Aberdeen Philosophy

💬 Our Eilidh Beaton will deliver a talk on attention and political philosophy at this workshop on The Ethics of Immigrant Selection at the University of Reading next week.

The Ethics of Immigrant Selection Workshop The Ethics of Immigrant Selection workshop  Date: 22nd June, 2026 from 10:00 to 18:00 University of Reading, Reading Details: While the normative literature on migration has long centred on whether borders should be open or closed, recent philosophical work has shifted toward examining how...

🚨 New co-authored publication from our PhD student Frank Burr & Prof Mike Beaney now out in Religions.

🗞️ Paper title: In the Beginning Was the Redeeming Word: Tolstoy’s Spiritual Influence on the Genesis of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus.

Available open access here:

In the Beginning Was the Redeeming Word: Tolstoy’s Spiritual Influence on the Genesis of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus This article discusses the influence of Leo Tolstoy on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s early philosophy. In particular, we elucidate the influence that Wittgenstein’s reading of Tolstoy’s Gospel in Brief had on the genesis of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, in inspiration, structure, and content. Ce...

💬 Some highlights from our workshop on Migration and Asylum in Scotland last Friday, featuring Bradley Hillier-Smith (St Andrews), Yulia Long (Edinburgh), Natasha Saunders (St Andrews), and David Owen (Southampton).

🗓️ We are delighted to be hosting this workshop on Migration and Asylum in Scotland, 11.30am-5.30pm this Friday in the Sir Duncan Rice Library.

To register, please contact [email protected].

💬 Earlier this week, Prof Mike Beaney gave a lecture on ‘Chinese Graphic Logic’ at the International Colloquium on the History of Logic (Interlog Network) at Campus Condorcet in Paris.

Full programme here: https://www.facebook.com/scholasticon/posts/next-week-in-paris-after-the-heatwavevery-impressive-programme-the-short-version/1899941771378292/

💬 Our Jesper Kallestrup is delivering a keynote at this workshop in Rotterdam this week.

A transcript of Prof Mike Beaney's recent interview in Fudan, 'Beyond the Binary: Analytic Philosophy Meets the Chinese Tradition' is now available both Chinese and English.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/YGFdAn9Nt6oShaBqBTXG8g

📕 💬 The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology are hosting a book workshop on UoA Prof. Mike Beaney's "The Joy of Chinese Philosophy" today.

Further information here:

Book Symposium on Michael Beaney’s “The Joy of Chinese Philosophy” AbstractThe activity is a one-day book symposium on Prof. Michael Beaney’s recently published (2026) research monograph on early Chinese philosophy, called “The Joy of Chinese Philosophy”. The aim of the activity is to foster dialogue and opportunities for collaboration by bringing together sc...

Our Ulrich Stegmann has a chapter in this forthcoming collection, Images of the Plant Humanities (ed. by Sands & Whistler, Bloomsbury). The chapter discusses the history of plant morphology, specifically the 18th century insight that different-looking floral organs (like petals and stamens) are actually 'the same' organ.

https://www.abdn.ac.uk/people/u.stegmann

🗞️ Our Eilidh Beaton's latest paper, 'Methodological Nationalism is Not the (best articulation of the) Problem' is now out in Philosophy.

The paper raises worries for calls to outright reject methodological nationalism - i.e. nation-state-centric ways of seeing the world.

Methodological Nationalism is Not the (Best Articulation of the) Problem | Philosophy | Cambridge Core Methodological Nationalism is Not the (Best Articulation of the) Problem - Volume 100 Issue 3