Memorial Notice: Martin Tamny (1941-2014)

Saul Fisher writes:

It is with great sadness that I report the passing of Martin Tamny on October 18, 2014, at the age of 73.

Martin was born in the Bronx, New York, and attended George Washington High School, the City College of New York, and Wolfson College at Oxford.  He received his PhD from the CUNY Graduate Center in 1976.  He was Professor of Philosophy at CCNY and the CUNY Graduate Center, where he worked tirelessly with, and on behalf of, his students.

In addition, he served his fellow faculty members with dedication, distinction, and distinctive wit, as Dean of Social Sciences (1984-85), Chair of the CCNY Philosophy department (1990-1993), and Dean of Humanities and the Arts (1993-2000), and many other faculty leadership and administrative capacities over more than 30 years at City College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

Martin’s scholarship in early modern history of philosophy of science included, with J.E. McGuire, Certain Philosophical Questions:  Newton’s Trinity Notebook (Cambridge University Press, 1983), a transcription, expansion, and commentary on Newton’s 1664-65 notebooks.  He was also dedicated to the public understanding of science and the philosophy of science, as a longtime member of the New York Academy of Science (History and Philosophy of Science section) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Section L, History and Philosophy of Science), as well as the American Philosophical Association and History of Science Society.

May his life and scholarship be an inspiration.

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Final Call for Papers – Deadline November 1: Locke Workshop (May 1-2, 2015) / PLEASE SHARE WIDELY!

CALL FOR PAPERS

DEADLINE: NOVEMBER 1! 

The 2015 John Locke Workshop

to be held at

The Rotman Institute of Philosophy

at The University of Western Ontario

May 1-2, 2015

Keynote Speaker: Peter Anstey (Sydney)

“Locke on Measurement”

The aim of this workshop is to foster interactions among Locke scholars, encourage the development and creation of new scholarship, and further the pursuit of new ideas regarding Locke’s philosophy, its context, and its continuing significance.  Please submit a title and abstract of no more than 750 words by NOV 1, 2014 to johnlockesociety@uwo.ca.  Final papers should be no longer than 5000 words.  The full program will be made available by DEC 15, 2014.  Further information regarding the workshop, accommodation options, and other practical matters will be available at that time.  Submissions on any topic of Locke’s philosophy will be considered, but we would especially welcome submissions regarding Locke’s natural philosophy and/or philosophy of science, broadly construed.

–

The John Locke Society

Jessica Gordon-Roth (CUNY-Lehman)

Benjamin Hill (Western Ontario)

https://sites.google.com/site/lockeworkshop/home

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Translations Site in Search of a Curator

In response to Lewis Powell’s recent quest for lacunae in the corpus of translated primary texts, Michael Hickson has called attention to his currently slumbering website Philosophy Translations. The site is intended to track who’s translating what, which translations are already out there in print, and to discuss what is currently most needed. Moreover, it aims to provide a digital library of (links to) unpublished translations.

Yet, as Hickson writes,

I finally decided that it was too ambitious a project for a single person to handle, so I’ve basically done nothing with it since 2010 and the site is set to expire in a few weeks. I think that we would all benefit from such a thing (especially the digital library of unpublished translations, since I know that a lot of these are out there gathering dust on people’s desks).

A website like this seems a great contribution, especially if there is a group of people actively maintaining it. I suggest that anyone who wants to step up or has ideas about how to organize this contact Michael Hickson.

 

Image: ‘Old Books’ by Moyan Brenn

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Most Needed Texts/Editions/Translations?

The purpose of this post is for people to share their views of lacunae in the range of available primary texts.  While I don’t have any actual influence or authority to fix these problems, it is possible that some enterprising publishers, or translators, or editors will see people expressing a demand for certain critical editions, translations, etc., and do something about it.

So, please share which texts you most wish were available!

(I am looking for things more like, “An English translation of Meinong’s Hume Studien” rather than “Part Two of Berkeley’s Principles” in case that wasn’t clear).

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Request for Reading Suggestions on “The Principle of Charity”

I mostly want to know if anyone has especially good papers they would recommend on how to best understand and employ the principle of charity in our historical work.  I have my own views on how to understand and employ it, but I realized that I am not really in touch with what other people’s views are, or whether my approach is idiosyncratic.

At least one aspect of my approach is idiosyncratic. I keenly dislike the term, “principle of charity”, for what probably amount to overly pedantic reasons (charity, in general, is not owed; but, whatever it is that we are trying to capture with that principle seems to be something we do owe to the figures we study).  I tend to refer to the relevant interpretive norm as “the principle of sympathetic interpretation” or to describe it in terms of putting on one’s Hume hat, etc.

Feel free also to use the comment thread here as a place to discuss your own views on the principle of charity!

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Locke Workshop – May 1-2, 2015 – Second Call for Papers …Please share widely!

CALL FOR PAPERS

The 2015 John Locke Workshop

to be held at

The Rotman Institute of Philosophy

at The University of Western Ontario

May 1-2, 2015

Keynote Speaker: Peter Anstey (Sydney)

“Locke on Measurement”

The aim of this workshop is to foster interactions among Locke scholars, encourage the development and creation of new scholarship, and further the pursuit of new ideas regarding Locke’s philosophy, its context, and its continuing significance.  Please submit a title and abstract of no more than 750 words by NOV 1, 2014 to johnlockesociety@uwo.ca.  Final papers should be no longer than 5000 words.  The full program will be made available by DEC 15, 2014.  Further information regarding the workshop, accommodation options, and other practical matters will be available at that time.  Submissions on any topic of Locke’s philosophy will be considered, but we would especially welcome submissions regarding Locke’s natural philosophy and/or philosophy of science, broadly construed.

–

The John Locke Society

Jessica Gordon-Roth (CUNY-Lehman)

Benjamin Hill (Western Ontario)

 https://sites.google.com/site/lockeworkshop/home

Read Full Post »

More on Methods for Historians/Historical Philosophers

Eric Schliesser has written a post on Peter Adamson’s rules for doing history of philosophy.*

I presented my own views on methodology in the Young Philosophers series (available on Youtube), which more or less echo points made in this blog post.

*I hope that Adamson collates the rules together or adds a “rules” tag to each post so it is convenient to link to them collectively.

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