PhilSoc (23/6) - Danny Wardle (Confirmation)

[Jerome Luxon]

Hello all,

The PhilSoc seminar this coming week (23/6) will be Danny Wardle's Confirmation of Candidature talk. Please find the title and abstract below. As always, the seminar will be held in room 6.71 on the top floor of the RSSS from 3-4:30, and the zoom link can be found below the title and abstract.

 

Kind Regards,

Jerome

Upcoming PhilSoc:

30/06/26	Joshua Pearson	Open to all
07/07/26	Nicholas Carroll	Open to all
14/07/26	Brian Hedden	Open to all
21/07/26	Alex Sandgren	Open to all

Title: Making Sense of Temporary Memberlessness

Abstract: Until recently, social metaphysicians have largely neglected to address what happens to a group when it loses all of its members. Clubs, committees and sports teams all seem able to persist through periods of temporary memberlessness. I argue that the platitude 'social groups have members' runs together two claims: a synchronic one (at any time that something is a social group, it has members) and a diachronic one (nothing that is a social group can ever be memberless). I suggest that the former is true and the latter is not. I propose that 'being a social group' is a phase property of institutions: an institution can survive a memberless gap while temporarily failing to be a group, much like how a graduate survives while ceasing to be a student. My account preserves the platitude wherever it's plausible, accommodates a range of different cases and manages to stay neutral between mereological, set-theoretic and other views of what groups are.

All the best, 

Join Zoom Meeting
https://anu.zoom.us/j/83234106824?pwd=EFTvXHrhaU9IMqbxNv4wCNXjs69aUu.1

Meeting ID: 832 3410 6824
Password: 977054

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Jerome Luxon

PhD Candidate

School of Philosophy

Research School of Social Sciences

Australian National University