Winter 2012-13 Letter from the Chair Graeme Forbes In this Issue Dear Students, Alumni, Friends, Colleagues: Letter from the Chair 1 Faculty Activities 1–8 As I write this, I have just returned from a con- ference at NYU on the work of Kit Fine. Fine Interview with is one of the very best philosophers active today Alison Jaggar 3–5 and is a leading member of NYU’s Philosophy Graduate Student Department, which has been ranked as the top Accomplishments 6–7 program in the English-speaking world for several years now. In recognition, NYU gave Prizes & Awards 8 it its own building on Washington Place, de- Graduation 8–9 signed by the star New York firm Steven Holl Architects. It’s not luxury in the way that, say, Donation Appeal 10 the Gehry Weatherhead Management School at Case Western is, but it’s heartening where NYU’s administration chose to direct resources when it had them. The Business School? Ath- FACULTY ACTIVITIES letics? More administration? No, philosophy! 2011-2013 No wonder it made the New York Times. Here at CU, the most column inches in the David Barnett spent the Spring 2012 semester on sabbatical, working on his last year have been given over to our purchase forthcoming book, “The Things We of a football coaching staff predicted to bring Believe.” To get a feel for the topic of the book, consider a common belief us renown of a kind that mere humanists, among scientists: that the Earth is even the philosophers of NYU, can only Graeme Forbes, Department Chair warming. There is this thing—that stand in awe of. In even better news, we will the Earth is warming—such that most scientists believe it. What is this thing? be spending $170,000,000 in pursuit of said interview on page 3 below) and a 2012 “Best First, it is the sort of thing that can be renown. But you will have to look elsewhere Should Teach” award, and Brad Monton won believed, doubted, and feared. While for more information about this and other one of three prizes for Excellence in Philoso- most scientists believe that the Earth is warming, some politicians doubt great leaps forward. I’m happy to avert my phy of Religion for an article in Oxford Studies that the Earth is warming, and most gaze from the world immediately beyond in Philosophy of Religion in 2011. environmentalists fear that the Earth the Department’s walls, since from within We hosted a number of conferences in is warming. Second, it is something that is true or false: either it is true those walls, there is much that is positive to 2012, and since I’ve received questions about that the Earth is warming or it is false report. Our undergraduate major continues them, I’ll give some more details about three that the Earth is warming. Third, it is the meaning of various sentences. The to flourish, graduating over 250 students in of them (see p. 7 about the Rocky Mountain English sentence “The Earth is warm- the last three years. To date, three of our recent Philosophy Conference). Carol Cleland, ing” means that the Earth is warming. graduates, Cory Aragon, Amandine Catala with Ben Hale’s assistance, organized the Fourth, it is not tied to any language in particular. There are sentences of and Pamela Lomelino, have been appointed Committee on the History and Philosophy Japanese and Swahili that mean that to tenure-track jobs. And we also have more of Science’s 28th conference. The theme the Earth is warming. Fifth, it appar- faculty successes on top of the ones I de- was “history and philosophy of climate ently does not depend on languages or minds for its existence. If there had scribed in previous newsletters: Adam Hosein science”, and the conference met along been no languages or minds—due, say, won a CHA Fellowship for Fall ’13 to work with a larger International Conference on to a difference in the way life on Earth had evolved—it still would have been on philosophical issues about immigration, Culture, Politics, and Climate Change that true or false that the Earth is warm- Alison Jaggar won a 2012 Gee Award (see was taking place at CU in mid-September. ing; thus, this thing—that the Earth The CHPS meeting was opened by our As- of Philosophy, Psychology and Computer is warming—would still have existed. sociate Dean, Mary Kraus, and was highly Science, along with the CHA and the Dean’s In my book I try to give an informative account of the nature of the things we attended and highly praised. CHPS is a very Fund for Excellence. Unlike the other two believe, including this thing, that the interdisciplinary effort: it’s directed by Carol meetings, this was a one-off, since the SPP Earth is warming. and supported by Philosophy, but also by the meets in different places in different years. David Boonin In addition to con- tinuing