The Center for Thomistic Studies is sponsoring a conference on the ethics of organ transplantation (March 27–29, 2009). The mini-site for the conference has the following description:

The Ethics of Organ Transplantation, an interdisciplinary conference on medical and philosophical issues surrounding organ transplantation, will bring together experts from a variety of fields, such as philosophy, theology, and medicine. The conference seeks a coherent vision that promotes healing united with a respect for the dignity of each individual.

Keynote speakers include:

• D. Alan Shewmon, M.D., Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
  Topic: Brain Death
  
• Janet Smith, Ph.D., Fr. Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Issues, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit, MI
  Topic: The Ethics of Ova Donation for Stem Cell Research
  
• A.A. Howsepian, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry, Veterans Administration Central California Health Care System, Fresno, CA
  Topic: Organ Transplantation and Anencephalic Infants
  
• Christopher Kaczor, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Philosophy, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA
  Topic: Organ Donations after Cardiac Death

It is possible to submit a paper for inclusion in the conference, responding to the call for papers. Papers will be accepted as they are received, preference given to earlier submissions, with a final deadline of January 1, 2009.

The International Society for MacIntyrean Philosophy is holding its second annual conference at Saint Meinrad’s in Indiana, from July 30 through August 3, 2008. The topic is: “Theory, Practice, and Tradition: Human Rationality in Pursuit of the Good Life.” You can see the conference’s dense schedule here (DOC format).

With thanks to Roberta Baranowski at the Medieval Institute at Notre Dame, news of an upcoming colloquium: "Philosophy and Theology in the Studia of the Religious Orders and at the Papal Court," to be held at the University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, Indiana), October 8-11, 2008. The colloquium is actually put on by the Société Internationale pour l'Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale (SIEPM), to mark its 50th anniversary. The description of the colloquium:

The XVth Colloquium of the Société Internationale pour l'Étude de la Philosophie Médiévale (SIEPM), which will mark the 50th anniversary of the Société, will take place at the University of Notre Dame on Wednesday, October 8 through Friday, October 10, 2008. The Colloquium, organized by Kent Emery, Jr. (Notre Dame) assisted by William J. Courtenay (Madison, Wisconsin), will focus on the particularities of the teaching of philosophy and theology in the studia of the mendicant (Augustinian, Carmelite, Dominican, Franciscan) and monastic (Benedictine, Cistercian) orders and at the theological schools at the Papal Court (notably at Avignon) as distinct from instruction in the faculties of the university proper.

More about it here, with a PDF file containing its entire program here.

To whet your appetite, the speakers at the conference are:

• Fabrizio Amerini (Parma)
• Luca Bianchi (Vercelli)
• Alain Boureau (Paris)
• Stephen F. Brown (Boston)
• Julie Casteigt (Toulouse)
• Amos Corbini (Torino)
• Russell Friedman (Leuven)
• Hester Gelber (Palo Alto, California)
• Joseph W. Goering (Toronto)
• Wouter Goris (Amsterdam)
• Guy Guldentops (Köln)
• Jacqueline Hamesse (Louvain-La-Neuve)
• Maarten Hoenen (Freiburg Im Breisgau)
• Alfonso Maierù (Roma)
• Michèle Mulchahey (Toronto)
• Lauge Nielsen (København)
• Patrick Nold (Albany)
• Adriano Oliva, O.P. (Paris)
• Alessandro Palazzo (Lecce)
• Georgio Pini (The Bronx, New York)
• Sylvain Piron (Paris)
• François-Xavier Putallaz (Fribourg, Suisse)
• Christopher Schabel (Nicosia)
• Neslihan Senocak (New York)
• Thomas Sullivan, O.S.B. (Conception Abbey, Missouri)
• Christian Trottmann (Dijon-Paris-Tours)

Thanks to Adriano Oliva, OP, for this information about an upcoming event in Paris. While it might be difficult for people in the USA to attend, Adriano provided the program of the event, so we can see what's going on these days in Paris, at the Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes:

Journée d'étude, jeudi 15 mai 2008
Les innovations du vocabulaire latin à la fin du moyen âge :
autour du Glossaire du latin philosophique (philosophie, théologie, sciences)

Le Glossaire du latin philosophique, un fichier d'environ 230.000 fiches consacré au vocabulaire philosophique du moyen âge, se trouve désormais à l'Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes, où il est consultable à la Section latine.

A l'occasion de l'arrivée du Glossaire du latin philosophique à l'Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes et pour marquer un nouveau départ, nous organisons une journée d'étude consacrée à ce fichier, le jeudi 15 mai 2008, à l'IRHT, 40 avenue d'Iéna, 75016 Paris.

