News

The Canadian Philosophical Association stands united in empathetic solidarity with the professor and the students of Philosophy 202: Gender Issues, at the University of Waterloo. We are horrified by the attack that occurred in a Philosophy classroom on June 28, 2023. Hatred and violence have no place in any classroom.

Our Executive Committee, Board of Directors, and general membership will be active, visible, and loud participants in the counter-demonstrations that will ensue, on university campuses across Canada and beyond. We aim to be a positive, driving force within vitally important conversations about how to prevent any such incidents in the future. 

We are especially mindful of, concerned about, and supportive of Canadian philosophers who teach and research in the areas of gender studies, equity, diversity, and inclusivity – and the various others, in Philosophy and other academic disciplines, whose work renders them vulnerable to hatred, abuse, and violence. We will not be silenced, and we will continue to carry out our work.

Members of the CPA might be aware that the Black Canadian Studies Association has decided to withdraw from Congress 2021, and that some others societies have also withdrawn from Congress in support of the BCSA. The BCSA has asked all learned societies to consider the steps they might take, appropriate to their circumstances, to address racism (see their statement).

The CPA honours the decision of the BCSA to withdraw from Congress. The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated already existing inequities, increasing the burden on those institutions that have led efforts to combat racism in Canada. The CPA can do its part by exposing philosophy’s role in contributing to colonialism and the social formation of race, by promoting reflection on how the tools of philosophy can be used to deal in an effective way with race thinking (see the CPA Board Statement of June 2020), and by engaging in dialogue with Congress partners about how Congress can better serve its diverse constituencies.

Therefore, the CPA Executive Committee is making its best efforts to organize two special events at the 2021 Annual Meeting, a plenary keynote address and a roundtable on race in philosophy. These events will be scheduled for 2022 if they cannot be held this year, together with panels that were planned for 2020 and which have been postponed until we can meet in person again.

In order to broaden access to the discussion, and to all the benefits of the program, the Executive also announces that the CPA will waive conference registration fees for non-members who are Black, Indigenous, or other people of colour. (There are no fees for members this year.) The Federation is also waiving its some of its conference fees.

The Federation’s Advisory Committee on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization is expected to deliver a report in April recommending steps Congress can take to be more accessible and inclusive, and to better serve efforts to confront social injustice. The CPA Executive Committee urges the Federation to act swiftly on the Advisory Committee’s recommendations and commits to working with the BCSA and other learned societies to help address the challenge that racism poses to Canadian society.

The CPA Executive Committee

The CPA Equity Committee

Statement of the Board of Directors of the CPA on Racism  

The Canadian Philosophical Association condemns racism of every form. We stand in solidarity with those protesting  police brutality and racist violence, and we join them in calling upon every level of government to take immediate and effective measures against systemic racism.  We reaffirm our commitment to facing the contribution of our discipline to discrimination, and we are working to ensure equity, diversity, and inclusion in philosophy.* We acknowledge our responsibility as  scholars to strive toward a more just society. 

 
* See  https://www.acpcpa.ca/cpages/equity. 

Non-tenured Professor, Lecturer, Sessional Essay Prize/Prix de l'essai de professeur-e sans permanence ou chargé-e de cours
Vucu, Simona (Toronto) —   "Causal Powers as Accidents: Thomas Aquinas’s view"

Tenured Professor Essay Prize/Prix de l'essai de professeur-e agrégé-e
Kenyon, Tim (Brock) — "Peer idealization, internal examples, and the meta-philosophy of genius in the epistemology of disagreement"

Student Essay Prize/Prix de l'essai d'étudiant-e
Marie-Kerguelen Le Blevennec (Boston University) "Les droits culturels comme droits individuels”

Robert Matyasi and Damian Melamedoff (University of Toronto) "Moore on the Unreality of Agent-Relative Value"

The CPA is pleased to announce the winners of the 2019 edition of the  Book Prize.

