Events & News Archive
Philosophy Colloquium Series 2014-15
Spring
March 19
The Limits of Money: Phenomenological Reflections on Selfhood and Value
John Russon, Professor Department of Philosophy, University of Guelph
sponsored by Phi Sigma Tau, Philosophy Department, UMSG, Cult affairs/distinguished lecture series lecture series
4:00 p.m. Levinson Room, The Maples
March 26
Gender and The Double-Edged Slur
Lauren Ashwell, Assistant Professor Philosophy, Bates College
Weisz room, 4:00 pm
Abstract: Slurring language has had a lot of recent interest, but the focus has been almost exclusively on racial slurs. I argue that common gendered slurs – terms like “slut,” “bitch,” “whore,” or “sissy” – do not fit common assumptions made about slurring language, so existing analyses of slurs cannot explain their derogatory content. First, they do not have a truly neutral counterpart term. Second, their function is not only to say something about the slurred individual or group, but also to set up and reinforce normative standards for that gender as a whole. This constructs a hierarchy inside the gender. I argue that slurs are, in general, tools for policing the behavior of certain groups of people by setting up and maintaining these normative standards.
April 9
Prof. Brian Rogers
“On the Speculative and Existential Dimensions of St. Augustine’s Response to the Problem of Evil”
Weisz Room, The Maples, 4:00 p.m.
April 23
Visiting Scholar Autumn Fiester, PhD.
Director of Education and Faculty in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, and Director of the Penn Clinical Ethics Mediation Program, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
“Sperm And Oocyte Cryopreservation: Comprehensive Consent And The Protection Of Patient Autonomy”
4:00pm, Hill Auditorium, Barrows Hall
The 2013-2014 Philosophy Colloquium Series is partially funded through a grant from Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series. All programs are free and open to the UMaine community and the public. For more information, contact Professor Jessica Miller, Department of Philosophy, UMaine, Orono, Maine 04469; phone: 581-3860; email: jessica.miller@umit.maine.edu.
Philosophy Colloquium Series 2013-14
October 24
“Pedagogy With/In the Disaster: Thinking with Heidegger and Blanchot”
Nico Jenkins, Lecturer of Philosophy & Ethics, Husson University, and
Preceptor, Honors College, UMaine
4:00 p.m. Levinson Room, The Maples
November 14
“Precarious Life: Butler and Foucault on Biopolitics”
Jana Sawicki, Professor of Philosophy, Williams College
4:00 p.m. Bangor Room, Memorial Union
January 23
“An Alternative Paradigm for Ethics”
J. Gray Cox, Professor of Philosophy, The College of the Atlantic
4:00 p.m. Levinson Room, The Maples
February 13
“Mahatma Gandhi’s Philosophical Interpretation of Value”
Doug Allen, Professor of Philosophy, The University of Maine
4:00 p.m. Levinson Room, The Maples
April 3
“Do the Social Sciences Bear on Either the Truth or Falsity of Religious Belief?
William James and Sigmund Freud”
Robert Segal, Professor of Religious Studies, The University of Aberdeen
4:00 p.m. Bangor Room, Memorial Union
April 10
“Taming Leviathan: Toward a Global Alliance for Peace”
Fred Dallmayr, Professor of Philosophy and Political Science,
The University of Notre Dame
4:00 p.m. Bangor Room, Memorial Union
The 2013-2014 Philosophy Colloquium Series is partially funded through a grant from Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series. All programs are free and open to the UMaine community and the public. For more information, contact Professor Doug Allen, Department of Philosophy, UMaine, Orono, Maine 04469; phone: 581-3860; email: douglas.allen@umit.maine.edu.
Philosophy Colloquium Series 2012-13
Fall
September 28: “Nietzsche’s Naturalism”, Prof. Richard Schacht, Philosophy Department, University of Illinois, 4 p.m., Weisz Room, The Maples
November 8: “Ordinary Virtue,” Prof. Susan Stark, Philosophy Department, Bates College, 4 p.m., place TBA
November 15: TBA
Spring 2013
March 18: “Mammals and Music among Others: Crossmodal Perception and Musical Expressiveness,” Prof. William P. Seeley, Philosophy Department, Bates College; 3:30 p.m., DPC 107; co-sponsored with the Philosophy Club.
April 18: Philosophy Visiting Scholar, Prof. Thomas Pogge, Director of Global Justice Program and Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University. “Poverty, Inequality, and Regulatory Capture,” 12:30 p.m., Bangor Room, Memorial Union; “Tracking Poverty,” 4 p.m., Bangor Room, Memorial Union
The Colloquium Series is made possible in part by a grant from the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series.
