Henry Sidgwick Blog

This sixth meeting was, as the other meetings, brought not only many students and scholars from Catania University but also people who are interested in philosophy and utilitarianism. The intervention of Athony Skelton caught very well the attention of the audience and won a great success. Anthonny Skelton read a very interesting paper about the intellectual relationship and similitudes that we can find between Henry Sidgwick’s moral philosophy and Peter Singer’s. For Prof. Skelton Henry Sidgwick and Peter Singer are two of the most important utilitarian moralists, as they have much in common including a commitment to sofisticated formal utilitarianism. “Their commonality are equally obvious in their attitude toward practical ethics. Both share a keen sens of the importance of moral philosophy to practical ethics.” In this intervention Prof. Skelton compares the common aspects and the differences that we can find between those two utilitarian philosophers, and more specially how Singer develops and considers Sidgwick’s moral philosophy through the Methods of Ethics.

For the videos of the Congress see:
http://2nd-international-congress-catania.henrysidgwick.com.henrysidgwick.com/program6.html

For other Conferences about utilitarianism, see: http://utilitarianphilosophy.com

Speakers: Professor Philip Schofield and Dr Michael Quinn (UCL BenthamProject), followed by a panel discussion and drinks reception

The philosopher, jurist and social scientist Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) is considered UCL’s spiritual father, and wrote widely on sex, populationgrowth and wellbeing. This symposium will explore Bentham’s changing viewson population growth, and how he influenced the discourse on population inthe 1820s, as well as exploring his work on sex. How are Bentham’s writingson sex important not only for the history of sex, but for current debates onsex, population and global health? Bentham began with a typically 18th century presumption that the existenceof a large and growing population was an index of the success of a state,while rejecting legislative measures to foster population growth asunnecessary. In his Poor Law writings, he envisaged the deliberate expansionof both subsistence and population through the application of pauper labourto the cultivation of waste lands, and the facilitation of early marriageamong the apprentices of the National Charity Company, confident thatpopulation pressure was a temporally distant concern. In later life, Benthamendorsed Malthus’s principle of population, while rejecting ‘moralrestraint’, Malthus’s pain-imposing solution to population pressure, infavour of pleasure-giving ‘unprolific’ sex (whether unprolific by means ofbirth control or inherently so, as in the case of homosexual sex).

Venue: JZ Young Lecture Theatre, UCL

Registration: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/global-health/events 

If you are unable to attend, please note all UCL Institute for Global Healthsymposia are filmed and available to watch shortly after the event at
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/global-health/events/previous 

http://utilitarianphilosophy.com 

On May 26th, 2010, will take place the 6th meeting of the 2nd International Congress, Henry Sidgwick Ethics, Politics, Psychics, organised by the University of Catania, Italy.

The Intervenants will be :

Anthony Skelton
Professor of Pholtical philosophy, Departement of Philosophy, University of Western Ontario
“Practical Ethics in Utilitarianism”
Anthony Skelton’s page on Univesity of Western Ontarion website:
http://www.uwo.ca/philosophy/contact/people/Faculty/askelton.html

Gaetano Vittone
Associate Professor of Moral Philosophy, Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, Univesrsità de Catania
“The Emancipation of the Man”

We hope to see you there, and if you cannot come an article about this conference will be writen on this blog.

See the website of the Congress:
http://2nd-international-congress-catania.henrysidgwick.com.henrysidgwick.com/index.html
Henry Sidgwick’s website:
http://www.henrysidgwick.com/
Utilitarian Philosophy program’s page:
http://www.utilitarianphilosophy.com/conference.en.html

The 5th meeting of the 2nd International Congress: Henry Sidgwick Ethics, Psychics, Politics was a quiet interesting and brought many students as the subjects studied concerned 2nd year students as well as Master students and Docrorate searchers. Two professors from United Kingdom made noticeable interventions as they spoke about classical and important matters of utilitarian philosophy: the philosophical analysis of Sidgwick’s thought about Incoherence and Discord and the intellectual relationship that Sidgwick (1838-1900) had with Bentham (1748-1832) and their different point of view regarding how they considered their philosophical thought and their faithfullness to utilitarianism at two diferents periods, as Bentham is a philosopher from the end of the 18th and begining of the 19th century and Sidgwick a philosopher of the end of the 19th century, whose philosophy d’avant garde, is quiet modern in its universal structure.

In fact, the first intervention by Roger Crisp Fellow and Tutor in Philsophy, St Anne’s College, Director of the Departement of Philosophy, University of Oxford consisted in some reflexions about Incoherence and Discord in Sidgwick’s philosophical thought and written work.

The second intervention by Philip Schofield, Professor of History of Legal and Political thought, University College London, Director of the Bentham Project. Associate Editor of Utilitas, was about the two aspects of Utilitarianism which can be found in both works of Sidgwick and Bentham.

 The videos of the interventions are coming soon 

Giovanna Barba and myself (Hortense Geninet) participated actively to the organisation and the coordination of Congress.
At the end of 2010, the proceedings of the Congress will be published on http://www.henrysidgwick.com

Watch the videos of the Congress on Dailymotion: http://www.dailymotion.com/HenrySidgwick-philosophe
Or on the website of the Congress:
 http://2nd-international-congress-catania.henrysidgwick.com.henrysidgwick.com/program5.html

E-nous (European Network Of Utilitarian Scholars):
France: http://www.centrebentham.fr/E-nous_english.html
Spain: http://hum40.cdf.udc.es/sieu/e-nous/index.php
Spain: http://hum40.cdf.udc.es/sieu/
United Kingdom: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Bentham-Project/
University College London Blog “Human Wellbeing Ideas” : http://www.ucl.ac.uk/gchw-ideas/?p=5

Riassunto del quinto incontro del Congresso:
http://2nd-international-congress-catania.henrysidgwick.com.henrysidgwick.com/programma5.html 
Résumé de la 5è rencontre du Congrès:
http://2nd-international-congress-catania.henrysidgwick.com.henrysidgwick.com/programme5.html

Hortense GENINET

The 5th meeting will take place on March 18th, at the University of Catania, Ex Monastero dei Beneditti, in the Corro di Notte, ancient church where the monks used to sing the night prayers.

The intervenants will be:

Roger Crisp, Fellow and Tutor in Philsophy, St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, who will talk about “SIDGWICK, ON INCOHERENCE AND DISCORD: reflexios”

And,

Philip Schofield, Professor of History of Legal and Political Thought, University College London, Director dof the Bentham Project and associate editor of Utilitas, who will talk about “SIDGWICK ON BENTHAM: the double aspect of utilitarianism”

The meeting will start at 4:00 pm with the greetings of variour leaders of Catania University:

Antonio Recca, Chancellor of the University of Catania, Enrico Iachello, President of the College of liberal arts, Maria Barbanti
Director of the Culture, Human and Territorial Science Department, Francesco Coniglione, Director of the Development Process Department, Biagio Saitta, Director of the Human Science Department.

Then at 4:30 pm, the Introduction to the Congress by Francesco Coniglione and the lectures of the two foreign intervenatns, followed by a debate about the interventions.

This Congress is a public event open to every one interested in moral philsophy and utilitarianism.

Website for the Congress:
http://2nd-international-congress-catania.henrysidgwick.com.henrysidgwick.com/index.html

Sidgwick on twitter: http://twitter.com/HenrySidgwick
Sidgwick on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Henry-Sidgwick/179846669366?ref=search&sid=100000383480286.867919914..1

Page of the Congress on Academia:
http://unict.academia.edu/WorldCongressHenrySidgwickUniversityofCatania