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