Union College Philosophy Department

Gabe Rabin
New York University Abu Dhabi

Abstract: What, and who, is contemporary music notation (the ubiquitous system of horizontal lines with flag-adorned circles) for? The obvious answer is that the system is for representing music. I argue that this answer is woefully incomplete. I offer an alternative teleological conception, according to which music notation’s purpose is to support the playing of music by sight. Sometimes the goals of representing music and facilitating the reading of music by sight pull in opposite directions. The compromise between these two teleological functions has resulted in the system of contemporary music notation we see today.

Monday June 3
12:50-1:50PM
Lamont 102 (Lounge)
Lunch provided

Union College will be celebrating Pride Week from May 6th to May 14th to honor and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. This week is an opportunity for us to come together to celebrate diversity and promote equality and inclusion for all members of our community.

Saturday, May 11th: The 4th Annual Pride Fest at 2:30 p.m. in Library Plaza. This event is spearheaded by Union Pride, and is a campus and community wide celebration focused on q***r joy and community. Pride Fest brings together various organizations, businesses, and departments at Union and within the Schenectady-Albany community.

The Philosophy Department encourages you to support the Philosophy Club Events - here are two upcoming ones you do not want to miss!

The Templeton Institute's "Great AI Debate" at Steinmetz Day 2024
Date: Steinmetz Day, Friday May 10, 2024
Time: 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM
Place: Olin 115 Auditorium

featuring Philosophy Department Professor Marianna Bergamaschi Ganapini

The aim of this session is to showcase the varied impacts of Artificial Intelligence on higher education. We will explore Artificial Intelligence in the context of Union's liberal arts model of education, which emphasizes the technical aspects and humanist aspects of a topic like AI in equal measure. We will hear faculty and student perspectives on issues such as the ethics around AI, philosophical aspects of machine intelligence, and the use of AI technology to solve complex problems. The participants have been selected by the Co-Directors of the Templeton Institute to showcase diverse views on AI at the College. This event brings together short lightning talks on these topics with roughly a half-hour discussion among panelists and with the audience. All are welcome to attend and join the conversation.

This year's Valerie J. Hoffman Lecturer in Gender, S*xuality, and Women's Studies

Sabrina Strings, PhD.
https://www.sabrinastrings.com/
"Romance is White Supremist: Rappers' Unintentional Revelations and the Path to True Love"
May 2, 5:00pm-6:30pm
O'Brien 117

In anticipation of this event Profs. Marlow Jordan Guerrant and Krisanna Scheiter will be hosting a Book Club to discuss Dr. Strings' groundbreaking book, Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia, May 1, 4:30pm in Golub House (Great Room). Registration is requested.

This event is co-sponsored by the Dean of Academic Departments and Programs, Gender, S*xuality and Women's Studies, and Office of Minerva Programs.

All are cordially invited to the SAAM 2024 talk by

Lisa Wade, PhD
Tulane University
Author of
American Hookup: the New Culture of S*x on Campus

Monday, April 22, 5-6PM
O'Brien 117
Reception to Follow

Lisa Wade is a sociologist, essayist, and author. Well-known for her wide-ranging critique and commentary, she has written for the New Republic, Washington Post, Politico, Guardian, Time, and more.

She appears frequently in radio and television news and opinion outlets. Her newest book, American Hookup: the New Culture of S*x on Campus, is the definitive account of the sexual culture that dominates higher education. She's spoken about hookup culture at dozens of colleges and universities of all kinds. Rising above misinformation and moralizing, she situates hookup culture within the history of sexuality, the evolution of higher education, and the unfinished feminist revolution. Attending to the wide diversity of student experiences, Lisa explains where we are and how we got here, asking not 'How do we go back?" but "Where do we go from here?"

A professor at Tulane University, Lisa previously earned an M.A. in human sexuality from NYU and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In addition to authoring over two dozen research papers, book chapters, and educational essays, she is the co-author of the bestselling textbook Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions and the founder of, and primary writer for, the award-winning website, Sociological Images.

Sponsored by Africana Studies; Wicker Wellness; the Dean of Students; Gender, S*xuality, and Women’s Studies; Academic Affairs; the OVW Grant; and the Office of the President

as part of the S*x & Power course, taught by PHL Prof/Chair Krisanna Scheiter.

