The Department of Philosophy offers a wide range of introductory to graduate-level courses in the major subject areas and various traditions of philosophy, with particular strengths in applied ethics and social/political philosophy. The interdisciplinary scope of most of its courses is one of the Department’s most salient features. The Department’s faculty has achieved exceptional research productivity and outstandingly high student evaluations.

Nancy Potter is giving a talk entitled ‘“Difficult people”: A theory of defiance and the role of the social imaginary’ to the Royal Institute of Philosophy at the University of Kent on March 1, 2017.

Julianne Chung has been appointed to the APA Committee on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies, beginning July 1, 2017.

Julianne Chung will be presenting “Why Chinese Philosophy is Indispensable" and “Working with Asian Texts: A Guide for Non-Specialists ”at the American Philosophical Association (Central Division).

Julianne Chung will be presenting “Form and Content in the Zhuangzi" and “Skill, Know-How, and the Arts" at the American Philosophical Association (Pacific Division).

Brian Barnes is the co-author of “Teaching for Critical Thinking: Carl Sagan’s Baloney Detection Kit” which will appear in The National Teaching and Learning Forum. 

Nancy Potter will be giving a talk in Canterbury (University of Kent) on March 1, entitled “'Difficult People': A Theory of Defiance and the Role of the Social Imaginary.”

Andreas Elpidorou has just published "The Moral Dimensions of Boredom: A Call for Research" in Review of General Psychology.

Congratulations to our Ethics Bowl Team.  Jeremy Jackson, Bethani Massey, Sadie Phillips, Keitan Stacks, and Alex Tacket competed in Indianapolis on Nov. 12th and had only one loss--to the eventual winners of the competition--placing 13th out of 36 teams.  

Andreas Elpidorou's book (co-edited with Daniel O. Dahlstrom and Walter Hopp), Philosophy of Mind and Phenomenology: Conceptual and Empirical Approaches (Routledge, 2016), has received a glowing review in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, with the reviewer saying "[t]he volume as a whole makes a compelling case for integrating more phenomenology into mainstream work on the mind and cognitive science."

George Shields is co-author of "Analytical Critiques of Whitehead's Metaphysics," which has just been published in the October 2016 issue of the Journal of the American Philosophical Association.

Lauren Freeman has been interviewed, with Saray Ayala, in Nature  on the dangers of oversimplifying microbiome studies.  

Avery Kolers has just published "Social Movements" in Philosophy Compass 11/10 (2016): 580-590.

Our students continue to achieve academic distinction: Jacquelyn Ha (AS’16) was awarded the Richard Campbell Smith Award; Hannah Wilson (AS’16) won a prestigious Truman Scholarship; Lashawn Ford (AS’15) earned an MA from the University of Kent on a Fulbright Scholarship; and Allie Funk (AS’15) spent the year studying at the London School of Economics.  In the spring, we inducted five new members into Phi Sigma Tau, and Avery Kolers is coaching a team that will compete at the Ethics Bowl in November. 

NEW BOOKS!  Guy Dove (Beyond the Body? The Future of Embodied Cognition), Avery Kolers (A Theory of Moral Solidarity), and Nancy Potter (The Virtue of Defiance and Psychiatric Engagement) all have new books that have been recently published.

We are happy to announce that Guy Dove has been awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Professor.  

Lauren Freeman and Andreas Elpidorou have been named Commonwealth Center for Humanities and Society Fellows this year.

John Gibson has been appointed as Director of the Commonwealth Center for Humanities and Society.

And we are excited to announce a major new multidisciplinary initiative in Sports and Public Life, which the Philosophy Department is spearheading. We envision a research institute, course work, and a major conference slated for Homecoming Week 2017. Let us know if you want to receive periodic updates or to be involved.

The 2017 Humphrey Colloquium will take place on Friday, November 3, 2017 and we are delighted to announce that Professor Alyssa Ney (UC Davis) will be the keynote speaker. CFP and more information is forthcoming,

The 2016 Undergraduate Steven Humphrey Undergraduate Philosophy Colloquium was a great success! Eight undergraduate students from all over the U.S. and Canada presented their high-quality work. Professor Kristie Dotson (Michigan State University) gave a stimulating and fascinating keynote talk on identity politics.

The Philosophy Department is grateful to Steven Humphrey. The Colloquium would not have been possible without his continuous and unwavering support.