Papers Presented
“The case of John Rawls vs. the refuseniks”, at SOAS seminar series,
London, Feb. 7 2007.
“The philosophy of climate change”, via audio and videolink, at the
inaugural Florida ‘Philosophy and climate change’ conference, Sept. 14-16 2006.
"Jackson's Sauron as Descartes's malign demon: Film as better
philosophy", at the Manchester University Philosophy and Film Conference,
June 8-9 2006.
"A philosophical critique of ecological economics", at the Solar Cities
Congress, Oxford University, April 3-6 2006.
"'A science of language' is an oxymoron", PhilSoc, UEA, March 30 2006.
"Liberalism is inherently inegalitarian and ecologically unsustainable:
Against Rawls and Habermas", as part of the 'Provocations' series, Forum for
European Philosophy, Institut Francais, London, Jan. 26 2006.
"Zen Buddhism as Wittgensteinian", at the International Society for
Buddhist Philosophy conference, Cambridge University, Nov. 12-13 2005.
"A new ecological argument against liberal political philosophy", at the
Politics, Sociology and International Studies (PSI) seminar, UEA, Nov. 8 2005.
"A perpsicuous presentation of 'perspicuous presentation'", (jt. with
Phil Hutchinson) at the UEA Wittgenstein Workshop, Nov. 2 2005.
"The philosophy of climate change -- the philosophy of 'Contraction and
Convergence'", at the second annual Green Economics Institute Conference,
Reading, Oct. 29 2005.
"Wittgenstein and political philosophy", at the 11th annual Mind and
Society seminar, Cambridge Wittgenstein Archive, Sept. 1-3 2005.
"Economics is philosophy", at the Green Economics Institute conference,
Reaidng, May 29 2005.
"The lives of suffering animals: such as dogs, and philosophers", at UEA
Philosophical Society, March 10 2005.
"Poetry, belief and non-belief", jt. with Jon Cook, at the Warwick
LitPhil Workshop, Feb.25 2005.
"How to change your life while leaving everything as it is: Wittgenstein and
Zen", in the UEA 'Paradoxes' Public Lecture series, Dec. 8 2004.
"Throwing away 'the bedrock'", at the Aristotelian Society, Nov. 18 2004.
"Wittgensteinian philosophy as Zen Buddhism", Stapledon Society,
Liverpool U., Oct. 18 2004.
"Hume's writing from the vantage point of Wittgenstein's", 4th annual
British Hume Studies Conference, Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford, Sept. 8-9 2004.
"The responsibility of British intellectuals", at 'Literature and
Humanities 2: What is Literature?', Univ. of Kent, June 4 2004.
"'Fight Club', Memento' and 'The Lord of the Rings' as quality philosophy of
psychopathology", The UEA Film Studies Seminar, May 18 2004.
"A philosopher watches some films 'on' mental illness", Public Lecture,
UEA Medical School, Jan. 20 2004.
"Kuhn: A Wittgenstein of the Sciences?" at the MIND / Aristotelian
Society Joint Sessions, Belfast, July 18-21 2003.
"Kuhn: A Wittgenstein of the Sciences?", at the Departmental Seminar,
History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge, Jan.30 2003.
Reply to Critchley and McCarthy, at 'Accounting for literary language: An
international interdisciplinary symposium', UEA, Sept. 1/2 2002.
"Kuhn's legacy", at the IIEMCA Annual Workshop, Brunel U., July 26-27
2002.
"On On Certainty 501", at the 9th annual Mind and Society Symposium,
Manchester Univ., June 6-7 2002.
Reply to Allen and Turvey, at the one-day international symposium on
'Wittgenstein and film', Univ. of Kent, Canterbury, England, June 1, 2002.
"How not to misunderstand Thomas Kuhn", at the Philosophy Department,
Williams College, Massachussetts, April 4 2002.
"Wittgenstein's 'woodsellers' reconsidered", at the New School for Social
Research, New York, April 2 2002.
"Kuhn: a Wittgenstein of the Sciences?", at 'Apres la Structure: Kuhn et
la philosophie des sciences aujourd'hui', an international conference at the
Institut d'Histoire et Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques, Paris, March
16 2002.
"Philosophical problems are not problems of the intellect, but problems of
mood", at the University of Hertfordshire Philosophy Research Seminar,
Aldenham, England, Feb. 7 2002.
"Reading Wittgenstein resolutely", at the 8th annual Mind and Society
Seminar, Manchester, England, Oct. 26 2001.
"The philosophy of literature of Salman Rushdie", at the Literature Club,
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India, Oct. 11 2001.
