3577 Philosophy Summer 2008
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U N I V E R S I T Y O F T O R O N T O D E PA R T M E N T O F P H I L O S O P H Y FALL 2009 A B Anner AwwAArrdd -w iinnnniinngg YeAr !! LAte BreAking Announcement Hacking wins Holberg it was announced on 25th August that ian Hacking has won the Holberg international memorial Prize for 2009, perhaps the highest international honour for humanities and social science scholars. the prize, worth over 500,000 euros, was established by the norwegian parliament in 2003, “for outstanding scholarly work in the academic fields of the arts and humanities, social science, law and theology”. the previous winners are, from 2004 to 2008: Julie kristeva, Jürgen Habermas, Shmuel eisenstadt, ronald dworkin, and Frederick Jameson. the awards ceremony takes place in Bergen, 25th november, 2009. You can find the citation at http://www.holbergprisen.no/ Hacking y h p a r Sumner wins molson Prize g o t university Professor emeritus L. Wayne Sumner o h P (BA, 1962) has been awarded the canada d r a council for the Arts’ 2009 molson Prize in w o H the Humanities, one of the country’s premier h g a Sumner l academic honours. See Page 2 for more details. e h S y b o t Hacking wins SSHrc gold medal o h p university Professor emeritus Ian Hacking received the 2008 r e n Social Sciences and Humanities research council (SSHrc) m u gold medal for Achievement in research, SSHrc’s highest S honour. See Page 2 for more details. Socrates Project wins northrop Frye Award Professor Mark Kingwell accepts the Northrop Frye Award for the Socrates Project is a three-year-old initiative in the The Socrates Project. Pictured: David Naylor, Mark Kingwell, St. george Philosophy department that gives our best under - David Peterson, Paul Cadario. graduate students the Socratic experience of learning philosophy by teaching philosophy. the Project students serve as teaching departmental initiatives. the award citation states: “the Socrates assistants (tAs) for introduction to Philosophy (PHL 100Y) and Project exemplifies northrop Frye’s conviction that teaching and at the same time take an intensive research seminar, where they learning are inseparable.” in its three years the project has develop independent projects related to topics covered in become a model for enhancing the undergraduate experience PHL 100. the Project received the university of toronto Alumni by integrating research and learning. Association’s 2009 northrop Frye Award of excellence for Sumner and Hacking stories continue on Page 2 We wish to thank the generous donors to the Department of Philosophy, without whom Philosophy News would not be possible. Please see the back page to see how you can support the Department in endeavours like this one. uniVerSitY oF toronto - dePArtment oF PHiLoSoPHY Conference in Honour of Wayne Sumner PHiLoSoPHY newS – October 24, 2009 www.philosophy.utoronto.ca on october 24, the department will be holding a conference, Rights and Wrongs: Editor: Anita di giacomo Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Happiness , in wayne’s honour. All the speakers at the Design: Alvin ng/dragon Snap conference will be former graduate students of wayne’s: Lisa Fuller (Phd, 2006), now teaching at SunY, Albany, after recently completing postdoctoral work at … more on Sumner and Sheffield; Anthony Skelton (Phd, 2005) of western ontario, and before that, a the molson Prize postdoctoral fellow at the university of michigan; Gustaf Arrhenius (Phd, 2000), university of Stockholm; and Michael Stingl (Phd, 1986), now chair of the canada council for the Arts awards Philosophy at the university of Lethbridge. the conference will close with the the molson Prize for “outstanding lifetime canada council’s formal presentation to wayne of the molson Prize. achievements and ongoing contributions Please join us for this special occasion. to the cultural and intellectual life of Check our website, <www.philosophy.utoronto.ca>, for details canada.” wayne has been honoured for his human knowers can access the deep contributions to ethics: in four books and … more on Hacking and structures of reality. over 40 articles in refereed journals he the SSHrc gold medal provides one of the most careful ian’s first two themes converge in a third: expositions and most robust defenses of the SSHrc gold medal for Achievement an analysis of how the scientific investiga - utilitarianism. wayne’s work stands out in research is given each year to an “indi - tion of social and psychological conditions especially for its combination of vidual whose leadership, dedication, and can serve to produce the very phenomena theoretical and applied approaches. originality of thought have significantly it studies. Beginning with a much-cited advanced understanding in his or her field article, “making up People” (1986), and Welfare, Happiness, and two of his books, of research, enriched canadian society, including