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The Holberg Week 2017

The Holberg Masterclass with Onora O'Neill: Judgement and Interpretation

The Holberg Prize has invited five Nordic PhD students to participate in a Masterclass discussion with Onora O'Neill on "Judgement and Interpretation".

Statue som framstiller La justisia.
Photo:
Foto: Creative Commons CC0, via Pixabay

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How much can we say about good and poor judgement or interpretation, whether in law or in literature, in politics or in everyday life? Is judgement a matter of applying accepted principles, or rules, or laws to actual cases? Or of selecting or finding (the right) principles, rules or laws for interpreting a given case? Or of acting in ways that embody a given principle, rule or law? When and why does judgement appeal to authority? Can judgement resolve the indeterminacy of principles, rules or laws? If it cannot, does this matter?  

Baroness Onora O’Neill was Principal of Newnham College and is Honorary Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. She receives the Holberg Prize 2017 for her influential work in ethics and political philosophy, and in particular, on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Professor O’Neill also plays an active role in public life as a crossbench member of the House of Lords, and she takes active part in public debate on questions ranging from bioethics, human rights and criminology.

Some of Onora O'Neill's writing on Judgement of Interpretation is available here: Interpretation within the limits of reasonNormativity and practical judgement 07/04/17Practical principles and practical judgement in Bioethics 17/08/15

Participants:
Maxim Usynin, Law, University of Copenhagen
Markus Mikael Kortesmäki, Philosophy, Åbo University
Torhild Elin Nordtveit, Law, University of Bergen
Oscar Wandery, Management, Stockholm University
Zohreh Khoban, Political Science, Uppsala University

Selected Background Reading:

  • Immanuel Kant. 2000. Critique of the Power of Judgement. Edited by Paul Guyer, translated by Paul Guyer and Eric Mathews. Cambridge University Press. (Look for comments on determining and reflecting (alternative translations: determinant, reflective)
  • Hans-Georg Gadamer. 2004. Truth and Method. Translated by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall. Bloomsbury Publishing.
  • Ronald Beiner. 2009. Political Judgment. Routledge.
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein. 2009. Philosophical  Investigations. Edited by P.M.S. Hacker and Joachim Schulte, translated by G.E.M. Anscombe, P.M.S Hacker and Joachim Schulte. Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Paul Ricoeur. 1986. The Symbolism of Evil. Translated by Emerson Buchanan. Beacon Press.
  • To be distributed: Onora O’Neill. 2016. Kant on Indeterminacy, Judgement and Interpretation (de Gruyter’s Lecture 2016, unpublished)