We will be celebrating International Transgender Day of Visibility on campus on April 9 with a keynote address by Chrysanthemum at 5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. in O’Brien 117. Chrysanthemum is transgender poet, performance artist, and public historian.

Union College Philosophy Department invites you to join us

The Right to Play
Dr. Shen-yi Liao
University of Puget Sound

ABSTRACT: At playgrounds, my children—like many other children—often play in the "wrong" ways: they like to climb up slides, they like to swing on their bellies, and they like to seesaw with their hands. But what is wrong with climbing up a slide? Asking this simple question gets us to think about relationships between social practices and physical objects, between political rights and material infrastructures, between adults and children, between toys and games, and between human artifacts and natural environments.

Thursday, April 4 2024
Everest Lounge
4:30PM-6:30PM
Contact Information: David Friedell

All are cordially invited to the Eighth and Final Speaker for the
Annual Philosophy Speakers Series

Dan Fogal
New York University
Coherence and Incoherence

Daniel Fogal is an Assistant Professor in the Program in Bioethics and Faculty Adviser for the Bioethics Minor. He earned his B.A. from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and his Ph.D. from NYU.

Fogal specializes in bioethics, metaethics, epistemology, and philosophy of language. Current and future work includes how best to understand the notion of rationality relevant to decision-making capacity and informed consent, the moral significance of irrational values and beliefs, the epistemological implications of the internet, and conceptual engineering in bioethics. Past research has included work on the nature of rationality (‘Rational Requirements and the Primacy of Pressure’, Mind), the nature of normative explanations (‘The Metaphysics of Moral Explanations’ Oxford Studies in Metaethics), and the nature of both normative and motivating reasons (‘Reasons, Reason, and Context’, in Weighing Reasons; ‘Deflationary Pluralism about Motivating Reasons’, in The Factive Turn in Epistemology). In addition to teaching and research, Fogal has been active in philosophical outreach programs and in organizing professional conferences and workshops.

Prior to his current appointment, Fogal was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the NYU Center for Bioethics, and prior to that he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Uppsala University in association with the Varieties of Normativity project (principal investigator: Matti Eklund).Daniel Fogal is an Assistant Professor in the Program in Bioethics and Faculty Adviser for the Bioethics Minor. He earned his B.A. from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and his Ph.D. from NYU.

Thursday, February 29, 2024 at 4:30PM
Phi Beta Kappa Room (Library 204)

https://www.union.edu/philosophy/speaker-series

The Union College Philosophy Department Celebrates Black History Month!

Black History Month Wall Project Philosophy Kwame Akroma-Ampim K**i Anthony Appiah (1954-) He is a British American philosopher specializing in political philosophy, ethics, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. Appiah was Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, before moving to New York University...

All are cordially invited to the Seventh Speaker for the
Annual Philosophy Speakers Series

Leo Zaibert
Cambridge University
Moral Complexity

Leo Zaibert is the Andreas von Hirsch Professor of Penal Theory and Ethics at the University of Cambridge He holds a law degree from Universidad Santa María, in Caracas, Venezuela (where he briefly practiced law, after having clerked in several criminal law courts as a student), and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the State University of New York in Buffalo. He has held academic posts at Amherst College, NYU, the University of Toronto, the University of Leipzig, the University of Saarbruecken, the University of Geneva, Simon Bolivar University, and Oxford University, amongst others. He was the chair of Union College’s Department of Philosophy for 12 years. He works mostly in ethics and related fields, with an emphasis on our responses to wrongdoing, above all punishment and forgiveness.

Thursday, February 15, 2024 at 4:30PM
Everest Lounge

https://www.union.edu/philosophy/speaker-series

All are cordially invited to the Sixth Speaker for the Annual Philosophy Speakers Series

Em Folescu
University of Missouri
Thomas Reid on Active Power

Em Folescu is an associate professor in the Department of Philosophy, at the University of Missouri. They specialize in historical philosophy of language and mind. They earned their PhD in Philosophy at the University of Southern California (2013). Before starting graduate school in philosophy, they studied art history in Bucharest, Romania (BA, 2002) and London, Canada (MA, 2005.) They are currently a Humboldt Research Fellow at the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany and spent time as Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH), in Edinburgh, UK the year prior.

