Workshop topic: our lives are pervaded by commitments: you might be committed to meeting a friend for dinner, exercising four times per week, learning a language, being considerate, sustaining a friendship, promoting a political cause. Some commitments are relatively trivial and readily set aside. Others are deeper and more resistant to change. When people display extreme degrees of commitment, we sometimes describe them as devoted. Devotion seems to involve a particularly robust form of commitment, which might differ from standard forms of commitment in its intensity, stability, resistance to compromise, epistemic status, or deliberative weight.
This conference seeks to explore the relationship between devotion and meaning in life. How does devotion connect to our desire for a meaningful or purposeful life? What needs, longings, or motivations drive us to express devotion? Do different objects of devotion fulfill these needs in different ways? Is devotion linked in important ways to our identity? To our sense of what is important?
Locations:
December 12th sessions will be held in Photonics Center Room 203 (8 St. Mary's Street)
December 13th sessions will be held in Kilachand Center Room 101 (610 Commonwealth Avenue)
Keynotes:
Ruth Chang (Oxford, Philosophy)
Joshua Hicks (Texas A&M, Psychology)
Antti Kauppinen (Helsinki, Philosophy)
Crystal Park (UConn, Psychology)
Speakers:
Kaitlyn Creasy (Cal State San Bernardino)
Casey Doyle (Binghamton)
Simon May (King's College)
Sanjeev Sikri (Indian Inst. Tech.)
Justin White (Brigham Young)
Jules Wong (Penn State)
Chairs:
Olivia Bailey (Berkeley)
Keilee Bessho (UC Riverside)
Luca Ferrero (UC Riverside)
Alan Mittleman (Jewish Theological Seminary)
Malcolm Morano (Harvard)
Tyler Sproule (U. Illinois Chicago)
Organizers:
Paul Katsafanas (BU)
Jesse Preston (Warwick)
Program:
Thursday, December 12
Location: 8 St. Mary's Street (Photonics Center) Room 203
11:15-12:15
Kaitlyn Creasy (Cal State San Bernardino)
“Meaning at the Limits of Practical Agency”
Chair: Malcolm Morano (Harvard)
12:30-2:00
Lunch break
2:00-3:15
Keynote 1:
Crystal Park (UConn)
“Values, Devotion, and Meaning in Life: A Meaning-Making Perspective"
Chair: Alan Mittleman (The Jewish Theological Seminary)
3:30-4:30
Sanjeev Sikri (Indian Institute of Technology)
“Ekrūpatam and Sakhyabhakti: Finding Identity through Committed Friendships in Ancient Indian Philosophy”
Chair: Luca Ferrero (UC Riverside)
4:45-6:00
Keynote 2:
Antti Kauppinen (Univ. of Helsinki)
"The Ties that Bind"
Chair: Daniel Star (BU)
Friday, December 13
Location: 610 Commonwealth Avenue (Kilachand Center), Room 101
10:00-11:00
Jules Wong (Penn State)
“Devotion, Dissipation, and Gender”
Chair: Keilee Bessho (UC Riverside)
11:15-12:30
Keynote 3:
Ruth Chang (Oxford)
“Choice, Commitment, and Meaning in Life”
Chair: Jesse Preston (Warwick)
12:30-2:00
Lunch break
2:00-3:00
Justin White (Brigham Young University)
“Devotion, Fragile Meaning, and the Selves of Merleau-Ponty”
Chair: Olivia Bailey (Berkeley)
3:15-4:15
Casey Doyle (Binghamton)
“Meaning, Self-Deception, and Dialectical Invulnerability”
Chair: Pol Pardini (BU)
4:30-5:45
Keynote 4:
Joshua Hicks (Texas A&M)
“Sacred Values, Authenticity, and Meaningful Goal Pursuits"
Chair: Tyler Sproule (Univ. Illinois—Chicago)
6:00-7:00
Reception
This project was made possible through the support of grant #62871 from the John Templeton Foundation. Additional funding for the 2024 workshop was provided by the Boston University Center for the Humanities.
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