Digest Week 4 Trinity Term 2019

Gender, Women and Culture Seminar | 12.00 - 13.30 | Colin Matthew Room, History Faculty (not Radcliffe Humanities)

Grace Heaton: ‘Smashing the Stained Glass Ceiling’: An exploration of the campaigns for female ordination in the Church of England, 1968-1994.

Aleena Din: British-Pakistani women and the pursuit of adult learning, 1962-2002.

The Wilde Lectures in Natural Theology: God, Human Nature and Mathematics | Lecture 3: New Work for Natural Law in Metaphysics, Ethics and Epistemology, Part I | 17.00 | Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College

This year’s Wilde Lectures in Natural Theology will be delivered by Alexander Pruss, Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University, USA.

Alexander Pruss holds PhD degrees in both mathematics and philosophy. In addition to many peer-reviewed articles, his publications include the following academic monographs: Infinity, Causation and Paradox (OUP 2018), Necessary Existence, (with Joshua Rasmussen, OUP 2018), One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics (Notre Dame 2012), Actuality, Possibility and Worlds (Continuum 2011), The Principle of Sufficient Reason: A Reassessment (CUP 2006).

Part II is scheduled for Thursday 23rd May. 

Mereology Reading Group | 17.00 - 19.00 | Meeting Room 4, Radcliffe Humanities

This reading group will focus on some recent work on mereology. Our focus will be on how the notion of parthood and other mereological principles can be extended to apply beyond the realm of material objects. The group will meet each Tuesday from 17.00 - 19.00. Please e-mail sabine.bot@philosophy.ox.ac.uk if you would like to attend. 

Set Theory Reading Group | 19.00 - 21.00 | Ryle Room, Radcliffe Humanities

Our reading group welcomes anyone interested in Set Theory. We shall discuss topics such as large cardinals, forcing, and inner models. No prerequisites are required. Organised by Wojciech Woloszyn.

WEH/Ethox Seminars | Delaying and Withholding Interventions: Ethics and the Stepped Wedge Trial Design | 11:00 - 12:30 | Seminar Room 0, Big Data Institute

Speaker: Arielle Blinik, McMaster University

Ethics has been identified as a central reason for choosing a stepped wedge trial over other kinds of clinical trials. The stepped wedge design uses phased implementation, which means that all arms of the trial receive the active intervention over the course of the study. Some groups receive it later than others, but the intervention is not withheld from any group. This system of phased implementation has been identified as ethically advantageous in two instances: (1) when the intervention is thought to be especially likely to be effective and (2) in emergency situations, such as research conducted during emerging epidemics. But despite the increased use of the stepped wedge design and appeals to its ethical superiority as the motivation for its use, there has been little attention to the stepped wedge in the ethics literature. In this talk I will consider whether there are persuasive reasons to prefer or to require a stepped wedge trial. I will argue that while the stepped wedge is ethically permissible, it is not morally superior to other kinds of trials. To this end, I will examine the ethical justification for providing, withholding, and delaying interventions in research.

Seminar on Boethius’ De Consolatione Philosophiae | The Unity of Boethius's Thought | 17.00 - 18.30 | Seminar Room, Corpus Christi College

Speaker: Mark Edwards (Oxford)

Website: http://www.power-structuralism.ox.ac.uk/weekly_seminars/invited_speakers.html

Oxford University Philosophy Society | 'Thinking takes apart what is really one' (Nietzsche) | 20.00 - 21.15 | Lecture Room 23, Balliol College

Speaker: Galen Strawson. Galen taught at the University of Oxford from 1979-2000, where he was a Fellow of Jesus College. He was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Reading from 2001–2012, and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York Graduate Center from 2004-2007. 

The event will take place in  Lecture Room 23 of Balliol College. Entry is free for members, £3 for non-members. Membership of the society can be purchased at the door at any of our events. If you have any questions then feel free to contact us on Facebook.

The Wilde Lectures in Natural Theology: God, Human Nature and Mathematics | Lecture 3: New Work for Natural Law in Metaphysics, Ethics and Epistemology, Part II | 17.00 | Harris Lecture Theatre, Oriel College

This year’s Wilde Lectures in Natural Theology will be delivered by Alexander Pruss, Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University, USA.

Alexander Pruss holds PhD degrees in both mathematics and philosophy. In addition to many peer-reviewed articles, his publications include the following academic monographs: Infinity, Causation and Paradox (OUP 2018), Necessary Existence, (with Joshua Rasmussen, OUP 2018), One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics (Notre Dame 2012), Actuality, Possibility and Worlds (Continuum 2011), The Principle of Sufficient Reason: A Reassessment (CUP 2006).

Part I is scheduled for Tuesday 21st May. 

Appeals to Nature Seminar | 'The Seamless Garment of God's Creation': Nature, Grace and Sacramentality in Laudato Si | 17.00 | Hovenden Room, All Souls College

Speakers: Tina Beattie (Roehampton). All are welcome. 

Normative Ethics Reading Group | 18.30 - 20.30 | Meeting Room 4, Radcliffe Humanities

During this group a paper within this topic is usually read and discussed, and occasionally the group has contributions from Faculty members. Organised by Tomi Francis.

InParenthesis Reading Group | 20.00 - 21.30 | Ryle Room, Radcliffe Humanities 

Women in Parenthesis (www.womeninparenthesis.co.uk) is a research collaboration between Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman. The project is dedicated to the study of the lives and friendships of four women philosophers: Iris Murdoch, Phillipa Foot, Elizabeth Anscombe, and Mary Midgley. For questions, please contact sasha.lawson-frost@philosophy.ox.ac.uk 

The Meaning of Life Reading Group | 11.30 | St Peter’s College  

Organised by Tim Mawson. This small reading group/seminar will be arranged during weeks 1-8 on (mainly recent) contributions to the literature on ‘the meaning of life’, broadly construed, as given by philosophers, theologians, scientists, psychologists and others. Readings will be circulated in advance each week. The seminar is aimed at graduate students and faculty members; anyone wishing to attend should email tim.mawson@philosophy.ox.ac.uk to be included on the circulation list for further information. Suggestions for suitable readings are most welcome.

The John Stuart Mill Lecture | Re-Reading Mill: The Subjection of Women Through a Changing Lens | 17.30 | Flora Anderson Hall, Somerville College  

Speaker: Anne Phillips (Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science in the Government Department at the London School of Economics)

Followed by refreshments. Tickets are free, but please register your place by emailing alumnievents@some.ox.ac.uk or calling the Development Office on 01865 280626.