05.12: 北京大学国际哲学研讨暑期学校：Jennifer Nagel教授
北京大学国际哲学研讨
Peking University International Philosophy Colloquium
With Prof. Jennifer Nagel
On her book manuscript
Recognizing Knowledge: Intuitive and Reflective Epistemology
(forthcoming with Oxford University Press)
Key dates
Saturday 23rd & Sunday 24th August 2025
Place
Peking University, Beijing
Instructor
Jennifer Nagel (University of Toronto)
Participants
Alexander Bird (University of Cambridge)
Timothy Williamson (University of Oxford)
Chair
Sebastian Sunday Grève (Peking University)
Organising institutions
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Peking University
Institute of Foreign Philosophy, Peking University
Registration
All students who want to participate in the two-day colloquium must register their interest using the link below. Due to limited capacity, we will select participants based on their registration information. There are no course fees. Meals will be provided. Accommodation cannot be guaranteed.
Prerequisites
(1) Open to all students majoring in philosophy. (Note: Only Peking University undergraduate students can enrol for credit; they can do this via the school’s online course selection system (which may have an early deadline); other students may receive an official certificate upon completion of the course.)
(2) The working language will be English. Students should ensure that they have a good level of proficiency in spoken English.
(3) Students are required to participate in-person, they cannot participate on-line. Preparatory seminars and public lectures can be attended on-line (more on which below).
Deadline
Monday 12th May 2025
Link
https://www.wjx.cn/vm/PMW0NMR.aspx
Contact
For questions, please write an email to the following address:
PKUPhilosophyColloquium2025@outlook.com
Description
The objective of the Peking University International Philosophy Colloquium (henceforth, Peking Colloquium) is to provide students with an opportunity to study closely together with an international top scholar in philosophy, with a focus on the cutting-edge research that the scholar is currently undertaking. In conjunction with preparatory seminars taught by the project leader, the students will study selected aspects of the visiting scholar’s work together and each compose short discussion pieces – approximately 1,500 words each – focusing on elements they find especially intriguing. These short essays will be shared with the visiting scholar in advance of their visit. The visiting scholar will begin the visit by giving public lectures including time for student discussion. Subsequently, there will be a two-day colloquium revolving around the visiting scholar’s oral responses to student essays and presentations.
1st Peking University International Philosophy Colloquium
The visiting scholar for the first Peking Colloquium is Prof. Jennifer Nagel of the University of Toronto. She will share material from her book manuscript Recognizing Knowledge: Intuitive and Reflective Epistemology, which is forthcoming with Oxford University Press. The book presents new interdisciplinary research in philosophy and psychology concerning humans’ remarkable capacity to track what others do and do not know. This capacity guides us in everyday social navigation. It also provides raw data to epistemology, in the form of intuitive judgements about possible cases of knowledge. Over the years, philosophers, psychologists, and sociologists have discovered a variety of cross-culturally robust patterns of epistemic intuition, patterns that are attractively systematic, but often disturbingly paradoxical. In the book and in the course of her public lectures, Prof. Nagel will examine the natural origins and functions of our capacity to detect knowledge, in search of a better analysis of the data guiding epistemology and ultimately a clearer view of knowledge itself. The two-day colloquium will be joined, either in-person or on-line (which is to be confirmed), by Prof. Alexander Bird of the University of Cambridge and Prof. Timothy Williamson of the University of Oxford, who will – like all other participants – give an oral presentation regarding elements of the book they find especially intriguing, followed by Prof. Nagel’s responses.
Schedule
May: Course selection
June: Manuscript is shared
July–August: Two or three preparatory seminars*** (S. Sunday Grève)
1 August: Submission of 1,500-word preparatory essay
18–22 August: Four public lectures*** (J. Nagel)
23–24 August: Colloquium (J. Nagel)
*** = online participation is possible
Basic requirements
1 × 1,500-word preparatory essay, due by 1 August
1 × oral presentation and discussion (in-person, not online), 23–24 August
Reading
Nagel, J. Recognizing Knowledge: Intuitive and Reflective Epistemology (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
Recommended background reading
Nagel, J. Knowledge: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2014).
Nagel, J. Common knowledge and its limits (forthcoming), https://philarchive.org/archive/NAGCKA
