John Martin Fischer to Teach in Our Faculty-In-Residence Summer Term (FIRST) Program

John Martin Fischer, Distinguished Professor and Chair at the University of California, Riverside, will teach PHIL 3180 - Critical Thinking: Contemporary Topics in Summer Term B: July 6 - August 6, 2010. Human beings -- unlike certain other animals -- are capable of leading meaningful lives. Whatever else is involved, being capable of leading a meaningful life includes having a mental life and having free will. Professor Fischer's course will investigate those aspects of the nature of the mind and human freedom that give rise to a variety of contemporary controversies involving life and death. Click here for more information.

Think! Talk: Michael Tooley, "What Is Wrong with the World, and Who Is to Blame?"

Tuesday, February 2, 2010. 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. in the Old Main Chapel. Free and open to the public. More information here.

2009 Newsletter Out Now

Check out the Philosophy Department's 2009 newsletter (pdf).  [1/15/10]

Kathrin Koslicki Receives NEH Fellowship

Congratulations to philosophy professor Kathrin Koslicki who has received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for the 2010-11 academic year.  According to Professor Koslicki, a reorientation is under way in the field of metaphysics, away from questions of existence ("What is there?") and towards questions of dependence, e.g., questions concerning the grounding of one type of phenomenon by another (e.g., the relation exemplified by a smile and a mouth that is smiling). Despite the central role dependence has played in philosophy since its inception, interest in a systematic study of this concept has only recently surged among contemporary metaphysicians. Professor Koslicki's project consists of a book-length study of the concept of dependence and the role it can play in shaping a viable approach to metaphysics for the 21st century.  [1/12/10]

Call for Papers: Third Annual RoME Congress

Our Center for Values and Social Policy is pleased to invite paper proposals for the third annual RoME Congress to be held August 5-8, 2010 at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Papers from all areas of ethics and political theory are invited. To encourage the participation of junior scholars, the University of Colorado will be awarding a Young Ethicist Prize of $500 for most meritorious submission by a younger scholar. Click here for a pdf of the Call for Papers.  [1/7/10]

Call for Papers: 12th Annual Rocky Mountain Graduate Student Philosophy Conference

April 9-11, 2010 at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Keynote speakers: Nathan Salmon (UC Santa Barbara) and Penelope Maddy (UC Irvine). Submit papers (of length suitable for 20-minute presentation) to hysom@colorado.edu by January 1, 2010. Visit the RMPC website for more information.

Congratulations to Scott Wisor for Position at ANU

PhD Candidate Scott Wisor has just accepted a three-year position as Research Associate in the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the Australian National University in Canberra. He will be working on a collaborative project to develop a gender-sensitive poverty metric that can be used across the world. Scott will defend his dissertation, Developing a New Global Poverty Metric: Toward a Pro-Poor Approach, under the direction of Alison Jaggar, this December. Congratulations, Scott!  [10/19/09]

25th Boulder Conference on the History and Philosophy of Science: October 9-11

See the full schedule of events.  [10/8/09]

Graduate Students Accomplishments

Congratulations to our graduate students on their many accomplishments for the 2008-2009 academic year.  [9/30/09]

New Philosophy Club Website

The Philosophy Club's website can now be found at http://cuphilosophyclub.blogspot.com/. The Philosophy Club is a meeting place for undergraduate philosophy majors, graduate students, and faculty to discuss a particular topic as presented by a lecturer. The Philosophy Club meets every Wednesday evening (except the first and last Wednesdays of the semester) in Hellems 269 (the Morris Reading Room) at 6pm.

Graham Oddie Receives Starr Fellowship

Congratulations to philosophy professor Graham Oddie who has been offered the Starr Visiting Fellowship at Oxford University for the 2010-11 academic year. The purpose of the Starr Fellowship is to enable the Visiting Fellow to undertake research in Oxford and to foster intellectual links between the USA and the UK. During his tenure at Oxford, Professor Oddie will work on a new book on ethics and art. His aim is to analyze the nature of ethics and art, their boundaries and their interconnections, from the deeper, more fundamental perspective: that of value.  [8/20/09]

RoME (Rocky Mountain Ethics) Congress: August 6-9

The conference program and information about registration can be found at http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/center/rome.shtml

Two New Books

Rob Rupert's Cognitive Systems and the Extended Mind has been published by Oxford University Press. It develops a systems-based theory of cognition and draws on this theory to criticize the more radical forms of situated cognitive science.

