Philosopher Kate Manne to Deliver 2019 Brown and Haley Lectures

Originated in 1953, Brown and Haley became the first fully endowed lectureship in the history of the University of Puget Sound in 1981. The lectures are intended to make significant contributions to the understanding of urgent problems confronting society, emphasizing perspectives in the social sciences or humanities. During their two-day residency, the invited speaker not only delivers two public lectures, but also visits two classes and interacts with faculty and students outside of the classroom. In recent years, the committee has especially focused on bringing in emerging scholars whose work transcends disciplinary boundaries.

For 2019, we are very pleased to have philosopher Kate Manne, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Cornell University, as the Brown and Haley lecturer. Manne will give two free public talks on September 18 and 19, at 7pm, in the Tahoma Room in Thomas Hall. Her first talk is titled “What is Misogyny? Concepts, Targets, and Triggers”, and her second talk is titled “Unassuming: On Epistemic Entitlement, Mansplaining, and Gaslighting”.

Manne’s work on misogyny has received international recognition. Her first book, Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny, was chosen as one of the “books of the year” by Times Higher Education, Washington Post, and The Big Issue; and it recently won the 2019 PROSE Award for Excellence in Humanities. In addition to her academic work, she has published political and cultural commentary in The New York Times, Newsweek, Times Literary Supplement, and more. For her scholarship and influence, Dr. Manne has been recently recognized as one of Prospect Magazine’s Top 50 World Thinkers.

UPS Ethics Bowl Team Competes in First Ever Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW)

The Puget Sound Ethics Bowl team competed in the first ever Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) on April 14, 2019. The University of Puget Sound and the the Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS) teams debated questions such as: Should we bring back species that have been driven to extinction? Are laws allowing terminally ill children to choose euthanasia morally defensible? Is China’s social credit system, which assigns a social credit score based on behavior, morally justified? Do wealthy nations owe a climate debt obligation toward less-wealthy nations? 

FEPPS describes their mission as being:

A rigorous college program for incarcerated women, trans-identified and gender nonconforming people in Washington and creates pathways to higher education after students are released from prison. Our goals are to increase FEPPS students’ economic and personal empowerment, contribute to family stability and reduce recidivism through college education.

The event was sponsored by Freedom Education Project Puget Sound and the University of Washington, Philosophy Department.

This event was also made possible by Paul Tubig, a Philosophy PhD candidate at University of Washington. In addition to coaching the FEPPS team, Paul established ethics bowl at WCCW and organized the event.

Visit the FEPPS Facebook page to read more about the event.

Left table: FEPPS ethics bowl team

Middle table: Puget Sound Ethics Bowl team

Right table: Judges and moderator

Paul Tubig

2018 Northwest Regional Ethics Bowl Competition

On November 10, 2018, Puget Sound’s fall Ethics Bowl team (Liam Grantham ’20, Colleen Hanson ’19, Brian Kim ’21, August Malueg ’20, and Sam Place ’19) coached by Professor Tubert, competed in the 2018 Northwest Regional Ethics Bowl at Pacific Lutheran University. Among the many topics they argued were: the moral grounds to use genealogy websites to aid in criminal investigation, religious exemptions to modern medical birthing practices, and the disablement of comment sections on major news websites.

Philosophy Conference on Campus

The Puget Sound Undergraduate Philosophy Conference will take place on campus on Friday 2/12 and Saturday 2/13.  In addition to the keynote addresses by Sara Goering and David Wong, there will be 12 papers presented by students from all over the country.  Each paper will have commentary by a Puget Sound student.  Please don’t miss this great event!  You can read more about the keynote addresses and the conference here.  And look at the full schedule and get more information at the conference page.

A Bayesian Approach to Peer Disagreement

On November 12, 2015 at 7pm, Casey Hart will be giving a presentation on epistemological issues with peer disagreement in the Regency Room in the Anderson University Center at Pacific Lutheran University.

