Workshop Overview
ColdWAR (Workshop on Agency and Responsibility)
November 1st-2nd, 2024
ColdWAR (Workshop on Agency and Responsibility) features sophisticated original research on issues roughly captured under the label “agency and responsibility.” This general area involves investigation of such questions as: What does it mean to be an agent? How (if at all) does the nature of personhood and personal identity across time bear on questions of agency? What is the nature of, and relation between, moral and criminal responsibility? What is the relation between responsibility and the metaphysical issues of determinism and free will? What do various psychological disorders (autism, psychopathy, cognitive disabilities) tell us about agency and responsibility? What is involved in the development of moral agency? What is the will, willpower, and weakness (or strength) of will? What do the results from neuroscience imply (if anything) for our questions about agency and responsibility? What is the nature of autonomy and how is it related to agency and responsibility?
Work in agency and responsibility, while more or less having a home base in the world of moral philosophy, draws from a host of cross-disciplinary sources, including moral psychology, psychology proper (experimental, developmental, etc.), political economy, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of law, legal theory, metaphysics, neuroscience, neuroethics, social norm theory, political philosophy, and more. It is unified by its focus on who we are as deliberators and (inter)actors, embodied practical agents negotiating (sometimes unsuccessfully) a world of moral and legal norms. Talks and discussion based on these and other topics to be held at Cornell University on November 1-2, 2024.
Participating scholars include:
Rachel Achs (UC Santa Cruz)
Per Milam (University of Portland)
Samuel Reis-Dennis (Rice University)
Jada Twedt Strabbing (Wayne State University)
Program
Friday, November 1st:
Location: Goldwin-Smith Hall, 142
3:00pm - 5:00pm
Cornell Philosophy Colloquium Keynote Talk by Derk Pereboom, Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy and Ethics, Arts & Sciences Senior Associate Dean for Arts & Humanities
Pereboom’s research is primarily on free will and moral responsibility and in philosophy of mind. He also works in early modern philosophy, especially on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and in philosophy of religion. He teaches courses in each of these areas.
Saturday, November 2nd:
Location: Statler Hall, 391
9:30am - 10:00am
Welcome and coffee
10:00am - 11:15am
First session: paper TBD
11:15am - 11:30am
Break
11:30am - 12:45pm
Second session: paper TBD
1:00pm - 2:30pm
Lunch provided
2:30pm - 3:45pm
Third session: paper TBD
3:45pm - 4:15pm
Break
4:15pm - 5:30pm
Fourth session
5:30pm - 7:00pm
Drinks and dinner provided
Registration
Event is invite-only.
Travel and Accommodations
Travel
Ithaca is served by the local Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport, four miles from Cornell campus, and Syracuse Hancock International Airport in Syracuse, New York, which is about an hour away from Ithaca. American Airlines (from Philadelphia), Delta (from Detroit and JFK), and United (from DC-Dulles) all serve Ithaca Airport, with a wider set of options flying into Syracuse.
Ithaca is about 250 miles from New York City as well as Newark, NJ. If you are in the New York city area, you might consider taking one of the many busses from New York City to Ithaca downtown, which is about a 4 hour trip. Cornell’s Campus-to-Campus Express (1.607.254.8747) picks up in midtown and provides comfortable seating, internet, power outlets, reading lights, complimentary beverages, and snacks. Advance reservations are needed, however.
Accommodation
We strongly advise you to book hotels or AirBnBs as soon as possible, given that rooms in Ithaca are in high demand during late summer. Hotels will fill up fast. AirBnB is always an option as well. If you have difficulty finding accommodation, please let us know and we will do our best to assist.
Local hotels include:
Hilton Garden Inn
Hilton Canopy
Hotel Ithaca
Marriott
William Henry Miller Inn
Workshop Events and Area Information
The Workshop will include several social events, including a cocktail hour, a closing dinner and a local hike. These events are all optional. Please check back for further details.
Ithaca has good restaurants, excellent bars and cafes, as well as stunning natural beauty. Below, we list some local options for dining and travel that we recommend.
Restaurants
Restaurants with good vegetarian / vegan options marked with a star
- Gola Osteria (Italian)*
- New Delhi Diamond (Indian)*
- Le Café Cent-Dix (French / Continental)
- Just a Taste (American)*
- Moosewood (Vegetarian exclusive)*
Cafés
- Collegetown Bagels (multiple locations)
- Gimme Coffee
- Ithaca Coffee Company
Bars
Trails, Waterfalls, Vineyards
Ithaca boasts over 150 waterfalls within a 10 mile radius and stunning gorges carved out by glaciers during the last ice age. There are several short and doable hikes right on campus, with breathtaking views, including the Cascadilla Gorge Trail (connects downtown to the Law School) and the trail from Triphammer falls (near the art museum) to Beebe Lake.
Fantastic hikes within driving distance include the trails at Robert Treman State Park, Buttermilk Falls State Park, and Taughannock Falls State Park.
For a map of local vineyards, see here