his work as Associate Dean departments of Anthropology, EEOB, Geol- But I’m sure we’ll see many other scholarly for Arts and Humanities, David ogy, History, Math, MCDB and Physics, as societies meeting here in the next few years. As made further progress on a book on well as by the College and CHA. So a broad well as bringing obvious intellectual benefits the non-identity problem and had the book accepted for publication constituency saw its money being well spent. to CU students and faculty, these events are by Oxford University Press. He also profile-raising for the Department. began work on a new project on the Finally, we noted with sadness the passing subject of posthumous harm, thus moving directly from our duties to in November 2012 of John Carnes, aged 88. future generations to our duties to past Professor Carnes joined our department in generations and continuing his recent record of indifference to anything he 1956 after spending the Second World War might owe to his contemporaries. In in the Air Force, and the years afterwards addition, he published an article cri- first in an unsuccessful project at Oak tiquing David Benatar’s anti-natalism in the South African Journal of Philoso- Ridge to create a phy and gave talks at Scripps College nuclear-powered and Pitzer College. aeroplane, then in Eric Chwang took a semester’s leave the Ph.D. program in fall 2011 to take care of his sick mother. In the summer of 2012 at Ann Arbor. He he attended a fruitful and relaxing was a member of bioethics workshop outside Geneva, Alastair Norcross Switzerland. In the meantime he has our department continued working to push papers until 1988, was into print. Since the last newsletter, Our annual Rocky Mountain Ethics the author of the his paper “Cluster Randomization (RoME) Conference was held in late sum- and Political Philosophy” has been book Axiomatics published in *Bioethics* (November mer. The main organizer, Alastair Norcross, and Dogmatics 2012). tells me that 200+ submissions from all over (OUP 1982), and John Carnes Carol Cleland In the spring of the world were winnowed down to 56 talks, served as Associate 2013, Dr. Cleland was awarded a two special sessions, and 30 poster presenta- BFA award for excellence in research. Dean for seventeen years. He spent a sab- Since January of 2012 she has pub- tions (and thanks to everyone involved in the batical in Edinburgh in 1975, where he and lished 3 major journal articles: “Life refereeing process!). Our own graduate Jason without Definitions” in Synthese, “Is his son Steve pursued the family geneal- a General Theory of Life Possible; Hanna, now of Northern Illinois, jointly won ogy and became enthusiasts for haggis and Seeking the nature of life in the con- the Young Ethicist Prize with Adrienne Mar- single malt (obviously, a family of taste and text of a single example” in Biological tin (Penn), and their papers, together with a Theory, and “Pluralism or Unity in discernment). In retirement, he lived in Biology: Do microbes hold the secret selection from the other talks, will appear in Longmont, pursued various cultural inter- to life?” in Biology and Philosophy. an issue of The Journal of Moral Philosophy. ests, and was active in the Boulder County In addition, she has 5 articles in press, Earlier in the summer, a meeting of the and is finishing a book (The Quest for Nature Association. ❒ a Universal Theory of Life; Searching Society for Philosophy and Psychology, or- for life as we don’t know it) under ganized by Rob Rupert, was held here. About contract with Cambridge Univer- 200 attendees heard sity Press. She also gave a number of invited talks to various scientific talks ranging from and philosophical conferences and the physical nature workshops. The most notable of these presentations were a presenta- of conscious experi- tion to a special session on prebiotic ence, to the factors chemistry of the 2012 annual meeting that affect moral of the American Chemical Society, a keynote talk in Switzerland on the judgments, to the methodology of the historical sci- role of intellectual ence to an international meeting of virtue in the acquisi- forensic scientists, and the Van Tuyl Lecture on geoscience to the School tion of knowledge. of Mines in Golden, Colorado. This was another Rob Rupert John Fisher discovered the editing very interdisciplin- side of research—enticing, rejecting, rewriting, cajoling—as he spent the ary event, and was supported by our Institute last year and a half shaping a philo- for Cognitive Science and the Departments sophical topic for a special issue of the 2 Philosophy Department Newsletter Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Interview with co-edited with Jeanette Bicknell.