Philosophy Conference at UCR: "Coming
to Terms with the Past: Responding to Historical Injustice”
By Ferda Mehmet, student intern of CHASS College Computing
Professor of Humanities, George Sher of Rice University, speaks in regards to transgenerational compensation. |
The 13th annual Philosophy Conference, "Coming to Terms with
the Past: Responding to Historical Injustice” took place at
UCR on February 28th – March 1st. The goal of this unique
conference was to address the questions of whether injustices that
took place still needed to be addressed and if so how. The focus
was on the United States case of slavery. Six speakers, each with
their own commentator, discussed such topics as “Two Lockean
Arguments for Black Reparations,” “Transgenerational
Compensation,” “Slavery, Reparations, and Moral Clarity,”
“The Role of Reparations in Transitions to Democracy,”
“Repairing Past Injustices: On the Politics for Reparations
for Slavery and Segregation,” and “Reparations and Historical
Injustices.” The speakers came from across the United States
from institutions such as the University of North Carolina, Rice
University, the University of Maryland, The International Center
for Transitional Justice, Northwestern University, and Stanford
University.
This was a unique conference because it attempted to look at an
American problem in the context of international attempts to deal
with different pasts, whether through money, apology, uncovering
the truth of what happened, or criminal trials. Georgia Warnke,
Chair of the Philosophy Department and one of the organizers of
the conference said, “Since we are a society committed to
equality, this conference is important because we have a history
of denying equality.” |
