Category: Upcoming Episodes

[[AUDIO PROMO]]

Coming soon Ed Conroy is joined by Professor Andrew Fiala to discuss the meaning of peace and pacifism.

More Promos to follow

Professor Andrew Fiala, from Fresno State University in California, will join Ed Conroy to discuss war and peace and pacifism, from a philosophers perspective.

This episode titled ‘The Meaning of Peace & Pacifism’ is all about peace and how it adds meaning to our lives, how we can build better lives living peacefully, pacifistically and non-violently and how different forms of pacifism can be enacted both personally and socially. How is peace is important for our societies and individuals and how that contrasts and changes across different cultures and social groups in their attitudes towards peace, pacifism and nonviolence. And also how pacifism can be ‘transformative’. The episode will be the first to be released as part of the dokeo podcast pilot series, despite being the final one to be recorded.

Professor Fiala is currently Chair of Philosophy at Fresno State University, and director of the University’s Ethics Center. Previously he has been an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin.

He is widely published, having authored such volumes as Transformative Pacifism (2018); Against Religions, Wars, and States: Enlightenment Atheism, Just War Pacifism, and Liberal-Democratic
Anarchism (2013); The Just War Myth: The Moral Illusions of War (2008) and Practical Pacifism (2004). As well as some 50 plus academic papers; and given over 80 academic conference presentations.

Previously Professor Fiala was President of the CPP (Concerned Philosophers for Peace) and is the first ever Ethicist in Residence at the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He has previously been the Treasurer (and webmaster) for the Society for Philosophy in the Contemporary World.

You can read more about and from Professor Fiala on his website.

If you have any questions for Professor Fiala about the subjects above, please do fill out our Guest Questions form, so they can be asked during the recording on April 21st.

Professor Emeritus Frederick J. Newmeyer from the University of Washington will join Ed Conroy to discuss linguistics.

The episode is about linguistics, from the research of Professor Newmeyer, a world-leading scholar on linguistics, and will look at the evolutionary origin of language; ‘The Politics of Linguistics’ (1986); ‘Autonomous linguistics’; with a discussion on the weaponisation of linguistics and language usage in the current political climates in the UK and USA; as well as the ‘Possible and Probable Languages: A Generative Perspective on Linguistic Typology.’ (2005) and how that applies to understanding across cultural and sociological divides and how linguistic forms and grammatical features affect our thinking and conceptualisation.

Professor Newmeyer is currently Professor Emeritus at Washington University, USA – where he he started as Assistant Professor in 1969 until 1975; and has also held the role of Associate Professor (1975-1981); Chair (1990-2000) and Acting Chair (2004-2005). He is also an Adjunct Professor at British Columbia University and Simon Fraser University, both in Canada, close to where resides.

Professor Newmeyer has guested as a professor at 25 Universities and Research Institutes, including but not limited to the prestigious MIT, University of Edinburgh, University College London, Cornell University, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Universidade de São Paulo, Institut des Sciences Cognitives and the Beijing Language and Culture University.

Professor Newmeyer has been an editor for the Natural Language and Linguistic Theory academic journal. He currently sits on the editorial boards for Conceptual Foundations of Language Science and Open Linguistics; and has previously been on the editorial boards for nine other prestigious academic journals.

He has previously served as President of the Linguistic Society of America, as well as holding numerous chairs and board member roles within the LSA. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Professor Newmeyer has written 7 books; his first, English Aspectual Verbs, in 1975; as well as 1983’s Grammatical Theory: Its Limits and Its Possibilities; he has contributed other volumes including The Politics of Linguistics (1986); Generative Linguistics: A Historical Perspective (1996) and most recently Possible and Probable Languages: A Generative Perspective on Linguistic Typology (2005). As well as writing 8 journal articles due for publication this year, he has previously written 39 other articles between 2010 and 2010 (average of just under 4 journal articles a year); and a further 130(+) articles; making him a highly prolific, published and esteemed academic. Professor Newmeyer has also edited Measuring Grammatical Complexity; Functionalism and Formalism in Linguistics (2 volumes), and Linguistics: The Cambridge Survey (4 volumes).

You can read more about Professor Frederick J Newmeyer on his University of Washington page.

If you have any questions for Professor Newmeyer about the subject, please do fill out our Guest Questions form, so they can be asked during the recording on April 20th 2020.

Professor Michael Cholbi from the University of Edinburgh will join Ed Conroy to discuss Dying, death, immortality and suicide, from a philosophers perspective.

This episode is about death, dying and how it adds meaning to our lives in the present as we look towards our future death, and how that contrasts and changes across cultures and groups; as well as, perhaps, a discussion on humanity’s quest for youth and immortality and a discussion on suicide.

Professor Cholbi is currently the Chair Professor of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh and has previously been Professor of Philosophy at California State Polytechnic University; as well as Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. He is currently Director for the California Center for Ethics and Policy (CCEP) at the California State Polytechnic University in Pomona; as well as being the Founder of the International Association for the Philosophy of Death and Dying. He sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Philosophy; the board of advisors for the academic journal Social Theory and Practice. He is area editor of ethics for the academic journal Ergo, and on the international board of advisors for the prestigious Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. He is a former editor of the journal Teaching Philosophy and holds multiple roles within the American Philosophical Association. He has been published widely within the fields of ethical theory and practical ethics; the philosophy of death and dying; having edited and contributed to volumes on death, dying, suicide, assisted dying, immortality, ethics of work and labor, paternalism, procreative and parental ethics; Kantian ethics, equality, and rational agency.

You can read more from Professor Cholbi on his website and on his University of Edinburgh profile.

If you have any questions for Professor Cholbi about the subjects above, please do fill out our Guest Questions form, so they can be asked during the recording on April 13th.