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Conference Announcement "Responsibility in International Political Philosophy" International Conference Department of Philosophy, University of Graz Graz (Austria) 20-22 September 2010 __________________________________________________ International political philosophy is concerned with questions of justice on the global level. There currently are four fields of inquiry which are particularly pressing: climate change, global distributive justice, immigration, and historical injustice. These four fields are interrelated. Climate justice interlinks with concerns for distributive justice, since some of the countries predicted to be worse affected are already countries where severe poverty is widespread. However, attempts to slow down climate change might also have adverse consequences for the economies of developing countries. The combined impact of climactic change and poverty is likely to result in more migration, which raises questions of whether there is a duty to allow immigrants in and, if so, what we owe to those who come to settle with us. Finally, all these questions have a temporal dimension: who is historically to blame for climate change, the vast differences in economic well-being, the conditions motivating migration and the system of borders which aim to contain it. This conference will bring together leading experts working on these four fields of international political philosophy to discuss the central philosophical concept present in all these debates: responsibility. The term responsibility admits of two different meanings. We might ask who is responsible for creating a problem, that is, whose actions caused or contributed to the problem. Alternatively, we might ask who is responsible for solving the problem, that is who (now) bears duties to act. It is often assumed that whoever is responsible for bringing about a particular situation is also responsible for solving any problems associated with it. However, due to the complexity of the problems now discussed in international political philosophy, this link is not so straightforward. Other grounds for assigning responsibility to address these questions of global justice might therefore be required. The conference brings together experts from four areas of international political philosophy to discuss the central notion of responsibility from the point of view of these different yet related debates: climate change, global justice, historical justice, and migration. Each panel consists of two to three papers of invited speakers. The papers will be pre-circulated and introduced by a commentator (15 minutes); the authors will have opportunity to respond to the commentary before the paper is discussed in the wider audience. The conference language is English. Speakers: Daniel Butt Simon Caney David Heyd Lukas Meyer David Miller Cara Nine Jonathan Seglow Zofia Stemplowska Andrew Williams Convenors: Clare Heyward, Lukas Meyer, Alexa Zellentin Please find details and registration here: http://www.uni-graz.at/praktphil/ Contact: Dr. Alexa Zellentin Universität Graz Institut für Philosophie Heinrichstraße 26 DG A-8010 Graz Austria Tel.: +43 (0)316 380-2293 Fax.: +43 (0)316 380-9705 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.uni-graz.at/praktphil/ __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org __________________________________________________
