International Conference

Good Judgment, Critical Thinking and Epistemic Virtues in Academic Education

April 3-4 2019
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
HG-16A00


The Department of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (the Netherlands) will host an International Conference on Good Judgment, Critical Thinking and Epistemic Virtues in Academic Education on 3-4 April 2019. This conference brings together philosophers, philosophers of education, and educators at academic institutions worldwide.

Universities arguably have epistemic responsibilities to promote a variety of epistemically valuable states, skills, and dispositions in their students, such as good judgment, epistemic virtues, knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and critical thinking skills, among others. Philosophers and theorists of education raise a variety of questions about these. For instance, which of them, if any, should higher educational systems promote through their curricular content, pedagogical practices, and guiding conceptions of the purposes or roles of universities? The answers to such big questions depend on issues of moral, social, and political significance – offering ways to connect reflection on the responsibilities of universities to debates in the wider histories of philosophy. What, for instance, is ‘good judgment’? Are the epistemic virtues textured by the social identities of different subjects? Is the promotion of critical thinking skills naturally sympathetic to certain types of political theory?

Keynote speakers
Michel Croce (University of Edinburgh)
Ian James Kidd (University of Nottingham)
Patricia M. King (University of Michigan)
C.D.C. (David) Reeve (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Wayne D. Riggs (University of Oklahoma)
Richard D. Smith (Durham University)
Maria Silvia Vaccarezza (University of Genova)

Program
You can download the conference booklet here.

April 3
08:30 – 09:00      Coffee
09:00 – 09:15      Opening of the Conference
09:15 – 10:15      Keynote: Patricia King
10:15 – 10:35      Break
10:35 – 11:45      Presentations: Floor Rombout – Robert van Boeschoten
11:45 – 12:45      Keynote: Ian Kidd
12:45 – 13:45      Lunch
13:45 – 14:45      Keynote: C.D.C. (David) Reeve
14:45 – 15:55      Presentations: Hedwig van Rossum – Ido Gideon
15:55 – 16:15      Break
16:15 – 17:15      Lecture: Michel Croce
18:15 – 20:30      Conference dinner + Canal tour

April 4
08:30 – 09:00      Coffee
09:00 – 10:00      Keynote: Maria Silvia Vaccarezza
10:00 – 11:45      Presentations: Katie Crabtree – Matthew Warren – Rik Peels
11:45 – 12:00      Break
12:00 – 13:00      Lecture: Wayne D. Riggs
13:00 – 14:00      Lunch
14:00 – 15:00      Lecture: Richard Smith
15:00 – 16:30      Closing words, Drinks and Good bye

Location
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Room HG-16A00
De Boelelaan 1105
1081 HV Amsterdam

Call for papers
Abstracts (250-300 words) for papers to be presented in workshop sessions should be sent to the conference coordinator Elisa Matse MA at E.N.Matse@VU.nl, by December 20, 2018.

Organizing Committee
Edwin Koster, René van Woudenberg, Jeroen de Ridder, Rik Peels, Ian Kidd.

Conference Fee
€150 (PhD students: € 100, students: no fee) conference dinner, lunches, coffee and tea included.

The conference is part of a project entitled ‘The Epistemic Responsibilities of the University’.
This project is funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation.

 


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Here’s a photographic impression of the conference.