Newport Conference

International Berkeley Conference
Redwood Library and Athenaeum
Newport, Rhode Island
June 26-28, 2008

On June 26-28, 2008, the Redwood Library in Newport, Rhode Island (http://www.redwoodlibrary.org/) will be the site of a major conference devoted to the study of the Irish philosopher George Berkeley (1685-1753). The event, which is sponsored by the International Berkeley Society, will include three days of presentations on Berkeley’s life and thought as well as visits to his home (Whitehall) and other sites associated with his 1729-31 stay in Rhode Island.

Currently the schedule includes the following:

Thursday, June 26
Session One 9:00 9:45 10:30	Bertil Belfrage, Bodafors, Sweden: “The Distorted Berkeley: Consequences of a Biased Edition” Seth Bordner, University of North Carolina: “Berkeley’s ‘Defense’ of ‘Commonsense’” Break
Session Two 10:45 11:30 12:15	Wolfgang Breidert, University of Karlsruhe: “Knowledge of Existence and Non-Existence” Tom Lennon, University of Western Ontario: “Heterogeneity” Lunch
Session Three 2:00 2:45 3:30	Samuel Rickless, University of California, San Diego: “Berkeley’s Master Argument” Ville Paukkonnen, University of Helsinki: “Hylas’ Parity Argument” Break
Session Four 3:45 4:30	Keota Fields, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth (chair) Melissa Frankel, Harvard University: “Something-We-Know-Not-What, Something-We-Know-Not-Why: Berkeley, Meaning, and Explanation” James Van Cleve, University of Southern California: “Berkeley vs. Reid on Three Puzzles of Vision”
5:15	Tour of the Redwood Library and Athenaeum
6:00-7:15	Public presentation, Cynthia Grund, University of Southern Denmark: “Berkeley on Perception, Vision—and Second Life”
Friday, June 27
Session Five 9:00 9:45 10:30	Stephen H. Daniel, Texas A&M University: “Berkeley on the Essential Link Between Mind and the Language of Nature” Alan Nelson, University of North Carolina: “Berkeley on Simple Ideas” Break
Session Six 10:45 11:30 12:15	Michael Latzer, Gannon University (chair) Nancy Kendrick, Wheaton College (Massachusetts): “Berkeley’s Rejection of Existential Necessity” John Roberts, Florida State University: “Berkeley’s God Must Perceive and He Must Be the Christian God” Lunch
Session Seven 2:00 2:45 3:30	Terhi Kiiskinen, University of Helsinki (chair) Talia Mae Bettcher, California State University, Los Angeles: “Berkeley on Divine Foreknowledge” Genevieve Migely, Cornell College (Iowa): “Moral Motivation in Berkeley’s Theory of Intentionality” Break
Session Eight 3:45 4:30	John Troyer, University of Connecticut (chair) Georges Dicker, SUNY Brockport: “How Hylas Could Have Conquered Pain and Found Pleasure” Caterina Menichelli, University of Macerata: “The Concept of Beauty in Berkeley’s Works”
5:30-6:45	Walking tour of Newport, beginning at the Redwood, ending in Trinity Chuch
Saturday, June 28
Session Nine 9:00 9:45 10:30	Heta Gylling, University of Helsinki (chair) Daniel Flage, James Madison University: “Was Berkeley an Ethical Egoist?” Marta Szymańska, Jagiellonian University (Poland), “Berkeley’s Project of Preventing the Ruin of Great Britain and the Concept of Happiness” Break
Session Ten 10:45 11:30 12:15	C. George Caffentzis, University of Southern Maine, “Locke, Berkeley, and Hume as Philosophers of Money” Luc Peterschmitt, Univ. Charles-de-Gaulle, Lille III, “Can Berkeley Be an Instrumentalist? A Reappraisal of Berkeley’s Philosophy of Science” Lunch
Session Eleven 2:00	Timo Airaksinen, University of Helsinki, “Light in Siris”
2:45-5:30	Bus tour of Berkeley-related sites near Newport (Old Narragansett Church, Smith’s Castle); reservations required
5:30-7:15	Tour bus stop at Whitehall, Middletown, Rhode Island; conference buffet dinner at Whitehall
7:30	Tour Bus returns to Redwood Library

Scholars interested in attending the conference are invited to serve as chairs of the sessions. If you are interested, please contact the conference organizer, Steve Daniel, at the address below.

