The Humanities between Constructivism and Biologism

June 29th, 2010

This conference takes place 16-17 September 2010 at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen.
Humanistic studies as traditionally conducted are currently under pressure from two sides within academia itself: On one side, by a constructivist stance, which declares man to be a social construction. This robs the humanities of the natural focal point of their activities, the study of Man, and leaves them as an odd motley of disciplines with no unity and no shared vision. From the opposite side, the humanities are under pressure from evolutionary biology, which has no reservations about accepting the existence of such a thing as Man, who after all is a natural, biological species among others. In combination with affiliated approaches within neurophysiology and cognitive science, evolutionary psychology purports to explain every aspect of man’s behavior as a result of his genetic inheritance, as manifested in his brain and other cognitive apparatus. This leads to a heavily reductionist picture of man. This international conference will explore the options for a coherent conception of Man as neither a mere biological species, nor a mere social construction. It is a conception of Man as both a producer and a product of history and culture, and thus as a shaper of himself.

Speakers include:
Ronald Schleifer (University of Oklahoma)
Steve Fuller (University of Warwick)
Robert Markley (University of Illinois)
Nikolaj Zeuthen (University of Aarhus)
Torben Kragh Grodal (University of Copenhagen)
Finn Collin (University of Copenhagen)
Jan Faye (University of Copenhagen).

Organizers: Finn Collin (professor of philosophy) and Jan Faye
(associate professor of philosophy), Section of Philosophy, Faculty of
Humanities, University of Copenhagen.
No registration is needed. For complete programme and exact location please
send an email to Ph.D. Fellow David Budtz Pedersen (davidp@hum.ku.dk).
Event information: September 16-17. Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen, Njalsgade 80, 2300 Copenhagen.

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