Hosted by the Liverpool-Oxford-St Andrews Kantian (LOSAK) Research Centre1, this week-long series of events includes the official launch of LOSAK and is jointly organised with the ERC/UKRI KantianDESERT Advanced Grant2, the Kantian Political Thought Standing Group of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR-KSG)3 and the Contemporary Kantian Philosophy Project (CKPP)4.
Monday 15th December – Wednesday 17th December: ECPR-KSG Winter School: ‘Kantian Political Thought Today: Global Challenges’. Sessions will be run by experts on Kant and Kantian philosophy, including Huaping Lu-Adler (Georgetown), Robert Hanna (Independent) and Sorin Baiasu (Liverpool).
Wednesday 17th December – Thursday 18th December: 8th Annual CKPP Workshop: ‘Kant and AI: Metaphysical, Epistemic, Moral and Social Issues’. Speakers will include Elisabeth Widmer (LSE), Howard Williams (Cardiff), Robert Hanna (Independent), Martin Sticker (Bristol) and Levi Haeck (Ghent).
Thursday 18th December: LOSAK Annual Lecture5. Huaping Lu-Adler (Georgetown). ‘Unfreedom and Kant’s Political Philosophy’.
Friday 19th December: LOSAK Annual Conference5. Papers exploring themes from Professor Lu-Adler’s work from Elisabeth Widmer (LSE), Howard Williams (Cardiff), Martin Sticker (Bristol) and Levi Haeck (Ghent) with a response by Huaping Lu-Adler.
All are welcome! A call for registration will be circulated in due time, but for any inquiries and expressions of interest, please email ERC.KantianDESERT.UKRI@liverpool.ac.uk
1. About the LOSAK Research Centre
The Liverpool-Oxford-St Andrews Kantian (LOSAK) Research Centre (Director: Sorin Baiasu) is rooted in Liverpool University’s tradition of excellence in philosophical research and in its Philosophy Department’s continuous engagement with Kantian thought. LOSAK is designed to promote and support interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary work in the area of Kantian studies, broadly understood to include not only research on Kant's works, but also studies of his predecessors and successors, including critical, exegetical, reconstructive and applied investigations whether historical or systematic in character.
2. About the KantianDESERT Advanced Grant
This is a 5-year, €2 million Advanced Research Grant selected by the European Research Council and funded by the UK Research and Innovation (PI: Sorin Baiasu). KantianDESERT is designed to formulate a new model of distributive justice in response to growing global economic disparities, by offering a distinctive position within dominant egalitarianisms in current political theory/philosophy. For more information see: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/philosophy/research/research-projects/kantian-justice/
3. About the ECPR-KSG
The Kantian Political Thought Standing Group (KSG) is an international network of academics that acknowledge the increasing importance of Kantian approaches today. Their research aims both to understand better the works of Kant and Kantian theorists, and to examine the various attempts to criticise and overcome the Kantian tradition. A distinctive feature of the KSG is a broad focus that goes beyond political theory and examines issues in ethics, epistemology, legal theory, anthropology, aesthetics, philosophy of religion and of history, as well as in other empirical disciplines and social sciences, in order to offer theoretical and practical answers to current political problems. For more information see: https://ecpr.eu/Group/kantian-political-thought
4. About the CCKP
The Contemporary Kantian Philosophy Project, aka CKPP, was created in 2013. Its director is Robert Hanna. The basic aim of CKPP is to develop and disseminate first-rate, original—and especially challenging, creative, and unorthodox—research in contemporary Kantian philosophy, that is freely available to anyone, anywhere, worldwide. For more information see: https://www.academia.edu/35704939/The_Contemporary_Kantian_Philosophy_Project_What_It_is_Its_History_Its_Journal_Its_Workshops_and_Its_Books_September_2024_version_
5. About the LOSAK Annual Lecture and Conference
These events celebrate Liverpool Philosophy Department’s continuous engagement with Kantian philosophy, which stretches all the way back to the University’s inception in 1881. From John MacCunn, the very first person appointed to Liverpool’s Chair of Philosophy, through many other Liverpool philosophers, including John Handyside, Pamela Huby, Mark Sacks and Gillian Howie, and up to the present day, academics at Liverpool have discussed, translated, examined, and taught Kant’s philosophy for generations of students and members of the public. (A detailed history of the Kantian tradition at Liverpool is under way by Tom Bunyard, Tom Whyman and Sorin Baiasu.)