Last Wednesday, I got back from the World Philosophy Congress 2008 in Seoul.
It was a very big conference hosted very well by Seoul National University.
I got a lot out of it, particularly from American philosophers of language such as Peter Ludlow, Ernie Lepore, Jason Stanley, Zoltan Szabo and Christopher Gauker.
Having said that, I do have a few gripes:
Almost half the speakers in the ordinary sessions of the streams that I attended did not turn up, and the quality of those who did turn up was variable.
Also, no time was allowed in the schedule between sessions to travel between venues, which were sometimes located 10 minutes’ walk apart.
I also noticed that the Congress had a predominantly continental flavour. This is not too surprising, as the Congress first started in France. (I suppose that this cannot count as a gripe)
Lastly, the theme of the Congress was ‘Rethinking Philosophy Today’, though it might have been ‘Philosophy: Business as Usual’ for all the innovation that I saw.
I may find myself in Athens in 2013 for the next Congress. We will see.
0 Responses to “World Philosophy Congress 2008”