Jan Olof Bengtsson

8th International Conference on Persons. I suggest to Lech Wałęsa that there is reason for Poland be more critical of the EU, and, with its recent experience of totalitarian oppression, to set an example for Western Europe in this regard. Politics were of course inevitable in Wałęsa’s long and important opening address and in the discussion following it, but the role of personalism in recent history was strongly emphasized.

Photo: Marek Gacka

I just came back from the fifth ISKCON Studies Conference, organized at wonderful Radhadesh/Château de Petite Somme in the Ardennes outside Durbuy in Belgium, by Kenneth Valpey and Ferdinando Sardella (who both spoke at the 12th International Conference on Persons in Lund in August) of the ISKCON Studies Institute, a subdivision of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies; the institute publishes the ISKCON Studies Journal. Many old friends attended as well as new faces from different parts of the world. I spoke on ‘Personalism East and West’ (see abstract below).

The Radhadesh website is temporarily offline for technical reasons so I cannot link to it here; awaiting the solution of the technical problems, they refer to this temporary blog. Radhadesh is almost certainly the most important ISKCON temple community in Europe, and the site not only of the temple and of ashramas, but also, and not least, of many important international conferences since the early 1990s. Among them I have attended several ISKCON Communications Seminars and ISKCON Conventions, and one meeting of the Bhaktivedanta Academy of Arts and Sciences, all with many prominent Hinduism and other religion scholars from inside and outside of ISKCON.

Radhadesh has gradually been developed into a first class conference centre with a new hotel – called a guesthouse – next to the château, and an excellent restaurant in an adjacent building. However, I think this was the first time the ISKCON Studies Conference was held here – a couple of years ago I spoke on ‘Conversion, Preaching, and Western Cultural Identity’ at an earlier ISC on the theme of Transmitting the Truth: Education, Preaching, and Conversion in ISKCON, at the equally beautiful Villa Vrindavana outside Florence; as far as I understand, that paper will soon appear in the next issue of the ISKCON Studies Journal. Radhadesh is also the site of Bhaktivedanta College, where ten years ago I taught the introduction to Western philosophy course. Since I was last there, a new building for accommodation of the students, as well as for the college library, had been built. Finally, on the premises is also found the building housing the Bhaktivedanta Library Services.

During this visit to Belgium I also had the opportunity to take photos of some parts of or with certain angles on Poelaert’s Palais de Justice in Brussels which I have not been able to find on the internet, and some of the Parc de Bruxelles by the Palais Royal and the streets next to it. I plan to publish them here. The many beautiful late nineteenth-century buildings on Avenue du Midi south of Place Rouppe, Boulevard Maurice Lemonnier, Boulevard Anspach, and Boulevard Adolphe Max must also be photographed on some other occasion. Especially the first two of these are in a part of Brussels that seems to be quickly slummed now (most of central Brussels is), so that it is not clear to what extent the buildings will be preserved. Buildings of this kind remain continuously threatened all over the world since the process of discovery of the fact that this was a golden age of architecture (as of much else) is still very slow. In some places, they are still almost systematically destroyed, and because of the lack of interest in them, they are not even properly photographed. Hotel Métropole on Place de Brouckère is now Brussels’ only remaining nineteenth-century hotel, and striving to preserve as much as possible of its original design etc. Imaginative historical reconstruction is needed in order to understand how beautiful and well-ordered this area was a hundred years ago. I also had time for a short visit to Leuven.

But I digress. Here is the abstract of my presentation, ‘Personalism East and West’:

This presentation will be an introduction to the comparative study of Eastern and Western personalism, with special reference to the personalism of the theistic form of Vedanta represented by ISKCON. A certain kind of propedeutic to this study is necessary, since without it, the real nature and implications of the differences between the respective forms of personalism are normally overlooked and the similarities to some extent misconstrued and misunderstood. The relevant historical, cultural and intellectual contexts will therefore be outlined, and only with these basic perspectives firmly in place will the presentation move on to a brief overview of the conceptual and terminological histories of “person” and related notions in the West and of comparable ideas in the East. This overview will, for the purposes of the introduction to the subject, be given exclusively in light of and with constant reference to the mentioned fundamental perspectives on the general, constitutive characteristics of and differences between Eastern and Western thought as historically developed. In this way, the presesentation will seek to prepare the ground for a subsequent step in the comparative work, through which, along with more particularized study of individual personalist thinkers, schools, and positions, meaningful East-West relations can be established and possibilities of mutual influence and adjustment and new syntheses fruitfully explored.

