☀

Zum Gewinnspiel hier entlang ⤵ Viel Erfolg bei der Suche! 🤩
https://rudolphina.univie.ac.at/oster-gewinnspiel-viel-erfolg-bei-der-eiersuche

Die Universität Wien wünscht euch allen frohe und erholsame Feiertage!

EN
Easter is coming soon - and that's why we're taking you on an Easter egg hunt! 🐰 In our science magazine Rudolphina, the Easter bunny has hidden Easter eggs in various articles. 📖 Can you find them all? Then send us the correct answer to [email protected] and with a little bit of luck you can win a Uni Vienna beach towel for the summer! ☀

To the giveaway this way ⤵ Good luck with the search! 🤩
https://rudolphina.univie.ac.at/en/easter-competition-good-luck-with-the-egg-hunt

The University of Vienna wishes you all happy and relaxing holidays!


📷 by: Barbara Mair

02/03/2023

Our programme for 2023/24 admission is now officially open to new applications!

Check out for more details:
https://ssc-phil.univie.ac.at/studien/masters-in-philosophy-and-economics/

The MA Philosophy and Economics at the University of Vienna is a two-year interdisciplinary Master’s programme jointly taught by the departments of philosophy and economics.

13/02/2023

On 17th Feb, 4-6pm GMT, Sophia Dandelet (Cambridge) will give a lecture on "Epistemic reasons and the value of truth", at Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London. It will also be broadcast live via Zoom.

Registration at:
https://sas.sym-online.com/registrationforms/ipbookingppe170223/

Abstract
Veritism is the view that what makes epistemically irrational belief epistemically irrational is that it constitutes an improper response to the value of truth. This idea promises to serve as the foundation for an elegant and systematic treatment of epistemic rationality, one that illuminates the significance of epistemic evaluative standards without sacrificing extensional adequacy. But I am reluctantly skeptical that veritism can fulfil this promise---no matter whether it is developed in a consequentialist, deontological, or virtue-theoretic way. In this talk, I’ll go some ways towards explaining why.

27/01/2023

Welcome to the official page of Master's in Philosophy and Economics Vienna!

27/01/2023

16/01/2023

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐰 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑/𝟐𝟒 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟏𝐬𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟏𝟕𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑!

10/01/2023

We wish you a nice start and happy studies in 2023!

Die Universität Wien wünscht einen guten Start ins neue Jahr 2023! 🐞🍀🐷🍄✨

16/12/2022

The fourth talk of the New Voices on Women in the History of Philosophy will take place on 12nd January 2023, at 4 pm (CET). All are very welcome to attend via Zoom. For those who are interested please write to [email protected]

January 12, 2023 (16-18h): Cornelia Möser: “Sexual bodies. On desire and pleasure in feminist and LGBTQ thoughts”

Abstract: When feminists speak about s*xuality they sometimes refer to social and political power structure, sometimes to procreation, others speak about pleasure practices or subcultures and even others refer to questions of identity. At the example of the body, these disparities in feminist thought regarding s*xuality become even more evident. While the body has been of crucial interest in feminist and LGBTQ thought, it has only rarely been addressed explicitly and many times in quite negative fashion as Simone de Beauvoir’s very negative views on procreation or menstruation. But also Monique Wittig’s writings on the le***an body struggle with negative association regarding women’s bodies and more particularly desire between them. It was the so called French feminist school and namely Luce Irigaray and Hélène Cixous that tried to find resources for resistance in the female body and its supposed refusal to submit to the rule of the One imposed by phallocracy. Their writings inspired postmodern and q***r studies to inquire new views on the s*xual body, on differences between female bodies but also on the possibility of finding lust and pleasure in these bodies. Susan Bordo’s work has become canonical in this sense. In this talk I would like to retrace some of the ways in which the body has been thought of in feminist theories on s*xuality in discussing first the body in feminist struggles with psychoanalysis, second, I will address the ways in which the feminist s*x wars brought the topic of pleasure back into feminist views on s*xuality and gender and, third, I would like to present more recent perspectives on the s*xual body including the questions of race and of validity. Can we still find revolutionary potential in our s*xual and desiring bodies today?

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New Voices is a group for emerging scholars who work on Women in the History of Philosophy launched by Clara Carus, at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists (directed by Ruth Hagengruber) and now organised Jil Muller, Assistant Professor at Paderborn University. It is a place to connect and to foster communication on our work.

...

