The AAP's submission to the public consultation on the Job-ready Graduates Exposure Draft Legislation can be found here: submission

How Philosophers Have Been Helping Australasians Through the COVID-19 Pandemic

The humanities have a vital role to play in any time of crisis and transition, and COVID-19 is certainly no exception. Throughout this extraordinary time, Australasian philosophers have been doing our part to make sense of where we are and how we should respond. aap.org.au/PHILOSOPHY-IN-THE-TIME-OF-CORONA/

It is with deep regret that the Australian Academy of the Humanities informs you of the recent passing of David Hugh Mellor (‘Hugh’ to his friends and colleagues, ‘D. H. Mellor’ to his readers), a world-leading philosopher, former Professor of Philosophy and Pro-Vice-​Chancellor at Cambridge University, and a passionate advocate for the arts and humanities. Professor Mellor died peacefully in Addenbrooke’s Hospital Cambridge on the morning of June 21 of complications arising from lymphoma.  He was elected to the Academy as an Honorary Fellow in 2003.

Hugh Mellor was born in London on 10 July 1938 and was educated at Manchester Grammar School. He studied chemical engineering at Pembroke College, Cambridge, obtaining his BA in 1960. His first formal study of philosophy was at the University of Minnesota where he took a minor in Philosophy of Science under Austrian philosopher and member of the Vienna circle Herbert Feigl. From Minnesota he obtained an MSc in 1962. He obtained his PhD in philosophy, with a thesis written under the supervision of British philosopher Mary Hesse, at Pembroke in 1968.

Professor Mellor’s primary work was in metaphysics: his philosophical interests included the philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, probability, time and causation, laws of nature and properties, and decision theory. In 1971 he published The Matter of Chance, a ground-breaking text which offered a revolutionary new theory of objective single case probability. Professor Mellor then went on to become the premier spokesperson for accounts of causation that challenged the orthodoxy that causation is a relation between events, an orthodoxy dating back to 18^th century philosopher David Hume. He was also a leading figure on the philosophy of time, publishing several monographs on the topic and other areas of metaphysics including  Real Time (1981), Matters of Metaphysics (1991), The Facts of Causation (1995), Real Time II (1998), Probability: A Philosophical Introduction (2005) and Mind, Meaning, and Reality (2012). A festschrift, Real Metaphysics, edited by Hallvard Lillehammer and Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra, was published in 2003.

Professor Mellor was a Fellow of Pembroke College Cambridge from 1964 to 1970 and a Fellow of Darwin College from 1971 to 2005. He became a University Assistant Lecturer in Philosophy in 1965, a Lecturer in 1970, a Reader in Metaphysics in 1983 and Professor of Philosophy from 1986 to 1999. He was a Pro-Vice-Chancellor from 2000 to 2001. During his time as Professor, and subsequently as PVC, Mellor raised substantial funding for the humanities at Cambridge, was instrumental in securing funds needed for the preservation and refurbishment of the Cambridge Arts Theatre, and forcefully represented the School of Arts and Humanities on the General Board. An actor in his own right, Mellor retained a love of theatre and performance throughout his life and career.

In addition to his Honorary Fellowship with the Academy, Mellor was a Fellow of the British Academy from 1983 to 2008, President of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science from 1985 to 1987, President of the Aristotelian Society from 1992 to 1993, and Chairman of the Analysis Trust from 2000 to 2008. He served as editor of The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science and was Founding Editor of the Cambridge University Press series Cambridge Studies in Philosophy. From 1978 to 1989 he served on the Editorial Board of Australasian Journal of Philosophy.

Professor Mellor retained strong connections to Australia throughout  his career, first as a visiting Fellow to ANU in 1975, and regularly since then, most recently in 2002 and 2003. He played a major role in encouraging and assisting Australians to spend time in the UK and Cambridge and was a stalwart supporter of Australian philosophy and universities.

We extend our deepest sympathies to Professor Mellor’s family, friends and colleagues.

David Hugh Mellor's full Obituary can be read here.

This Obituary appears by kind permission of The Australian Academy of the Humanities. It will appear in their 2019–2020 Annual Report.

It is with great sadness that the AAP notes the passing of the former philosopher and friend of the AAP, Lloyd Reinhardt.  Lloyd taught at the University of Sydney for many years (as well as Keele University, Birkbeck College, the University of London and the University of California, Santa Barbara).  He was a senior lecturer in philosophy at Sydney from 1979 until his retirement in 2001, and published several important articles in the philosophy of language, aesthetics and metaphysics. 

