News

  • 25 May 2016 9:01 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The AAP is pleased to announce the shortlist for the Annette Baier Prize in 2016. more>>

  • 19 May 2016 6:01 PM | Anonymous member

    Mary McCloskey, a long time member of the Philosophy Department at Melbourne University, died on the 11th of May of this year.

     Mary began her career in philosophy as a student at Melbourne University where she was inspired by Douglas Gasking to become a philosopher. She was hired as tutor by the Department in 1948. After marrying H.J. (John) McCloskey she moved with him to Western Australia where he took up an appointment at the University of Western Australia. Not able to get a job as a philosopher she taught for several years in a secondary school for girls. The McCloskeys returned to the Melbourne University Philosophy Department in 1955 and Mary worked as a tutor, senior tutor, and lecturer. She was promoted to a senior lectureship in 1965 and retired in 1988.

     Mary’s areas of expertise were Kant’s philosophy and aesthetics. She wrote articles on both and a book on Kant’s aesthetics. Mary’s interest in aesthetics had a practical side. She enjoyed sketching and painting with water colours and continued to do so up to the time of her final illness. She had a great interest in textiles and believed that aesthetics had not paid sufficient attention to the sensation of touch.

     Mary grew up in Echuca during the Depression. Her family was poor, her father was often unemployed and the family was constantly on the move. She later suspected that they often had to move because her father could not afford to pay the rent. She and her mother finally settled down near Melbourne so that she could get a proper secondary education. A teacher in her last year at school inspired her to take an interest in philosophy.

     Mary was one of the few women employed in philosophy in the 50s and 60s and she inspired, mentored and supported many women students during her career. She continued to do so after her retirement and the dinners she hosted for women in philosophy at University House are fondly remembered by participants. 


  • 19 May 2016 9:58 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    *Announcing the Australasian Postgraduate Philosophy Conference 2016.*

    *Venue: *Australian National University, Canberra.

    *Date: *Saturday 24th September - Monday 26th September (with a plenary
    address and welcoming drinks Friday 23rd).

    *What: *This annual conference run in conjunction with the Australasian
    Association of Philosophy provides an opportunity for graduate students to
    present work to their peers and gain valuable conference experience. This
    year the conference is being organised by the ANU School of Philosophy.

    *Details: *Submissions for talks, workshops and poster presentations will
    open soon. General registrations will open later in the year. More details
    to follow shortly.

    All enquiries can be directed to 2016APPC@gmail.com
    Temporary website at: http://philevents.org/event/show/23226

  • 01 Mar 2016 6:13 PM | Anonymous member

    Len O’Neill, a member of the Melbourne University Philosophy Department (as it then was) from 1966 to 1996, died on February the 18th this year. 

    Len completed his undergraduate and masters degrees at Melbourne University, before gaining a doctorate at Cambridge in the mid-1960s. He returned to Australia to take up a lectureship at Melbourne University, where he remained for his entire professional life. His masters and doctoral work was in philosophy of logic and epistemology. While these interests persisted throughout his career, and were the subject matter of his publications, he also worked extensively in the theory of punishment, and the philosophies of Buddhism, and anarchism. He completed a second PhD, and during his retirement was well into a third, left uncompleted at the time of his death.  

     Len particularly admired Douglas Gasking, one of his teachers and his MA supervisor at Melbourne, and attempted – with considerable success – to emulate the clarity and rigour with which Gasking approached philosophical issues. He initiated and co-edited the posthumous publication of a collection of Gasking’s papers (Language, Logic and Causation: Philosophical Writings of Douglas Gasking, M.U.P. 1996). Following Gasking’s physical incapacitation by a stroke, Len visited him regularly, and they engaged in continuing philosophical discussion, especially on the work of Charles Sanders Peirce, a philosopher they both held in very high esteem. Len’s regard for Gasking was further demonstrated by his organising, in 2011, a celebration of the centenary of Gasking’s birth. This was attended by a large number of people who shared Len’s admiration and affection for their former teacher and colleague.  

     Len drew a similar admiration and friendship from very many students over the years. They enjoyed the quality of his lectures, but also liked Len for his patience and generosity, to say nothing of their delight in his unconventional style and non-conformist behaviour. No one else in the Arts Faculty dressed, or wore a hat, with quite the elegance Len managed. Few rode such a frighteningly potent BMW motorcycle. Few furnished their room in the Old Arts Building as elaborately.

     Len will be missed by all who knew him.  He is survived by his wife, Jacqui, who he married in 1965, and by his son, Lawrence. 

  • 26 Feb 2016 10:56 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The *Australasian Philosophical Review* (APR) is the AAP's new open peer
    commentary journal. It publishes invited target articles by authors from
    all areas of philosophy, together with invited and open peer commentaries
    on those invited target articles, and authors' responses to those
    commentaries. Each issue has a different curator (chosen by a committee of
    the Australasian Association of Philosophy); the curator is responsible for
    the choice of the authors of the invited target article and the invited
    commentaries.

    The APR is now ready to receive open peer commentary proposals for Volume 1
    Issue 1, Theme: Aesthetic Pleasure, curated by Jenny McMahon.

