Justice and levels of social interaction – A conference on social distance
The main topic of the seminar is the tension between the commitments we have in close personal relations and those we adhere to more distanced, bureaucratic relations.
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Abstract
The main topic of the seminar is the tension between the commitments we have in close personal relations and those we adhere to more distanced, bureaucratic relations. We aim to explore different ways to approach this topic: as a conflict between the human dignity of the unique individual and the total utility of a community; as a conflict between different kinds of recognition (personal-impersonal); as interaction (ephemeral-institutional), preferences (individual-social) and so on. We will discuss problematic aspects of concrete situations where these concerns oppose each other. The relevant cases will be cases which require and/or allow the exercise of bureaucratic or legal discretion and where the personal proximity to the case or the people involved might affect the decisions (such as distribution of medicine, social benefits, and refugee status). Should we talk about a proximity bias to fair and impersonal laws? Or, should we rather speak of it as necessary and competent correction to power?
Programme June 2nd
13.00: Reception/Welcome
Keynotes
13.15: Carola Freiin von Villiez – Adam Smith and John Rawls: A Comparison of Methods
14.45: Fabricio Pontin: Egotism, sympathy and ordering: Some aspects of a quasi-transitive account of preferences, behavior and dominant strategies.
16.10: Dag Erik Berg – Legal changes in the context of caste based oppression in India: law, discourse, Dalits
16.50: Marry-Anne Karlsen – Humanitarian exceptionalism in the Norwegian health care for irregular migrants
17:30: End of Session
18:00: Dinner at «Spisekroken»
Programme June 3rd
9.15: Coffee
9.30: Laura Guerim - Towards a gendered interpretation of sexual behavior: a critique of ungendered approaches to sexuality and sexual behavior.
10.10: Pheobe Kisubi – Clearing the discursive space (Post) colonial (dis) continuities: African female same-sex sexuality (re)imagined.
10.50-11.00: Coffee
11.00: Tatiana Vargas Maia - Can the criminalization of reproductive rights be a nationalist project? An analysis of the 5069/2013 Bill in the Brazilian National Congress.
11.40 : David Vogt – Crime, social distance and recognition
12.30: Lunch
13.40: Sveinung S. Sivertsen – Partial impartiality: the situated knowledges of impartial spectators
14.20: Hans Marius Hansteen – Not completely present - notes on reflexivity and moral experience in Adorno
15.00: Anne Granberg - Arendt’s Concept of ‘Natality’: Turning Heidegger inside out
16.20-17:15: coffee
Keynotes
17.15: Nythamar de Oliveira - Normative reconstruction and the social brain: The neuroscientific turn of critical theory
18.30: End of Session
Programme June 4th
Workshops for future projects
9:45: Coffee
10.00: 1st session
12.15: Lunch
13.00: 2nd session
Keynotes
Prof. Dr. phil. Carola Freiin von Villiez has since 2012 been professor for philosophy at University of Bergen, Norway. Before that, she’s had the position of director of the Ethics Programme (Professor) at University of Oslo, and also professor at University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany and visiting professor at the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature (CSMN), University of Oslo. Her areas of specialization is within Philosophy of Law, Political Philosophy, Ethics, Normative foundations of International Law and with historical key figures such as Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith and John Rawls. She did her habilitation at the University of Bremen (Germany) on, the soon forthcoming publication: “Dimensionen der Unparteilichkeit: Adam Smith auf der Suche nach dem moralischen Standpunkt [Dimensions of Impartiality – Adam Smith’s Quest for the Moral Standpoint], Paderborn: mentis-Verlag (forthcoming). Prof. von Villiez has published numerous articles, including the topics Adam Smith on impartiality, state sovereignty and Human rights, and cultural integrity.
Professor Nythamar De Oliveira, holds a position at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Filosofia Department. Ph.D. in Philosophy (State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1994), dissertation on Foucault's social philosophy (publication by Nova Science, 2003) defended before the committee composed of Professors Kenneth Baynes, David B. Allison, Mary Rawlinson, and Herman Lebovics. Master’s in Philosophy (Villanova University, 1990), under Prof. John D. Caputo, Master’s in Theology (Aix-en-Provence, France, 1987). Areas of specialization and competence: Ethics, Social & Political Philosophy, Phenomenology, and Latin American Philosophy. Postdoctoral Visiting Scholar at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research, under Professor Richard Bernstein (1997-98), Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (2004-05) at the University of Kassel (Germany) and the London School of Economics, under Professors Hans-Georg Flickinger and Catherine Audard. Visiting Professor at the University of Toledo, OH, 2007-08, Latino Faculty Estrella Teaching Award, postdoctoral research in Political Theory under Professor James Campbell. Part-time Associate Professor at Felician College, NJ. Associate Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University at Porto Alegre, Brazil, since March 1999. Distinguished publication record in Ethics & Political Philosophy and related fields, including 3 single-authored books, 6 co-edited volumes, and over 30 articles and book chapters, having supervised 15 graduate students in Ethics and Social & Political Philosophy.
