REFLECTIONS ON RECOGNITION

(Program as a pdf file)

26–28 May 2016, University of Helsinki. Organized by the Centre of Excellence Reason and Religious Recognition (Academy of Finland). This conference was organized around an international scholarly book project edited by Maijastina Kahlos, Heikki J. Koskinen  and Ritva Palmén.

I RECOGNITION: NOVEL ARTICULATIONS

Heikki Ikäheimo (University of New South Wales): Conceptualizing Causes for Lack of Recognition – Capacities, Costs and Understanding

Lunch break in Salutorget. Arto Laitinen and Risto Saarinen (left); Ericka Turcker and Miira Tuominen (right). Photo: Heikki Ikäheimo

Risto Saarinen (University of Helsinki): Is Recognition a Gift? Do Gifts Express Recognition?

Heikki J. Koskinen (University of Helsinki): Mediated Recognition: Suggestions towards an Articulation

II HISTORICAL STRUGGLES FOR RECOGNITION

Hartmut Leppin (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main): Early Christians and the Politics of Recognition

Niko Huttunen (University of Helsinki): Early Christians and Philosophy: Seeking Recognition in the Greco-Roman Culture

Maijastina Kahlos (University of Helsinki): On the Road – Late Antique Argumentation for Religious Recognition

III MEDIEVAL INTERSECTION

Ritva Palmén (University of Helsinki): Shame, Self-Assessment and Recognition in the Middle Ages

Andrea Aldo Robiglio (KU Leuven): Aquinas and the Course of Recognition

Virpi Mäkinen (University of Helsinki): Recognizing the Property Rights of Pagans and Infidels in the Political Thought 1200–1400

Going to the Congress Dinner (Walhalla in Suomenlinna). The organizers of congress from the right to the left: Heikki J. Koskinen, Maijastina Kahlos and Ritva Palmén (Photo: Heikki Ikäheimo)

Some of the participants in the sun set in Suomenlinna.

(Photo: Arto Laitinen)

IV ROOTS OF RECOGNITION THEORY

Ericka Tucker (Marquette University): Spinoza, Religion and Recognition

Paul Redding (University of Sydney): Hegel’s Actualist Metaphysics as a Framework for Understanding his Recognition-Theoretic Account of Christianity

V LIMITS OF RECOGNITION

Simon Thompson (University of the West of England): The Recognition of Religion in Public Spaces

Arto Laitinen (University of Tampere) & Teea Kortetmäki (University of Jyväskylä): On the Natural Basis and Limits of Social Recognition

Miira Tuominen (University of Jyväskylä): Justice without Recognition? – Porphyry on Abstinence from Injuring Animals

Suomenlinna in the sun set. (Photo: Heikki Ikäheimo)

More photographs can be found under this link in the Reason and Recognition blog.

For more information on the conference, please contact the organizers: maijastina.kahlos@helsinki.fi, heikki.koskinen@helsinki.fi, or ritva.palmen@helsinki.fi

Ilse Paakkinen defend her doctoral dissertation entitled “Gender and Defence of Women in Christine de Pizan’s Thought” (Sukupuoli ja naisten puolustaminen Christine de Pizanin ajattelussa) in the Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki, on 16 January 2016 at 10:15.

Associate Professor Karen Green, University of Melbourne, served as the opponent, and Professor Jaana Hallamaa as the custos.

Further information: https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/159212 .

Explorations in Natural Theology: Helsinki Analytic Theology Workshop (HEAT) 2016, January 15-16

The workshop is co-organized by John Templeton Foundation.

Friday

Pre-Workshop Lecture10.00-11.00 Alister McGrath (University of Oxford), Pieni Juhlasali, Main Bulding

Workshop

Venue: Faculty Hall, Faculty of Theology, Vuorikatu 3, 5th Floor

15.15-1800 Session 1 (Chair: Aku Visala) Welcome, Prof. Risto Saarinen, (University of Helsinki)

Introduction, Olli-Pekka Vainio (University of Helsinki), Natural Theology: A Recent History

Rope Kojonen (University of Helsinki), Criticizing Natural Theology

Amber Griffioen (University of Konstanz), Religious Experience as Natural Theology

Saturday

Venue, Faculty of Theology, 2nd floor, Room 209-210

Session 1, 10.00-1200 (Chair: Olli-Pekka Vainio)

Ilmari Karimies (University of Helsinki), Lutheran Perspective on Natural Theology

Hanne Appelqvist (University of Helsinki), Wittgenstein on Religion

Break 1200-1300

Session 3, 1300-1500 (Chair: Rope Kojonen)

