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Philosophy News 2015-2016 PHILOSOPHY NEWS INSIDE Wayne Sumner’s Roseman Lecture 2015 In Memoriam: Brilliant (But Brief) Global Justice: Francis Sparshott Legal Career From Theory to Practice 1926-2015 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY 2 Philosophy News CONTENTS Welcome & Reports 3 Brad Inwood 8 Wayne Sumner’s Legal Career 10 Roseman Lecture 2015 12 Ergo 14 Fackenheim Portrait 15 In Memoriam Francis Sparshott 16 People & Awards 18 Book Launch 2015 23 PHILOSOPHY NEWS www.philosophy.utoronto.ca We wish to thank the Editors: Anita Di Giacomo Department of Philosophy generous donors to the Mary Frances Ellison University of Toronto Department of Philosophy, Layout: Dragon Snap Design 170 St. George Street, 4th Floor without whom Philosophy Toronto ON M5R 2M8 News would not be possible. Canada Philosophy News Tel: 416-978-3311 Please support the Department 2015-2016 edition Fax: 416-978-8703 in our endeavours! Spring, 2016 YOUR PRIVACY: The University of Toronto respects your privacy. We do not rent, trade or sell our mailing lists. The information on this form is collected and used for the administration of the University’s advancement activities undertaken pursuant to the University of Toronto Act, 1971. If you have any questions, please refer to <www.utoronto.ca/privacy> or contact the University’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Coordinator at 416-946-7303, McMurrich Building, Room 201, 12 Queen’s Park Crescent West, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8. If you do not wish to receive future newsletters from the Department of Philosophy, please contact us at 416-978-2139 or at [email protected] University of Toronto 3 Welcome his year, year in the department, Tom served as undergradu- Philosophy ate coordinator and tri-campus TA coordinator, and we T News, the are thankful for his excellent services in these two jobs. newsletter of the We thank Jennifer and Tom for their many contributions UofT Philosophy to the department and we wish them both all the best Departments, in their new environment. comes with a brand new Joining us for the next three years as the Senator design; its new Jerahmiel S. and Carole S. Grafstein Visiting Chair in layout, and espe- Jewish Philosophy is Michael Morgan, Professor Emeritus cially its content, of the University of Indiana, and we are delighted to will hopefully welcome him. Michael has longstanding ties with UofT make up for the and has been a visitor here before. This new multi-year long wait; we arrangement will greatly enhance the teaching of and promise to be research in Jewish Philosophy at UofT. Michael gave back on schedule an inaugural lecture, with the title “Jewish Dialogical next time around. Philosophy”, last November. I hope you enjoy The Department is now in hiring mode. This term we reading about are searching for three positions on the St. George our activities and Campus: for assistant professors in Ethics and Philosophy some of the events that kept us busy during the past year. of Mind, and for an assistant/associate professor in Since last summer I have the great privilege and pleasure Ancient Philosophy. The latter is a joint position with the to serve as the chair of the Department of Philosophy on Department of Classics. We hope to run a similar number the St. George Campus and as chair of the Graduate of searches next year, since our faculty contingent has Department of Philosophy. I didn’t imagine how excit- shrunk slightly in recent years and we need new col- ing this job actually is and how rewarding it is to head leagues to teach in our successful programs. such a vibrant philosophy community. We at UofT are Philosophy remains a highly popular subject among UofT widely recognized as the top department in Canada and students, which is not surprising given the excellence among the very best in the world. But what makes us such in teaching and research of our faculty and graduate a special place is not only all our extraordinary faculty students – not to mention the intrinsic value of doing members, but also our outstanding undergraduate and philosophy and the many pleasures arising from it! graduate students. I owe a huge amount of gratitude to Almost all our courses are at full capacity and we hope Brad Inwood, my immediate predecessor; he very unself- to expand our existing course offerings in the future. In a ishly took over as chair for twelve months last year and world where every bit of information is now just a click he also prepared me for my new role, while I was taking away, making sense of it all becomes ever more crucial. a short break from administration. Brad shares his impres- The skills acquired in a rigorous program such as philoso- sions from his year at the helm in two pieces included