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Michigan Philosophy News Fall 2009 for Friends, Alumni, Alumnae of the Department of Philosophy the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

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Michigan Philosophy News Fall 2009 for Friends, Alumni, Alumnae of the Department of Philosophy the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Michigan Philosophy News Fall 2009 for friends, alumni, alumnae of the Department of Philosophy The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor INSIDE THIS ISSUE Letter from the Chair Ken Walton‘s: Sports as Fiction Graduate Program News Events Members of the Faculty Contributions to the Department ––––––––––––––––––––––––– Greetings from Ann Arbor! As I begin my last year as Chair of the Michigan Philosophy Department, I am struck, once again, by the value of serious training in philosophy. Like many institutions, corporations, families and individuals, the ongoing financial upheavals, both in the Nation and (especially) in the State of Michigan, are requiring the Department to make hard choices about the allocation of resources. Facing these decisions has made us reassess our goals and values – to focus on ―ends‖ rather than ―means‖ – and, when thinking these difficult matters through, I often find myself relying on habits of mind that I acquired from a liberal arts education grounded in philosophy. The ability to reason clearly about questions of value, to focus on what matters in complex epistemic situations, and to sensitively assess benefits and costs of various courses of action – these are all skills that the rigorous study of philosophy can foster, and these are all skills that one needs in times like these. While the financial challenges we face are substantial, we have been faring better than many philosophy departments across the country. While most programs have begun to contract and retrench, we continue to move forward. We still see more than one hundred majors and minors graduate each year, and an exit survey among graduating seniors this past year shows that the vast majority of the Department‘s students were satisfied with the instruction they received. They seemed to appreciate the rigor of our classes as well as the Department‘s welcoming atmosphere. We plan to meet the needs of our students even more effectively in the future by increasing the number of opportunities that first and second-year undergraduates have to interact with members of the tenure-track faculty, and by revamping some of our introductory courses to make them more accessible to beginning students. Our graduate program continues to produce top-notch Ph.D.s who can teach and carry out research at the highest professional levels. During the 2008-09 academic year we had eight students complete the Ph.D., and all of them landed academic jobs: five tenure-track, and three multi-year postdoctoral fellowships! FACULTY NEWS: As usual, the Michigan public lecture –―Is Religious Freedom a Good faculty remains among the most productive Thing?‖– defended the surprising thesis that and most respected in the world. This year‘s ―a satisfactory argument that the government list of awards and honors is remarkable. First should leave people‘s religious beliefs alone and foremost, Allan Gibbard was elected to may require us to argue that some widely held the National Academy of Sciences! This is a religious beliefs are false.‖ spectacularly high honor for a philosophy The Department had four major successes in professor. To give you some idea of how recruitment this year! Daniel Jacobson, a high, let me list all the philosophers ever moral theorist who received his Ph.D. from elected to the NAS: Charles Saunders Peirce Michigan in 1994, joined the faculty this fall (1839-1914), William James (1842-1910), as a full professor. Dan is well known for his Josiah Royce (1855-1916), John Dewey research on moral sentimentalism (some co- (1859-1952), Ernest Nagel (1901-1985), authored with Justin D‘Arms, another UM Willard Quine (1908-2000), Patrick Suppes alum), his scholarship on John Stuart Mill, his (1922-), Brian Skyrms (1938-) and Allan writings in the philosophy of art, and for his Gibbard. You may have studied some of work on freedom of speech. Dan augments these figures during your time at Michigan, our strength in moral philosophy, and we and I suspect your children or grandchildren expect that his appointment will cement our will study Gibbard! If you‘d like to study him reputation as best place in the world to study yourself, you might start with his most recent ethics. Sarah Moss joined the Department as book Reconcling our Aims (Oxford University an Assistant Professor this fall. Sarah, who Press, 2008). did her undergraduate work at Harvard and Peter Railton received the John H. D’Arms earned a B.Phil. at Oxford on a Marshall Faculty Award for Distinguished Graduate Scholarship, received her Ph.D. from M.I.T. Mentoring. This award recognizes Peter‘s early this year. Sarah works mainly in the tireless work on behalf of our Ph.D. students. ―core‖ areas of philosophy – epistemology (Last time I