Archived Colloquia

2023-2024

Fall 2023

Sept. 21, 4:00 p.m., Smith 501
“Skepticism About Reasons For and Against Emotions”
Professor Talia Morag, University of Wollongong, Australia

Sept. 22, 3:30 p.m., Rehm Library
“Bots in the Kitchen: A Philosophical Take on the Digital Food Transformation”
Andrea Borghini
This event is co-sponsored with the Department of Philosophy.

Sept. 23, 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m., Smith 501
“Nature, Norms, and Society: Seven Hills Workshop”
This event is co-sponsored with the Department of Philosophy.

Sept. 28, 7:30 p.m., Levis Browsing Room, Dinand Library
“Aristotle’s Discovery of First Philosophy”
William Wians, Merrimack College
Commentator: C. Wes DeMarco, Clark University

Sept. 28, 2:00 p.m., Smith 201
“Why Aristotle Distinguishes between Second and First Philosophy”
Co-sponsored by: Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy (B.A.C.A.P.), and The Department of Philosophy, College of the Holy Cross

Nov. 15, 4:30 p.m., Smith 501
“Why We Like Villains in the Movies”
Professor Mario De Caro, Roma Tre University, Italy, and Tufts University

2021-2022

Fall 2021

Oct. 1, 2:00 p.m., Rehm Library
“Polarizing Disagreements: Philosophical and Psychological Reflections on a Political Conundrum”
Professor Karsten  Stueber, College of the Holy Cross

Oct. 28, 4:00 p.m., Rehm Library
"Adam Smith, Capitalism, and the Good Life.”
Professor Ryan Patrick Hanley, Boston College

Nov. 11, 7:30 p.m., Levis Browsing Room, Dinand Library
“Aristotle on Second and First Philosophy”
Professor William Wians, Merrimack College and Boston College
Commentator: Professor C. Wesley DeMarco, Clark University 
Seminar Topic: “Approaching First Philosophy: Natural Philosophers in Metaphysics A”
4pm Levis Browsing Room (Dinand Library Basement)

2018-2019

Spring 2019

Feb. 8, 3:30 p.m., Smith 501 (EVENT CANCELLED)
"Freedom and Creation: On Stravinksy’s Poetics"
Professor Chrysostomos Stamoulis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

March 22, 3:30 p.m., Smith 501
"Virtue Ethics versus Consequentialism"
Professor Jorge L.A. Garcia, Boston College

April 12, 3:30 p.m., Smith 501
"Through Many Glasses Dimly: Understanding the World through Many Mental Models"
Professor Steven W. Horst, Wesleyan University

Fall 2018

Sept. 28, 3:30 p.m., Rehm Library
"Freud and James in Worcester, 1909: The Unconscious and (One of) Its Discontents"
Professor, Vincent Colapietro, University of Rhode Island/Pennsylvania State University

Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m., Levis Browsing Room, Dinand Library
"How to Argue about Aristotle about Practical Reason"
Professor Giles Pearson, University of Bristol
Seminar Topic: Aristotle and the Humean Theory of Motivation
Sponsored by Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy (B.A.C.A.P.)

Nov. 15, 4:30 p.m., Rehm Library
"Dolphins, Flourishing, and the Challenges of Interspecies Ethics"
Professor, Thomas White ’69, Mount Holyoke College/Loyola Marymount University
Co-Sponsored by the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture

Nov. 30, 3:30 p.m., Rehm Library
Teaching Ethics
Professor Joseph Lawrence, College of the Holy Cross
 

2017-2018

Spring 2018

Feb. 16, 3:30 p.m., Rehm Library (EVENT CANCELLED)
"Mendelssohn, Kant, and the Aims of Art"
Prof. Paul Guyer, Jonathan Nelson Professor of Humanities and Philosophy, Brown University

Mar. 23, 3:30 pm, Rehm Library 
"Empathy and Morality in Psychopaths"
Prof. Heidi Maibom, University of Cincinnati

April 20, 3:30 p.m., Rehm Library
"Tradition and Inquiry in Tibetan Buddhism: An Examination of Tibetan Debate Practices"
Georges Dreyfus, Jackson Professor of Religion, Williams College
Co-sponsored by The McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics, and Culture, and Religious Studies

