Department of Philosophy - University at Albany

06/15/2024

From last week's NYT: Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins said "she was inspired by the Scottish Enlightenment David Hume’s “ideas on implicit submission and, in his words, ‘the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.’"

Want to learn more about Hume? We got that.

Hume's philosophy is a regular feature of many of our undergraduate courses offered every semester and also part of many graduate courses. This fall two grad courses, APHI 524 - 17th-19th Ethical Theory and APHI 544 - British Empiricism, will spend time thinking about Hume.

We are also fortunate to have a resident Hume scholar in our department, Professor Rachel Cohon. Check out Prof. Cohon's entry on "Hume's Moral Philosophy" in the SEP:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-moral/

Read the complete NY story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/06/arts/hunger-games-suzanne-collins-sunrise-reaping.html

“Sunrise on the Reaping” is the latest book in Collins’s hit series, which generated a legion of fans. It will also be made into a movie.

06/07/2024

Congratulations to Philosophy recent Ph.D. Gunnar Babcock on being appointed Lecturer at Cornell University in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences!

Dr. Babcock works on topics in Philosophy of Biology and has recently been on a post-doc at Duke University. Check out his research at https://gunnarbabcock.com/

05/31/2024

Coming this fall...

Philosophy of Mind (APHI 416/516)
T/Th 1:30-2:50pm

How do our minds work? Is the mind simply a ‘software’ running on the brain’s hardware? And what exactly is a mind ‘made of’? All these questions do not have single, objectively right answers, because facts about the mind are not facts in the traditional sense of the term, and minds are not traditional objects, either.

Learn more in Prof. Buccella's course this fall.

Course can be taken as an upper-level undergraduate course (400-level) or as a graduate course (500-level).

05/30/2024

Coming this fall...

Morals and Society / APHI 114 | M/W 10:10-11:30

Do you have a moral obligation to follow the law? Should you do more than you do to help the poor? Under what circumstances, if any, is the killing of innocent civilians acceptable in war?

Students in Prof Hessler's Morals and Society class will study moral theories that help answer these questions. But (more importantly!) students will become moral philosophers in their own right by learning how to evaluate those theories for themselves. You'll take away important insights for reflection on morals and values in your own life.

05/21/2024

Check out the Law & Philosophy Minor here https://www.albany.edu/philosophy/programs

The study and practice of Law requires a unique combination of argumentative skills and reasoning abilities. Indeed, the American Bar Association's Council of Legal Education and Opportunity recommends that students interested in studying the Law take courses that “teach reasoning and analytical skills.” The discipline of Philosophy has traditionally played a role in the development of such skills and abilities in students.

The Law and Philosophy minor provides students with intensive training in reasoning and argumentation. It allows students to examine many of the current moral, political, and legal issues that are of interest to lawyers, judges, and legal scholars, as well as to professions in criminal justice, security and preparedness, government, and social work. Students will investigate questions such as: What is the relation between law and morality? How do changes in technology contribute to changes in the law (e.g., regarding medicine or environmental issues)? Does the law help or hurt oppressed groups in society? What makes something a human right, and how should respect for human rights be instantiated in the law? What is the basis of international law and can international law contribute to peace?

In the classroom, students will learn to engage in reasoned debate about complex problems, to argue for or against certain propositions, to defend views against objections, and to subject their own biases to careful scrutiny. Special emphasis is placed on reading arguments carefully, analyzing their structures and assumptions, and writing logically, clearly, and precisely.

05/17/2024

"Some of the skills that are really salient to cooperate with this new of intelligence in the world are critical thinking, understanding logic and rhetoric, the ability to be creative," Lee said. "AI will allow non-technical people to accomplish a lot more — and, by the way, begin to perform what were formerly believed to be technical tasks." - George Lee of Goldman Sachs

Want to take course in or ? We got that. University at Albany, SUNY offers Critical Thinking (APHI 112) and Introduction to Logic (APHI 210) EVERY semester. Check out our amazing programs: Philosophy major, Law & Philosophy minor, and Bioethics minor (alongside cutting-edge graduate programs).

The history major turned tech banker said AI enhances skills like critical thinking, creativity, and logic.

