Department of Philosophy - University at Albany

04/24/2025

Thanks to everyone who joined us today for M.A. candidate Steven Hymowech's Public Master's Talk "Sublation & the General Will: Reading Rousseau's Political Philosophy as Romantic"!

04/21/2025

"...I think we need new great philosophers to come about, hopefully in the next 5, 10 years, to understand the implications of this."

That's Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis on last night's 60 Minutes discussing the possibility of teaching AI ethical reasoning and the need for Ethics and Philosophy of AI.

Interested? So are we.



Here's one way to learn more about Ethics and Philosophy of AI from our experts: We will be offering an undergraduate course Ethics and Philosophy of AI (APHI 213) beginning next fall and as a regular feature of our course offerings.

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Critical examination of the ethics and philosophical foundations of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Specific topics discussed may vary with semesters but typically include multiple and diverse perspectives on topics such as the historical and theoretical origins of AI, the 'frame problem', ethical-social issues, such as algorithmic bias and transparency, political impacts of AI, with focus on social justice, human rights, and the 'existential risks' posed by malicious uses of AI, the media's portrayal of current AI systems' capabilities, and strategies to educate the public about AI.

To watch the interview, see: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-artificial-intelligence-demis-hassabis-60-minutes/

04/18/2025

Please join us next week for a Philosophy Department Master’s Talk

“Sublation & the General Will: Reading Rousseau's Political Philosophy as Romantic”

Steven Hymowech
Thursday, April 24th
2 PM in Humanities Room HU-130

ABSTRACT
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s conception of the general will, the aggregate of citizens' shared sense of and desire for what constitutes a just political state, is foundational for his iteration of a social contract to actualize such a political state. However, it is often read to produce contradictions that are difficult to reconcile. This talk proposes that such contradictions need not be reconciled when considered as a Romantic era concept and read from a Romantic perspective.

04/12/2025

and Pop Culture conference talks continue here in FA 126. All talks open to the public.

04/12/2025

Starting now! All are welcome — free and open to the public. UAlbany Grad Student Conference on Pop Culture and Philosophy in FA 126.

04/12/2025

TODAY!

04/10/2025

Margaret Cavendish as Critic and Reviser of Hobbes on Matter and Motion

ABSTRACT
Margaret Cavendish’s materialism holds that all motion is self-motion. Although she shows affinities to Hobbes’s understanding of “entire cause,” her strategy opposes features of Hobbes’s account of matter while revising his understanding of “motion.” Cavendish’s rejection of Hobbes’s persistence principle and his account of “place” can be understood as following from a more thorough interpretation of the impossibility of abstracting accidents from bodies.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/18750257-bja10091

04/08/2025

Professor Jason D’Cruz and Philosophy Ph.D. students Andrew Gill and Elizabeth Gray will attend the SUNY AI Symposium at University of Buffalo this week.

Jason will give a research talk on accountability and LLM-generated apologies, Andrew will present a poster on algorithmic decision making in criminal justice, and Elizabeth will represent UAlbany’s new AI & Society Research Center as its new Associate Director.

For more information about the SUNY AI Symposium at University at Buffalo, see https://www.buffalo.edu/research/landing-pages/suny-ai-symposium.html

04/02/2025

Mock Law Class event sponsored by Pre-Law advising at UAlbany:

Wed, 4/9 at 4pm in Catskill Room 160
Professor Kanika Johar
with Albany Law School

04/01/2025

Coming Soon!

17th Annual UAPA Grad Student Conference on Pop Culture &

Sat, 4/12 from 10am - 4pm
Room Location: Fine Arts 126

Keynote: Dr. William Irwin

Event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

03/31/2025

Professor Jason D'Cruz's research and teaching at University at Albany, SUNY in his own words:

"I work in the subfield of moral psychology, primarily on questions of trust, self-deception, and imagination. Presently I’m applying insights from moral psychology to the case of human-AI interaction. This collaborative work brings together philosophers, computer scientists, and psychologists and is funded by a grant from the SUNY-IBM research alliance."

"I will be a civil discourse faculty fellow at Harvard’s Safra Center for Ethics next year where I’ll be working on a project about trust and courage. Trusting other people requires the willingness to take risks. Courage is the virtue a person needs to manage fear in the face of the unknown."

"I love to teach APHI 326 (moral philosophy). My version of this course focuses on moral character and moral emotions, I also love APHI 324 (philosophy of art) because the mix of students I get – analytical and creative – makes for a stimulating classroom."

"Philosophy is a great fit for anyone who likes to think deeply about life’s most important questions. The training it provides in analytical thinking, clear writing, and persuasive speech is relevant to a wide range of careers."

03/29/2025

taking about latest in the Wicked series — happening now.

