Don't they mean 'The Individual Nature of Belief'
ab
On May 8, 2013, at 9:51 AM, [email protected] wrote:

> Oy. The initial problem here is that the topic seems to assume that there
> IS a "THE nature of belief". There isn't. Ask twenty-five different people
to
> articulate their notion of "belief", and you're likely to get twenty-five
> different descriptions of what they like to call "belief". And, indeed,
> they'll all be talking about NOTIONS. There is no mind-independent entity,
> "belief".
>
>
> In a message dated 5/7/13 2:46:56 PM, [email protected] writes:
>
>
>>  btransportationb, which is ba mechanism whereby narratives can
>> affect
>> beliefsb If only this was useful in rush hour.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Dominic McIver Lopes <[email protected]>
>> To: news <[email protected]>
>> Sent: Mon, May 6, 2013 11:03 am
>> Subject: [AE] Fwd: CfP: Art and the Nature of Belief
>>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>> From: Art and Belief Conference &lt;[email protected]&gt;
>>
>> Subject: CfP: Art and the Nature of Belief
>>
>> Date: 6 May, 2013 03:59:19 PDT
>>
>> Reply-To: Art and Belief Conference
>> &lt;[email protected]&gt;
>>
>> Art and the Nature of Belief
>> 11th-12th October 2013
>> Humanities Research Centre
>>
>> University of York
>>
>>
>> Submissions of papers are invited for an international conference on
>> the topic of Art and the Nature of Belief.B
>>
>>
>>
>> Invited Speakers
>>
>>
>> Gregory Currie & Anna Ichino (University of Nottingham)
>>
>>
>> Stacie Friend (Heythrop College)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Allan Hazlett (University of Edinburgh)
>>
>>
>>
>> Eva-Maria Konrad (University of Regensburg)
>>
>>
>> Peter Lamarque (University of York)
>>
>>
>>
>> Daniel Whiting (University of Southampton)
>>
>>
>>
>> Conference Theme
>>
>> The conference aims to bring together recent work on belief and its
>> connection to truth, with issues concerning belief that arise in
>> aesthetics. The question of whether we can arrive at truth, and indeed
>> gain knowledge, from engaging with artworks has received much attention
>> in aesthetics. However, much less has been said about the nature of the
>> beliefs formed as a result of engaging with art. It seems clear that at
>> least some of our experiences of artworks produce beliefs either about
>> the world more generally or beliefs about significant human concerns,
>> for example, moral, cultural, psychological, or political beliefs. In
>> the case of literature, this might be achieved through what has been
>> called btransportationb, which is ba mechanism whereby narratives can
>> affect beliefsb (Green and Brock 2000: bThe Role of Transportation in
>> the Persuasiveness of Public Narrativesb. Journal of Personality and
>> Social Psychology. Vol. 79, No. 5, pp. 701-721, p. 701). If a reader is
>> sufficiently engaged in a story, bthey may show effects of the story on
>> their real-world beliefsb (Ibid). However, it is often the case that
>> the nature of the attitudes which arise out of transportative
>> experiences casts doubt on their belief status. They are for example,
>> unstable, that is, they are not retained by subjects. Nor do they look
>> like they are justified or reliable. On the basis of these features,
>> philosophers of mind working on the connection between belief and truth
>> may be inclined to take a non-doxastic approach to these attitudes.
>> Consequently, work done on this area may pose a considerable threat to
>> the idea that justified or reliable beliefs can be formed on the basis
>> of engaging with art.
>>
>> Thus far belief theorists have had little to say about the sorts of
>> issues that arise out of beliefs formed on the basis of engaging with
>> art. But given that such beliefs do not always behave in the same way
>> as garden-variety beliefs, which are generally agreed to be necessarily
>> connected to truth, they present an interesting case to belief
>> theorists, and as such they demand attention. In light of all of this,
>> there is an opportunity for a significant philosophical interaction
>> between aestheticians and belief theorists that not only addresses
>> these issues but also illuminates the nature of belief for both parties.
>>
>> This interaction presents the belief theorist with pertinent questions
>> regarding the status of beliefs formed as a result of engaging with art
>>
>> and, in turn, demands philosophers of art to further consider the
>> relation between art and truth. This conference aims to address these
>> issues through a collaboration of philosophers working on belief and
>> aesthetics in the hope that this can illuminate the aesthetic cases
>> and, potentially, impact on our understanding of the nature of belief
>> itself.
>>
>>
>> Suitable topics/questions might include but are not limited to:
>>
>> Are beliefs formed on the basis of engaging with artworks aimed at
>> truth or governed by a norm of truth?
>>
>> Are some value-laden beliefs about artworks influenced by motivational
>> factors?B
>>
>> Do beliefs formed on the basis of engaging with artworks exhibit
>> transparency to truth? Are they sensitive to evidence in the same way
>> or to the same degree as garden-variety beliefs?
>>
>> Given that pictures need not represent the world accurately, how
>> reliable is a belief that is formed on the basis of pictorial
>> experience?
>>
>> Why are we less able to form beliefs, or change our beliefs, on the
>> basis of aesthetic testimony? Does aesthetic testimony count as
>> evidence but has less weight than testimony in the ordinary case? Or
>> does aesthetic testimony not count for evidence for aesthetic beliefs
>> at all?
>>
>>
>>
>> Submissions should be 2500-3000 words in length, starting with an
>> abstract of 200-300 words. Submissions should be prepared for blind
>> review, be in Word format, and sent [email protected] no later
>> thanFriday 19th July. Please include your name, institutional
>> affiliation, and title of your paper in the body of the email.
>>
>>
>> Papers will be double-blind reviewed. Notification will be sent out by
>> mid-August. Accepted speakers will have their registration and
>> accommodation for the duration of the conference paid, as well as
>> travel costs up to B#100.
>>
>> The Mind Association has first refusal on an edited volume for their
>> Occasional Series published by Oxford University Press. After the
>> conference, a manuscript of the invited and submitted papers will be
>> submitted to OUP. Papers cannot be guaranteed publication, all will be
>> subject to the OUP refereeing process. B
>>
>> Any queries should be sent to the conference organisers, Helen Bradley
>> and Ema Sullivan-Bissett, [email protected]. Further
>> information will soon be available on the conference
>> website:https://artbelief.wordpress.com/
>>
>>
>>
>> Conference Support
>>
>> The conference organisers gratefully acknowledge the generous support
>> of the Analysis Trust, the British Society of Aesthetics, and the Mind
>> Association._______________________________________________
>> news mailing list
>> [email protected]
>> http://lists.aesthetics-online.org/listinfo.cgi/news-aesthetics-online.org

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