Faces of Disagreement / Les visages du désaccord

As is well known, we disagree about all sorts of things, from factual matters to normative matters, that is, about what we shall or should do. But if disagreements are all too familiar, their nature and significance are far from well understood. This conference aims to investigate the various aspects of disagreement, by proposing an as yet unexplored comparative analysis of this transversal phenomenon.

Among the questions that will be addressed are: What do we really disagree about when we disagree about normative issues? Are normative disagreements about how things are in the world, or are they disagreements in desires or preferences? Answering questions like these will illuminate the nature of our disagreements. Another set of questions will target the significance of disagreement. Should we give our opponents’ opinions the same weight as our own, in virtue of the fact that, even if they disagree with us, we take them to be as reasonable as we are? Does this mean that we should adopt an attitude of neutrality toward the contested topic? And if so, what are the consequences for public policies and other matters of collective concern?

The main programme will be completed by a roundtable on disagreements about gustatory taste, aimed at an educated but non-specialist public, featuring Marc-Antoine Dilhac (Département de philosophie, Université de Montréal) and Christine Tappolet (Département de philosophie, Université de Montréal). The language of the main programme of the conference will be English, while the public roundtable will be held in French.

Poster/Affiche (.pdf)

Programme (.pdf – version à plier)

Site officiel/Official site: http://grin.normativity.ca/disagreement-conference/

Invited speakers:

• Annalisa Coliva (University of Modena/University of California at Irvine)
• Daniel Groll (Carleton College)
• Carrie Ichikawa Jenkins (University of British Columbia)
• Chris McMahon (University of California at Santa Barbara)
• Tristram McPherson (Ohio State University)
• Jonathan Quong (University of Southern California)
• Gurpreet Rattan (University of Toronto)
• Russ Shafer-Landau (University of North Carolina)
• Isidora Stojanovic (CNRS, Institut Jean Nicod)
• Ralph Wedgwood (University of Southern California, University of Birmingham)

Selected speakers:

• Jaakko Hirvelä (University of Helsinki)
• Nikolas Kirby (Oxford University)
• Rachel Rudolph (University of California at Berkeley)

Organising committee:

• Andrée-Anne Cormier (McGill University, CRÉ)
• Michele Palmira (University of Barcelona, LOGOS)
• Sarah Stroud (McGill University)
• Christine Tappolet (Université de Montréal)

Reviewers of submitted manuscripts:

• Arash Abizadeh (McGill University)
• Aude Bandini (Cégep Édouard-Montpetit)
• Yves Bouchard (Université de Sherbrooke)
• François Boucher (Université de Montréal, CRÉ)
• Murray Clarke (Concordia University)
• François Claveau (Université de Sherbrooke)
• Andrée-Anne Cormier (McGill University, CRÉ)
• Marc-Antoine Dilhac (Université de Montréal)
• Daniel Laurier (Université de Montréal)
• Gregory Lavers (Concordia University)
• Hichem Naar (Université de Montréal, CRÉ)
• Michele Palmira (University of Barcelona, LOGOS)
• Andrew Reisner (Uppsala University)
• Sarah Stroud (McGill University)
• Christine Tappolet (Université de Montréal)
• Patrick Turmel (Université Laval)
• Alain Voizard (Université du Québec à Montréal)
• Danielle Zwarthoed (Université de Montréal, CRÉ)

Support to the organising committee:

• Marc-Kevin Daoust (Université de Montréal)

From the airport to Montreal

• Please visite the Aéroports de Montréal website for all transportations options from the airport to Montreal: http://www.admtl.com/en/access

Suggested hotels

• Chateau Versailles (near McGill University): http://www.chateauversaillesmontreal.com/
• Terrasse Royale (near Université de Montréal): http://www.terrasse-royale.com/

