The 16th Cologne Summer School in Philosophy (CSSiP) on

Rational Agency and Self-Consciousness

takes place in Cologne from July 31 to August 4, 2023. Our special guest will be Ram Neta (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill). 

The Cologne Summer School is an annual, week-long, event at which leading epistemologists present their current work in a series of lectures, defend their views against critical comments, and discuss their work with participants. The Summer School mainly aims at professional philosophers and graduate students, but anyone is welcome to apply. 

Over the past two decades, Neta has developed an influential account of what is sometimes called "the basing relation" – i.e. the relation between an agent's actions (e.g. judging or doing something) and the reason(s) for which they act. According to his account, the basing relation requires at least a primitive form of self-consciousness.  Neta uses his account to explain the difference between things that are assessable by the standards of rationality (e.g. judgments or intentional actions) and things that are not (e.g. twinges). Hence, Neta’s account intersects with, and informs, several important debates within contemporary epistemology.

Relating to Neta’s work, this year’s Summer School will focus on the following themes: 

• the nature of belief and its relation to credence 
• what it is for an agent to possess evidence 
• what constraints coherence imposes upon our beliefs and credences, and why it imposes those constraints 
• the irrationality of epistemic akrasia 
• disjunctivism 
• the relation between understanding, on the one hand, and how things can appear to us (either perceptually or intellectually) on the other

Attendance is free but limited to 50 participants – to be selected on the basis of motivation and qualification. Online application is possible through April 15 May 1. Please supply a short letter that sketches your academic background and main motivation for participating in the Summer School. If you are interested in giving a brief presentation (approx. 20 minutes) related to Neta’s work, please also send an abstract of no more than 1,000 words. We will inform you about the result of your application soon after the deadline.

Apply via email to:
summerschoolphilosophyuni-koeln.de

Prof. Dr. Thomas Grundmann
Philosophisches Seminar
Universität zu Köln
Germany