his books Rewriting the Soul: Ethics The Moral Foundation of (1996) and and contributed to the country's cultural Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Rights (1987) set out his version of utili - and intellectual life.” ian has been hon - Memory (Harvard uP, 1995) and Mad tarianism, one grounded in careful oured for his four decades of research on Travelers: Reflections on the Reality of Transient consideration of the empirical evidence “how our contemporary investigations of Mental Illnesses (u. of Virginia Press, 1998), and detailed analysis of the arguments for nature and of ourselves – our science, our ian has engaged in micro-historical studies and against his preferred theory. He philosophy and our definitions of chance, of particular cases where the human analyzes welfare in terms of what he calls illness and the self – are shaped by the sciences helped to create new kinds “authentic happiness” and argues that history of concepts, and how expert of people. respect for rights is the best means to knowledge feeds back into society over promoting overall welfare. two collections of essays, The Social time and changes the way we think about Construction of What? (1999) and Historical in his two other books, Abortion and Moral the world.” Ontology (2002), explore such topics as Theory The Hateful and the (1981) and ian’s work can be understood as exploring the differences between the natural sci - Obscene (2004), wayne shows that his three related themes. First, he has exam - ences and the human sciences, and how construal of utilitarianism helps to ined the structure, role, and influence of philosophy can understand them. ian has resolve difficult moral and public statistical and probabilistic reasoning in in addition published on the philosophy of policy questions. such books as Logic of Statistical Inference language, the history of modern philoso - wayne’s applied work has been particular - (1965), The Emergence of Probability (1975, phy, and many other topics. ly focused on and influential in canadian 2006), and The Taming of Chance (1990). ian tells us that, oddly enough, the day public life. His treatment of the morality Taming was named by The Modern Library before he was notified of his winning the of abortion was adopted by the canadian as one of the 100 Best Nonfiction Books of gold medal, he received news that he was Supreme court in the landmark 1988 the Twentieth Century . only eight other also being awarded the 2008 giulo Preti case, R. v. Morgentaler , where Justice philosophical works were listed (by such Prize for science and philosophy by Bertha wilson used his approach to spell titans as thomas kuhn, John rawls, and Pianeta galileo (a program of the out the constraints that a just abortion william James), and only one other regional council of tuscany), given law would have to meet. And his study of canadian author made the list. annually to a scholar of international The Hateful and the right to free speech in ian’s second theme has been the philoso - acclaim whose work uses scientific meth - the Obscene uses canadian law and phy of experimental science. in a series of ods to advance our understanding of civil jurisprudence as the framework for his classic articles, culminating in his consciousness or democracy. investigation, examining such famous Representing and Intervening (1983), he Keegstra Besides these two prizes, ian also recently cases as (on hate speech) and showed that, for philosophers to make Butler (on pornography). received two honorary doctorates, one in progress in their understanding of 2008 from mcmaster university and one though wayne retired from teaching in science, they had to investigate what from the university of cordoba, the summer of 2008, his research contin - scientists actually do, most notably, how Argentina in 2007. ues to flourish. His current project they construct apparatus to produce and ian’s career has also been marked by examines the legality and morality manipulate phenomena. ian’s discussion a deep commitment to his students. of euthanasia and physician-assisted – with its pithy slogan, “if you can spray For example, he was recently an invited suicide in canada and elsewhere. He plans them [unobservable entities, such as speaker at a conference, “cognitive to follow it up with a detailed treatment electrons], they’re real” – reinvigorated of John Stuart mill’s argument for and refocused the debate over whether Continued on Page 10... utilitarianism. 2 U n i v e r s i t y o f To r o n t o Story of the Thanks to Our Alumni Juggler of AnotHer nAmed grAduAte notre dame ScHoLArSHiP, tHAnkS to HAnS mAAg by Ian Hacking Hans maag has very generously endowed turned out to be fortu - when i received the gold medal in the Hans maag/ontario graduate nate, for it led him to ottawa last year, i told a parable about Scholarship in the department of start his own successful how i think of myself doing philosophy.