Programme:

9.00-9.30 Accueil des participants
9.30 introduction par Louis Holtz
9.40-10.20 Jacqueline Hamesse, Le « Glossaire du latin philosophique médiéval » : histoire, buts et utilization
10.20-11.00 Anne Grondeux, Parler de grammaire en philosophie : l'enrichissement du vocabulaire médiolatin de la pensée grammatical

pause

11.10-11.50 Alfonso Maierù, Sur la « suppositio vaga » au XIII^e siècle
11.50-12.30 Charles Burnett, The Enrichment of Latin philosophical vocabulary through translations from Arabic

déjeuner

14.00-14.40 Ruedi Imbach, Experiri et experiential chez Albert le Grand et Thomas d'Aquin
14.40-15.20 Monica Calma, La "rhetorica viatoris » dans les commentaires des Sentences au XIV^e siècle
15.20-16.00 Ana Gómez Rabal, Exemples de termes philosophiques dans les glossaires médiévaux et leur survivance/ oubli chez un humaniste, Michel Servet

16.15-17.30 Table ronde : discussion générale sur l'avenir du Glossaire et une éventuelle version informatisée, avec la participation de Bruno Bon, Dragos Calma, Monica Calma, Anita Guerreau, Caroline Heid, Louis Holtz, Adriano Oliva, Jacqueline Hamesse, Jean-Pierre Rothschild, Mariken Teeuwen, Olga Weijers.

Inscriptions et renseignements : aoliva@nerim.net, olgaweijers@hotmail.com

Every year I try to "scrape" the PDF file that the people at Western Michigan University put out for that year's Congress. Here are the papers directly on Aquinas for this year's Congress, plus some allied topics.

Forty-third International Congress on Medieval Studies May 8–11, 2008

Papers on Aquinas

• Thomas Aquinas on the Gift of Wisdom (Daria Lucas, Univ. of Notre Dame)
• Aquinas, Scandal, Public Figures, and Freedom of the Press: A Test Case for Natural Law Theory (David Conter, Huron Univ. College)
• Natural Law, Practical Reason, and Prudence in Thomas Aquinas (James M. Jacobs, Notre Dame Seminary)
• Natural Rights and Unnatural Persons: Coercion and Rights in Augustine, Aquinas, and Some Twelfth-Century Thinkers (Toy-Fung Tung, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY)
• Aquinas on the Political Autonomy of the Household (Thornton Lockwood, Boston Univ.)
• Analogy and Accommodation in Aquinas and Calvin (Laura Smit)
• Saint Thomas on the Question of the Sacramentality of Religious (Paul Jerome Keller, OP, Providence College
• Inclination, Appetite, and Will: Continuities and Discontinuities (Mary Veronica Sabelli, RSM, St. John's Seminary)
• The Palindromic Structure of Aquinas's Adoro devote (Lucia Treanor, FSE, Grand Valley State Univ)
• Saint Thomas's Third Way Revisited (Lawrence Dewan, OP, Dominican Univ. College)
• Can Being Be Accidental: Ens per Accidens in Saint Thomas's Metaphysics (Barbara Freres, Cardinal Stritch Univ.)
• Person and Relation in the Summa theologiae (Patrick Meredith Gardner, Univ. of Notre Dame)
• Aquinas: Prayer as a Rational Act (Michael R. Miller, Mount St. Mary's Univ.)
• Papers on Steven A. Long's The Teleological Grammar of the Moral Act
  • Long's "Natural Teleology" and the Finis Operis (Thomas M. Osborne, Jr., Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston)
  • The Disappearing Act: The Teleology That Went Away (Steven J. Jensen, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston)
  • Why This Book Matters (Romanus Cessario, OP, St. John's Seminary)
  • Response to Papers: (Steven A. Long, Ave Maria Univ.)
• Thomas Aquinas on Courage, Death, and the Good of Reason (James Carey, St. John's College)
• Courage and Faith in the Village of Le Chambon, France (Randall Smith, Univ. of St. Thomas, Houston)
• Ordinary Martyrs: Thomas Aquinas on Courage in Everyday Life (Colleen McCluskey, St. Louis Univ)
• Putting the Evil in Medieval and Other Adventures: Chaucer, Dante, and Aquinas in Newberry (Warren S. Moore III, Newberry College)
• Love Bears All Things: Aquinas on the Virtue of Courage and the Gift of Fear (Rebecca Konyndyk De Young, Calvin College)
• The Grammar of Courage and the Vision of God (Gary Culpepper, Providence College)
• Woman and War: Andromache, Jeanne d'Arc, and Rosie the Riveter (Mary C. Sommers, Center for Thomistic Studies)
• Abstraction and the Moral Species of Human Acts (David M. Gallagher, Independent Scholar)
• Courage in the Early Moral Works of Albert the Great (Martin Tracey, Benedictine Univ.)
• The Role of Courage in Intellectual Work (Liliana Beatriz Irizar, Sergio Arboleda Univ)
• Procession as Communication of the Divine Essence: The Heart of Aquinas's Trinitarian Theology (Anselm K. Min)

Other papers

• Aristotle, Politics, and the Dominicans in the Middle Ages (Charles F. Briggs, Georgia Southern Univ)
• Tolomeo Fiadoni (Ptolemy of Lucca) and the Controversy over the Reception of Aristotle's Politics (James M. Blythe, Univ. of Memphis)
• Procession as Communication of the Divine Essence: The Heart of Aquinas's Trinitarian Theology (Anselm K. Min)
• Henry Harclay, Duns Scotus, and Their Critique of Aquinas's Theory of Relations (John Slotemaker, Boston College)