Greetings All,

A friend of mine asked me to pass along information on a conference that may be of interest to those with philosophical inclinations regarding Buddhist ethics.

Here's the details:

CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES ON BUDDHIST ETHICS CONFERENCE
Columbia University, October 6-7, 2011

http://www.cbs.columbia.edu/buddhist_ethics/

Buddhist ethics aims to identify and evaluate the different ethical (and metaethical) positions advanced in Buddhist texts. Researchers in the mainstream of philosophy and psychology have begun to appreciate the promise of Buddhist ethical discourse on such topics as the nature of the persons, freedom, attention training, and emotional regulation. Moreover, the growth of Buddhist ethics as a discipline has also led Western teachers and practitioners of Buddhism to apply it's tenets to contemporary issues and problems. This conference endeavors to further advance the project of Buddhist ethics through constructive transdisciplinary dialogue.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Damien Keown (Professor of Buddhist Ethics, Goldsmith College, UK) &

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong (Chauncey Stillman Professor in Practical Ethics, Duke University)

PLENARY ADDRESS:
Karl H. Potter (Professor Emeritus in Philosophy, University of Washington)

PARTICIPANTS:
Willoughby Britton (Brown University), Barbra Clayton (Mount Allison University, CA), Christian Coseru (College of Charleston), Georges Dreyfus (Williams College), Owen Flanagan (Duke University), Jonathan Gold (Princeton University), Charles Goodman (SUNY Binghamton), Christopher Gowans (Fordham University), William Grassie (Metanexus Institute), Charles Hallisey (Harvard Divinity School), Sallie King (James Madison University), Matthew Kapstein (University of Chicago), Sara McClintock (Emory University), Andrew Olendzki (Barre Center for Buddhist Studies), Jin Y. Park (American University), David Pizarro (Cornell University), Graham Priest (CUNY Graduate Center), Jesse Prinz (CUNY Graduate Center), Christopher Queen (Harvard University), Riccardo Repetti (Kingsborough College), Mark Siderits (Seoul National University, KR), Barry Schwartz (Swarthmore College), Evan Thompson (University of Toronto, CA), Lynne Tirrell (University of Massachusetts), Robert Thurman (Columbia University), Karma Lekshe Tsomo (University of San Diego), Jan Westerhoff (University of Durham, UK)

CONFERENCE DIRECTOR:
Christopher Kelley (Columbia University)

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR:
Jake Davis (CUNY Graduate Center)

FOR MORE DETAILS AND TO REGISTER, PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE:
http://www.cbs.columbia.edu/buddhist_ethics/

contemporary attempts to frame and understand buddhist practice as an ethics, or manner of conduct, personally interest me, and so i will look to attend the conference if i can find out for certain that i will be free to go, presumably within the next week, and if seating, which is limited, is by then still available.

that the conference comes a few days after the anniversary of philippa foot's death is noteworthy, as she did much to establish, in contemporary western philosophy, the viability of an ethics of virtue, or character, and was, in this regard, a forerunner of what is perhaps the way of representing the buddhist approach most suited to the purpose of accomplishing buddhist goals that is found in academic philosophy today.

tarin