Bradley Monton's Seeking God in Science: An Atheist Defends Intelligent Design has been published by Broadview Press. It considers the arguments for intelligent design and argues that intelligent design deserves serious consideration as a scientific theory.  [7/26/09]

Brian Talbot to Join CU Philosophy as Visiting Instructor

Brian Talbot, who is completing his PhD in philosophy at the University of Southern California, will join our department this fall as a 3-year visiting instructor. Dr. Talbot specializes in epistemology and has interests in cognitive science and the intersection of psychology with philosophical methodology. His dissertation, under the direction of James van Cleve, is called How to Use Intuitions in Philosophy.  [7/22/09]

Congratulations to Jen Kling, Jentzsch Prize Winner

Jen Kling has been awarded this year's Jentzsch Prize for her paper, "Mind-Body Interaction in Descartes: An Argument for the Extensionless Location of the Mind."  The Jentzsch Prize is given once a year for the best graduate student paper.  It includes a cash award and the presentation of the paper as a Colloquium Series talk the following year.  [7/20/09]

Congratulations to Gustavo Oliveira, Winner of This Year's Stahl Prize

The Stahl Prize is given in memory of Professor Gary Stahl, who taught at CU from 1962 to 1996, to recognize a graduate student who has made a significant contribution toward bringing the discipline of philosophy to bear on some demanding and crucial human problem. This year's winner, Gustavo Oliveira, is an active member of the Left Hand Book Collective and an organizer with Students for Peace and Justice. He was involved with last year’s Democratic National Convention at the “Tent State,” which served as a site for protests; a campaign to convince Rep. Mark Udall to “fund the troops home”; a free conference on “Progressive Responses to the Economic Crisis”; a counter-recruitment campaign against weapons manufactures in Colorado; and the “Enough is Enough! – Stop Foreclosures!” response to the housing crisis, as well as many other initiatives too numerous to name. Congratulations, Gustavo!

Congratulations to PhD Student Dan Demetriou on Receiving a Tenure-Track Job at University of Minnesota, Morris

Dan Demetriou, who will defend his dissertation this summer, will start as Assistant Professor of Philosophy at University of Minnesota, Morris this fall. His dissertation, Honor Among Theories, under the direction of Graham Oddie, offers a new way of taxonomizing ethical approaches, orients honor-ethics among the more familiar contemporary methods of ethics, and begins the process of rehabilitating honor-ethics for a liberal Western audience. Congratulations, Dan!  [4/26/09]

Michael Tooley Named President-Elect of Pacific APA

We are proud to announce that Professor Michael Tooley has been named Vice President of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association. Prof. Tooley will then serve as President of the Pacific Division for the 2010-2011 academic year and will deliver his presidential address at the Pacific Division Meeting in San Diego in spring 2011.  [4/14/09]

Author-Meets-Critics Symposium: Saturday, April 4, 2009

Kayden Book Award Author-Meets-Critics Symposium on David Boonin's The Problem of Punishment to take place this Saturday. See the conference website for more information.  [4/3/09]

Claudia Mills Wins Faculty Assembly Award for Excellence in Teaching

Congratulations to philosophy professor Claudia Mills who has been awarded a Boulder Faculty Assembly Award for Excellence in Teaching. Prof. Mills teaches a popular large-lecture Introduction to Ethics course that focuses on the question of how we should live our lives. A highlight of the course each semester is a performance of Sartre's play "No Exit" by professor and TA's. Mills also teaches Major Social Theories, Ethical Theory, Contemporary Political Philosophy, Rousseau, and Philosophy and Public Policy at the graduate level.  [3/31/09]

Graham Oddie's Book Wins Faculty Assembly Award for Excellence in Research

Congratulations to philosophy professor Graham Oddie who has been awarded a Boulder Faculty Assembly Award for Excellence in Research for his book Value, Reality, and Desire (Oxford University Press, 2005). Prof. Oddie's book is an extended argument for a robust realism about value according to which there are facts about value which are mind-independent and causally efficacious.  [3/26/09]

Colorado Conference on Dependence: March 17-21

The 2009 Colorado Conference on Dependence takes place March 17-21, 2009. See the conference website for more information.  [3/17/09]

