Conference Report: Midwest Pragmatist Studies Group

Last weekend I gave a paper, "Pragmatism, Social Science, and the Naturalistic Fallacy" at the Midwest Pragmatist Studies Group in Indianapolis. My paper investigates ways in which the philosophical tools of pragmatism have been put to work on the fact/value distinction in social science. It contains some of the basic arguments I advance more thoroughly in my philosophy dissertation.

Small conferences are great, especially in philosophy, so long as you go to them for the right reason. Some people see conferences primarily as networking opportunities. Seen in such a light, this would have been a terrible conference. Most philosophers work at small colleges who can only afford a couple of faculty members. Further, most small departments don't need two people working in overlapping areas. The chances of getting an inside line on a job are slim.

But that's precisely what makes these conferences great--people stop the intellectual posturing and resume acting like philosophers (or sociologists, or whatever). It's nice to see how people act when they don't expect anything other than critical feedback from their interlocutors.