Photo by Jean-Pol Grandmont

Photo by Jean Housen

Click for PDF with the abstracts (no abstracts of the papers of the plenary speakers Keith Ward, Juan Manuel Burgos, Fredrik Ullén, and Claes G. Ryn were included):

12th International Conference on Persons

Click for PDF with the conference program:

12th International Conference on Persons

Simon Smith has published a report on the conference on the website of the British Personalist Forum. The BPF is the new name of the Society for Post-Critical and Personalist Studies, started by Richard Allen who organized the excellent 2009 ICP in Nottingham but unfortunately could not come this year; Allen and the BPF publish the journal Appraisal.

12th International Conference on Persons

I have posted some photos from the 12th International Conference on Persons in Lund last month on the conference website. It is likely that more will be added.

I want to extend my warmest thanks to all sixty-one participants, presenting as well as non-presenting, for your contributions to this year’s International Conference on Persons. It was a pleasure to receive you at Lund. Together, you made the event a success.

Most of all, my co-organizer, Randall E. Auxier of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, the current editor of the Library of Living Philosophers, deserves credit for making this a memorable conference.

Special mention must also be made of our wonderful conference assistant Rebecka Klette, a promising student in our department of the History of Ideas, who took care of the welcome reception, the coffee breaks, and much else; without her, the meeting would not have been possible.

My friend and colleague Jonas Hansson also set aside much time and energy to see to that everything ran smoothly.

A number of partners or accompanying persons who attended the conference dinner and in some cases a few of the sessions also contributed to the event.

My thanks go, finally, to Kungliga Humanistiska Vetenskapssamfundet i Lund; to Prof. Marianne Thormählen; to Prof. Thomas Kaiserfeld, Christel Anderberg, Kristiina Savin, Karin Salomonsson, and Susann Roos in the department of Arts and Cultural Sciences; to MediaTryck; and to the staff of Hotel Concordia and of the Grand Hotel.

I, Randy, Tom Buford and other past organizers of the ICP whom you met hope we will get an opportunity to see you all again at future ICPs.

At least two prominent publishers have expressed an interest in publishing the proceedings in book form; we will come back to you with information about this as soon as possible.

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Read more about the 12th International Conference on Persons under Uncategorized or on the conference website.

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Tuesday, August 6

 

1:00-3:00

Registration, Tea and Coffee

Room 227

3:00-3:30

Welcome and Conference Information

Jan Olof Bengtsson, Lund University (Sweden)

Gunnar Broberg, Lund University (Sweden)

Room 201

3:30-4:15

Opening Panel on the History and Purpose of the ICP

Thomas O. Buford, Furman University (USA)

Responses:

Randall E. Auxier, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (USA)

Jan Olof Bengtsson, Lund University (Sweden)

Room 201

4:15-4:30

Break

4:30-5:30

Keynote Address

Keith Ward, Oxford University (UK)

Absolute and Personalist Idealism

Room 201

5:30-8:00

Welcome Reception

Room 227

 

Wednesday, August 7

 

9:00-10:20

Session A:

O. A. Oyowe, University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa)

Velleman and the Dis-guises of Self

Geraldine Ng, University of Reading (UK)

Persons, Agency, and the Operations of Blame

Commentator: Richard C. Prust

Room 202

Session B:

Anthony L. Cashio, Manchester University (USA)

Embracing a Personalist Approach to Environmental Philosophy

Jason M. Bell, University of New Brunswick and Mt. Allison University (Canada)

Toward a Methodology Against Genocide                               

Commentator: Federico Lauria

Room 109

10:20-10:40

Tea and Coffee

10:40-12:00

Session A:

