CONFERENCE

I. Conference Description

The Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference (INPC) is a topic-focused conference that brings together those from the humanities and beyond who are interested in the philosophical investigation of key areas of thought. The project is being planned by Michael O'Rourke (Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Idaho), Joseph Keim-Campbell (Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Washington State University) and David Shier (Associate Professor of Philosophy at Washington State University). The 2002 INPC will consist of five distinct parts:

·     Concurrent paper sessions will be held beginning on Friday, April 5th and continuing through Sunday, April 7. The April 5th sessions will be held at the University Inn, 1516 W. Pullman Road, Moscow, ID.  Sessions on April 6 and 7 will be held at the University Commons on the campus of the University of Idaho. Roughly 30 papers will be delivered during this time. Typical sessions will run 70 minutes in length, and most sessions will include formal comment.  

·     Special sessions will be held in the late afternoon on Friday and Saturday.

·     The keynote address will be delivered on Saturday evening, April 6, at the University of Idaho Law School Courtroom, by Joshua Cohen, Professor of Philosophy and Political Science at MIT. 

·     On Friday evening a public forum will be held at the University Inn in Moscow. The forum will begin with ten minute presentations by a panel of experts in the areas of political science, law, psychology, and philosophy. Experts will address a topic about terrorism and public policy. Following the presentations by panel members, there will be a moderated discussion involving the audience and members of the panel.  

·     The conference closes Sunday, April  7th with a workshop in the Commons Building at the University of Idaho. The workshop gives participants a chance to reflect on the conference as a whole and to offer any remaining comments, criticisms, or questions. The workshop will conclude with a moderated discussion period.  

All of the conference activities will be open to the general public and so anyone who has an interest in law and social justice can attend.  

II. Topic 

This year’s INPC topic is law and social justice. Thus it immediately involves social and political philosophy and philosophy of law, as well as legal scholarship, political science, and a number of other academic areas.  

The topics of law and social justice are central to the humanities, as they have been since at least the ancient Greeks. As Socrates says in Plato's Republic, these matters are "no casual topic, but concern one's whole manner of living." Addressing the fundamental issues of law and social justice helps to shape one's understanding of what it is to be a human being and a member of a community. 

The members of any society need a way to conceptualize themselves in relation to their society. Political, social and legal philosophy provide such conceptual frameworks, useful for understanding both the actual legal and social structures we encounter and the possible structures we may envision. That is, political, social and legal philosophy provide us with an intellectual platform from which we might investigate what forms of social arrangement are possible and which of them would embody justice and other human values. 

Also, the more concrete issues that emerge are frequently characterized by a tension between the desire for individual freedom on the one hand, and the desire for the good of the community on the other. As examples consider the cluster of issues concerning freedom of expression, such as flag burning, hate speech, pornography, anti-government speech and so on. These issues are typically emotionally-charged and of great concern to the public. Philosophy and the other relevant disciplines fulfill the important public service of providing a reasoned and civil common ground for informed public debate of these deeply disputed issues.  

The narrower focus of the public forum — terrorism and public policy — is, of course, one of great public interest and can be expected to garner spirited public participation. Some of the issues sure to be raised in the forum are the following: What responses to terrorism are just, and what are the proper limits to our range of responses? Can terrorism be fought without requiring curtailments of civil liberties? If civil liberties must be curtailed in some form to prosecute terrorism, what is the right course of action? Terrorists argue that their practices are rational means for achieving legitimate political ends; can terrorism ever really be rational? If a catastrophe such as 9-11 could be prevented, but only through a serious breach of due process (say by threatening to torture a captive terrorist to get information), would it be acceptable to do so?
 

III. Mission and Goals 

The general mission of the INPC is to provide a forum for public discussion of classically philosophical topics. Our conference is intended to help facilitate research on such topics, to illustrate to non-philosophers the importance and pervasiveness of philosophy in our daily lives, and to help improve the intellectual atmosphere of the Moscow/Pullman community. We consider the project to be a bridge between the academy and the non-academic community and as such it is vital to our mission and goals. 

The general goal of the INPC is to encourage philosophical interaction on a variety of different levels between philosophers and non-philosophers, teachers and students, academics and lay-persons. One goal is to generate interdisciplinary involvement in the conference. Such involvement benefits all involved. First, it exposes those from outside the humanities to research methodologies that have proved very successful within philosophy and other humanistic disciplines. Second, it enables researchers within the humanities to learn of ideas and strategies that are used by those who are working on issues related to law and social justice in disciplines such as philosophy, political science, legal scholarship, psychology, and criminal justice. Another goal is to introduce non-philosophers (both academics and non-academics) to the particular methodologies utilized by philosophers. It is hoped that this will give everyone a broader understanding of what philosophy is, why it is important, and how philosophy and the humanities in general can be of value in their lives. A final goal of the project is to strengthen the connections between the academic and non-academic communities in the Pullman/Moscow area. The public forum is an important part of the conference since it allows us to create links between both philosophy and the other humanities as well as the academic and non-academic communities. It is designed with the non-academic community in mind, and those who lack the technical vocabulary will nonetheless be able to attend this event and appreciate the importance of research related to law and social justice. We anticipate that the benefits of this event will also run in the other direction, as questions from the non-academic community often offer substantial challenges to researchers.