The Significance of Suffering in Theory and Practice

The Significance of Suffering in Theory and Practice Call for Abstracts/Papers and Registration Annual Conference of the German Society for Utilitarian Studies Bielefeld University (hybrid), 19-21 November 2026 https://philevents.org/event/show/153729 This year’s annual conference of the German Society for Utilitarian Studies will focus on the significance of suffering in theory and practice. What is suffering, and which entities can suffer? What is severe or unbearable suffering, in particular, and should it take priority over happiness and other prudential, moral, or political values and reasons? If so, what kind of priority and why? Our speakers include Roger Crisp (Oxford), David Enoch (Oxford), Felicia Knaul (UCLA), Jennifer Corns (Glasgow), Michael Brady (Glasgow), Jonas H. Aaron (Zürich), Leonard Dung (Bochum), Bjørn Morten Hofmann (NTNU), Claudia Bozzaro (Münster), and Dieter Birnbacher (Düsseldorf). To participate in person or online, please email adriano.mannino@hm.edu (deadline: 2 November 2026). Participation is free. The conference will start Thursday afternoon, November 19, and end Saturday afternoon, November 21, 2026 (schedule TBA). You are welcome to attend only part of the conference. Our schedule has room for additional speakers. Please attach your abstract or paper if you would like to give a talk; we will notify you within a few days of submission. We can fully cover travel costs within Europe, and at least partly from elsewhere. Suitable topic areas include but are not limited to: the concepts and mental phenomena of pain, suffering, aversion, etc., and the concepts of severity and unbearability; pain and suffering as they relate to the theory of illbeing and wellbeing, value and disvalue; to intra- and interpersonal (non)aggregation, nonidentity, and population-level choices; to Kantian dignity, contractualism, virtue ethics, and other nonconsequentialist perspectives; to the concept of illhealth and issues in biomedical ethics or normative...