Robert F. DeVall, Jr., West Chester University of Pennsylvania (USA) 

Keeping the “I” in the “I-Thou” Relationship: Pringle-Pattison’s Rejection of an Impersonal Absolute

Douglas McDermid, Trent University (Canada)

Are Selves Sui Generis? McTaggart on Immortality and the Argument from Impermanence

Commentator: Jan Olof Bengtsson

Room 202

Session B1 (10:40-11:20):

Anne Runehov, Copenhagen University (Denmark)

The Process of Believing 

Commentator: Eike-Henner W. Kluge

Session B2 (11:20-12:00):

Janne Kontala, Åbo Akademi (Finland) 

Eastern Spirituality in Sweden: Identifying Emerging Worldview Patterns Amongst Practitioners  

Commentator: Ferdinando Sardella

Room 109

12:00-2:00

Lunch

2:00-3:45

Plenary Panel on Hindu Personalism

Kenneth R. Valpey, Oxford University (UK)

Personhood as Multivalent Reality in Premodern Indian Theography

Ithamar Theodor, University of Haifa (Israel)

Resorting to Aesthetics: The Articulation of Divine Personhood in the Vaishnava Vedanta Tradition

Ferdinando Sardella, Uppsala University (Sweden)

Modern Hindu Personalism

Room 201

3:45-4:30

Tea and Coffee

4:30-5:50

Session A:

Lucian Delescu, Berkeley College (USA)

On Darwin’s Account of Consciousness and its Implications for a General Theory of Person

Victoria Höög, Lund University (Sweden)

Persona and Ethos in Contemporary Technoscientific Cultures

Commentator: Anthony L. Cashio

Room 202

Session B:

Soyoung Park, Independent Scholar, Vancouver, BC (Canada)

Suspended Subjectivity: Artistic Intention in Making Art

Jonnie Eriksson, Lund University and Halmstad University (Sweden)

Realist by Nature, by Nature Abstract: Personalist Aesthetics in Mounier and Henry

Commentator: James McLachlan

Room 109

5:50-6:00

Break

6:00-7:00

Plenary

Juan Manuel Burgos, CEU San Pablo University (Spain)              

A New Personalist Proposal: Modern Ontological Personalism

Room 201

 

Thursday, August 8

 

9:00-10:20

Session A:

Bogumił Gacka, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University (Poland)

Personalism in Brazil

Andris Sevels, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (Poland)

Personalistic Mariology of John Paul II

Room 202

Session B:

James Beauregard, Independent Scholar, Manchester, NH (USA)

Neuroethics: A Personalist Approach

Eike-Henner W. Kluge, University of Victoria (Canada)          

Personhood, Brain Death and Resource Allocation: The Implications of Aquinas’ Conception of Human Persons                                              

Commentator: Juan Manuel Burgos

Room 109

10:20-10:40

Tea and Coffee

10:40-11:40

Plenary

Fredrik Ullén, Karolinska Institutet (Sweden)

The Creative Person: Neuropsychological Perspectives              

Room 201

AFTERNOON FREE

7:00

Conference Dinner

 

Friday, August 9

 

9:00-10:20

Session A:

Randall E. Auxier, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (USA)

Scheler and the Existence of the Impersonal

James McLachlan, Western Carolina University (USA)     

Levinas, the Person, and Eschatology 

Commentator: Philip Cronce

Room 202

Session B:

Jerzy Król, State University of Higher Education in Chełm (Poland)

Upbringing and Education from the Personalist Perspective

Inger Enkvist, Lund University (Sweden)                     

Personalism: Identifying Two Opposite Views of the Teaching Profession

Commentator: Thomas O. Buford

Room 109

Session C: 

Agnieszka Gąsior-Mazur, Independent Scholar, Lublin (Poland) 

The Development of Person vs. Building the Value of a Company

Ewa Smołka, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (Poland)

Openness to Others as a Way of Personal Development

Room 022

10:20-10:40

Tea and Coffee

10:40-12:00

Session A: 