03/28/2025

Congrats to members of the World of Law, Ethics, and Philosophy LLC who won awards at the UAlbany World Video and Academic Awards Ceremony, including an award for Best Script!

Pictured are Lauren Galarza (left) and Tegan Freeman (right) (LEP freshmen) and the LEP World Assistant Gabrielle Hope (center).

The World of Law, Ethics, and Philosophy LLC is taught and facilitated by Philosophy Professor Kristen Hessler.

03/28/2025

ABSTRACT
In "Nothing Is True," Will Gamester defends a form of alethic nihilism that still grants truth-talk a kind of legitimacy: an expressive role that is implemented via a pretense. He argues that this view has all of the strengths of deflationism, while also providing an elegant resolution of the Liar Paradox and its kin. For the alethic nihilist, Liar and related sentences are not true, and that is the end of the story. No contradiction arises because it does not thereby follow that any of these sentences are also true, since nothing is. Gamester concludes that the simplicity of this response to the semantic paradoxes makes alethic nihilism an attractive approach. We disagree. In addition to providing insurmountable obstacles for his form of alethic nihilism, we contend that a certain form of non-nihilist deflationism is better placed to deal with the paradoxes and to account for truth-talk more generally.

Link to paper: https://www.pdcnet.org/jphil/content/jphil_2024_0121_0012_0686_0697

https://doi.org/10.5840/jphil20248165

03/27/2025

New and upcoming courses in Ethics and Philosophy of AI and AI in Society

APHI 240 - Special Topics in Philosophy: AI development and environmental policy
*offered this summer

APHI 213 - Ethics and Philosophy of AI
*offered beginning FALL 2025

APHI 380 - AI in Society: Ethical and Legal Issues
*COMING SOON

03/27/2025

After UAlbany BA in Philosophy, a Ph.D. at Cincinnati and now Professor at Wake Forest.

LEARN ABOUT AMANDA'S PATH

I graduated back in 2012. I was spoiled during my time at UAlbany. I became super interested in philosophy of mind, specifically in philosophy of perception and embodied cognition, and I had an absolutely wonderful advisor in Professor McClamrock, who not only supervised my honors thesis in those areas but was a huge help in preparing me to study them more seriously in grad school.

I enjoyed so many Philosophy class – seriously! Philosophy of Science Fiction with Ron was probably the most fun of all, but of course I had an awesome time in his Philosophy of Mind and 20th Century Philosophy classes too. Then there was Professor Magnus' grad seminar on natural kinds, which was excruciatingly painful at the time (I was in way over my head)- but I loved it, and I still think about it often. I also enjoy reflecting on the wild ride that was Professor Howell's 17th and 18th Century Philosophy. He would jump around, filling up the entire chalkboard with notes. Sometimes I try to emulate that in my own courses, but I can never quite match his energy!

I am now an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. If you had told me back in 2012 that I would actually go on to be a professional philosopher, I would have laughed and laughed...but here we are! I'm very grateful to have made it to this stage.

Like I said above, I was really spoiled at UAlbany. I had the support of a bunch of wonderful professors who took me seriously as a budding philosopher. If it wasn't for their confidence in me (even when I was screwing up!), I don't know if I would have had the courage to pursue professional philosophy. I wholeheartedly believe that Philosophy is the best thing one could spend their time studying – and I tell my students this all the time. It helps you to become an excellent critical thinker, a responsible member of society, and a curious human being. It also gives you plenty to talk about when you're sat next to an inquisitive stranger on an airplane.

03/25/2025

03/25/2025

Digital Advertising Strategist and Business Founder.

LEARN ABOUT SYDELLE'S PATH

I graduated in May 2016. The area of philosophy I enjoyed the most was bioethics. I recall taking Morals in Medicine with Prof. Steinbock where our class engaged in interesting discussions around controversial topics such as advance directives, euthanasia, and physician assisted su***de.

A class I fondly remember is Morals and Society with Prof. D’Cruz. It was the first philosophy class I took during my freshman year and it made me decide to pursue a major in philosophy. Another class I remember is British Empiricism with Prof. Adams. It was a seminar style graduate level course I took during my senior year which was very challenging for me but definitely pushed me to grow as a student.

Following UAlbany, I earned my master’s degree in Integrated Marketing from New York University in 2020. I currently work for a global media agency where I specialize in developing and executing digital advertising strategies for businesses. I’m also the founder of Beauty of the Isles which is a plant-based skincare brand inspired by my Caribbean heritage.

Philosophy challenged me to really think critically. I learned how to evaluate and structure an argument. Philosophy also taught how me to formulate and clearly articulate my own opinions, and it pushed me to develop my writing skills. I was able to use all these skills I gained from my philosophy degree to be successful in my graduate studies and career.