Past Events

Title: TBA

Details TBA

Please come if you can! We will have COFFEE, TEA, PASTRIES and even an AGENDA: mulling over who should be the first BUSSEY-LECTURER, and how WiPhi can grow.

Barry Lam - Vassar College

Phenonomenal Presence

David Alexander, Iowa State University, will give a talk titled "The Problem of Respecting Higher-Order Doubt" for the Epistemology Brown Bag series. The talk will take place Wednesday, January 11th, at 12:00 pm, in Kresge 2-345.  This paper argues that higher-order doubts generate epistemic dilemmas. One has a higher-order doubt with regards to P insofar as one justifiably withholds belief as to what attitude towards P is justified. That is, one does not know whether one is justified in believing, disbelieving, or withholding belief in P. Using the resources provided by Richard Feldman’s recent discussion of how to respect one’s evidence, I argue that if one has a higher-order doubt with regards to P, then one is not justified in having any attitude towards P. Otherwise put, no attitude towards the doubted proposition respects one’s higher-order doubt. I consider several responses to this problem, and argue that none succeed. I conclude that we must simply accept this particularly corrosive form of doubt as a part of our cognitive lives.

Charity Anderson- Saint Louis University

Imprecise Credences in Inference and Decision Making

TBD

"Coordination in Expressive Meanings"

Understanding Knowledge: Two Approaches

"An Apology for Xenophon's Apology"

Trent Dougherty- Baylor University

Reflection and Responsibility

Mark Alfano (Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study) "An Empirically Informed Theory of Desire, Contentment, and Aversion."  Abstract: Both conceptual analysis and neuroscientific research suggest a systematic approach to desire, contentment, and aversion through an intentional logic not unlike those for knowledge and belief.  In particular, ‘a desires that’ can be formalized as a modal operator whose dual is ‘a would be content with’, while ‘a is averse to’ can be independently formalized as a modal operator whose dual is ‘a would be left cold by’.  Section 2 lays out some of the key properties of duals and illustrates them with the alethic modality.  Section 3 demonstrates how to formalize the ‘a desires that’ idiom, argues that ‘a would be content with’ is an adequate dual for desire, and maps out the desiderative square of opposition thus generated.  Section 4 presents neuroscientific evidence about the reward and punishment systems in the brain; this evidence supports the argument of section 3 and suggests that the desire/contentment system, which is keyed to rewards, should be supplemented with an aversion/left-cold system, which is keyed to punishments. Section 5 attempts to defuse some potential objections.  The article concludes by pointing to some philosophically interesting applications of the logic of desire, including a taxonomy of the emotions, a formal approach to higher-order desire, and some potential constraints on practical rationality.

This is a meeting with Professor Mueller concerning fellowship opportunities for graduates, graduating seniors AND for students in earlier years. 

"Relativism Without the Fancy Intensions"

"Can we recapture a pre-Gettier innocence about knowledge?" Reception to follow in the Philosophy Seminar Room, Kresge 2-345

Foucalt's Rethinking of Power. A public lecture for undergraduates, co-sponsored by the Department of Philosophy, the Program of Comparative Literary Studies, the Critical Theory Program, and the Weinberg College Course Enhancement Fund. The lecture will introduce Foucault's most influential idea: productive power. Professor Oksala will discuss its consequences for our understanding of subjectivity and study the role that it plays in Foucalt's studies of delinquency and sexuality, Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1.

WiPhi is an initiative of the Department of Philosophy at NU to encourage, foster and increase the engagement of female students in philosophy activities and, ultimately, careers.

We will answer questions regarding applying to graduate school in Philosophy (either MA or PhD programs, in the US and/or abroad).

Hegel on "life, Freedom, and Social Pathology"

Diego Machuca, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) “The Epistemology of Disagreement: A Neo-Pyrrhonian Perspective.”

"Organic Meaning"

"Are We Cracking the Ivory Ceiling? Women and Minorities in Philosophy"

The Northwestern Philosophy Department will host a one day workshop on the epistemology of groups Monday, August 1st, 2011. Jennifer Lackey will give a series of three talks; the papers for which will be circulated in advance. The talks will take place in University Hall, room 122. Schedule: 9:00 am    A Deflationary Account of Group Testimony 10:30 am  Break 10:45 am  Group Belief: Lessons from Lies and Bullshit 12:30 pm  Lunch (Tapas Barcelona) 2:00 pm    TBA   Those wishing to particpate should email Matthew Mullins (m-mullins@u.northwestern.edu) in order to receive the papers and get on the list for lunch.

Keynote: Dan O'Keefe

Peter Klecha (University of Chicago)

Amy Floweree: UW-Milwaukee

Kyla Ebels Duggan (Northwestern University)

Keynotes: Philip Pettit and R. Jay Wallace

Keynotes: Philip Pettit and R. Jay Wallace

Keynotes: Philip Pettit and R. Jay Wallace  

David Ebrey - Northwestern University

Matthias Steup - Purdue University

Jessica Brown (University of St. Andrews)

John Wynne - Northwestern University

Sally Haslanger - MIT, Feminist Philosophy and Metaphysics

Please save the evening of Thursday, April 28 for Philosophy Night, where four philosophy professors will each give a 10-minute mini-lecture on a topic of their choice. Pizza and soft drinks will be available. Philosophy Night, Spring 2011 Professor Mark Sheldon, “How Philosophy Ruined My Life” Professor Charles Mills, “Philosophy and Race” Professor Kyla Ebels Duggan, “The Entire History of Ethics in 10 minutes” Professor Axel Mueller, “How it Might Work: Getting Philosophical about Science"

Sandy Zabell - Northwestern University

Devin Henry - Western Ontario

Lizzie Fricker (Oxford): "Stating and Insinuating"

Tim Sundell (University of Kentucky)

Lizzie Fricker (Oxford University)

Daniel Tovar - Northwestern University

Steven Nadler - University of Wisconsin, Modern philosophy: "Spinoza, Leibniz, and the Gods of the Philosophers"

Elizabeth Fricker (Oxford University) Talks are held every other Wednesday from 12:00pm - 1:30pm in Kresge Hall, Room 2-345. Participation is open to members of Northwestern's philosophical community and epistemologists in the Chicago area. For more information contact Matthew Mullins.

Nikolaj Jang Lee Linding Pedersen - UCLA/University of Copenhagen Talks are held every other Wednesday from 12:00pm - 1:30pm in Kresge Hall, Room 2-345. Participation is open to members of Northwestern's philosophical community and epistemologists in the Chicago area. For more information contact Matthew Mullin

Tamar Gendler - Yale University, Philosophy of Psychology: "Giving Notice: Attention, Perception and Bias"

Anastasia Panagopoulos - University of Minnesota Talks are held every other Wednesday from 12:00pm - 1:30pm in Kresge Hall, Room 2-345. Participation is open to members of Northwestern's philosophical community and epistemologists in the Chicago area. For more information contact Matthew Mullins.

George Rudebusch  (Northern Arizona University): "Plato, Wittgenstein, and Meaning"

Malte Willer: University of Chicago

Alex Plakias (University of Michigan) The Northwestern University Philosophy Department's Practical Philosophy Workshop brings together students and faculty interested in ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of law, critical race theory, feminist philosophy, meta-ethics, action theory, moral psychology, and other related areas. We invite professors and graduate students from around the country and from within Northwestern to present and discuss their works in progress. In addition, we have a reading group that discusses a recent book in practical philosophy each quarter. For more information, contact: sethmayer2014@u.northwestern.edu.

Geoff Pynn - Northern Illinois University

Angela Smith – Washington and Lee University

Magdalena Schwager: Goettinge, Germany