Seymour, Michel et Jérome Gosselin-Tapp, La nation pluraliste: Repenser la diversité religieuse au Québec

 Depuis 2006, le Québec débat âprement des règles gouvernant la laïcité de ses institutions et se trouve confronté à deux modèles apparemment irréconciliables : le républicanisme « jacobin » et le libéralisme individualiste, issus respectivement de la France et du Canada. En s’inspirant de la pensée du philosophe politique John Rawls, les auteurs proposent ici d’explorer une voie médiane mieux adap­tée à l’expérience québécoise. Dans ses travaux tardifs, Rawls met en avant une forme de libéralisme républicain affranchi de l’indi­vidualisme normatif de Kant et de Mill et récuse le paternalisme qui vise à imposer aux citoyens une certaine éthique de vie. Tout en étant neutre à l’égard des conceptions individualiste et com­munautarienne de la personne, il cherche à équilibrer les droits collectifs des peuples avec les droits individuels des personnes.

C’est donc une conception strictement institutionnelle de la laïcité que présentent les auteurs, qui redéfinissent au passage l’interculturalisme, la liberté rationnelle et le consentement, ainsi que l’expérience religieuse, qui devient hybride, à la fois subjective et objective. En se servant de Rawls, ils expliquent clairement pourquoi l’expression de la religion fait partie de la liberté reli­gieuse, mais aussi pourquoi il faut faire la distinction entre les objets qui relèvent des libertés fondamentales et ceux qui sont sujets à des accommodements. Ils tracent ainsi une authentique troisième voie, qui pourrait bien faire sortir de l’impasse le débat québécois sur la laïcité.

Michel Seymour est professeur titulaire au Département de philosophie de l’Uni­versité de Montréal.
Jérôme Gosselin-Tapp est doctorant au Département de philosophie de l’Université d’Ottawa.

Abizadeh, Arash, Hobbes and the Two Face of Ethics

Reading Hobbes in light of both the history of ethics and the conceptual apparatus developed in recent work on normativity, this book challenges received interpretations of Hobbes and his historical significance. Arash Abizadeh uncovers the fundamental distinction underwriting Hobbes's ethics: between prudential reasons of the good, articulated via natural laws prescribing the means of self-preservation, and reasons of the right or justice, comprising contractual obligations for which we are accountable to others. He shows how Hobbes's distinction marks a watershed in the transition from the ancient Greek to the modern conception of ethics, and demonstrates the relevance of Hobbes's thought to current debates about normativity, reasons, and responsibility. His book will interest Hobbes scholars, historians of ethics, moral philosophers, and political theorists.

Arash Abizadeh is Professor at the Department of Political Science and Associate Member of the Department of Philosophy at McGill University.

The CPA thanks the members of the jury and our prize sponsors, Cambridge University Press and Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal

The Canadian Philosophical Association is pleased to announce that its journal, Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review, has been awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Aid to Scholarly Journals grant for 2022–2025. Edited by Nancy Salay (Queen’s University) and Aude Bandini (Université de Montréal) in collaboration with veteran Editorial Assistants Jill Flohil and Cécile Facal, Dialogue is published three times a year by Cambridge University Press. Established in 1962, Dialogue publishes articles in all branches of academic philosophy. Since 2020, the Editors have been engaged in a project to revitalize Dialogue, with the aim of creating an online medium for philosophical engagement. This support from SSHRC will make it possible for Dialogue to complete this work while continuing the philosophical conversation in Canada.

The Canadian Philosophical Association, together with the Departments of Philosophy at York University, Ryerson University, and all three campuses of the University of Toronto, is pleased to announce the first edition of the Summer Institute. A one-week program for philosophy undergraduates from across Canada, the Summer Institute will give students from underrepresented groups an intensive immersion in academic philosophy. First Nations, Inuit, Métis, Black, women, disabled persons, and first-generation university and college students are encouraged to apply. The program will feature guest lectures on a variety of topics, and peer discussion groups on areas of shared philosophical interest. Each participant will also be matched with a faculty mentor who can provide feedback on graduate school applications and career development.

The program will run from May 29 to June 4 in Toronto. Travel, meals and accommodation will be fully covered, and participants will also receive a small stipend.

The deadline for applications is February 25, 2022. Apply online: www.acpcpa.ca/cpages/summer.

The CPA plans to offer a francophone edition of the Institute and to expand the program to other Canadian cities in the future. For more information, please contact administration@acpcpa.ca.

