Can We Just Hand Our Work over to AI?

There’s been so much news about developments in AI that I thought I’d pose a query to our field: Is AI in a position to contribute anything to the study of medieval philosophy?

I’m not interested in hand-wringing about how our students might use AI to cheat. That strikes me as their problem, not mine. I’m interested in how we might use AI for our own benefit, in our research.

  • Has anyone experimented with ChatGPT?
  • Has anyone set up a program that would translate scholastic Latin into English? This seems like it should be relatively easy to do, but so far as I know it hasn’t yet been done.
  • What else might modern technology be doing for us?

Send in your replies, and maybe we can all take an extra week’s vacation this summer.

A New Year in Medieval Philosophy

As part of her ERC grant on 12th-century logic, Caterina Tarlazzi (Venice) seeks to hire an expert in digital humanities—in particular, an expert in digital scholarly editions. A master’s degree, not a doctorate, is required. Details here. The application deadline is February 8, 2023.

The University of Jyväskylä is advertising two postdocs for Martina Reuter’s project on Gender in Renaissance and Early Modern Philosophy. I would think the clever medievalist might make a strong case for inclusion in the scope of this program. Application deadline is January 31, 2023. Application details here.

There’s a new journal starting up in the history of philosophy, Journal of the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists. It’s published by Brill, and edited by Ruth Hagengruber (Paderborn) and Mary Ellen Waithe (Cleveland State).

The SIEPM has announced the deadlines for its usual slate of prizes and funding opportunities: a junior scholar award (deadline of June 1, 2023); a stipend for junior scholars to study with senior scholars (deadline of May 1, 2023); a subvention for the publication of a monograph. Information can be found here.

Looking up the previous alerted me to an honor that I had been previously unaware, and so had failed to report: the SIEPM’s lifetime achievement award, which is given out only every five years (during the World Congress) was awarded this past August to Sten Ebbesen (Copenhagen). Congratulations Sten!

Next month, Dragos Calma (Dublin) and Tobias Hoffmann (Sorbonne) are sponsoring an in-person conference in Vienna on Primary and Secondary Causality: Medieval Theories at the Crossroads between Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism (February 16-17, 2023).

In March there’s an international two-day online conference on the subject What Can the Will Do? It’s being organized by Monika Michałowska (Łódź) and Jenny Pelletier (Gothenburg). It will be entirely on zoom (March 23-24, 2023).

The AAIWG — that’s the Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group, for those not in the know — is planning a conference in late spring in Istanbul, at Marmara University. The cfp deadline is just a couple of days away (January 21, 2023), so act quickly if you’d like to be involved. The dates are May 29–June 1, 2023. More details here.

The Universidad de los Andes is hosting a Congreso Tomista Internacional in June. (There does not seem to be, as yet, information on the web, but inquiries can be sent to congresotomista@gmail.com.) Santiago, June 28-30, 2023. The cfp deadline is March 31, 2023.

The Journal of the History of Philosophy is advertising its annual summer seminar, and this year’s topic is The Ancient Origins of Renaissance and Early Modern Feminism. It will be directed by Marguerite Deslauriers (McGill). The seminar is open to advanced graduate students and recent PhDs, and comes with generous funding. (Montreal, May 15-19, 2023. The application deadline is February 15.)

Thomas Aquinas College (Santa Paula, California) is again hosting a Thomistic Summer Conference. This year’s topic is The Soul in the Philosophy and Theology of St. Thomas (June 15-18, 2023). The cfp deadline is January 31, 2023.

The Lumen Christi Institute is again hosting an interesting roster of summer seminars, aimed at current PhD students, and extending to topics such as Augustine’s City of God and Gregory Nazianzen. Generous funding is available. Details here. Application deadlines are in February.