Department of Philosophy
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2008-2009 Department Highlights
Spring 2009
FACULTY
Michael Bergmann’s paper “Evidentialism and the Great Pumpkin Objection” is forthcoming in Evidentialism and its Discontents, ed. Trent Dougherty (Oxford University Press). His book, Justification without Awareness (Oxford 2006), was the subject of an Author-Meets-Critic session at the Central APA in Chicago in February. In January, he presented a paper (“Externalist Justification and the Role of Appearances”) to the philosophy department at the University of Notre Dame and in June he will be one of the invited speakers at the 6th Annual Episteme Conference, to be held at Northwestern University, presenting a paper entitled “Rational Disagreement after Full Disclosure”.
Rod Bertolet accepted an invitation to join the Board of Editorial Consultants for American Philosophical Quarterly (term 2009-2012).
Daniel Frank was elected to the Board of Directors, Association for Jewish Studies (term 2009-2012).
Donald Mitchell organized and hosted an exchange program for religious studies professors from five Southeast Asian universities with funding from the United States Department of State. The group spoke at Purdue University, Indiana University, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Chicago and Georgetown University. A return exchange by American professors of religious studies is planned for December of this year.
Charlene Haddock Seigfried was presented with the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy’s highest award, the Herbert Schneider Award for 2009, given for her “distinguished contribution to the understanding and development of American Philosophy”. She was an invited speaker at the Workshop on Pragmatism and the Ethics of Belief, at the Nordic Pragmatism Network in Finland, where her paper was “Distinguishing Myth from Reality: Are James’ and Dewey’s Pragmatic Tools Sufficient?” She also has a chapter, “Thinking Desire: Taking Perspectives Seriously,” in Reconstructing Democracy, Recontextualizing Dewey and another on “Jane Addams’s Principled Compromises,” in Jane Addams and the Practice of Democracy: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Theory and Practice.
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Jonathan Beever is working on a book chapter (with Nicolae Morar), “Ethics, Privacy, and the Future of Genomic Information in Healthcare” to appear in a pharmacogenomics text, Information Assurance and Security Ethics in Complex Systems: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. He also had a paper accepted to the Semiotics Society 2009 Conference. Finally, he received Purdue Hero award (details available at www.purdueheroes.com).
Somaieh Emamjomeh presented a paper "Demonic Silence" at the Annual Midsouth Philosophy Conference in February.
Brian Kanouse has an article, "The Post-Structural Effect on the Life-World: Re-thinking Critical Subjectivity and Ethics through Existential Performance and the Constitutive Power of Performativity" forthcoming in Existentialism and Phenomenology in the Twentieth Century, (ed) A.- T. Tymieniecka.
Mickey Lorkowski’s article “The Miracle of Moses” recently appeared in The Heythrop Journal. He presented a paper, “Modal and Ontological Intuitions,” at the 16th Annual Graduate Student Conference at Kent State University in March (the paper will be published online at http://philosophy.kent.edu/journal/). He also has a review of The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Philosopy forthcoming in The Religious Studies Review.
David Midtvedt received an Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching from the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures in April.
Corey Miller’s article “A Critique of Marx’s Philosophy of Religion from Religious Epistemology” was recently accepted at the International Philosophical Quarterly and his review of David Novak’s Natural Law in Judaism is forthcoming in Philosophia Christi.
Sophia Stone’s chapter "My God, Stephen Colbert Really is Funny, and I can use Wittgenstein to Prove It" recently appeared in Stephen Colbert and Philosophy (Open Court Books).
Nicolae Morar and Jonathan Beever continue to coordinate the Bioethics Seminar Series. Details are posted at www.purdue.edu/bioethics.
FALL 2008
FACULTY
Four Purdue philosophy professors have chapters forthcoming in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Theology, eds. Thomas Flint and Michael Rea:
Michael Bergmann, "Skeptical Theism and the Problem of Evil"
Jeffrey Brower, "Simplicity and Aseity"
Paul Draper, "Problem of Evil"
Dan Frank, "Jewish Philosophical Theology"
Michael Bergmann also has a chapter, “Externalist Responses to Skepticism”, forthcoming in The Oxford Handbook of Skepticism, and is one of the invited speakers at the Midwest Epistemology Workshop in October, where he will be presenting a paper entitled “Externalist Justification and the Role of Appearances”.
