Inaugural Theistic Ethics Workshop
Wake Forest University
October 8-10, 2015
Speakers:
Mark Murphy (Georgetown University)
Matthew Jordan (Auburn University at Montgomery)
Jada Strabbing (Fordham University)
Terence Cuneo (University of Vermont)
Kyla Ebels-Duggan (Northwestern University)
Ryan Davis (BYU)
Marilie Coetsee (Rutgers)
Matthew Baddorf (Rochester)
Patrick Todd (Edinburgh)
Goal: Contemporary philosophy of religion has been richly informed by important work in metaphysics and epistemology. At the same time, there has not been nearly as much work done at the intersection of philosophy of religion and meta-ethics or normative theory. To help inspire more good work in this area, Christian Miller (Wake Forest), Mark Murphy (Georgetown), and Chris Tucker (William and Mary) are organizing a series of annual workshops on theistic ethics for at least the next three years.
Logistics: The first workshop was held at the Graylyn Conference Center at Wake Forest University (www.graylyn.com), one of the nicest conference facilities in the country. We began with dinner and the first paper on Thursday, October 8 and concluded at the end of the day on Saturday, October 10, 2015. There were five invited papers and four spots for submitted papers. All papers had 40 minutes for presentation and at least 40 minutes for discussion.
Themes: “Theistic ethics” is to be understood broadly to include such topics as divine command and divine will theories, God and natural law, ethics and the problem of evil, moral arguments for a theistic being, infused and acquired virtues, the harms and benefits of theistic religions, specific ethical issues in Judaism, Christianity, or Islam, and many other topics as well.
Applying: Those interested in participating submitted an abstract of up to 750 words and a current C.V. to Christian Miller at millerc@wfu.edu by May 1, 2015. Word or PDF file formats only. Abstracts were prepared for anonymous review. For although the organizers sought to have a balanced program both in terms of topics and presenters, the initial stage of review was done anonymously.
Questions about the workshop were sent to the same email address. Notification was made by June 1, 2015 at the latest. If someone's abstract was selected, we covered all expenses for the workshop including travel (this included international travel). Co-authors were welcome, but only one author’s expenses could be covered. Speakers did not have to send a paper in advance of the workshop, and it certainly could have been a work in progress.
Supported by generous funding from the Carswell Fund of the Wake Forest University Philosophy Department