Adam Hosein to Join CU Philosophy Department

We are pleased to announce that Adam Hosein, who is finishing his PhD in philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will join our department next fall as an assistant professor. Mr. Hosein works mainly in ethics and political philosophy, with a special interest in issues of global justice. He also has interests in feminist philosophy and its implications for moral and political theory. Mr. Hosein will join the philosophy department in Fall 2010, after completing a post-doc in law and philosophy at the University of Chicago Law School. His dissertation, The Significance of Fairness, explores the relation between moral constraints that fall on private individuals and those that apply to political institutions and their agents.  [3/15/09]

Rocky Mountain Philosophy Conference: March 13-14

The 11th annual Rocky Mountain Philosophy Conference takes place March 13-14, 2009. RMPC is an open-submission graduate student conference in which 12 students from across the country present papers and explore philosophical issues. This year's keynote speaker is Professor Peter van Inwagen of the University of Notre Dame, who will be speaking on "Impotence and Collateral Damage: One Charge in Van Fraassen's Indictment of Analytical Metaphysics." All events are free and open to the public. For more information, see the schedule of events (pdf).  [3/10/09]

Congratulations to PhD Student Jason Hanna on Receiving a Tenure-Track Job at Northern Illinois University

Jason Hanna, who defended his dissertation last fall, will start as Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Northern Illinois University this fall. His dissertation, Protecting People from Themselves: A Defense of Hard Paternalism, under the direction of David Boonin, argues that paternalistic intervention into a person's affairs is always permissible, so long as it benefits that person, does not have bad consequences that offset these benefits, and does not wrong third parties for non-paternalistic reasons.  [2/25/09]

Congratulations to PhD Student Kendy Hess on Receiving a Tenure-Track Job at Holy Cross

Kendy Hess, who will defend her dissertation later this semester, will be the Brake-Smith Assistant Professor of Social Philosophy and Ethics at College of the Holy Cross. Her dissertation, No Body to Kick, No Soul to Damn ... And Yet: The Modern Corporation as Moral Agent, under the direction of Graham Oddie, argues that the large, complex, and highly organized entities typified by modern corporations are moral agents in their own right. The project is driven by a concern for environmental problems, many of which, Kendy argues, can be effectively addressed only by action at the corporate level.  [2/10/09]

Graham Oddie Awarded Fellowship

Congratulations to philosophy professor and associate dean Graham Oddie for receiving a College Scholar Awards in the inaugural year of this program. The awards were decided by the College's Professors of Distinction in a competitive process. The Award will provide support for his work on a new book on ethics and art. His aim is to analyze the nature of ethics and art, their boundaries and their interconnections, from the deeper, more fundamental perspective: that of value. [2/22/09]

2008 Newsletter Out Now

Check out the Philosophy Department's 2008 newsletter (.pdf).  [2/6/09]

Call for Papers: 11th Annual Rocky Mountain Philosophy Conference

Our annual graduate student conference, to be held March 13-14, 2009 at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Keynote Speaker: Peter van Inwagen. Click here (pdf) for more details.  [1/9/09]

Call for Papers: Second Annual RoME Congress

Our Center for Values and Social Policy is pleased to invite paper proposals for the second annual RoME Congress to be held August 6-9, 2009 at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Papers from all areas of ethics and political theory are invited. Keynote speakers:

     Judith Jarvis Thomson (MIT),
     Thomas Pogge (Yale),
     Shelly Kagan (Yale).

To encourage the participation of junior scholars, the University of Colorado will be awarding a Young Ethicist Prize of $500 for most meritorious submission by a younger scholar. Click here for a pdf of the Call for Papers.  [12/15/08]

Dominic Bailey Awarded Harvard Fellowship

Congratulations to philosophy professor Dominic Bailey for receiving a year-long research fellowship at Harvard University's Center for Hellenic Studies, which he will carry out in the '09-'10 academic year.  [12/12/08]

Alison Jaggar Participates in International Project to Measure Poverty and Gender Equity

Professor of Philosophy and Women and Gender Studies and College Professor of Distinction Alison Jaggar is one of an international team of philosophers and social scientists, led by philosopher Thomas Pogge (Yale), which has won a very large matching grant from the Australian Research Council. The three-year project is titled, "Assessing Development: Designing Better Indices of Poverty and Gender Equity."  [10/16/08]

CU Philosophy is Hiring

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO, BOULDER, CO. The Department of Philosophy invites applications for a junior (tenure-track) position in the area of moral, social, and/or political philosophy (including philosophy of law, especially international law), with an emphasis in globalization. The appointment will begin in Fall 2009. Strong applicants in any of these areas are encouraged to apply, but we have particular needs in political philosophy and philosophy of law. Four courses/year, thesis supervision, and the usual non-teaching duties. See www.colorado.edu/ArtsSciences/Jobs/ for full job description. Applications are accepted electronically at www.jobsatcu.com, posting # 805247, and should include CV, writing sample, and at least three letters of recommendation. Review of applications will begin November 1. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. The University of Colorado at Boulder is committed to diversity and equality in education and employment.  [10/1/08]