"Thomas Kuhn and 'human science'", at The Colloquium, School of
Humanities & Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India,
Oct. 10 2001.
"Slicing Time", at the 'Orders of Ordinary Action" Conference (July 9-11
2001), the International Institute for Ethnomethodology and Conversation
Analysis, Manchester Metro. University, Manchester, England, July 10 2001.
"Thomas Kuhn on history, politics, sociology, theology, art, and ... oh yeah
... science", at the Philosophy and Religion Department, Colgate University,
Hamilton NY, March 23 2001.
"'Kuhnian' incommensurability: in science, social science, and ethics",
at the Philosophy Department Colloquium, SUNY Binghamton, New York, USA, March
22 2001.
"Giving an elucidatory reading of Wittgenstein's Tractatus", at the
Philosophy Department Colloquium, the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA,
March 2 2001.
"Marx's critique of conceptual confusion, Wittgenstein's critique of
capital", at the Kaplan Humanities Centre, NorthWestern University,
Evanston, IL, USA, Feb. 12 2001.
"Giving an elucidatory reading of Wittgenstein's Tractatus", at the
Wittgenstein Workshop, University of Chicago, USA, Feb. 2 2001.
"The New Hume versus the New Wittgenstein: Metaphysics versus Therapy",
at the 'Nature et Naturalisme: Héritages contemporains de Hume' Conference,
at the Université d'Amiens, Amiens, France, Dec. 11 2000.
"Is 'The New Wittgenstein' really new?", Keynote Address at the 'Le
nouvel Wittgenstein' Conference, at the Sorbonne (Université Paris I), Paris,
France, Dec. 9 2000.
"Is new w new" is the above talk, on the topic of
whether the interpretation of Wittgenstein offered in my book, THE NEW
WITTGENSTEIN is really worth calling 'new'.
"God: Just a form of life?", A debate with Nick Everitt at the
Philosophical Society, UEA Norwich, Nov. 23 2000.
"Wittgenstein's influence on Hume, Nietzsche, Marx etc.", at the Forum
for European Philosophy, Institut Francais, Kensington, London, Nov. 21 2000.
"Wittgenstein's influence on Nietzsche", at the Department of Philosophy,
University of Wales, Lampeter, Nov. 15 2000.
"Beyond Relativism, Pluralism, Realism, etc.: reassessing Peter Winch",
at the British Sociological Association Theory Group Conference on Peter Winch,
Bristol U., 8-10 Sept., 2000.
"On wanting to say, "All we need is a paradigm, and then we can have normal
science"", at the British Society for the Philosophy of Science Annual
Conference, Univ. of Sheffield, July 6-7 2000.
"‘Scepticism’ in the service of philosophical clarity: Re-reading Hume in the
light of a new understanding of Wittgenstein", at the International
'Skepticism and Interpretation' Conference, ASCA, University of Amsterdam,
Netherlands, June 6-11, 2000.
"The paradox of forgiveness", at 'Forgiveness: Traditions and
Implications', a Conference at the Tanner Humanities Centre, University of Utah,
USA, April 12-15, 2000.
"All attempts to solve the 'hard problem' of consciousness only make the
problem harder", at the Senior Seminar, Essex University Philosophy Dept.,
March 23, 2000.
"Hume on causality: Wittgensteinism avant la lettre", at the 32nd Annual
UEA/Essex/Cambridge 'Triangle', May 15 1999.
"An analogy from Marx to help us understand Wittgenstein's conception of
philosophy", at the Manchester Ethnography Group, M.M.U., Manchester, April
29 1999.
"Marx and Wittgenstein on parasitism", at the International Wittgenstein
and Marx Colloquium, Trinity Coll., Cambridge, March 30 1999.
Reply to Prof. Stephanie Lawson's "Asianism and Cultural Relativism", at
the 5th annual UEA Cultural Politics Conference, Norwich, Jan. 22 1999.
"Are technical terms of any use in the social sciences and philosophy?",
at the termly Philosophy Seminar, POLSOC, University of Exeter, Dec. 4 1998.
"Can schizophrenic language be interpreted?: On Wittgenstein and mental
illness", at the Senior Seminar of the Centre for Ethics and Social Policy,
Manchester University, Manchester, Nov. 25 1998.
"Kuhn, Winch and social science" [jt. presentation with Wes Sharrock], at
the Philosophy Society, U.E.A. Norwich, Oct. 23 1998.
"Two Wittgensteinian accounts of schizophrenia", given at the invitation
of the Bolton Institute of Higher Education, Bolton, Oct. 16 1998.