Fall 2017

Sept. 13; 4 p.m., Rehm Library
“Finding the Self: Charles Taylor's Theory of Subjectivity”
Professor Janez Percic, S.J., International Jesuit Visiting Scholar, College of the Holy Cross
Cosponsored by the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics, and Culture

Sept. 29, 3:30 p.m., Smith Hall 501
“Accommodation to Injustice”
Professor Berislav Marusic, Brandeis University

Nov. 10, 3:30 p.m., Smith Hall 501
“Kant on Taking Something to Heart”
Professor Wiebke Deimling, Clark University

Dec. 1, 3:30 p.m., Rehm Library
“A Radical Solution to the Race Problem”
Professor Quayshawn Spencer, University of Pennsylvania
Co-Sponsored by the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics, and Culture

2016-2017

Spring 2017

Feb. 23, 4 p.m., Rehm Library
"Buddhist Ethics: Cultivating Moral Perception" 
Doris Silbert Professor of Philosophy, Logic & Buddhist Studies 
Jay Garfield, Smith College

March 24, 3:30 p.m., Smith Hall 501 
"Liberalism, Neutrality, and the Gendered Division of Labor" 
Professor Gina Schouten, Harvard University

April 7, 3:30 p.m., Hogan 519 
"Being Pluralist about Other Minds" 
Lillian and Morrie Moss Professor of Excellence 
Shaun Gallagher, University of Memphis

Fall 2016

Sept. 16, 4 p.m., 501 Smith 
“Nietzsche on Religion, Fanaticism, and the Necessity of Higher Values”
Professor Paul Katsafanas, Boston University

Sept. 30, 4 p.m., 501 Smith 
“The Marriage Question: Philosophical and Theological Perspectives” 
Professor John Manoussakis, College of the Holy Cross

Oct. 27, 4 p.m., 501 Smith 
“Normative Change: A Non-standard Constructivist Account”
Professor Carla Bagnoli, University of Modena & Reggio Emilia

Nov. 10, 7:30 p.m., Levis Browsing Room, Dinand Library 
“The Metaphysics of the Syllogism” 
Professor Edward C. Halper, University of Georgia
Commentator: Professor Owen Goldin, Marquette UniversitySeminar Topic: “Aristotle’s Non-Formal Logic: Posterior Analytics Book II” 
Seminar Location: Smith Hall 201, 4 p.m.

2015-2016

Spring 2016

Feb. 11, 4 p.m., Smith 501 
"Unjust Sex, Rape, and the Heteronormative Sexual Continuum"
Professor Ann Cahill '91, Elon University

March 3, 4 p.m., Smith 501 
"Dionysus as a Hidden Presence in Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra"
Professor Charles Bambach, University of Texas of Dallas

April 7, 4 p.m., Smith 501
"Why 'Nothing' Matters: Heidegger and the Finitude of Being" 
Professor Timothy Jussaume '06, St. Leo University

April 15, 3:30 p.m., Rehm Library 
"Transcending the Humanities-Sciences Border: New Approaches to the Study of Religion and Ethics"
Professor Edward Slingerland, The University of British Columbia

April 21, 4 p.m., Smith 501 
"Back to the Middle Ages: Medieval Philosophy and the Post-Modern Condition"
Professor Robert Dobie '88, LaSalle University 

Fall 2015

Sept. 17, 4:30 p.m., Smith Labs 155
"Beyond the Meme: The Role of Development, Social Structure and Technology in Cultural Evolution" 
Professor William Wimsatt, University of Chicago

Oct. 22, 4 p.m., Smith Hall 501 
"On the Folly of Apologizing for Socrates in the Academy without Irony"
Professor Molly Flynn, Assumption College 

Oct. 29, 7:30 p.m., Rehm Library 
"Composition and Constitution in Ancient Metaphysics"
Dr. Anna Marmodoro, Oxford University 
Commentator: Rose M. Cherubin, George Mason University
(Seminar topic: "Aristotle's Hylomorphism", 4pm, Smith 201)

Nov. 19, 4 p.m., Rehm Library 
"Heidegger and Thoreau"
Professor Jeff Bloechl, Boston College