Michael Huemer Wins Provost Faculty Achievement Award

Congratulations to philosophy professor Michael Huemer who has received the Provost Faculty Achievement Award for distinguished research. Professor Huemer's award is in recognition of his book Ethical Intuitionism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), which defends the view that (i) there are objective moral truths; (ii) we know some of these truths through a kind of immediate, intellectual awareness, or “intuition”; and (iii) our knowledge of moral truths gives us reasons for action independent of our desires. The award carries a $1000 research grant and a plaque recognizing the achievement. Professor Huemer will receive his award at CU's Fall Convocation on Friday, October 17th, 2008.  [8/11/08]

Ajume Wingo Joins CU Philosophy Department

Ajume Wingo joins the Department this fall as Associate Professor of Philosophy. Professor Wingo specializes in social and political philosophy, African philosophy, and aesthetics, and has special interests in liberal democratic philosophy and politics, especially institution building. He is the author of Veil Politics in Liberal Democratic States (Cambridge University Press, 2003) along with many articles. In collaboration with Michael Kruse, Professor Wingo is currently working on a book entitled The Citizen of Africa, about how to establish and maintain responsive governments in African states.  [8/1/08]

RoME Registration, Schedule, and Papers are Online

Visit the RoME webpage for more information on the first annual Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress. August 8-10.  [8/1/08]

Jason Megill to Join CU Philosophy as Visiting Instructor

Jason Megill, who is finishing his PhD in philosophy at the University of Virginia, will join our department this fall as a visiting instructor. Mr. Megill is completing a dissertation directed by Harold Langsam on the mind-body problem.  [6/25/08]

Summer Institute in American Philosophy

The 11th Annual Summer Institute in American Philosophy will meet July 7-12, 2008, at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Leading scholars in various aspects of American philosophy will present seminars on their recent or current work. Registration is free for Boulder faculty and students.  [6/24/08]

Congratulations to Our Recent Graduates for Their Success on the Job Market

• Peter Higgins will be starting a one-year position at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
• Audra King will be starting a tenure-track position at Central Connecticut State University.
• Jonathan Peeters will be starting a two-year position at Ithaca College.
• Tait Szabo will be starting a tenure-track position at the University of Wisconsin Colleges at Washington County.

Congratulations Peter, Audra, Jonathan, and Tait! [6/4/08]

Uri Leibowitz to Join CU Philosophy as Visiting Instructor

Uri Leibowitz, who is completing his PhD in philosophy at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, will join our department this fall as a 1-year visiting instructor. Mr. Leibowitz is writing a dissertation directed by Gareth Matthews on moral particularism.  [6/3/08]

John Maier to Join CU Philosophy as Visiting Instructor

John Maier, who is completing his PhD in philosophy at Princeton University, will join our department this fall as a 3-year visiting instructor. Mr. Maier is writing a dissertation directed by Gideon Rosen on the metaphysics and epistemology of free will.  [5/1/08]

Barrett Emerick and Jason Hanna Win 2007-2008 Graduate Student Teaching Excellence Awards

Congratulations to philosophy PhD students Barrett Emerick and Jason Hanna, each of whom has won a Graduate Student Teaching Excellence Award. The distinction includes a prize of $500 and a reception in honor of graduate student award recipients.  [4/18/08]

Alison Jaggar Named College Professor of Distinction

Philosophy professor Alison Jaggar has been named College Professor of Distinction, a title reserved for scholars and artists of national and international distinction who are also recognized by their College peers as teachers and colleagues of exceptional talent. Congratulations, Professor Jaggar!  [4/14/08]

Hazel Barnes Memorial

A memorial service for the University of Colorado's renowned philosophy professor emerita Hazel Barnes will be at 10 a.m. April 12 in the Old Main Chapel. The service will be followed by a reception in the CU Heritage Center on the third floor of Old Main.

