Saint Vincent College Philosophy Department

04/25/2025

Two senior philosophy majors presented research at the 2025 academic conference. Sophie Bringman (Consciousness and Brain Death) and Mac Nowalk (The Sexual Identity of the Human Person). Congratulations! A departmental celebration of their achievements followed.

04/02/2025

More photos of Examined Life presenters.

04/02/2025

Congratulations to three of our majors who presented papers at the Examined Life Conference at Saint Francis University last Friday (3/28).
Steve Perekiszka: “Addressing the Technical and Ethical Dimensions of AI in Cybersecurity”
Silvana Rocco: “The Human Intellect as an Immaterial Reality: Comparison and Criticism from Several Thomist Perspectives”
Carolina Walters: “Do Our Ideas Adequately Represent the External World? Thomas Reid’s Response to David Hume”

04/01/2025

The Thomistic Institute at Saint Vincent College hosts their second lecture of the semester TONIGHT at 7 in FRC 1B/C. Dr. Daniel De Haan, of Oxford University (yes, that Oxford) will present "At the Moment of Free Choice: Addiction and Akrasia in a Thomist Anthropology."

Consider attending! Even if you aren't compelled to.

03/27/2025

Dr. Mohr's collection on the philosophy of Max Scheler has been released with Marquette University Press. Scheler is a early German phenomenologist whose thought is gaining prominence in US scholarship.

Max Scheler (1874-1928) was a figure of enormous philosophical prowess and versatility in the intellectually fertile atmosphere of a growing phenomenological movement. It is a testament to Scheler that the question of where his legacy resides remains an open, or at least a multivalent, one. Some ...

11/25/2024

Philosophy Colloquium is TONIGHT at 7 in Luparello, given by our very own Dr. Krom! Leave your personal cave (being holed up in your room) and learn about whether we can have true justice. It might be useful to know for when final grades come in...

11/18/2024

This past Friday was our final Socratic Seminar discussion for this semester, covering Book III of Plato's "Republic." We all learned not to laugh in class, or at least not loudly!

In the same spirit, the Philosophy Colloquium ("Can There Be Justice Here? Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Political Life") is a week from today - more details to come.

11/12/2024

Philosophy majors .bringman and have organized this evening’s lecture by Prof. Jensen! Come on by tonight for reflection and conversation on this pressing modern bioethics topic. See you there!

09/16/2024

What a whirlwind of a week it was in the philosophy department! We hosted our first lecture of the semester, engaged in many and varied forms of dialogue at Socratic Seminar and several extracurricular reading groups (some with coffee, some without), and even found time to gather as a department for some well-deserved leisure at the end of the week.

We hope your week has been equally blessed, and that you find time to take advantage of the many opportunities on campus!

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09/09/2024

Confused (or even disheartened) by the American political climate? Read Hobbes and Locke, but still have no idea why they think we need a government in the first place? Just looking for something to do with your Tuesday?

Join us Sept. 10 at 7:30 in the Fred Rogers Center for a lecture by Prof. Thomas Osborne (University of St. Thomas - Houston) entitled "Elections and Authority: Where Does Political Authority Come From?" We hope this will be a lecture well-suited to the events and discourse swirling around both this election and the issue of authority more generally, at all levels of government, and we hope you'll join us to learn and discuss!

08/27/2024

Happy first week of the term, Bearcats! Here’s hoping your studies, whatever they might be, are enriching and engaging. We certainly believe ours will be (swipe to see some of the things we’ve gotten up to in the past)!

Courses on offer in the Philosophy Department this term (which you could still enroll in until September 3, and many of which count for Core requirements!) include Logic and Theory of Knowledge; Ancient Philosophy; Modern Philosophy; Philosophical Anthropology; Love, Dignity, and Justice; Ethics; and Socratic Seminar (where we’ll dive into Plato’s Republic).

Additionally, plans are in the works for several events throughout the semester and year, including the return of the weekly reading group at 512 Coffee in downtown Latrobe and a series of lectures co-sponsored by the St. Vincent College Thomistic Institute (save the date for the first one: Sept. 10 on elections and authority, with Prof. Thomas Osborne of the University of St. Thomas-Houston!).

Good luck with everything this semester, and don’t hesitate to stop up to 3rd floor Placid for any help or advice you might need!

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