Northwest Philosophy Conference
at
Lewis & Clark College
Portland, Oregon
October 31 - November 1, 2025
Campus Map
Call for Papers
The seventy-sixth annual Northwest Philosophy Conference is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, October 31 - November 1, at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.
Noa Latham (University of Calgary) will deliver the Keynote Address, Variable Freedom, Responsibility, and Desert.
This paper argues that there are different senses of "free" and that for each sense it is a straightforward conceptual truth whether freedom is compatible with determinism. I discuss four families of compatibilist notions of free action and argue that for each there are important and useful notions of variable freedom. I argue that morality and law require a notion of responsibility that admits of degree and that this notion requires a variable notion of freedom as degree of constraint (e.g. addiction or coercion). I argue that incompatibilists should recognise the existence of such freedom and responsibility but argue that there is a further notion of responsibility necessary for desert that requires libertarian freedom. I offer an account of desert in terms of value and a thought experiment that suggests such values are undermined by determinism. I argue that such undermining is not a straightforward conceptual truth but has the metaphysical status of evaluative judgements. This helps explain why disagreement between compatibilists and incompatibilists persists.
There is a $50 registration fee for the conference, payable online at
https://payit.nelnet.net/form/CJQvvBkP
Papers in any philosophical area are welcome. The Northwest Philosophy Conference welcomes submissions from women and members of minority groups.
Papers must not exceed a length of 3000 words. On the first page of your paper, include the following items:
1. word count - 3000 words maximum!
2. author's name.
3.academic status (professor, unaffiliated, graduate student).
4. highest earned degree (PhD, MA).
5. institutional affiliation (if any).
6. email address.
7. the paper's title.
8. and an abstract - 100 words maximum!
No more than one paper by the same author can be considered.
Submit your paper as a pdf file to:
Title your file this way:
LastNameFirstName.pdf
for example: ArendtHannah.pdf
In the subject header of your email, put:
NPC Paper Submission
Papers must be submitted by September 2. Persons who submit their papers earlier will receive notifications of acceptance within 48 hours.
Notification of acceptance will be made via email.
Each paper will have a commentator. Persons whose papers are accepted are expected to serve as commentators if asked.
Persons interested in commenting should email fritzman@lclark.edu by September 2, stating their availability and areas of interest. Graduate students who are not yet ABD are encouraged to volunteer.
The Keynote Address will take place at 1:30 Friday afternoon. The conference will conclude at 6:00 Saturday evening.
https://www.lclark.edu/live/files/7676-campus-map
has a map of the Lewis & Clark College campus.
Places to Stay
https://www.lclark.edu/visit/places_to_stay/
lists lodgings that offer a special rate to Lewis & Clark visitors.
Updated 31 July 2025