in phy are more important than ever. this newsletter. One area we want to develop in the immediate future At the end of his one-year term as Acting and Interim is the facilitation of our students’ transition from the Chair and after more than 30 years of outstanding university to the workplace. The Department already runs service to the University of Toronto, Brad retired and various “Backpack to Briefcase” (B2B) events during the moved south of the border to take up a new position year which give students the chance to meet many inspir- at Yale University. This is a big change for us, but luck- ing alumni. We are eager to do more on this front, as it ily Brad will keep close ties with UofT. Derek Allen also allows us to connect better with our remarkable alumni: retired last summer after a long and distinguished career we are always glad to hear from you and we would like of more than 40 years, bowing out of the position of to bring you back to campus more often! longest-serving member of the department! In this case too, one can hardly talk of retirement, since Derek keeps on teaching at Trinity College, with which he has extended and lasting ties, having served as the College’s Dean of Martin Pickavé Arts and Vice-Provost. In other faculty news, Tom Berry Chair, Department of Philosophy, and Jennifer Whiting resigned last year to move on to Faculty of Arts and Science new positions at the University of Pittsburgh. In his final Chair, Graduate Department of Philosophy 4 Philosophy News UTM Philosophy News hanks to area. While the project has been going for only two Sergio months, it is already getting great reviews. Tenenbaum’s T We are also in the process of redesigning our Ethics superb leadership and Society minor under the new title Ethics, Law, and during the last 6 Society. We conceive of the program as designed pri- years, the UTM marily to serve students who are planning to apply to Department was law school. (As you may know, philosophy majors are able to start the the highest scoring group on the LSAT.) This orientation year with a bang. will make the minor attractive to students in sociology Most noteworthy for example, for whom our courses might not otherwise is the inauguration have been a strong draw. of our Socrates Project, modeled Our other big news is that construction will soon on the highly suc- (finally!) begin on the building, known temporarily as cessful program “North 2”, that will be our new home beginning in early of the same name summer 2018 if all goes well. The architects and build- on the St George ers have been holding a series of meetings with the campus. departments that will be housed there, and we have been communicating our needs for space and layout. The project, which involves six of our top undergradu- As the plan currently stands, Philosophy will share the ate students, is affiliated with our introductory course, top floor of the building with the Sociology Department. Philosophy 105. Each Socrates student leads one These drawings, by the firm Perkins & Will, give an idea PHL105 tutorial each week, paid at the standard TA of the impressive facility: rate, and participates in a weekly seminar devoted both to teacher training and to deeper examination of More information about the new building can be found the topics covered in the PHL105 lectures. at http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/main-news/northern- renaissance-work-begins-phase-two-new-north-building For the seminar, led this year by PhD candidate Belinda Piercy, each student writes an article-length Diana Raffman paper on one of the latter topics under the supervision Chair, Department of Philosophy of a faculty member whose research is in the relevant University of Toronto Mississauga University of Toronto 5 UTSC Philosophy News ongratula- In other news, the UTSC Association of Philosophy tions are in Students continues to be very active. In March of 2015, C order. they hosted the annual UTSC undergraduate Philosophy conference, with 35 attendees: there were four under- Karolina Hübner, graduate speakers, from the University of Michigan, now Associate the University of York (U.K.), the University of Sheffield, Professor of and McGill University. The conference concluded with a Philosophy at UTSC, keynote talk by Russ Shafer-Landau (then at Wisconsin). was awarded This generated a lot of interesting conversation, which tenure at the we continued over a large dinner attended by some 20 University of Toronto students, faculty members, and visitors. on July 1, 2015. Hübner is a lead- The APS has continued this year, with numerous discus- ing Spinoza scholar sion nights, exam study sessions, and other activities. with an internation- Notably, they have involved our graduate students in al reputation.
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