[CamPhilEvents] Verstehen Colloquium: Hans Blumenberg on philosophical anthropology, nonconceptuality and metaphorology

[S. Bhuvanendra]

Dear all,

In the first part of this term at the Verstehen Colloquium, we will be reading 
work by Hans Blumenberg.

We meet on Thursdays at 10am, starting next Thursday 29 April with his 
Introduction to the Paradigms for a Metaphorology (1960), and “Prospect for a 
Theory of Nonconceptuality” (1979), pp170-6 and pp239-58 in the online 
collection available here: 
https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/t9gok8/44CAM_ALMA5164448733606. 
The planned schedule of readings is at the end of this email.

German philosopher Hans Blumenberg (1920-1996) has been described as ‘the 
invisible philosopher’. Blumenberg’s invisibility is the result of his 
ubiquity. For anyone acquainted with the breadth of his thought, it becomes 
inevitable to feel haunted by his absent presence. His philosophy bears a clear 
birthmark — the phenomenological movement in both its Husserlian and 
Heideggerean variants — but he doesn’t let it define its developments, style, 
objects, insights or domains. A theorist of modernity (Legitimacy of the Modern 
Age), a philosophical anthropologist (Work on Myth), an intellectual historian 
(Genesis of the Copernican World & Paradigms for a Metaphorology), Blumenberg 
escapes any easy categorization and is ready to challenge rival accounts to 
their core.

In the Verstehen Colloquium, we will explore the development of his 
metaphorology and proposal of a theory of non-conceptuality. Both pose a 
challenge to take seriously the multiple expressive activities (fables, myths, 
poems, etc.) that allow us to take a figurative distance from reality, and that 
set us in a peculiar intentional relation to the world, that differs from that 
of concepts, but also from that of embodied coping.

To be added to the mailing list and for invitations to the Zoom meetings, 
please contact Sen at sb2276.

We hope to see you there!

Sebastian Raza-Mejia (Sociology) and Senthuran Bhuvanendra (Philosophy),

https://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/seminars-phil/verstehen-colloquium


Thursday 29 April

Introduction to Paradigms for a Metaphorology (1960), pp170-6 and “Prospect for 
a Theory of Nonconceptuality” (1979), pp239-58

Thursday 6 May

“Theory of Nonconceptuality” (excerpt, c.1975), pp259-78

Thursday 13 May

“Theory of Nonconceptuality”, pp278-97

_
To unsubscribe from the CamPhilEvents mailing list,
or change your membership options, please visit
the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents

List archive: https://lists.cam.ac.uk/pipermail/phil-events/

Please note that CamPhilEvents doesn't accept email
attachments. See the list information page for further 
details and suggested alternatives.

[CamPhilEvents] Kinds of Intelligence Reading Group

[Alexandria Boyle]

Dear all,

At the Kinds of Intelligence reading group we discuss papers which explore the 
nature of intelligence and mind from a range of disciplinary perspectives, 
including philosophy, cognitive science, comparative psychology and AI.

We’ll be meeting this term on alternate Wednesdays, from 3-4.30pm. We’ll meet 
on Google Meet, using the following link: https://meet.google.com/sie-jjse-izt.

We’ll kick off on May 12th, with a paper by our own José Hernández-Orallo, on 
the subject of intelligence evaluation –  ‘Twenty years beyond the Turing test: 
Moving beyond the human judges 
too’. José has 
kindly agreed to join us for the discussion.

A full programme is below. You’ll see that we have so many great papers to 
discuss, we’re going a bit beyond the end of term. All are welcome!

For the rest of term, messages about the reading group will only be sent to the 
group’s mailing list. If you’d like to join the mailing list, you can let us 
know or subscribe here: https://lists.cam.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/soc-koi. If 
you have any questions about the group, please get in touch.

All the very best
Ali Boyle & Henry Shevlin


Kinds of Intelligence Reading Group

Fortnightly on Wednesday, 3:00 – 4:30pm
Join via Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/sie-jjse-izt

Easter Term 2021

May 12: J. Hernández-Orallo (2020), ‘Twenty years beyond the Turing test: 
Moving beyond the human judges 
too’. Minds and 
Machines 30 (4): 533-562

May 26: W. Bechtel & L. Bich (2021), ‘Grounding cognition: Heterarchical 
control mechanisms in 
biology’. Phil. 
Trans. R. Soc. B 376: 20190751.

June 9: S. Lea et al. (2020), ‘Behavioural flexibility: A review, a model and 
some exploratory 
tests’. Learning 
& Behaviour 48, 173-187, and
S. Risi & J. Togelius (2020), ‘Increasing generality in machine learning 
through procedural content 
generation’. Nature 
Machine Intelligence 2, 428-436.

June 23: M. Del Giudice & B. J. Crespi (2018), ‘Basic functional trade-offs in 
cognition: An integrative 
framework’.
 Cognition 179, 56-70

July 7: T. B. Starzak & R. D. Gray (2021), ‘Towards ending the animal cognition 
war: A three-dimensional model of causal 
cognition.’
 Biology & Philosophy 36 (9), 1-24.



Dr Ali Boyle
Research Fellow in Kinds of Intelligence
Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge
Center for Science and Thought, University of Bonn
www.aliboyle.com
_
To unsubscribe from the CamPhilEvents mailing list,
or change your membership options, please visit
the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents

List archive: https://lists.cam.ac.uk/pipermail/phil-events/

Please note that CamPhilEvents doesn't accept email
attachments. See the list information page for further 
details and suggested alternatives.