Jeffrey Brower’s paper “Matter, Form, and Individuation” is forthcoming in The Oxford Handbook to Thomas Aquinas, eds. Brian Davies and Eleonore Stump.
Patricia Curd has co-edited, with Daniel Graham, The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy, which is scheduled to appear this fall. She is a member of the Governing Council of the IAPS, was on a discussion panel celebrating the publication of the second edition of A.P.D. Mourelatos, The Route of Parmenides, and recently presented “Parmenides on Thought” at the inaugural meeting of the International Association for Presocratic Studies in Provo, Utah (http://www.presocratic.org). In October, Professor Curd will be presenting a paper and a seminar at Dartmouth College in October, as part of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, and will also be part of a panel on David Sedley’s Creationism and Its Critics in Antiquity at the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy.
Paul Draper was elected President of the Society for Philosophy of Religion, and his paper “Probabilistic Arguments for Multiple Universes” (co-authored with Kai Draper and Joel Pust) recently appeared in Pacific Philosophical Quarterly.
Dan Frank will be lecturing at Princeton in September on "The Politics of Fear: Idolatry and Superstition in Maimonides and Spinoza".
Daniel Kelly recently presented “Moral Disgust: A By-product Hypothesis and Some Normative Implications” at Minds and Societies Conference (at the Cognitive Science Institute of the University of Quebec in Montreal), and he also presented “Expressing and Recognizing Disgust: Signaling Commitment or Transmitting Cultural Information?” at a joint workshop on Evolution and Signaling, and Emotion and Commitment (at ANU in Canberra).
William McBride was elected to a five-year term as President of the Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie.
Charlene Seigfried was elected President of the International Pragmatism Society for 2008-2010. She was also the Keynote Speaker for the Conference on Identity and Social Transformation, CEPF Brno, Czech Republic, where she presented “Relating Identity and Diversity”.
Daniel W. Smith was a fellow in the Center for Humanistic Studies at Purdue during the Fall 2008 semester. In November, he gave a lecture at Cambridge University on “The Idea of the Open: Deleuze’s Theory of Relations,” and presented a paper at the “Deleuze2008” conference in Stavanger, Norway.
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Jonathan Beever had a paper on semiosis and nanoethics accepted to the 2008 Meeting of the Semiotics Society of America in Houston, Texas.
Somaieh Emamjomeh received a DAAD Research Scholarship for research at University of Freiburg in Germany (2008-2009). She will also present “Derrida’s Khora: The Discourse of Silence” as part of a panel at SPEP in October.
Octavian Gabor’s review of Julie K. Ward’s Aristotle on Homonymy: Dialectic and Science recently appeared in the Bryn Mawr Classical review (http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2008/2008-10-09.html).
John Houston will present “To Speak of God: Transcendence, Simplicity, & Aquinas Doctrine of Analogy” at the 33rd Annual European Studies Conference in October. And he will present “God Commanded What? A Critical Response to Robert Merrhiew Adams on the Abraham Dilemma” at both the 2nd Annual Midwest Regional Graduate Philosophy Conference and the Indiana Philosophical Association meetings in November.
Erin Kealey will present "The Natural Horror of Near Dark" at the 2008 Biennial Film & History Conference in October. She will also be presenting "The Importance of Aesthetic Evaluations of Realist Drama" at both the 16th Meeting of the Alain Locke Society in November and at an Alain Locke Society group session at the Eastern APA in December.
Rebecca Lloyd’s paper “Situating Time in the Leibnizian Hierarchy of Beings” recently appeared in the Southern Journal of Philosophy.
Corey Miller will present “Moses Maimonides and Natural Law Ethics” at Fordham University in October.
Nicolae Morar received a Puskas Fellowship for the project “Ethics and Science: Bringing an ethical dimension to your scientific research” and his paper “The limits of discourse ethics concerning the responsibility toward nature, non-human animals, and future generations,” is forthcoming in Health Care, Autonomy, and Responsibility –Critical Reflections on the Impact of Biotechnology on the Health Care System, ed. Bogdan Olaru. He also recently presented “Does genetic testing challenge Foucault’s concept of biopower?” at the international conference on Power: Forms, Dynamics, and Consequences (at the University of Tampere, Finland)
Nicolae Morar and Jonathan Beever continue to coordinate the Bioethics Seminar Series, focusing this year on issues concerning research animals and biomedical ethics. www.purdue.edu/bioethics.