Suggested restaurants

• Lola Rosa ($), 545 Milton Street (near McGill University): http://lola-rosa.ca/site/
• Renoir ($$$), 1155 Sherbrooke Street West (near McGill University): http://www.restaurant-renoir.com/
• Olivieri Librairie et Bistro ($$), 5219 Chemin de la Côte-des-Neiges (near Université de Montréal): http://www.librairieolivieri.com/
• Tontons Flingueurs ($$), 5190 Chemin de la Côte-des-Neiges (near Université de Montréal): http://www.tontonsflingueursmtl.com/

Support

– Centre de Recherche en Éthique (CRÉ)
– Faculty of Arts, McGill University
– Canadian Journal of Philosophy
– Faculté des Arts et Sciences, Université de Montréal
– Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire sur la Normativité (GRIN)
– Philosophiques
– Department of Philosophy, McGill University
– Département de philosophie, Université de Montréal

Programme

Please note that this conference is preceded, on May 25th, by a roundtable on Ralph Wedgwood’s forthcoming book The Normativity of Rationality

26.05.16, Université de Montréal: Salon François-Chevrette, salle A3464, Pavillon Maximilien-Caron

9:00-9:10 Mot d’ouverture, Tania Saba, Doyenne de la Faculté des Arts et des Sciences, UdeM

9:10-10:30 Jonathan Quong (USC), “Disagreement, Equality, and the Exclusion of Ideals”
Commentary : Danielle Zwarthoed (CRÉ)

10:40-12:00 Chris McMahon (UC Santa Barbara), “The Reasonabless of Reasonable Disagreement”
Commentary: François Boucher (CRÉ)

Lunch

1:30-2:50 Nikolas Kirby (Oxford), “We are All Free and Equal”
Commentary: Arash Abizadeh (McGill)

3:00-4:20 Daniel Groll (Carleton College), “The Disagreements that Drive Paternalism”
Commentary: Angela Martin (CRÉ)

4:30-5:50 Carrie Ichikawa Jenkins (UBC), “All Hearts in Love Use Their Own Tongues: Concepts, Verbal Disputes, and Disagreeing about Love”
Commentary: Hichem Naar (CRÉ)

7:00-8:30 Table-ronde publique « Les goûts, ça se discute ! », Librairie Olivieri

27.05.16, McGill University: room 12, McConnell Engineering (just inside the Milton Gates at the corner of University and Milton)

9:10-10:30 Annalisa Coliva (UC Irvine), “Disagreeing with Myself”
Commentary:Dominic Alford-Duguid (Toronto)

10:40-12:00 Michele Palmira (Barcelona), “Disagreement, Significance, and Revision”
Commentary: Marc-Kevin Daoust (Montréal)

Lunch

1:30-2:50 Isidora Stojanovic (CNRS), “Expressing Disagreement”
Commentary: Ethan Jerzak (UC Berkeley)

3:00-4:20 Rachel Rudolph (UC Berkeley), “Differences of Taste”
Commentary: David Hunter (Ryerson)

4:30-5:50 Gurpreet Rattan (Toronto) & Genoveva Martí (ICREA/University of Barcelona), “Intersubjective Opacity and Hierarchy”
Commentary: Oran Magal (McGill)

8:00-10:00 souper/dinner

28.05.16, Université de Montréal: Salon François-Chevrette, salle A3464, Pavillon Maximilien-Caron 

9:10-10:30 Ralph Wedgwood (USC), “Moral Disagreement and Inexcusable Irrationality”
Commentary: Jakob Reckhenrich (Brown)

10:40-12:00 Jaakko Hirvelä (Helsinki), “Is it Safe to Disagree?”
Commentary: Miriam McCormick (Richmond)

Lunch

1:30-2:50 Tristram McPherson (Ohio State), “The Epistemology of Joint-Carving Normative Realism”
Commentary: Felix Beaudoin (Laval)

3:00-4:20 Russ Shafer-Landau (UNC), “Moral Disagreement and Moral Intuitions”
Commentary: Samuel Dishaw (Montreal)