Philosophy Colloquium Series 2011-12
Fall 2011
October 27: Jason Read, “Transindividuality: A Concept for Critical Theory,” 4 p.m., The Maples
November 3: Jill Gordon, “Eros and Homecoming in Plato’s Phaedo,” 4 p.m., The Maples
December 1: John Russon, “Beyond the Limits of Perception”4:00 p.m.,Deering Hall, Room 113
Spring 2012
March 15th, Drew Leder (visiting scholar),’Is Modern Medicine “Too Materialistic”?,’ 4-5:30 p.m., Little Hall 140
March 29th, Ned Beach, “Logical Lapses versus Deliberate Circularity: Two Perspectives on Hegel’s Logic,” 4-5:30 p.m., Weiss Room, The Maples
2010-11 Philosophy Colloquium Series
Fall
October 28: ”Double Effect and Its Critics: When and Why is Killing Wrong?” Prof. David Cummisky, Philosophy Department, Bates College
November 11: ”Reassessing Hegel on Art and Agency: Kara Walker’s “Insurrection” and the Sensible Situation” Prof. Lydia Moland, Philosophy Department, Colby College
December 2: ”The Difficult of Naming: On The Way to Language with Martin Heidegger” Nico Jenkins, Ph.D. Candidate, The European Graduate School
Spring
March 17, 4:30 pm, Weiss Room, The Maples Thomas Wartenberg, Professor of Philosophy, Mount Holyoke College “College Beyond the Gates: Teaching Philosophy to Second Graders”
March 24, 4:00 pm, Weiss Room, The Maples Robert Tredwell, Former Professor and Chairperson, UM Philosophy Department “The Indiscernibility of Chickadees and the Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles”
March 29: Two events co-sponsored with the Canadian-American Center: Shelia Watt-Cloutier, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and World Leader on Global Climate Change and Human Rights, Officer of the Order of Canada, Recipient of the Aboriginal Achievement Award, and the UN Champion of the Earth Award 1) Seminar for Undergrad and Grad Students, Wells Room #2, 2:00-3:15 pm 2) “Everything is Connected: Environment, Economy, Foreign Policy, Sustainability, Human Rights and Leadership in the 21st Century,” Collins Center for the Arts, 7:00 pm
April 14, 4:00 pm, Weiss Room, The Maples Nancy Bauer, Chair and Associate Professor of Philosophy, Tufts University “Sexual Objects”
April 21, 4:00 pm Philosophy Visiting Scholar, Weiss Room, The Maples Catherine Belling, Assistant Professor of Medical Humanities and Bioethics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine ”Paranoia and Policy: Reading Popular Fiction as Bioethics”
Persons with disabilities who need assistance with accommodations should contact Margaret Forbes at 581-3866.
2009-10 Philosophy Colloquium Series
Fall
October 15
Daniel Dennett, Professor of Philosophy, Tufts University, author of Darwin’s Dangerous Idea
“Darwin’s ‘Strange Inversion of Reasoning'”
Sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences as part of a Celebration of Darwin
4:00 p.m., Hauck Auditorium
November 5
David Swanson, author of Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union, in a conversation on activism and philosophy
4:00 p.m., Levinson Room, The Maples
November 12
Patricia Fagan, Professor of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, University of Windsor
“‘He Saw the Cities and He Knew the Minds of Many Men’: Landscape and Character in Plato’s Laws and Homer’s Odyssey”
November 19
Arnold Berleant, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Long Island University
“Spinoza: Religious or Philosophical Heretic?”
4:00 p.m., Levinson Room, The Maples
co-sponsored wtih Judaic Studies
Spring
February 11
James Behuniak, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Colby College
“Creativity and Creation in Early Daoism’
4:00 p.m., Levinson Room, The Maples
One more event, TBA
The Philosophy Colloquium Series is supported in part by a grant from the Cultural Affairs/Distinguished Lecture Series.
2008-09 Philosophy Colloquium Series
Fall
November 20, 2008:
“O’l Ben Franklin, The Pragmatist?”
Shane Ralston, Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Maine
Levinson Room, The Maples
December 4, 2008:
“Language: Who/What Has It? (And Were Aristotle and Descartes Right?”
Robert B. Louden
University of Southern Maine
Levinson Room, The Maples, 4 p.m.
Spring
February 12, 2009
Dan Cohen
Colby College
March 19, 2009
Dennis Patterson
Rutgers University Law School
“The New Global Trading Order: The Evolving State and the Future of Trade”
April 2, 2009
Alfonso Lingis
Penn State University
2007-08 Philosophy Colloquium Series
Fall
October 4, 2007
“Moral Pluralism, Skillful Means, and Environmental Ethics”
William Edelglass
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Colby College
November 1, 2007
“Four Perspectives on Abortion Ethics”
Donald Marquis
Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching, University Center for Human Values, Princeton University
December 6, 2007
“Aristotle’s Theory of Value (or Lack Thereof)”
William Clare Roberts
Faculty Lecturer, Departments of Philosophy and Political Science, McGill University
Spring
January 31, 2008
“Nietzsche, Music, Truth, Value and Life”
Richard Schacht
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
February 21, 2008
“The Invisibility of Painting”
John Sallis
Frederick J. Adelman Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Boston College
Late March, 2008
“Space and Phenomenology”
Edward Casey
Distinguished Professor, Department of Philosophy, Stony Brook University