To celebrate LGBT+ History Month, KCL MAP will be hosting a free film screening of ‘The Celluloid Closet’. This is a documentary surveying the various Hollywood screen depictions of the LGBTQ community and the attitudes behind them throughout the history of North American film.

Time: 18:00-20:00, Thursday 27th Feburary

Location: (S)4.03, Bush House

All are welcome. If you are not a KCL student or staff member then you will need to register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lgbt-history-month-film-screening-the-celluloid-closet-tickets-96248974273

KCL MAP reading group will be looking at ‘The rational impermissibility of accepting (some) racial generalizations’ by Renee Bolinger . We will be meeting 13:00-14:00, on Wednesday 12th Feb, at Activity Room B, 8th Floor, South East Wing, Bush House. 

Abstract: I argue that inferences from highly probabilifying racial generalizations (e.g. believing that Jones is a janitor, on the grounds that most Salvadoreans at the school are janitors) are not solely objectionable because acting on such inferences would be problematic, or they violate a moral norm, but because they violate a distinctively epistemic norm. They involve accepting a proposition when, given the costs of a mistake, one is not adequately justified in doing so. First I sketch an account of the nature of adequate justification—practical adequacy with respect to eliminating the ¬p possibilities from one’s epistemic statespace. Second, I argue that inferences based on demographic generalizations tend to disproportionately expose group members to the risks associated with mistakenly assuming stereotypical propositions, and so magnify the wrong involved in relying on such inferences without adequate justification.

This week, MAP reading group will be looking at ‘Responsibility Without Blame: Empathy and the Effective Treatment of Personality Disorder’ by Hanna Pickard. In the paper, Pickard examines the relation between personality disorder and concepts such as responsibility and blame. 

Location: Activity Room E, 8th Floor, South East Wing, Bush House

Time: 13:00-14:00, Wednesday 29th January

KCL MAP reading group will be meeting again on Wednesday 15th January, 13:00-14:00. We will be meeting in Activity Room F, 8th Floor, South East Wing Bush House. We will be reading the paper ‘Philosophical Racism’ by Katrin Flikschuh, professor at LSE.

The reading for KCL MAP reading ground next week will be ‘On Believing in Witches’ by Heikki Saari. 

We will be meeting 13:00-14:00, Wed 4th, Activity Room E, 8th Floor, South east wing, Bush house. All are welcome!

Abstract: In this paper I discuss Polycarp Ikuenobe’s view that it is rational to believe, in an African context, in the existence of witches and witchcraft. First, I attempt to show that it is not possible to prove empirically that witches and witchcraft are real, as Ikuenobe assumes. I argue that even though witches and witchcraft are part of the social reality in which many Africans live, they do not have the same ontological status as theoretical entities in scientific research. Second, I try to show that Ikuenobe’s attempt to demonstrate that the belief in witches and witchcraft has a rational foundation is not convincing. Admittedly, Africans, who live in magic-ridden cultures, have reasons that locally justify their belief in witches and witchcraft. However, when the justification offered for this belief is assessed by external standards, employed within scientific discourse, it turns out to be insufficient.

The reading for the next KCL MAP reading group will be ‘Evil Deceivers and Make-Believers: Transphobic Violence and the Politics of Illusion’ (see attached) by Talia Mae Bettcher, Professor and Chair of Philosophy at California State University, Los Angeles. 

Time: 13:00, Wed 20th Nov

Location: Activity Room E, 8th Floor, South East Wing, Bush House

Abstract: This essay examines the stereotype that transgender people are “deceivers” and the stereotype’s role in promoting and excusing transphobic violence. The stereotype derives from a contrast between gender presentation (appearance) and sexed body (concealed reality). Because gender presentation represents genital status, Bettcher argues, people who “misalign” the two are viewed as deceivers. The author shows how this system of gender presentation as genital representation is part of larger sexist and racist systems of violence and oppression.

CW: This essay contains references to transphobic violence.

KCL Minorities and Philosophy will be hosting Liam Kofi Bright, assistant professor at the LSE, to give a talk titled: ‘Against the Canon’. The talk will explore how the philosophical canon can homogenise education and the connection between having a canon and epistemic injustices.

Date/Time: 6pm, Monday 11th November
Location: 1.05, South East Wing, Bush House

This room is wheelchair accessible. Let us know if you require any further accessibility arrangements and we will try our best to accommodate them.

The talk will be followed by drinks in the Philosophy Bar.

KCL MAP reading group will continue next Wednesday (6th) 13:00-14:00, Activity room E, floor 8, South East Wing, Bush House.

We will be reading ‘Of Our Spiritual Strivings’ by W. E. B. Du Bois, the first chapter in his book ‘The Souls of Black Folk’.

In this chapter Du Bois reflects on the ‘double consciousness’ he has and the tension between his two identities: who he truly is and who he is taken to be by others because of his race.

Our reading group is open to people from all levels of philosophy, as well as those outside the department!