A major in philosophy provides excellent preparation for such professions as law, medicine, and business. The conceptual sophistication imparted by training in philosophy is invaluable in virtually any field of learning or any serious profession.
The department congratulates Stephen Mackereth on his appointment to the Society of Fellows at Dartmouth College, beginning in Fall 2024!
"Neo-logicism and Conservativeness" is forthcoming in The Journal of Philosophy. The paper contains meditations on the requirement of conservativeness for stipulative definitions (which becomes intricate in the context of second-order logic), and on what must be done to Hume's Principle in order to get it up to muster.
The award recognizes the depth and range of Professor Whiting's research in philosophy, which brings ancient philosophical thought into dialogue with modern debates on the nature of friendship and personal identity.
Taylor Koles’s ‘The Semantics of Deadnames’ is forthcoming in Philosophical Studies.
Daniel Webber’s paper “The Misapplication Dilemma” (formerly titled “Being Realistic About Rules”) is forthcoming at Nous, and his paper “Putting Wronging First” is forthcoming at Philosophical Quarterly.
The department mourns the death of our friend and colleague, Nicholas Rescher. Nick taught at the University of Pittsburgh from 1961 until his death this year.
Between 1967 and 2008 a small yet ambitious set of friends, the North American Traditions Group – including Pitt philosopher Mark Wilson – recorded many hundreds of hours of traditional music in Appalachia, the Canadian Maritimes, the Ozarks and the American West. A curated survey of their recordings is now released as a 15-volume CD collection, with extensive notes by Mark Wilson, Norm Cohen and other experts.
The department mourns the death of our friend and colleague, David Gauthier. David taught at the University of Pittsburgh from 1980 until his retirement in 2001.
Arbeiter argues that validity is a thick concept and hence should be considered in analogy to other thick concepts such as honesty, selfishness, or justice. This helps explain ways in which logic is not merely descriptive but also normative.
Pitt Philosophy alumna Jennifer Nagel (PhD 2000) gave the 2023 John Locke Lectures at Oxford University. The topic is "Recognizing knowledge: intuitive and reflective epistemology," and recordings and handouts are available here
The department congratulates alumnus Derrick Darby (PhD 1996) on his election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
To treat some human beings as less worthy of concern and respect than others is to lose sight of their humanity. But what does this moral blindness amount to? What are we missing when we fail to appreciate the value of humanity? Oxford University Press has recently published a collection of essays addressing these, and related, questions. It is co-edited by Sarah Buss and Nandi Theunissen.
Robert Brandom's new book based on the prestigious Spinoza Lectures at the University of Amsterdam. OUP, 2023.
Editors Matthew Boyle and Evgenia Mylonaki gather influential minds to clarify and criticize John McDowell’s arguments for nonreductive naturalism. HUP, 2023.
