Philosophy Events

Dublin is an exciting city for those interested in philosophy, with regular events organised in Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin and the Royal Irish Academy.

On Saturday, March 6 and Sunday, March 7, 2010 the Department of Philosophy, Trinity College Dublin and the School of Philosophy, University College Dublin hosted the Dublin Graduate Philosophy Conference on the topic of Methods in Philosophy.

On Thursday, February 4 and Friday, February 5, 2010 the Department of Philosophy, Trinity College Dublin and The School of Philosophy, University College Dublin hosted an Intentionality Workshop at the Royal Irish Academy.

Most weeks during the academic year the department hosts a regular Philosophy Colloquium where visiting speakers present papers. Dublin has had a distinguished list of philosophical visitors over the past few years, including Rorty, Putnam, Davidson, Searle, Habermas, Derrida, McIntyre, Ricoeur and many more. Seminars take place throughout the term, usually on Fridays, followed by informal drinks with the speaker.

The Dublin Graduate Philosophy Forum, which meets each week (at Trinity and UCD alternately), is an opportunity for graduate students at both institutions to come together in order to discuss their latest philosophical research. The meetings take place on Mondays at 6pm, and the venue varies based on the speaker's home institution.

In 2007 the department instituted an annual Edmund Burke Public Lecture. The Burke Lectures are delivered by well–known philosophers on a topic in the area of political or applied philosophy, which is generally accessible to a wider audience. The inaugural Burke Public Lecture was delivered by Professor Phillip Pettit (Princeton University) on "Democracy: Fashions, Failures and Fantasies", and was followed by an invited commentary by Professor Leif Wenar (University of Sheffield).

In 1987 the Board of the College kindly and generously permitted the revival of the Donellan Lectures in Philosophy. The first of this new series was delivered in 1989 by Professor Jerry Fodor of Rutgers University. The title of that lecture series was "Problems of Content in the Philosophy of Mind". Recent Donellen lectures have been given by, Martha Nussbaum (1992), Richard Sorabji (1995), Richard Rorty (1998), Stanley Cavel (2002), Jonathan Lear (2005) and, most recently, by Robert Pippin (2008).

The Metaphysical Society is an undergraduate student society whose purpose is to allow students to discuss philosophical issues in an informal setting. Recent speakers have included the philosopher Robert Soloman, and the physicist Julian Barbour. The society also organises excursions to places of philosophical interest, such as Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, the birthplace of George Berkeley. They also sometimes show films of broadly philosophical interest—including, last year, Ingmar Bergman's allegorical The Seventh Seal.

The Department is also involved in many other activities of philosophical interest, and its members participate in most philosophical events organised in Ireland. In 2006 the Department was involved in organising the Annual Congress of the Association of Legal and Social Philosophy (ALSP) on the topic of "Social Justice in Practice", and a conference of Freud organised by the Royal Irish Academy (RIA).

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