    Target Article : The Pleasure of Art by Mohan Matthen

    Invited commentaries from: Cynthia A. Freeland , Paul Guyer and Robert
    Sinnerbrink

    Closing date for submission of proposals for open peer commentaries is 15
    April 2016

    To view the target article and invited commentaries, register as an open
    peer commentator at http://australasianphilosophicalreview.org/

  • 02 Feb 2016 2:45 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Commencing in 2016, The Australasian Association of Philosophy (AAP) offers an annual prize of $500 for an outstanding philosophical paper or book chapter published by an Australasian woman during the previous calendar year. The prize will be named after a significant Australasian woman philosopher. more>>

  • 27 Jan 2016 8:54 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The Postgraduate Committee to the AAP is welcoming proposals from postgraduates from any institution in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore with postgraduate philosophy programmes to organise and host the 2016 Australasian Philosophy Postgraduate Conference (APPC).

    ABOUT THE APPC

    The APPC is usually a three-day conference and provides the opportunity for postgraduate students from Australasia to present their work, debate their ideas, receive feedback from peers and form collaborations across institutions. For over two decades, APPCs have included discussions with other graduates, meetings with successful philosophers, career seminars and/or publishing workshops (e.g. with the editor of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy). Recent conferences have been held in Adelaide, Sydney and Auckland.

    ABOUT BIDS

    A successful bid will justify their selection of the conference dates and will likely contain a budget with an indication of expected fund sources, a conference planning timeline, and brief details of local facilities (including accommodation options). Bidders are encouraged to be both realistic and creative with their bids. Our comprehensive APPC Hosting Guide can be sent upon request, and we are happy to assist organisers with any further questions that they might have. Bids for the 2016 APPC close March 31st.

    CONTACTS

    If you are interested in hosting the 2016 APPC, or would like any further information about hosting an APPC, including the APPC Hosting Guide, please contact Jarrah Aubourg (jarrah@uow.edu.au).


  • 15 Dec 2015 11:49 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The Australasian Association of Philosophy (AAP) awards an annual prize of $500 for the development of innovative approaches to teaching philosophy. First awarded in 2014, the prize is offered with a view to exploring ways in which undergraduate courses in philosophy can build the understanding and practise of an inclusive discipline, concerned to foster equal participation in the profession. The aims of the prize are to encourage professionals developing and improving their teaching portfolios to consider critically how philosophy is presented, and to be innovative in implementing practices of teaching that off-set well-known disparities of participation in the discipline, for instance along race and gender lines.

    Criteria of evaluation

    • Significant innovation in curriculum that successfully promotes equity and diversity within the discipline, particularly with respect to underrepresented or marginalised groups in the profession
    • Innovation in pedagogy that successfully promotes broader participation in the discipline
    • High quality in course design and delivery

    The prize is open to individuals, or groups of individuals, teaching undergraduate philosophy courses in Australasian Universities.

    Entries/nominations for the prize close on 29 February 2016. More>>


  • 15 Dec 2015 11:20 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)
    AAP Media Prize

    The Australasian Association of Philosophy offers an annual prize of $500 for the best philosophical piece(s) published by a professional philosopher in the popular media in Australasia. First awarded in 1999, the main criterion for the award of the prize is the ability of the piece(s) to engage the interest of the general public in philosophy or some philosophical issue. Consideration is also given to the quality of the philosophical discussion and to the size of the audience reached. Previous winners of the AAP Media Prize include Henry Martyn Lloyd (2015), Patrick Stokes (2014) Damon Young (2013), Paul Biegler (2012), Peter Slezak (2011), Caroline West (2010) and John Armstrong (2009).

    The AAP invites entries/nominations for media work from professional philosophers in Australasia (including postgraduates and also retired academic philosophers) published in 2015. Entries/nominations may come from the author or from others. The closing date for entries is 29th February 2016.

    Further information about the AAP Media Prize, including conditions of entry, can be found at: http://www.aap.org.au/AAPmediaprize

    AAP Media Professionals' Award

    The Australasian Association of Philosophy offers an occasional award of $500 to journalists and other media professionals for excellence in the presentation of philosophy or philosophical issues in the media. The main criterion for the award of the prize is the ability of the piece to engage the interest of the general public in philosophy or some philosophical issue. Consideration is also given to the quality of the philosophical discussion and to the size of the audience reached. Previous winners of the AAP Media Professionals' Award are Tim Dean (The Conversation), Antonia Case (New Philosopher), Natasha Mitchell (All in the Mind) and Alan Saunders (Philosopher's Zone).

    The AAP invites entries/nominations for media work from journalists, presenters, producers, editors and others based in Australasia published in 2015. Entries/nominations may come from the author or from others. The AAP Media Professionals' Award is offered no more than once each year, and may not be made every year. The closing date for entries is 29th February 2016.

    Further information about the AAP Media Professionals' Award , including conditions of entry, can be found at: http://www.aap.org.au/mediaprofessionalsaward


  • 15 Dec 2015 9:56 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The 2016 Australasian Association of Philosophy Conference will be held at Monash University Caulfield Campus from July 3 through July 7.

    The Presidential Address will be given by Jeanette Kennett. The Alan Saunders Lecture will be given by Susan Wolf. There will be keynote addresses from Sally Haslanger, Cristina Bicchieri, and Hille Haker.

    More details to follow.

    The AAP conference will be following immediately by the 40th. Anniversary Symposium of the International Association of Women Philosophers at Monash University Clayton Campus from July 7 through July 10. The baton will pass from one conference to the other in the early evening of July 7.