The Conference: a Success

Did I prove myself to be numbered among the greats in philosophy? By no means! But was my presentation a solid one this past weekend? Apparently not only I thought so. There were a number who really took to the theme of my comparison of Hegelian idealism and Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutic phenomenology. Really it was an epistemological battle between theories of consciousness, but a battle which, at the outcome, rendered Hegel obsolete; so much so that Ricoeur would say that after renouncing Hegelianism, "if we are not to give into the weaknesses of nostalgia, we much wish the courage of mourning." Such was the last line of my paper. A line I was expecting to be met with fury, but which actually, as I was told, was quite "beautiful."(?)

But the best part was just hanging out with the philosophy Grad students of Essex. They know a good time, and we had wonderful Thai dinner Friday night and a rousing (mini) pool match at the Goat, Saturday night. Here are a couple pictures from the Thai restaurant with most of the conference organizers along with the conference keynote, Karin de Boer, from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.