Author Archives: Kate Kenney-Newhard

Dale Jamieson is giving a talk “The Anthropocene: Love it or Leave it” Tuesday, 3/15/16 at 3:15pm in the EHHP Alumni Center

Please join us for a special colloquium in honor of Ned Hettinger’s retirement – a talk by Dale Jamieson, Professor of Environmental Studies and Philosophy at New York University The Anthropocene: Love it or Leave it on Tuesday, 3/15/2016 in the School of Education, Health, and Human Performance Alumni Center (86 Wentworth)

Prof. Jamieson is a prolific author whose most recent academic works are Reason in a Dark Time: Why the Struggle to Stop Climate Change Failed–and What It Means For Our Future (Oxford, 2014) and Love in the Anthropocene (OR, 2015), a collection of short stories & essays written with the novelist, Bonnie Nadzam.

Philosophy major William Raines awarded MAYS grant for Spring 2016

Congratulation to Philosophy major William Raines who was awarded a MAYS grant for Spring 2016 for his project Moral and Political Psychology of Fairy Tales. Prof. Thomas Nadelhoffer will be the mentor for Mr. Raines’ project. They will be collecting data from the general population to explore the influence that exposure to fairy tales during childhood has on our moral and political beliefs and attitudes as adults.

Prof. McKinnon to Speak at Rutgers University

The first talk was “Yikkity Yak, Who Said That? The Epistemology of Anonymous Assertions”

Abstract: Most of us know that we shouldn’t believe everything that we read online, particularly those things said anonymously. But should we believe any of it? This is the question at the heart of a debate in contemporary epistemology on the epistemology of anonymous assertions. Some such as Goldberg (2013, 2015) argue that it’s epistemically inappropriate to believe anonymous assertions. In essence, as audience members, we’re in an epistemically impoverished position from which to judge the veracity of the statements and the reliability of the speakers. Implicitly or explicitly, those such as Goldberg adopt what we may call a punitive model of speaker responsibility. In this paper, though, I’ll argue that the punitive model is mistaken. Moreover, once we abandon it, in favor of a trust-based model, I’ll also argue that we’re sufficiently epistemically well positioned to form justified beliefs (and thus knowledge) on the basis of anonymous assertions. I will use a recent social media platform, built around anonymous assertions, known as Yik Yak to make my case. I will also connect this discussion to issues of silencing and testimonial injustice.

The second talk was given at the Rutgers Department of Philosophy Annual Climate Talk “Allies Behaving Badly: Gaslighting as Epistemic Injustice” on Thursday, February 11th.

Abstract: In a 2013 blog post, and in her recent book, Mia McKenzie convincingly argues for the end of the term and concept of “allies.” Like her, I’m done with allies. In this talk, I raise some ways in which allies and ally culture has resulted in a number of very serious problems for those that “allies” seek to support. In many cases, allies are causing more harm than they’re preventing. Drawing on real-life examples, I connect ally culture to a lack of accountability and a worrying prevalence of gaslighting, which is a kind of epistemic injustice. In its place, I suggest that we focus on people being good active bystanders, “currently operating in solidarity with” those they seek to support, as McKenzie puts it.

People can watch an earlier version of this talk, delivered in 2013 at Rice University, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4cGNF2y40c

Philosophy Major Mathew Rabon presenting at the Eastern Division of the American Society for Aesthetics

Philosophy major Mathew Rabon will be presenting his paper, “A Social Ontology of Art,” at the annual conference for the Eastern Division of the American Society for Aesthetics in Philadelphia on April 16. His paper was anonymized (along with papers from professors and graduate students) and professionally reviewed before selection. Congratulations, Matt!

Anthony Garruzzo Awarded a Student Research Fellowship by the Humanities Council of South Carolina

Congratulations to Anthony Garruzzo who, sponsored by Prof. Neufeld, was awarded a Student Research Fellowship by The Humanities Council of South Carolina for his project “Nelson Goodman and Conceptual Relativism.” The fellowship will pay for travel to conferences where Anthony will present his work.

Prof. McKinnon to Present at the Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association

Prof. Rachel McKinnon will be presenting her paper Yikkety Yak, Who Said That? The Epistemology of Anonymous Assertions at the Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association in March.

Profs. Baker, Coseru, and Krasnoff Presenting at the 2016 Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association

Prof. Baker will chair two sessions Personal Identity and Attribution and Kant and the Cultivation of Virtue.

Prof. Coseru will chair the session “Author Meets Critic: Jin Y. Park’s Reflections of a Zen Buddhist Nun: Essays by Zen Master Kim Iryop

Prof. Krasnoff will give a paper at a book symposium on Chris W. Suprenant, Kant and the Cultivation of Virtue

Prof. McKinnon’s Book The Norms of Assertion Published

Professor Rachel McKinnon’s book The Norms of Assertion: Truth, Lies, and Warrant has been published by Palgrave MacMillan Press.

From the publisher:

Suppose that you ask me what time an upcoming meeting starts, and I say, ‘4 p.m.’ Whenever we make claims like this, we’re asserting. If the meeting is really at 3:30 p.m., you’ll be late, and probably rather upset that I told you the wrong time. In some sense, it seems like I’m on the hook for having said something false. This sense that I’ve done something wrong suggests that there are certain standards of evaluating assertions: a way of distinguishing between good and bad, appropriate and inappropriate. We call these standards norms.

This book is about the norms of assertion. Various philosophers have typically attempted to articulate the level of epistemic support required for properly asserting. Some argue, for example, that one must know what one asserts. Others argue that one merely needs to justifiably believe what one asserts–an epistemic standing weaker than knowledge. The purpose of this book is to defend what I propose as the central norm governing our practice of assertion, which I call the Supportive Reasons Norm (SRN).

In rough outline, the standards for warrantedly asserting shift with changes in context, although knowledge is never required for warrantedly asserting. In fact, in some special contexts, speakers may warrantedly lie. This latter feature particularly sets apart my view from others in the debate.

Prof. McKinnon Interviewed for the UnMute Podcast

Professor Rachel McKinnon was recently interviewed as part of the philosophy podcast series UnMute. She discussed her recent work on allies and ally culture. The episode can be found here.

Congratulation to Our Newest Alumni

On a beautiful spring day (May 16), nine philosophy majors walked across the Cistern to receive their diplomas and join the ranks of CofC alumni. (Four additional students completed their degrees, but chose not to attend the commencement ceremonies). It is a privilege to be able to teach such fine young men and women. Congratulations to our 2015 graduates and award winners!

2015 Graduates: (double major noted in parentheses)

Chris Carron (Psychology)
Gabriel Davidson
Patrick Ferri
Matt Fiacco
Thomas Garrison
Jason Herman
Jillian Patton
William Price (Political Science)
Nick Schloss
Rebecca Stanley (Political Science)
Erin Trent
Jordan van Horn
Jake Webb (Math; Honors College)
2015 Award Winners: The following award winners were recognized at a departmental luncheon.

Outstanding Students: Jordan van Horn, Chris Carron

Departmental Honors: Jake Webb

HSS Scholars: Rebecca Stanley and Jake Webb
Career Plans: Gabriel Davidson and Jake Webb have accepted teaching positions (in Baltimore, MD and France, respectively). William Price will attend the University of Connecticut Law School. Chris Carron, Patrick Ferri, Thomas Garrison Rebecca Stanley, Jordan van Horn, and Jake Webb all plan to apply to graduate or professional schools, with interests in philosophy, psychology, law school, and the ministry.