ARCHIVE NEWS

Hattab continues Faculty Development Leave to advance research about Hobbes and Spinoza

Helen Hattab of the Philosophy Department currently has a Faculty Development Leave to conduct research on her project on "Hobbes and Spinoza: The Geometrization of Ethics and Politics." She was awarded a 6 month research fellowship by the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbuettel, Germany; see her listing on the library page here: http://www.hab.de/forschung/stip_liste/hattab.htm.

She took the opportunity to visit Leibniz's house in Hanover. One photo depicts her in front of the entrance, and the other shows her turning the golden ring on the gate to the fountain in front of the Leibniz house for luck (this is a local tradition). In the photo to the right, Hattab stands in front of the statue in the middle of market square in Wolfenbuettel, Germany.

In February Hattab gave talks at the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh and also at University of Western Ontario. She published a chapter on "The Mechanical Philosophy" in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy in Early Modern Europe, published January 2011. Hattab has also recently been awarded a UH Small Grant and has been nominated for a Franklin Research Grant from the American Philosophical Societyand for an NEH Summer Stipend.

See more photos from Hattab's research trip in Germany.

Professor Hattab presents paper at University of Western Ontario in London

Prof Helen Hattab gave an invited paper on "Hobbes and Zabarella on Scientific Method" at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, followed by a book symposium on her book Descartes on Forms and Mechanisms. In addition, the chapter by Hattab on “The Mechanical Philosophy” in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy in Early Modern Europe was published in January 2011.

New article about Block by Professor Weisberg to appear in Analysis

Prof. Josh Weisberg has a piece forthcoming in the July 2011 issue of Analysis, entitled “Abusing the notion of what-it’s-like-ness: A reply to Block.” In addition, ,the Journal of Consciousness Studies special edition, edited by Weisberg, on the book Describing Inner Experience: Proponent Meets Skeptic (by R. Hurlburt and E. Schwitzgebel) has just been released. The edition features articles by Peter Carruthers, Terry Horgan and Mark Timmons, Charles Siewert, Maja Spener, Chris Hill, and others, and it includes an introduction by Weisberg.

While researching in Germany, Professor Hattab wins two grants

Prof. Helen Hattab has been awarded a UH Small Grant of 3000 USD and just received word that she has been nominated for a Franklin Research Grant of 5000 USD from the American Philosophical Society. She is in Wolfenbuettel, Germany until July 2011 on a research fellowship at the Herzog August Bibliothek.

Professor Freeland will discuss Noel Carroll’s On Criticism book in Minneapolis

Prof. Cynthia Freeland will be speaking at an "Author Meets Critics" session at the Central Division APA meetings in Minneapolis. The topic is Noel Carroll's recent book On Criticism; the other commentator will be Alan Goldman. While in Minneapolis Freeland will also chair a session of the American Society for Aesthetics at the APA with speakers Noel Carroll, Anne Eaton, Susan Feagin, and Jesse Prinz.

Professor Weisberg participates in ‘Consciousness Online’ conference

Prof. Josh Weisberg participated in the 3rd annual “Consciousness Online” conference, commenting on a paper by Miguel Sebastian. Other participants included Paul Churchland, Jesse Prinz, Kathleen Akins, Ruth Millikan, among many others. The conference can be accessed here:http://consciousnessonline.wordpress.com/

Dr. Hattab to Speak in Pittsburgh

Associate Professor Helen Hattab is scheduled to present a talk at the Center for Philosophy of Science in Pittsburgh on Feb. 25 titled "Descartes' Mechanism Revisited."

"I propose that the initial shift to mechanism is more fruitfully understood as a response to methodological problems raised by the recovery of Euclid's Elements and other ancient mathematical texts than by metaphysical and epistemological worries about Aristotelian forms and occult qualities," Hattab writes in the paper's abstract. "I support my proposal by examining an example of such a problem that would have been familiar to both Descartes and Hobbes, so as to show how it informs their respective methods and mechanistic views."

For more information about Hattab's talk and to read more of the paper's abstract, visit the University of Pittsburgh Center for Philosophy of Science website.

Recently, Hattab visited Hanover, Germany and the Leibniz house. In this photo, she is turning the golden ring on the gate to the fountain in front of the Leibniz house, a ritual the locals perform for good luck.

Zachary Guajardo Speaks at Notre Dame Conference

Graduate student Zachary Zzane Guajardo spoke at a graduate student philosophy conference at Notre Dame during the Fall 2010 semester.

Gregory Brown

Greg Brown presented a paper entitled “The Theodicy and the Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence” at a conference on “Leibniz’s Theodicy:  Context and Content,” which was held at Notre Dame University, September 15-18, 2010.  He also  hosted the fourth annual conference of the Leibniz Society of North America at the University of Houston, December 3-5, 2010.  His article, “Disinterested Love:  Understanding Leibniz’s Reconciliation of Self- and Other-Regarding Motives,” is forthcoming in the British Journal for the History of Philosophy, and his article, “Leibniz’s Moral Philosophy,” is forthcoming in Continuum Companion to Leibniz (New York:  Continuum Press).  He is currently working on a paper on Leibniz on the perfection of possible worlds, as well as continuing to work on a book on the correspondence between Leibniz, Clarke, and Caroline.

Anne Jacobson

Anne J. Jacobson presented a paper at the Easter APA on concepts and counterfeits, 2010; a shorter version will appear in Behavioral and Brain Sciences as a comment on E Machery's “Doing without Concepts".  She was also part of an invited panel at the Hume Society Conference, 2010, presented a paper at the Pacific Swip, 2010, and commented on a paper at the Pacific APA.  In addition, she had both Keeping the World in Mind, and her co-edited volume Neurofeminism (books) accepted by Palgrave MacMillan.

Bredo Johnson

Professor Bredo Johnsen’s article "The Argument for Radical Skepticism Concerning the External World" appeared in the December 2009 issue of The Journal of Philosophy.

William Nelson

In January 2008, Nelson's paper, "Kant's Formula of Humanity," was published in Mind. In April 2008 his paper, "The Epistemic Value of the Demoncratic Process," appeared in Episteme. He was a member of the program committee for the Amintaphil meeting at Villanova University in September 2008, and presented a commentary entitled "The Free Speech/Free Market Analogy." He continues to work on Kant's ethics and topics in political philosophy.

Tamler Sommers

Professor Tamler Sommers’ A Very Bad Wizard: Morality Behind the Curtain was released by McSweeney's Press in November, 2009. In addition, his "More Work for Hard Incompatibilism" appeared in November 2009 issue of Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.

Josh Weisberg

Weisberg published "Misrepresenting Consciousness" in Philosophical Studies (online May 2010) and has a forthcoming paper "The Zombie's Cogito: Meditations on Type-Q Materialism" coming out in Philosophical Psychology. He is also the managing editor of a book symposium on Russell Hurlburt and Eric Schwitzgebel's Describing Inner Experience: Proponent Meets Skeptic, to appear in a special issue of Journal of Consciousness Studies, January 2011. He is currently working on a book entitled Key Concepts: Consciousness (under contract with Polity Press).