UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY FALL 2006 ALUMNI FUND GRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS The Philosophy Department is very pleased to announce two new fellowships for graduate students,each the result of very generous gifts from alumni. Sidney Robinson (BA,1961;MA,1962;LLB,1966) Michael J. Herman (MBA, 1992; MA, 2006) has endowed the Sidney P. H. Robinson Graduate has endowed the Michael J. Herman Graduate Scholarship in Ancient Philosophy, an award of Fellowship in Philosophy, an award of approximately approximately $12,000/year for graduate students $12,000/year for the benefit of graduate students working in Greek and Roman philosophy. The in the department. The Herman Fellowship will help Department has traditionally had a strong group of us attract the best students in any area of study researchers in this field, from Father Owens, John Rist, at a time when the competition with our peer and Tom Robinson (no relation to Sidney), to our cur- institutions in the US is fierce. rent complement of Canada Research Chair in Ancient Philosophy,Brad Inwood;Chancellor Jackman Professor,Jennifer Whiting; Michael studied at Michigan as an undergraduate and then received Canada Research Chair in Classical Philosophy, Rachel Barney; Lloyd his law degree at Osgoode Hall Law School in 1974. After a successful Gerson,and Doug Hutchinson.This fellowship will ensure that we are able career as a lawyer,including sessional teaching stints at three Ontario law to attract the very best graduate students from around the world to study schools, he took a position as President and CEO at Citicom Inc. with this excellent group of faculty. and Citipark Inc., while completing his MBA at the University of Toronto. He started a part-time master’s degree in the Department Sidney studied philosophy at Trinity College as an undergraduate and con- in 2001, finishing up this past summer.Throughout his studies, he has tinued on to do a master’s degree with the Department immediately there- been a significant booster of the Department’s mission, especially after.Though he enjoyed his philosophical study tremendously, especially by raising our profile in the Toronto legal and business communities. when teaching the subject, he decided to pursue a career in law. Michael is also extremely active in community affairs and has been A partner at the firm of Torys for many years, his recent retirement has the Chair of the Holocaust Committee of Toronto, a Director allowed him to return to study at the Department.He has audited a series of of the United Jewish Appeal/Federation, and the President of the seminars on ancient philosophy on such topics as Plato’s moral Oakdale Golf and Country Club. psychology,Aristotle’s conception of weakness of will and responses to it by the medieval commentators, and Seneca’s presentation of Stoicism. He is a regular and welcome presence at many departmental talks and conferences. Sidney and Michael both took advantage of the remarkable leveraging opportunity offered through the Graduate Student Endowment Fund established at the U of T by the Province of Ontario. Donations are effectively triple matched to provide substantial named fellowships in perpetuity for the benefit of our graduate students. If you are interested in taking advantage of this program, please contact Christie Darville of Arts and Science Advancement, 416-946-5192, [email protected]. MINERVA’S AVIARY – PHILOSOPHYAT TORONTO John Slater’s History of the Department is Launched John Slater’s long-awaited history of the Philosophy Department, Minerva’s Aviary (University of Toronto Press, 2005), is now available. The book was launched at a reception at the Fisher Rare Book Library last October. Many friends and alumni attended, includ- ing Father Edward Jackman (BA, 1962, Victoria College), who has been a long-time supporter of both the book and the Department. In his remarks at the book launch, he said: “We may not all be professional philoso- Above:Chairs of the Philosophy Department (former and current) phers but we never lose our love of thinking and above all attending the launch:L.Wayne Sumner,Cheryl Misak,John Slater, Rev.Edward Jackman our love for wisdom itself, i.e. philosophy.” David Gauthier,Tom Robinson,Donald Ainslie. 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. From the Chair Donald Ainslie At the University small or, if large, by having tutorials in of Toronto, we addition to lectures.” PHLUB – The UTSC pride ourselves Philosophy Club on our interna- We have been making great strides on this front. On the St. George campus, for It has been an active year for our tional reputation undergraduates in Philosophy at for excellence in example, we have restricted the size of almost all of our third-year courses to 38 UTSC. In particular, our Philosophy research, but we Club, better known as PHLUB, has also recognize or fewer students, and our fourth-year hosted a number of events, including that our reputa- seminars are capped at 24. several discussion nights on topics tion for teaching Simultaneously, we have increased the ranging from the incorrigibility of lags a bit behind. For this reason, the lead- number of tutorials in our large first- and mental states to God, free will and ers of the University, from the President second-year courses. Thus in 2002-3, we existentialism; general help and tutoring sessions for fall and winter and Provost to the various Deans and had 62 large half-courses (more than 40 students), only eight of which had tutori- exams; a movie night; and guest lec- Chairs, have made it our goal to improve tures, including one by Bill Seager on the student experience at U of T. als. But in 2006-7, we have halved the number of large courses to 30, of which consciousness and time, and one by What does this mean for Philosophy? In 17 have tutorials. We hope to have tutori- Martin Lin on abstract objects and causation. For next year, PHLUB is 2003-4, when we were developing our als in every large lecture course in the next planning a philosophy radio show on plan for the Department for the next few few years. the UTSC campus radio station, and a years, we started by thinking about class philosophy film project. It should be sizes. The best philosophical education One major step we’re taking in this direc- .We’ve interesting and a lot of fun. does not involve a teacher simply convey- tion this year is the Socrates Project received special funding from the Provost Phil Kremer, ing doctrine to a student. Instead we take and the Dean of Arts and Science that will Philosophy Discipline Socrates for a model, and try to inspire our allow us to hire our best fourth year stu- Representative,UTSC students to think for themselves about the dents to work as TAs for PHL 100Y, issues at hand. This task is easiest when the Introduction to Philosophy. The students class is relatively small, allowing professors UTM Philosophy Club in the class will benefit from having peers to lead the students in a joint philosophical as TAs, while the TAs will have the oppor- conversation. tunity for that special kind of Socratic Our top priority for the next insight that comes with teaching the sub- ject. Moreover, they will also participate few years was for “every class in a special research seminar that will to allow for dialogue among bring students up to date on the newest students” research on the topics covered in PHL 100. The UTM Philosophy Club Not all classes can be small, of course. We Our students in philosophy continue to teach approximately 14,000 students thrive academically. Among our graduat- The University of Toronto at (half-course enrollments) on the three ing specialists this past year, for example, Mississauga Philosophy Club, seen campuses, and sometimes a large lecture we had two Moss finalists, a Rhodes final- here, meets several times a year to course is not only necessary, but effective, discuss matters of abiding concern to ist, and a Commonwealth Scholar. especially in the early years of our pro- philosophically minded young Students are going on to graduate school at grams. For students’ thinking will be thinkers. Our meetings are loosely Princeton, Oxford, Harvard, and else- stronger and more creative when they take organized around some theme that where; to law school at Yale, New York into account what has been said on a sub- requires each participant to do a bit of University, as well of course as U of T and ject by the great philosophers, be they thinking in advance. We’ve had nights Osgoode. on which each of us brought in a piece historical or contemporary. A large lec- of music to play, a photograph to pass ture allows a professor to make a Many of us remember our university days, around, some art work, or a piece of philosophical position – its rationale, its however, primarily for what went on out- text. The discussion is always lively, strengths, its weaknesses – available to a side of the classroom – for the clubs, and usually turns out to connect with large number of students simultaneously. teams, lectures, debates, parties, and for course material, but in some novel Such lectures will be most effective when hanging out with friends. The philosophy way. For instance, our last meeting they are combined with small-group tuto- students on campus today continue to be revolved around the phenomenon of rials, where students have the chance to amazingly active in co-curricular activities.