counted, Peter was a member of and metaphysics – but she has also already ten doctoral dissertation committees!) Eric made seminal contributions to the philosophy Swanson received a Marshall M. Weinberg of language, especially to our understanding Grant to fund a graduate seminar in cognitive of conditional statements. David Manley, science that was co-taught with Ezra Keshet who also took up an assistant professorship of the Linguistics Department. Ken Walton this fall, earned his Ph.D. at Rutgers in 2005 enjoyed a Research Fellowship at Sydney and then spent four years at the University of University in Australia, and during his time in Southern California. David specializes in the antipodes Ken gave lectures in Australia metaphysics, epistemology and philosophy of at Sydney, Melbourne and the Australian mind and language. He is known for his work National University, and in New Zealand at on dispositional properties (like the property Auckland, Victoria and Otago. He was also of being fragile or being irascible) and for his able to find time to be the keynote speaker at already influential papers in epistemology. a conference on the philosophy of computer He is at work, along with his co-author John games in Oslo, and to participate in an author- Hawthorne, on a major monograph called The meets-critics session on his book Marvelous Reference Book, which offers a new account Images at the American Society for Aesthetics. of the way that words and thoughts refer to Ed Curley was chosen by the College of objects in the world. David has had articles Literature, Science and the Arts to be this appear in Mind, Journal of Philosophy, Nous year‘s Distinguished Faculty Lecturer. His and Philosophy and Phenomenological Michigan Philosophy News Page 2 Research, which many would judge to be Department purchased well over a hundred four of the five best peer-review journals in pizzas for these clubs! So, we have a lot of the discipline. Chandra Sripada has well-fed, highly engaged young philosophers accepted a quarter-time appointment as an around here! Assistant Professor in Philosophy to We offered an uncommonly diverse slate of supplement a three-quarter time appointment First Year Seminars this year. These small in the Department of Psychiatry in our seminar-styled courses are open to freshman, medical school. Chandra, who holds a Ph.D. and are usually taught by a member of the in philosophy from Rutgers as well as an regular faculty. Here is a sampling of recent M.D. from the University of Texas has been topics: ―The Scope of Rights‖; ―Eating Right: in Ann Arbor for the last four years as a The Ethics and Aesthetics of Food‖; ―U of M: resident in Psychiatry. His research focuses A Moral Institution?‖; ―Science Fiction and on basic questions about how the mind works Philosophy.‖ and, especially, why it breaks down in cases of ―loss of control.‖ He hopes to understand Four students completed honors theses in the how affective states shape personality and Department this year: behavior, and to use recent discoveries about the brain to resolve the traditional problem of Zebediah Norman (L. Ruetsche, advisor) free will and appreciate its implications for ―Understanding Matter Within the Framework the nature of moral evaluations and beliefs. of the Actual and the Potential Parts Debate‖ This is a fascinating new area of research in Caroline Stover (D. Baker, advisor) ―Free which neurology and psychology meet up Will and the Way Things Happen to Fall‖ with behavioral science to provide insights Benjamin Tozer (E. Anderson, advisor) ―The into traditional philosophical questions. Duties of Religious Citizens and Justifactory We reluctantly bid farewell to four valued Liberalism‖ colleagues: Ian Proops, now holds a position Rebecca Wolf (E. Anderson, advisor) at Texas; Andy Egan and Anthony Gillies left ―Citizen of the World: Immigration and the for Rutgers; Boris Kment moved to Princeton. Cosmopolitan Assumption.‖ We will miss all four of these philosophers, and thank them for their many contributions to Michigan and its students. Rebecca Wolf also won the Frankena Prize for being the outstanding UNDERGRADUATE NEWS: Our undergraduate philosophy concentrator program remains popular and vital. In May to graduate in 2008-09. we saw nearly sixty seniors graduate with The Prize is named after concentrations in philosophy, and almost as William K. Frankena a many minored in philosophy. Another telling towering figure in moral indicator of our program‘s vigor is what I call philosophy, and member the ―pizza index”. The Department sponsors of the Michigan Philosophy Department for three undergraduate philosophy societies: the more than forty years. The Frankena Prize, Philosophy Club, the Socratic Club, and the along with the Stevenson Prize for graduate Secular Students Alliance. (Q: What do students, is funded by a generous gift from philosophy students do when they are not Marshall M. Weinberg, ‘50. reading or writing philosophy? A: They argue about philosophy.) This year the Michigan Philosophy News Page 3 GRADUATE STUDENT NEWS. The Ph.D. program Mehta.
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