Lloyd was born in Deer Creek Minnesota, USA in 1933.  After completing his army service, stationed in Germany, he returned to the USA to study philosophy at Berkeley.  While there, he studied with Stanley Cavell, Paul Grice and John Searle.  Lloyd, like many others of that generation, does not hold a PhD in philosophy. But he went on to complete the prestigious BPhil at Oxford under Gilbert Ryle, during which time he came in regular contact with J.L Austin as well. 

Lloyd was a big-hearted man with an unforgettable bass baritone voice and a strong appetite for jokes, good food and wine and, above all, philosophy. Lloyd was an enthusiastic philosophical conversationalist and there are a many of us in the Australasian Philosophical community who owe him a great debt, having benefitted enormously from his generosity in giving up his time to talk philosophy with a seriousness and passion second to none.

 Lloyd’s wife Janet writes: “Lloyd never lost his love of philosophy.  On the day before he died he was reading Jonathon Lear’s Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation.”

Those in the Australasian philosophical community who knew Karen Neander will be greatly saddened by the news of her death. She died on 6 May 2020, after a long battle with cancer.

Karen completed a BA (honours) at La Trobe in 1975, followed by the award of her PhD in 1984. In the 1980s she held positions in Philosophy at the Universities of Sydney, Wollongong, and Adelaide before becoming a postdoctoral and then a research fellow in the Philosophy Program of the Research School of Social Sciences at the ANU. In 1996 Karen moved to a position at Johns Hopkins University in the United States. She took up a senior appointment in Philosophy at the University of California at Davis in 2002, and in 2006 became Professor of Philosophy and Linguistics at Duke University in North Carolina.

Karen maintained strong links with Australasian philosophy, serving as a member of the AJP Editorial Board, attending the AAP conference when she could, and keeping in touch with former colleagues. Many philosophers here regarded Karen as a long-term friend as well as an academic colleague and her death is felt as a personal as well as a professional loss.

Karen was a first-rate philosopher and internationally well-known for her contributions to philosophy of mind, biology, and cognitive science. Prior to her important book, A Mark of the Mental (MIT Press, 2017), there was an impressive list of publications in journals, edited collections, and major reference works. As David Papineau has recently written of Karen: "All her work was powerful, insightful, influential."

Karen is remembered by many with great respect and with great affection.

Stephanie (Steffi) Lewis died at her home in Princeton on the 7^th of November this year.  Steffi had a long association with the Australasian philosophical community and has been a longtime member of the AAP, attending most conferences since the early 1970s.  She visited Australia or New Zealand almost annually since 1970 with her husband David, and continued to regularly and frequently attend the annual conference after David’s death in 2001.  It is with great sadness that we note her passing. 

STUART BROCK

CEO | Australasian Association of Philosophy

The AAP would like to recognise the passing of Andre Norman Gallois. Andre spent many of his career years in Australia starting at Monash and then moving to UQ where he served as Chair of the Philosophy Department for 17 years. Andre also served as a member of the editorial board of the AJP. Obituary HERE

The AAP would like to recognise the passing of John Williams. John was a prominent, prolific, and much-loved member of the Singapore philosophy community. John was a mentor to many in Singapore, as well as a regular attendee at the AAP conference. http://michaelpelczar.com/?page_id=255

We at the AAP would like to acknowledge the serious concerns raised regarding one of the talks scheduled at our upcoming conference at the University of Wollongong.

By tradition and by policy, the AAP conference accepts all contributions received from academic philosophers in Australasia. Aside from the Presidential address and our keynote speakers, the contributors to the conference are not invited speakers, and as an organisation we do not endorse the content of any paper presented at the conference. Indeed, we encourage respectful but critical responses towards all papers presented at the conference, especially if they defend views that conflict with our commitment to support diversity in philosophy.

The statement of aims on the conference website expresses our expectations for the conduct for all participants: “We aim to encourage a relaxed, professional, and safe atmosphere for the exchange of ideas and presentation of arguments. We ask all participants - whether they be speakers, chairs, or attendees - to take responsibility for creating a space where all feel accepted, respected, and heard.” We recognise that the aim of encouraging the discussion of arguments and ideas can conflict with the aim of creating a space where everyone is able to participate. We take this seriously, both in terms of the need to engage with arguments and in terms of the need for awareness of the impact those arguments can have. We value all members of the philosophy community, and we expect all participants in the conference to share these commitments.

Professor Susan Dodds, Chair

Professor Graham Oppy, Chief Executive Officer

The American Philosophical Association and the American Sociological Association issued an open letter in response to President Bolsonaro’s proposal to defund philosophy and sociology programs in Brazil. The AAP is a signatory.

https://www.apaonline.org/news/449877/APA--ASA-Issue-Open-Letter-on-Brazils-Plans-to-Cut-Philosophy--Sociology-Programs-in-Brazil-.htm