Thursday, February 1, 2024 at 4:30PM
Everest Lounge
https://www.union.edu/philosophy/speaker-series

All are cordially invited to the Fifth Speaker for the Annual Philosophy Speakers Series

Sukaina Hirji
University of Pennsylvania
Towards a Relational Stance

Sukaina Hirji is an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at the University of Pennsylvania. Her work spans normative ethics, moral psychology, and Ancient Greek philosophy. Her work has appeared in a wide range of journals including Ethics, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, and the British Journal of the History of Philosophy.

Thursday, January 18, 2024
4:30PM
Everest Lounge

https://www.union.edu/philosophy/speaker-series

All are cordially invited to the Fourth Speaker for the
Annual Philosophy Speakers Series

Christopher Shields
University of California, San Diego
Good, Bad, Better, Worse

Christopher Shields is University of California Distinguished Professor and Henry E. Allison Endowed Chair at the University of California San Diego. Previously he was Shuster of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is an Honorary Research Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, where, before moving to the US he was Professor of Classical Philosophy and Chair of the Philosophy Faculty Board. Previously he has taught at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has held the Tang Chun-I Visiting Professorship at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Collins Visiting Professor at the University of St. Louis, and a Senior Fellowship at TOPOI, the Humboldt University of Berlin. He has held visiting professorships at Cornell University, Stanford University, Yale University, and The University of Arizona. He is the author of Fractured Goodness: Aristotle’s Response to Plato’s Form of the Good (Oxford University Press: in press); Order in Multiplicity: Homonymy in the Philosophy of Aristotle (Oxford University Press: 1999), Classical Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge: 2003), Aristotle (Routledge: 2007), Ancient Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge: 2011; second edition 2023), with Robert Pasnau, The Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas (Westview: 2003; 2nd rev. ed. Oxford University Press: 2015), and Aristotle's De Anima, Translated with Introduction and Commentary (Oxford University Press: 2016). He is the editor of The Blackwell Guide to Ancient Philosophy (Blackwell: 2002), and The Oxford Handbook of Aristotle (Oxford University Press: 2012).

Thursday, November 2, 2023 at 4:30PMEverest Loungehttps://www.union.edu/philosophy/speaker-series

All are cordially invited to the Third Speaker for the
Annual Philosophy Speakers Series

Gabbrielle Johnson, Claremont McKenna College
Sources of Algorithmic Bias: Proxies Aren't Intentional, They're Intentional

Gabbrielle Johnson is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College. Before joining CMC, Professor Johnson received her Ph.D. from UCLA, and was a postdoctoral fellow at New York University. Her research explores the nature of bias at the intersection of computational theory of mind and the philosophy of science, technology, and human values. Motivated by the recognition that as technological innovations pick up on and exacerbate human social biases, there is a pressing need to better understand the commonalities of how bias operates in both humans and machines, her research explores how best to conceptualize bias across domains, so as to offer pathways to disrupt harmful looping effects, guide strategies for mitigating group-based inequality, and foster a more equitable society.

Thursday, October 26, 2023 at 4:30PM
Everest Lounge

https://www.union.edu/philosophy/speaker-series

All are cordially invited to the Second Speaker for the Annual Philosophy Speakers Series

Julia Jorati, University of Massachusetts Amherst
The Effects of Slavery on the Enslaved: Debates in 18th Century Philosophy

Julia Jorati is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She specializes in early modern philosophy with a particular focus on metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and ethics. In addition to numerous articles about Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and several other early modern philosophers, she has authored the books Slavery and Race: Philosophical Debates in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford University Press, forthcoming), Slavery and Race: Philosophical Debates in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Oxford University Press, forthcoming), and Leibniz on Causation and Agency (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

Thursday, October 5, 2023 at 4:30PM
Phi Beta Kappa Room (Library Room 204)

https://www.union.edu/philosophy/speaker-series

All are cordially invited to the First Speaker for the Union College Annual Philosophy Speakers Series