"Sass versus Diamond on Wittgenstein and 'schizophrenic language'", as an
invited speaker at the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar on
'Philosophy and Psychopathology', Cornell U., Ithaca NY, July 10 1998.
"How to read Thomas Kuhn on social science: On wanting to say 'All we need is
a paradigm'", at the Senior Seminar of the Philosophy Department of
Manchester University, March 26 1998.
"Two cheers for the paradigm case argument", at the Philosophy Society,
University of East Anglia, Dec. 13 1997.
"A Wittgensteinian approach to schizophrenia", at the Philosophy Society,
University of East Anglia, Norwich, Oct. 20 1997.
"Sass versus Diamond on Wittgenstein and schizophrenic language", given
at the invitation of the Philosophy Department of the University of Illinois,
Chicago, April 11 1997.
"A Wittgensteinian critique of Freud -- and Fodor", given at the
invitation of the Houston Cognitive Science Initiative, Univ. of Houston, April
5 1997.
"Louis Sass versus the Conant/Diamond reading of Wittgenstein", as a
'Critic' in the 'Author meets Critics' session on Sass's The paradoxes of
delusion: Wittgenstein, Schreber and the schizophrenic mind, at the Pacific APA,
Berkeley, March 29 1997.
"Are technical terms eliminatable from philosophical enquiries?", at the
Manchester Metropolitan University 'Human Sciences Seminar', Oct. 31 1996.
"Is it ever possible to forgive anyone?"; given at the Stapleton Society,
Philosophy Department of Liverpool University, Oct. 21 1996.
Reply to Kevin Meeker's "Was Hume an Externalist?", at the Hume Society /
British Society for the History of Philosophy Conference, Nottingham, July 16
1996.
"Cognitive Sciences, David Hume and 'Postmodernism'", given at the
invitation of the Cultural Studies Dept., University of Nottingham, July 13
1996.
"The paradox of forgiveness", at the Manchester Metro. University
Philosophy Summer Seminar, June 12 1996.
"Throwing away 'the bedrock'", at the 3rd annual Manchester Mind and
Society Seminar, Manchester University, May 24 1996.
"The geography of (our) society", at the American Philosophical
Association (S.P.G. Meeting), New York NY, 29 Dec. 1995.
"Return to party politics: a fragment of activist philosophy", at the 3rd
Annual 'Politics of Theory' Conference, Rutgers - New Brunswick, NJ, 24 March
1995.
"A taxonomy of scepticisms", at the NJ Regional Philosophy Association's
Annual Conference, New Brunswick, 19 Nov. 1994.
“Nature, Culture, environment”, at the annual PIC Conference, SUNY
Binghamton, NY, 16 April 1993.
“Three pragmatists? : Nelson Goodman, Stephen Stich, Cornel West”, given
at the invitation of the Philosophy Department at the University of Houston,
Texas, 5 June 1992.
“How not to read Foucault on Knowledge”, at the New Jersey Regional
Philosophical Assn.’s Annual Conference, New Brunswick, 23 Nov. 1991.
“From Relativism and Ethnocentrism to Perspectivism”, at the invitation
of the Morality and Rationality Seminar, European University Institute, Firenze,
Italy, 29 May 1991.
“Is Philosophy Immoral?”, (in absentia), at the N.Y.U. Annual Conference
on Cultural Studies, New York, 11 May 1991.
“Quine and Wittgenstein on Reference, Behaviourism and Language-
acquisition”, at the Middle Atlantic States Philosophy of Education Society
Annual Conference, Route 1, NJ, 5-6 May 1990.
“Is Derrida’s Nietzsche’s ‘Third Woman’ an Essentialist or a Feminist?”,
at the 12th annual ‘Graduate Philosophy Conference’, Univ. of Illinois,
Champaign-Urbana, 12-14 April 1990.
Reply to A.Byrne’s “Why do I exist?”, at the 6th annual ‘Discipuli’
Conference, U.S.C., Los Angeles, 23-24 March 1990.
“Deconstruction applied: Derrida’s Nietzsche’s woman,” at the Princeton
Research Forum, Princeton, 9 March 1990.
Reply to Prof. B.Bandman’s “Relating Wittgenstein’s ‘weltbild’ propositions
to religious beliefs”, at the NJ Regional Philosophical Association Annual
Conference, New Brunswick, 18 Nov. 1989.
Reply to Wing-Chun Wong’s “Do I know I’m in pain?”, at the New Jersey
Regional Philosophical Association’s ‘Witgenstein Centennial Conference’,
Fairleigh-Dickinson Univ., NJ, 29 Ap. 1989.