Richard C. Prust, St. Andrews University (USA)

The Ragged Edge of our Personal Past

Federico Lauria and Alain Pé-Curto, University of Geneva (Switzerland)

The Situationist Boomerang

Commentator: Michael Thompson

Room 202

Session B:

J. J. MacIntosh, University of Calgary (Canada)

Persons, Identity, and Irenaean Theodicies

Joseph Diekemper, Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland) 

Temporality, Creation, and Divine Personhood      

Commentator: Eoin O’Connell

Room 109

12:00-2:00

Lunch

2:00- 3:45

Plenary Panel on the Roots of the Philosophical Problem of the Person

Lorenzo Greco, Oxford University (UK)                        

Hume and the Narrative of the Self            

Michael Thompson, University of North Texas (USA) 

The Antinomy of Identity: Personal Identity and Time in Modern Philosophy

Daryl L. Hale, Western Carolina University (USA) 

Persons as Supra Pretium: Kant’s Neglected Argument for Personalism?

Room 201

3:45-4:30

Tea and Coffee

4:30-5:50

Session A:

Argun Abrek Canbolat, Middle East Technical University (Turkey)

Personhood: From Physical to Social

Simon Smith, Independent Scholar, Haslemere, Surrey (UK)

A Convergence of Cosmologies: Personal Analogies in Modern Physics and Modern Metaphysics

Commentator: Daryl L. Hale

Room 202

Session B:

Ian Winchester, University of Calgary (Canada)

Collingwood’s Conception of Personhood and its Relation to Language Use

Giusy Gallo, University of Calabria (Italy)  

Dialogue and Language: The Way to Be a Person

Commentator: Randall E. Auxier

Room 109

5:50-6:00

Break

6:00-7:00

Plenary

Claes G. Ryn, Catholic University of America (USA)

“Idealistic” Dreaming: The Imagination of Unbounded Egotism

Room 201

 

Saturday, August 10

 

9:00-10:20

Session A1 (9:00-9:40):

Erik Persson, Independent Scholar, Harlösa (Sweden)                        

The Catholic Critics of Personalism: Before and After Father Meinvielle  

Commentator: Jerzy Król

Session A2 (9:40-10:20):

Philip Cronce, Chicago State University (USA)

Dewey, Rorty, and Honors Education after the Fall of the Academy

Room 202

Session B1 (9:00-9:40):

Susanna Åkerman-Hjern, Independent Scholar, Stockholm (Sweden)       

Swedenborg and the Grand Human

Commentator: James McLachlan

Session B2 (9:40-10:20): 

Kerstin Maria Pahl, Humboldt University (Germany)                                       

Timing Life: Portraiture and Biography in 18^th Century England

Commentator: Jonnie Eriksson

Room 109

Session C1 (9:00-9:40):

Guillermo Barron, Red Deer College (Canada) 

Gender and Personhood

Commentator: Giusy Gallo

Room 022

10:20-10:40

Tea and Coffee

10:40-12:00

Session A:

Christina Conroy, Morehead State University (USA)   

Branch-Relative Identity

Eoin O’Connell, Manhattan College (USA)

Inferences to Personhood 

Commentator: Randall E. Auxier

Room 202

Session B:

Kenny Siu Sing Huen, Universiti Brunei Darussalam (Brunei)

The Crux of Living a Human Life: From Heidegger to Wittgenstein

Alastair Beattie, University of the Andes (Venezuela)                    

Person as Platonic Idea Form

Commentator: Douglas McDermid

Room 109

12:00-12:10

Break

12:10-12:40

Closing Panel: Conference Overview and the State of the Person

Randall E. Auxier, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (USA)

Jan Olof Bengtsson, Lund University (Sweden)

Thomas O. Buford, Furman University (USA)

Room 201

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Read more about the 12th International Conference on Persons under Uncategorized or on the conference website.

After the one in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy written together with Thomas D. Williams, another encyclopedia article on personalism, this time by me alone, is now published in Springer’s new Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions.

Springer   Amazon.com