05/14/2024

This week Faculty Monika Piotrowska will present a paper titled “Reversing Gene Drives: Insights from the Art of Restoration"

Tenth Biennial Philosophy of Science in Practice Conference in Columbia, SC

05/14/2024

The recently-updated MA in Philosophy degree is now accepting applications! Check out some reasons why we hope you will apply here:

https://www.albany.edu/philosophy/why-ualbany-ma

For program details and how to apply, visit the following link: https://www.albany.edu/philosophy/programs/ma-philosophy

05/13/2024

Congratulations to Fulbright fellow Joel Kapapa, who recently earned his MA in at UAlbany. (Pictured here with his faculty mentor, Dr. Jon Mandle.)

05/12/2024

Congratulations to Alexis Brown, 2024 recipient of the Department Student Leadership Award!

05/02/2024

Chief information officer of Goldman Sachs Marco Argenti recently said: "I recently told my daughter, a college student: If you want to pursue a career in engineering, you should focus on learning in addition to traditional engineering coursework. Why? Because it will improve your code."

The ability to develop crisp mental models around the problems you want to solve and understanding the why before you start working on the how is an increasingly critical skill, especially in the age of AI. Coding is one of the things AI does best and its capabilities are quickly improving. However,...

05/02/2024

The Editor in Chief of recommends teaching more Philosophy of Science. Here at University at Albany, SUNY the Department regularly offers courses in this area. This spring Prof. Magnus offered Understanding Science (APHI 218) and in the fall will be teaching an honors course on Scientific Revolutions (TPHI 219).

Read the article here
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp7153

Check out our upcoming courses here https://www.albany.edu/philosophy/course-descriptions

04/19/2024

TOMORROW! Spring 2024 Graduate Student Conference
Conference Theme: Perspectives in Environmental Philosophy
Keynote Presenter: Evelyn Brister (RIT)

Time: begins at 11:00 AM (Refreshments beginning at 10:30 AM)

Location: UAlbany Fine Arts Building, Room 126 (note the location change from original announcement)

04/10/2024

Faculty Marcus Adams reviewed a recent book edited by Lisa Walters and Brandie R. Siegfried, Margaret Cavendish: An Interdisciplinary Perspective (Cambridge)
https://sites.bu.edu/impact/previous-issues/impact-winter-2024/book-review-margaret-cavendish/

04/04/2024

Tonight UAlbany Faculty Jason D’Cruz will participate on a panel for the Northeast Regional Honors Council “Intersections of Technology & Thought”

Program here: https://www.nrhchonors.com/2024-conference-program

04/04/2024

Professor Ron McClamrock's research and teaching at in his own words:

"My research has been centered in the philosophy of psychology, broadly speaking, thought of as something like the intersection between phenomenological philosophy of mind to materialism and reductionism about consciousness to broadly methodological thoughts on the study of mind. In simple and concrete terms, I'm particularly interested in the relationship between our conscious experience and the operation of our brains; in why the world is experientially present to us the way it is; and in what kind of assumptions we make that get in the way of our best understanding of human experience. More recently, I have more recently been thinking about things that range from tensions in what we say about how things look to us ("How Big Do Things Look?" 2022) to finding guidance in mid-20th-century phenomenology ("Merleau-Ponty and the Embodied Self" 2020), to co-authored side bits with my colleague P.D. Magnus and others on the philosophy of popular music ("Appreciating Covers", 2022)."

"I particularly enjoy teaching courses that focus on how human conscious experience fits into the natural world; but also enjoy teaching the Philosophy in Science Fiction, in which we use movies and television and fiction to try to illuminate philosophical issues that sometimes get particularly vivid presentation through science fiction. Like a lot of people, I think, some of my first encounters with serious issues in philosophy came through reading and watching sci-fi as a kid. And for many years I've taught a large introductory course that surveys some of the central traditional problems in metaphysics and epistemology (including skepticism and knowledge, mind and freedom, and God and the meaning of life); in teaching this, I continue to enjoy welcoming new students to some of their first more formal confrontations with these issues that they likely have wondered about in a less structured way prior to their first college philosophy course."

04/01/2024

Recent research by Philosophy Faculty Marcus Adams has uncovered that the true meaning of is not "love of wisdom" but rather "love of phyllo dough". Journal article on this ground breaking research is forthcoming in the Journal of

03/27/2024

Mark your calendars for the 2024 UAlbany Philosophical Association Graduate Student Conference! The theme of the conference is Environmental Ethics.

Saturday, April 20th from 11:00 AM - 4:30 PM in HU-354.