Conference Registration and Buffet Dinner Costs:

Advanced conference registration (up to June 15) is $25 for IBS members and $35 for non-members. After June 15 on-site registration at the Redwood is $30 for IBS members and $40 for non-members.
The buffet dinner at Whitehall is $20/person; children under 14 (with parents) free.
Payment of registration and dinner costs can be made using PayPal online or surface mail.
As part of the Redwood’s Thursday night series of presentations, Cynthia Grund’s talk on Berkeley and the virtual reality of Second Life is open free to the public.

To register on-line for the conference and pay for dinner, and to join or renew your IBS membership using PayPal, fill in the boxes below and click on the PayPal button.

Advanced registration (up to June 15) for IBS members $25, for non-IBS members $35; enter amount (e.g., 25.00) in box
Whitehall Dinner $20: enter amount (e.g., 20.00) in box
Annual IBS Membership Dues $15: enter amount (e.g., 15.00) in box

If you are joining the IBS for the first time, please send your name, surface mailing address, and email address (if available) to Professor Stephen Daniel, IBS President. For information about the Society, go to the Society’s website.

Whitehall Library Donation: enter amount (e.g., 5.00) in box

Research Donation: enter amount (e.g., 10.00) in box

IBS members get the hour-long PBS-produced “Dean of Thin Air” DVD when donating $10.00 or more.

Send payment to PayPal

Send payments (in U.S. dollars only) by surface mail to:

International Berkeley Society
Department of Philosophy
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-4237
U.S.A.

Accommodations: because the conference occurs during the high point of Newport’s tourist season—in particular, on the weekend of the fashionable Newport Flower Show—conference attendees should make arrangements as soon as possible to stay at one of the neighborhood bed-and-breakfast inns. As you will see, B&Bs in Newport are not cheap, but you can take solace from the fact that breakfast is included; and the specified B&Bs are only a few minutes’ walk to the Redwood. For information, go to the interactive map: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=101334949373051111068.0004405a8ea1e3a450ea4&z=17&om=1. To see exactly what the area looks like, click on the “Satellite” function in the upper right hand corner of the map. The list of B&Bs (starting closest to the Library) includes:

Old Beach Inn (main conference B&B), 4 rooms left: $175/night (no children under 12); four night minimum. If you want to come a day early, you can stay here for $100 on Tuesday night. One of the remaining rooms is a suite with two bedrooms sharing a bathroom; so if you want to double up with someone, that is a possibility.
Attwater Villa, 4 rooms: $165-85 (no children—unless you get the 4-6 person suite $350/night; something to consider if you plan a mini-vacation that includes others like in-laws or friends)
Architect's Inn, 2 rooms: $177/night (no children under 14)
John Easton House, 3 rooms: $169-179/night
Brinley Victorian Inn, 15 rooms: $159/night (no children under 8)
Historic Hill Inn, 2 rooms left: $189/night
1812 House, 1 room: $145 (children OK)
Newport Rose Cottage, 3 rooms: $167-177/night
Canfield House, 4 rooms: Wed/Thursday $125/night; Fri/Sat $175

Before making your choice you’ll probably want to go to the websites to see how nice these places really are. The rates listed are averaged over four nights and assume that you are arrive Wednesday, June 25, and depart Sunday June 29. (The conference begins on Thursday morning, 26 June, and ends on Saturday night, 28 June 2008.) If you want to come early or stay longer, you can work out a reduced rate when you make your reservations. As a rule, B&Bs require you to pay when you make reservations, and if for some reason you don’t come, they reimburse you (less a processing fee). To get these rates, you must tell the B&B owners you are attending the Berkeley conference at the Redwood ("Redwood" being the important word here). The Berkeley Society has not reserved any of the rooms listed above, so the sooner you make your reservations, the more likely you will be guaranteed a room.

In the summer Newport is a major tourist destination. It is also very popular for weddings and tours of the local mansions (http://tickets.newportmansions.org/). For information about what to do while in Newport, go to http://www.gonewport.com/.

Travel: for information about how to get to Newport, go to http://www.gonewport.com/nav.aspx?id=17. Those flying from the U.S. or Canada should fly into Providence, RI and take the Cozy Cab Newport Shuttle (http://www.cozytrans.com/) or rent a car. Those flying from Europe should fly into Boston and take the Peter Pan bus (http://www.peterpanbus.com/tickets/fares.php).

For more information, contact Steve Daniel, Department of Philosophy, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-4237; sdaniel@philosophy.tamu.edu; phone: 979-846-4649.