Helen de Cruz (Oxford Brookes), Cognitive Science of Religion and Natural Theology

Panu-Matti Pöykkö (University of Helsinki), Jean-Luc Marion and Natural Theology

1500-1630 Tour at the Library and the Cathedral

Session 4, 1630-1830 (Chair: TBA )

Mats Wahlberg (University of Umeå) Reshaping Cosmological Argument

Final discussion

Issues of Recognition in Pragmatism and American Transcendentalism
Wed 16 – Fri 18 December 2015, University of Helsinki
Faculty Hall, Faculty of Theology

► Co-organized by: Kyoto University, SPIRITS International Project “Philosophy as Translation and Understanding Other Cultures” (Kyoto University), The Centre of Excellence Reason and Religious Recognition (Academy of Finland, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Theology), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Stockholm Office), Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies

The event is open for everyone, no registration required.

16-18 December 2015 PUBLIC PROGRAMME

In the age of globalization, borders between cultures and nations have become all the more fluid. Tragedies produced by tensions between religious values have increased. It is an urgent task today to reconsider how to live with different cultures – where the what is different understood potentially to go beyond the grasp of one’s comprehension. In particular, with the pressing need of internationalization, it is an urgent task for higher education in Japan to shift its manner of thinking towards new ways of coexistence – towards a reconstruction of center-peripheral structures in the light of dissent and the experience of marginalization.

To address this issue, and in virtue of their distinctive geo-political perspectives, Finland and Japan together have the potential to decentralize dominant Euro-American thinking. Geographically and historically, Finland has been located at the periphery of Europe and has had to live with the intersections of multiple cultures and languages. Likewise Japan, on the periphery of Asia, is under pressure, domestically and internationally, to engage with diversity as a response to globalization.

Against this background, and in the light of ongoing academic exchange between Finland and Japan, this international and interdisciplinary conference thematizes the issue of recognition in the context of living with other cultures. Centering on American philosophy (pragmatism and transcendentalism) as its guiding thought, and interconnecting this with studies on education, religious studies, political science, aesthetics, literature, etc., we shall approach the question of recognition, reconsidering its relation to the nature of human being and language. We shall be engaged in dialogue dedicated to the question of understanding other cultures in the light of interdisciplinary, international and practical aspects.

The conference will create a unique forum for dialogue for mutual reflection that goes beyond the conventional framework of Euro-American thinking: a hub of researchers from Japan and from

Northern European countries including Finland will be joined by scholars from the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and the United States. The voices of young and female researchers will especially be encouraged.

For more information, please see the attached program.

The Early Christianity seminar at the European Association of Biblical
Studies (EABS) focuses this year on religious recognition. The event
will take place at the annual meeting of the association, held on July
12–15, 2015 in Cordoba, Spain. The meeting will be part of the
celebrations of the 700th anniversary of the city’s synagogue.
Early Christianity has often been studied from the perspective of
conflicts, both among different religious traditions (Christianity
vis-à-vis Judaism and polytheistic traditions) and within formative
Christianity (rivalry between different Christian teachers and their
schools).

Several texts, both canonical and non-canonical, no doubt reflect
suspicion and/or open hostility toward “others”. The focus in the
seminar, however, will be on other modes of interaction; it will be
asked what kinds of examples of constructive dialogue can be found in
early Christian sources. Are there signs of peaceful coexistence of
different religious traditions? Were competing traditions sometimes
recognized as legitimate partners in dialogue? What forms of
interaction and exchange were adopted and how were they justified?

For more information, please visit http://www.eabs.net/site/cordoba-2015/
—
Text by Outi Lehtipuu, who will be chairing the Early Christianity seminar at the EABS.

Workshop on Text, Ritual, and Magic

April 14-15, 2015

University of Helsinki

Organizers: The Centre of Excellence in Changes in Sacred Texts and Traditions (CSTT), and the Centre of Excellence in Reason and Religious Recognition Research (RRR)

Description: This workshop focuses on the interface between texts and magical or ritual practices. As a starting point we wish to question and deconstruct the dichotomy between magic and religion. We are particularly interested in texts as material artefacts and their magical and ritual uses as well as practices described in texts. The presentations cover a variety of source materials and methodological approaches as the workshop brings together scholars working in different fields.
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Call for Papers

“THE GOOD, THE ONE, AND THE MANY” — 1st Conference of The Nordic Network for the History of Philosophy,
University of Jyväskylä, 5-7 June 2015

The event is co-organized by the Centre of Excellence in Reason and Religious Recognition Research.
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