Quayshawn Spencer
University of Pennsylvania
A Metaphysical Mapping Problem for Race Theorists and Human Population Geneticists

Quayshawn Spencer is the Robert S. Blank Presidential Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and an M.S. in biology from Stanford University, as well as a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Cornell University. He specializes in metaphysical issues in general philosophy of science, philosophy of biology, and philosophy of race. He has published eleven articles on metaphysical issues related to race & biology, frequently in either Philosophy of Science or Philosophical Studies. Spencer has published one book, What is Race? Four Philosophical Views (co-authored with Sally Haslanger, Joshua Glasgow, and Chike Jeffers), which was published in 2019 by Oxford University Press. He has three books under contract with the same publisher: A Pluralist Solution to the Race Problem, The Race Debates from Metaphysics to Medicine, and Philosophy of Race: A Very Short Introduction. In 2021,Spencer was named a Hastings Center Fellow for contributing “scholarship and public understanding of complex ethical issues in health, healthcare, science, and technology.” In2023, Spencer’s article “A Radical Solution to the Race Problem” was selected alongside 29other articles for re-publication in the 90 th Anniversary Issue of Philosophy of Science in order to represent “the best and most significant work the journal has published over the years.”

Friday, September 22, 2023 at 4:30PM Phi Beta Kappa Room (Library Room 204)
https://www.union.edu/philosophy/speaker-series

All are cordially invited to the Seventh Speaker for the
Annual Philosophy Speakers Series
Christia Mercer
Columbia University

Christia Mercer is the Gustave M. Berne Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, editor of Oxford Philosophical Concepts, and co-editor of Oxford New Histories of Philosophy, a book series devoted to making philosophy more inclusive. In 2017 she initiated the Center for New Narratives in Philosophy and in 2018 created Just Ideas, an educational program in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center, a maximum security federal prison. Among other awards, she is the recipient of a Guggenheim, ACLS, Humboldt, and Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, and was the 2020 president of the American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division. Mercer has been honored with Columbia’s two most prestigious teaching awards, the 2008 Columbia College Great Teacher Award, and the 2012 Mark van Doren Award, which annually recognizes a professor for “commitment to undergraduate instruction, as well as for humanity, devotion to truth and inspiring leadership.” She regularly publishes op-eds on the U.S. prison system, most recently in the New York Daily News.

Thursday, February 17, 2022 at 4:30PM
Everest Lounge
https://www.union.edu/philosophy/speaker-series

All are cordially invited to the Sixth Speaker for the
Annual Philosophy Speakers Series

Elliot Paul
Queen's University

Elliot Samuel Paul works mainly in the history of early modern philosophy and contemporary epistemology as well as the philosophy of creativity. He also has interests in philosophy of mind and cognitive science, with a particular focus on the phenomenon of clarity or clear perception. Before joining the faculty at Queen's University in Canada, Dr. Paul was a Bersoff Fellow at NYU and then an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Barnard College of Columbia University. He holds a Ph.D from Yale University. Dr. Paul is co-editor of THE PHILOSOPHY OF CREATIVITY: NEW ESSAYS (Oxford University Press, 2014). His new book, CLARITY FIRST: RETHINKING DESCARTES'S EPISTEMOLOGY, is forthcoming with Oxford University Press.

Thursday, February 3, 2022 at 4:30PM
Everest Lounge
https://www.union.edu/philosophy/speaker-series

All are cordially invited to the Fourth Speaker for the
Annual Philosophy Speakers Series

Systemic Injustice
Sally Haslanger
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Sally Haslanger is Ford Professor of Philosophy and Women's and Gender Studies at MIT. Broadly speaking, her work links issues of social justice concerning gender, race, class (and other social categories) with contemporary work in epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of language, and critical theory. Her book, Resisting Reality: Social Construction and Social Critique (Oxford 2012) collects articles published over twenty years on these themes. It received the Joseph B. Gittler award for outstanding work in philosophy of the social sciences. She is currently working on a book entitled Doing Justice to the Social, under contract with OUP. See also: http://sallyhaslanger.weebly.com

Thursday, March 4, 2021
4:30 PM via Zoom
(please contact [email protected] for more information)

Sally Haslanger Professor Sally Haslanger's website