Barnes, an expert in French existentialism who taught at CU from 1953 to 1986, died March 18 at her home in Boulder. She was 92.  more ...  [4/7/08]

Rocky Mountain Philosophy Conference: April 4-5

The 10th annual Rocky Mountain Philosophy Conference takes place April 4-5. RMPC is an open-submission graduate student conference in which 12 students from across the country present papers and explore philosophical issues. This year's keynote speaker is Prof. Philip Pettit of Princeton University. His talk is titled "Freedom and Probability." All events are free and open to the public. For more information, including the schedule of events, please see the RMPC website: www.colorado.edu/philosophy/rmpc.  [3/31/08]

In Memoriam: Hazel Barnes (1915-2008)

Renowned philosophy Professor Emerita Hazel Barnes, an expert in French existentialism who taught at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1953 to 1986, died March 18 at her home in Boulder. She was 92.

Obituaries have appeared in the CU News, the Daily Camera, and the Denver Post.  [3/21/08]

An Audio Recording of Professor Wes Morriston's Recent THINK! Lecture Can Be Found Here.

And Professor Morriston's slides can be found here. Click here for more information about our THINK! lecture series.  [3/3/08]

A Few Photos from Our Recent Undergraduate Retreat Can Be Found Here.  [2/11/08]

Bradley Monton Named Dean's Senior Honors Fellow

The Honors Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder is pleased to announce the appointment of Associate Professor Bradley Monton from the Department of Philosophy as the Dean's Senior Honors Fellow for academic year 2008/2009. Professor Monton was selected for his outstanding teaching and research, and breadth of interests, which include philosophy of science, philosophy of religion and probabilistic epistemology. Professor Monton will teach four courses next year for the Honors Program and the Kittredge Honors Program.

Last fall Professor Monton taught an honors senior seminar HONR 4000 – Physics and God in a collaboration between the Honors Program and the Center for the Humanities and the Arts. Students in the course commented that “Brad is brilliant and insightful. His enthusiasm is infectious,” “[He] helped me to believe in myself and my abilities,” and “Physics and God is one of the classes I will remember forever.”  [2/1/08]

Public Symposium on the Use of Prisoners and Vulnerable Populations for Medical Research

On February 14-15, the Center for Values and Social Policy, in coordination with the University of Colorado Law School and the Bioethics Center at the University of Colorado, Denver, will be hosting a public symposium on the use of prisoners and vulnerable populations for medical research. This symposium is intended to address concerns raised in the recently released report by the Institute of Medicine that proposes that prisoners once again be considered an acceptable research population. Click here for more details.  [1/28/08]

Call for Papers: Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress

The first annual Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress – an international conference geared to offer the highest quality, highest altitude discussion of ethics, broadly conceived – will take place August 8-10, 2008 at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Click here for details.  [1/4/08]

Colorado Summer Seminar in Philosophy

The Philosophy Department is now accepting applications for the 2008 Colorado Summer Seminar in Philosophy. Click here for more information.  [1/4/08]

Fall 2007 Newsletter Out Now

Click here to see the Philosophy Department's Fall 2007 newsletter (.pdf file).  [10/10/07]

Mitzi Lee's Epistemology after Protagoras Receives APA Book Prize Honorable Mention

Congratulations to Professor Mi-Kyoung (Mitzi) Lee, whose book Epistemology after Protagoras (Oxford University Press, 2005) has been recognized with an Honorable Mention in the American Philosophical Association's national book prize competition. Epistemology after Protagoras argues that, even before the advent of Hellenistic skepticism, philosophers in the classical period, such as Plato, Aristotle, and Democritus, were aware of and argued against the skeptical threat contained in relativist arguments like Protagoras'. The APA Book Prize is widely considered to be the most prestigious book award for philosophers age 40 and under at the time of publication.  [8/22/07]

David Boonin and Robert Rupert Win Provost Faculty Achievement Awards

Congratulations to philosophy professors David Boonin and Robert Rupert. Each has been awarded a Provost Faculty Achievement Award for distinguished research. Professor Boonin's award is in recognition of his book A Defense of Abortion (Cambridge University Press, 2002), which argues that the moral case against abortion can be shown to be unsuccessful on terms that critics of abortion can and do accept. Professor Rupert is being recognized for his article "Challenges to the Hypothesis of Extended Cognition," (The Journal of Philosophy, 2004), which attempts to expose some of the problems the hypothesis of extended cognition must overcome if it is to stand among leading views of the nature of human cognition. The award carries a $1000 research grant and a plaque recognizing the achievement. Professor Boonin and Professor Rupert will receive their awards at CU's Fall Convocation on Friday, October 19th, 2007.  [8/21/07]