Puget Sound Students Present their Work at Pacific University Philosophy Conference

Three Puget Sound philosophy majors presented their work at the Pacific University Undergraduate Philosophy Conference last weekend.  They report getting good feedback on their projects, having good conversations with philosophy students from other colleges, and enjoying the keynote address by Daniel Dennett.  Here are their projects:

Lee Pennebaker ’15, “The Epistemological Significance and Implications of Belief Polarization”
Abstract: A principal assumption in the epistemology of disagreement is that we, as rational subjects, assess evidence neutrally in order to justify our beliefs. However, the existence of the phenomenon of Belief Polarization threatens the validity of this assumption. Belief Polarization brings to light significant claims about the nature of justification and belief forming processes, specifically concerning evidence gathering. As this paper will argue, once aware of the possibility of Belief Polarization, rational subjects should be less confident in the justification of their belief forming processes. In other words, rational subjects should not be fully confident in the truth of their beliefs.

Si-Won Song ’15, “Theorizing Transgender Identities and Legitimacy”
Abstract: My goal in this paper is to provide theoretical grounding for thinking about transgender identity. The theory I will be proposing allows for responding to popular criticisms of transgender identity and shows potential problems with popular and influential theories about transgender identity. I will try to reconcile the two claims of transgender accounts that allude to natural gender and feminist theories that argue against it. I will take the approach that gender is not natural or cohesive, but try to still give theoretical justification for transgender identities.​

Conner Sabin ’15, “Subject Formation and Morality in Film”

Abstract: I seek to determine whether or not the social imaginary that is created and constructed by film can constitute the Self in a way that makes us better ethical actors. Using the film M as a guide, I walk through how the Self is pieced together, and the impact that watching movies has on creating moral scripts that we end up following ourselves.

Two talks by philosopher Alfred Mele at Seattle Pacific University

Professor Mele will give a public lecture entitled “Neuroscience and Free Will” on Thursday 10/9 at 5:30pm.  The talk will be at Seattle Pacific University, Demaray Hall 150 and it is free and open to the general public.

He will also give a talk for philosophy students and faculty entitled “On The Situationist Challenge to Free Will” on Friday, Oct. 10 at 3:30pm (Seattle Pacific University, library seminar room, 2nd floor).

Professor Mele is the William H. and Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University.  He is the author of several books on topics such as free will, agency, weakness of will, and self-deception, including A Dialogue on Free Will and Science (Oxford UP, 2014), Backsliding: Understanding Weakness of Will (Oxford UP, 2012), Free Will and Luck (Oxford UP, 2006).

Food Symposium and “Hunger Games,” a talk at PLU by philosopher Thomas Pogge

The 2014 Food Symposium will be taking place across town at PLU.  Among the events taking place April 2-5, there is a talk by Yale philosopher Thomas Pogge, entitled “Hunger Games.”  Here is a brief description of the talk:

Since the 1996 World Food Summit, the world has been committed to halving world hunger by 2015. But the specification of this promise has changed from the Summit version to the Millennium Declaration to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These revisions have dramatically diluted the promise, raising the number of hungry people deemed acceptable in 2015 by 55 percent. In a final push, in 2012 (year 22 of the 25-year MDG exercise) the FAO revised its methodology for counting the hungry with the effect of raising the 1990 number of hungry people by 157 million and lowering the 2010 number by 57 million. This switch harmonized the hunger numbers with the World Bank’s rosy poverty trend line and enabled the FAO to proclaim: “The Millennium Development Goal 1 hunger target, halving the proportion of hungry people in developing countries by 2015, is still within reach.” As new development goals are about to be formulated, we must urgently learn the lessons from the expiring ones which have brought mainly cosmetic efforts and cosmetic progress. The very least each of us owes to the world’s undernourished people is an honest recognition of what we are doing to them.

 

Cornel West in Seattle

This Wednesday, 11/18, the philosopher Cornel West is going to be in Seattle to talk about his new memoir, Brother West.   He’ll be at the Barnes & Noble in University Village (2675 NE University Village Street, Seattle, WA, 98105) starting at 7:00 p.m.  You’ll remember West from the film Examined Life.  Here’s another interview with him.

Philosophers Going Out

This Thursday, 11/5, at 7:00 p.m., at E9 — which is at the corner of 6th & Pine.  By the way, E9 is a restaurant open to all ages.