PHILOSOPHICAL’ CONGRESS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27040, 15 May 1953, Page 3

PHILOSOPHICAL’ CONGRESS

SEVEN PROFESSORS TO ATTEND

PROGRAMME OF ADDRESSES Seven professors pf philosophy (two from abroad) and most lecturers in the subject at colleges of the University of New Zealand will be attending the first philosophical congress in the Dominion this month at Canterbury University College, The special interest* of the visitors has attracted attention. Professor J. "•■Y*. Smart, of the University of Adelaide, studied at Glasgow and Oxford and concentrates on the philosphy of science. Professor E. S. Robinson, ®r°in the University of Kansas, is a Fulbright scholar now working in Auckland. He took a doctorate at Harvard University, was an instructor .Syracuse University and Kenyon College and then associate professor of psychology and philosophy at the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College until 1946 when he took his present appointment. This experience suggests-a broad approach to philosophy. He has also translated some classic writings on philosophy. The development of philosophy in its own right is shown by comparison of the programme of this congress with that of the meeting of the Australasia Association of Psychology and Philosophy in Wellington in 1930. Twenty years ago the papers dealt largely with psychological and educational aspects of philosophy but these are both now more specialised fields. The presidential address in 1930 was given by Professor W. Anderson, who will be the senior member of this month’s congress. Dr. I. LG. Sutherland, then a lecturer in Wellington, gave some notes on Maori welfare. Professor James Shelley, then head of the education department at Canterbury College, spoke on aesthetics and also on the future of education in New Zealand. Professor T. A. Hunter, of Wellington, (Sir Thomas Hunter who died recently) discussed institutions; social and anti-social. Mr A. E. Campbell, now senior inspector of primary schools, talked about the contribution of child psychology to the theory of laughter. Many papers were given by visitors. This year philosophy proper will occupy most attention with addresses mostly by men working in New Zealand.

Professor G. E. Hughes, of Wellington, will speak on some moral paradoxes and Mr J. F, Bennett, a Canterbury graduate who will go soon to Magdalene College, Oxford, as a postgraduate scholar of the University of New Zealand, will discuss interated modalities. Mr R. Durrant, lecturer in Dunedin, who was abroad in 1951, will give a paper on the moral philosophy of Adam Smith. Professor W. Anderson, now of Auckland, will expound the theory of mind as pure potentiality. Professor Smart, of Adelaide, will deal with time and substance and Professor Robinson, of Kansas, will discuss a language of sign-theory and a language of value-theory. The last address on an aspect of ethics, will be given by M* D. H. Monro, recently back from overseas and whose book, “The Argument of Laughter,'* promises to become a classic in philosophy. Before the meetings open visitors will be entertained by Dr. H. R. Hulme, Rector of Canterbury University College, and during the congress a business session will be held to discuss the 'place of philosophy in New Zealand.