08/12/2022

An online workshop today with the topic "the Statistics Wars and Their Casualties" may interest some of you:

3pm UK / 4pm CET (10 am EST) Moderator: Deborah Mayo
SPEAKERS:
· 3-3:30 pm (10:00-10:30 am EST): Jon Williamson (University of Kent)

Causal inference is not statistical inference

· 3:30-4:00 (10:30-11:00): Margherita Harris (London School of Economics)

On Severity, the Weight of Evidence, and the Relationship Between the Two

· 4:00-4:30 (11:00-11:30): Aris Spanos (Virginia Tech)

Revisiting the Two Cultures in Statistical Modeling and Inference as they relate to the

Statistics Wars and Their Potential Casualties

· 4:30-5:00 (11:30-12:00): Uri Simonsohn (Esade Ramon Llull University)

Mathematically Elegant Answers to Research Questions No One is Asking

(meta-analysis, random effects models, and Bayes factors)

5:00-5:10 (12:00-12:10): Break

5:10-5:40 (12:10-12:40): Discussion: participants and audience

5:40-5:45 (12:40-12:45): Overview and final remarks: Deborah Mayo

5:45-6:15 (12:45-13:15): Participant Discussion: ‘Where Do We Go From Here? (part ii)’:

Participants from sessions 1-4 (~10 minutes, speakers; ~20 minutes, all participants)

You can still register at https://phil-stat-wars.com/registration-the-statistics-wars-and-their-casualties-workshop-conference-22-23-september-at-the-london-school-of-economics/ , or please contact: Jean Miller ([email protected]) or Margherita Harris ([email protected]).

Please note that the workshop is ONLINE. To register for the workshop, please fill out the form below. [Successful registration will be acknowledged via email within 24 hours.]

28/11/2022

The third talk of the New Voices on Women in the History of Philosophy will take place on 8th December 2022, at 4 pm (CET). All are very welcome to attend via Zoom. For those who are interested please write to [email protected]

December 8 2022 (16:00-18:00): Marjolein Oele: “Pregnant Constellations and their Demise: A Phenomenology of Miscarriage”

Abstract: Pregnancy has been a life-changing experience for me. It has been so not only because of my bodily transformation and the amazing two forms of life that emerged, but also because of its painful loss. It has prompted me to ask a simple yet profound question: how to grasp this grief, and how to combat the prevailing cultural discourse that seems in so many ways unsuited to address the ambivalence surrounding early pregnancy loss? One way of accessing the meaning of pregnancy loss is through rethinking the meaning of pregnancy in terms of a constellation. In previous work, I have proposed to view pregnancy in light of the building of a pregnant city, in analogy to Plato’s building of a city in the Republic. Following this thought: what happens when the emerging pregnant city falls apart prematurely? Here it is the liminal experience of early miscarriage (i.e., miscarriage before the 12th gestational week) that I seek to investigate, which is important for 3 reasons. First, this form of ephemeral loss is conceptually under-articulated, yet experientially prevalent: 70 % of conceptions end prior to birth. Secondly, rethinking early pregnancy loss stimulates correction of many accounts of loss that are predominantly focused on the loss of individuated, singular beings, rather than allowing for an analysis of loss at the level of the milieu. Thirdly, recognizing the importance and prevalence of dissipating constellation may bring further understanding and recognition to those caught in the grieving aftermath of miscarriage. I will show that Gilles Simondon’s account of pre-individuation is a helpful tool to both conceptualize the pregnant city in its early formation and in its dissolution, precisely because Simondon discusses a metaphysics of life that focuses not on being, but on being-as-becoming (ontogenesis) and affords a place for processes that are pre-individual.

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New Voices is a group for emerging scholars who work on Women in the History of Philosophy launched by Clara Carus, at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists (directed by Ruth Hagengruber) and now organised Jil Muller, Assistant Professor at Paderborn University. It is a place to connect and to foster communication on our work.

...

18/11/2022

For those who're interested in ethical approach to attention economy, there's an online seminar series “Attending as practice in the attention economy”, and the upcoming one is titled "Grounding ethics through attention: Murdoch, Weil, and Zen Buddhism", by Silvia Caprioglio Panizza, on November 23 (Wednesday), 10:30 AM-12:00 PM CET.

If you're interested in attending the seminar, please write to Secretariat.P&[email protected]. You will then receive a link to join the online seminar.

More info about the seminar series:
The “attention economy” refers to the tech industry's business model that treats human attention as a commodifiable resource. The libertarian critique of this model, dominant within tech and philosophical communities, claims that the persuasive technologies of the attention economy infringe on the individual user's autonomy and therefore the proposed solutions focus on safeguarding personal freedom through expanding individual control.

While this push back is important, it uncritically accepts the framing of attention as a scarce commodity, giving rise to incomplete assessments of the moral significance of attention, and obscuring richer sets of ethical strategies to cope with the challenges of the attention economy.

We step away from a negative analysis in terms of external distractions and aim for positive answers, by approaching attention as practice.

The series engages with speakers from all kinds of backgrounds (philosophy on authors like Iris Murdoch, Martha Nussbaum, Simone Weil, Merleau-Ponty, Harry Frankfurt, or Buddhist ethics …; psychology; artificial intelligence; …).

Questions that will be central in the online series:

1-What do attention and related concepts mean in the “attention economy”?

2-How is attention a basis for or related to morality?

3-How can attention (and related concepts) be built in the design of the attention economy in a humane way?

To answer this last question, we think the philosophical debate should turn from a negative to a positive focus:

From “What are the distractions?” to “How can wisdom practices, virtues, … support a desirable form of attention?”;
From “I must take back control of my attention” to “How can we use attention for flourishing, wisdom, …?”;
From reacting against “promising (false?) free comfort” to supporting “acceptance of necessary effort”; and
From “increasing individual needs in the attention economy” to support “collective or intentional joint attention in the attention ecology”.