Berkeley

The Department of Philosophy has a long and distinguished research tradition in the Philosophy of Berkeley. This includes such distinguished scholars as A.A. Luce and David Berman.

While this area is currently in a state of transition, it is an area in which we have particular expertise through younger scholars (Adjunct Lecturers) and which we consider a priority to preserve and develop.

Conference on Berkeley's Three Dialogues

The Department of Philosophy is currently organising a major conference on the philosophy of Berkeley, with a special emphasis on Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous. The conference is scheduled for April 4–6, 2014. The opening address is aimed at a wider audience, and in it Professor David Berman (who has been a distinguished Berkeley scholar of the College since A.A. Luce in the late 1960s) will speak about Berkeley's intellectual significance, then and now. There will follow three major keynote speakers:

• Lisa Downing (The Ohio State University)
• John Russell Roberts (Florida State University)
• Tom Stoneham (University of York)

As well as a number of papers to be selected through the Call for Papers (PDF, 48.07KB).

International Berkeley Essay Prize Winners

Indeed, hard as it is to imagine what the odds would have been, two of our current Adjunct Lecturers and recent Ph.D. students, Dr. Stefan Storrie and Dr. Thomas Curtin, have, in consecutive years, won the prestigious Colin and Alisa Turbayne International Berkeley Essay Prize. Dr. Storrie won for his essay 'Berkeley's Apparant Cartesianism in De Motu'; and Dr. Curtin's winning essay was titled 'Berkekely's Conception of Causal Powers'.