It is with sadness that the Canadian Philosophical Association shares the news that Frank Cunningham, professor emeritus of philosophy and political science, passed away in Vancouver on February 4, 2022. A past president of the CPA (1997), Cunningham retired from the University of Toronto in 2009 after a career that spanned four decades. More recently, he was affiliated with the Urban Studies program at Simon Fraser University. His latest book, Ideas in Context: Essays in Social & Political Theory, was published in 2020. Cunningham was also instrumental in bringing philosophy to high schools in Ontario. He is remembered by his colleagues as an exceptional philosopher, an unfailingly generous mentor, and a dear friend.

The Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto has published an in memoriam, with a longer tribute to come. The Daily Nous also published an in memoriam, and an obituary appeared in The Globe and Mail.

On Thursday, December 2nd, a notice of motion regarding the appointment of a new accounting firm to review the Association's 2021 financial records was circulated by email to the CPA membership. Per the CPA bylaws, a secure online discussion forum has now been established on the CPA website.  Members can access the discussion forum by navigating to the Members tab on the homepage and selecting "Member Forum". 

An electronic ballot will open in this forum on Thursday, December 16, 2021. All members will be sent an email notifying them that the ballot is open and providing a link for the vote. The ballot will close on Thursday, December 23, 2021. 

The 2021 Annual General Meeting of The Canadian Philosophical Association will be held online on Tuesday, June 22 at 1 PM Eastern Time. Members, please click here for more information. 

The CPA was sad to learn that Dr. Kai Nielsen, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Calgary, passed away in Montreal on April 7th, 2021. Professor Nielsen was President of the CPA in 1983-84. One of Canada's most prominent social and political philosophers, he was also a valued colleague and mentor, and is remembered for his kindness, generosity, and commitment to the discipline.

Daily Nous has published a tribute here.  

(English below)

Philo-normes, nouvelle liste de diffusion, a été créée pour relayer les informations relatives à l'actualité de la recherche en philosophie politique, morale, juridique et sociale, en particulier à destination des universitaires francophones. 

Elle permet l'annonce de publications, appels à contributions, séminaires, journées d'étude, colloques, appels à candidature, etc., dans ce domaine. 

Elle entend notamment prendre le relai de la liste phimopo, qui s'est arrêtée en décembre dernier, avec la fermeture du service yahoogroupes, après avoir rendu de très grands services à notre communauté.

Vous pouvez vous abonner à Philo-normes à cette adresse : https://groupes.renater.fr/sympa/info/philo-normes 

Pour poster un message, merci de tenir compte des recommandations suivantes:

+ Les messages sont de préférence rédigés en français (ou en anglais). 
+ Les informations essentielles (objet, thème, date) figurent dans l'objet du message pour permettre un tri rapide par les abonné•es. 
+ Les hyperliens vers une page internet sont privilégiés et les fichiers attachés évités autant que possible (et ne doivent pas, lorsqu'ils sont indispensables, dépasser les 5 Mo). 

Administration de la liste

Charles Girard, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 (France)
Roberto Merrill, Université du Minho (Portugal)
Clotilde Nouët, Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique (Maroc)
Juliette Roussin, Université Laval (Québec)

Philo-normes is a new mailing list dedicated to advertising events and news in political, moral, legal and social philosophy within French-speaking academia in particular. 

It hosts announcements for publications, calls for papers, conferences, calls for applications, etc. in these fields. 

It is intended to replace the former mailing list, phimopo, which ended last December due to yahoogroups' closing. 

You can subscribe to Philo-normes here:  https://groupes.renater.fr/sympa/info/philo-normes 

Announcements should conform to the following recommendations:

+ Announcements should preferably be in French (or in English)
+ Essential information (subject, theme, date) should be mentioned in the subject line
+ Hyperlinks should be used instead of attaching documents; when indispensable, attached documents should not be more than 5 Mb.

List administrators

Charles Girard, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 (France)
Roberto Merrill, Université du Minho (Portugal)
Clotilde Nouët, Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique (Maroc)
Juliette Roussin, Université Laval (Quebec)

We are very sad to convey the news that Adam Morton died in North Vancouver on October 22, 2020. Adam was President of the CPA in 2013-14 and was a much-loved member of our community. He is survived by his wife, Susanna Braund, his brother, Tom, and his children, Edith and Stephen. For those who wish to remember him by making a donation, Adam was a long-time supporter of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Médecins Sans Frontières. An obituary written by Margaret Schabas is available at https://philosophy.ubc.ca/news/adam-morton-april-22-1945-october-22-2020/.

 Daily Nous has published a tribute here.