Philosophy Colloquium Series

Philosophy Colloquium Series 2024-25

"The Quality of Thought"

Speaker: David Pitt (Cal State LA)

Monday, February 10, 4:00-5:30 pm, ARTS 228

The main thesis of this book is that thinking is a kind of experience, characterized by a sui generis phenomenology, determinates of which are thought contents, and tokens of which are occurrent thoughts. This sort of phenomenology has been called “cognitive phenomenology”. It is a proprietary phenomenology of pure thought – the mere entertainment, or grasping, of a proposition. This thesis goes very much against the grain of naturalistic theorizing about the nature and determination of conceptual content. Not only is it resolutely internalist, but it grounds conceptual intentional content in qualitative experience, which remains stubbornly resistant to naturalistic explanation.

"Self-Microaggression: What it is and Why it Matters"

Speaker: Lel Jones (UC Davis)

Event has passed

Comparing self-microaggressions to other-microaggressions also results in fascinating discoveries about the nature of microaggressions more generally. Unlike other-microaggressing, paradigmatic self-microaggressions are not issued from an individual with the relevant dominant identity against one with the relevant marginalized identity, it is not public, and the mental states of the aggressor are more accessible to us – we are the microaggressor and microaggressee!

"Four-dimensional Persistence in Many Worlds Interpretation"

Speaker: Jerome Romagosa (UC Davis)

Event has passed

I explore the metaphysics of persistence and identity in the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics (MWI). I draw particular attention to the distinction between ‘overlap' and ‘divergence' in four-dimensional perdurantist frameworks of persistence, a distinction that has received relatively little attention in the metaphysics literature outside of the context of the MWI. I show that the the primary arguments in the MWI literature against overlap — that the overlapping worm view has difficulties accommodating ordinary language propositions — pose no substantive hurdles to the view. I then argue that both the divergent worm view and the overlapping worm view face deeper metaphysical worries. The dilemma for the views is that either (i) distinct objects can occupy the same spatiotemporal region without sharing parts, hence violating our intuitions about location, or (ii) objects inhabiting distinct spacetimes must interact with one another, violating our intuitions about the nature of spacetime and causal interaction.

"Not On Your Genes?"

Speaker: Daisy Underhill (UC Davis)

Event has passed

Not On Your Genes. Amplified Inductive Risk of Epigenetic Inheritance Trauma.

The research agenda of epigenetic inheritance of trauma (EIT) has the potential to speak to broad social and political interests, making it a perceived case of socially responsible science. Ironically, however, this perception and connection to social and political interests may also undermine the ability of EIT researchers to conduct socially responsible research due to the amplification of EIT’s inductive risk.

Previous Colloquia

2023-2024

Speaker: Renee Rushing (Florida State University)
"Fitting Diminishment of Anger: A Permissivist Account"

Speaker: Quinn White (Harvard University)
"Forgiveness: Personal and Political"

Speaker: Ramiel Tamras (UC Davis)
"Not Permissible, Not Impermissible"

Speaker: Natasha Haddal (UC Davis)
"Pluralistic Approaches and Biological Sex"

Speaker: Chanwoo Lee (UC Davis)
"Conceptions of a Foundation in Mathematics"

Speaker: Wai-hung Wong (Chico State)
“How to Read the Eternal Recurrence as a Thought Experiment”

2022-2023

Speaker: Derek Lam (CSU Sacramento)
"Not Being Sure of Myself"

Speaker: Patrick Skeels (UC Davis)
"Context, Consistency, and Contradiction"

Speaker: Jordan Bell (UC Davis)
"Conceptual Engineering and Singular Thought"

Speaker: Joseph Chan (Princeton University)
"The Moral Limits of Violence in Political Resistance"

Speaker: Danielle J. Williams (UC Davis)
"Implementation, Individuation, and Triviality in Computational Theories"

2014-2015

Speaker: Bruce Fink
"Lacan on Love: A Commentary on Lacan's Reading of Plato's Symposium"

Speaker: David Robinson Simon
"Meatonomics"

Speaker: James Bahoh (Duquesne University)
"On the Nature of Philosophical Problems in Heidegger, Lautman, and Deleuze"

2013-2014

Speakers: Prof. John Donohue (Stanford Law School) & Attorney Donald E.J. Kilmer, Jr.
"Guns in America: A Debate"

2012-2013

Speaker: Michael Epperson (California State University, Sacramento)
"The Mutual Implication of Objects and Relations in Quantum Mechanics: How Potentiality and Contextuality Are Ontologically Significant in Modern Physics"

Speaker: Mark Balaguer (California State University, Los Angeles)
"Anti-Metaphysicalism and Temporal Ontology"

Speaker: Speaker: Peter Fosl (Transylvania University)
"Hume's Progressive Appeal to Custom"

2011-2012

Speaker: Cody Gilmore (UC Davis)
"Holes: What They're Not"

Speaker: Quayshawn Spencer (University of San Francisco)
"How to Be a Biological Racial Realist"

Speaker: Pamela Hieronymi (UCLA)
"Can You Believe at Will?"

Speaker: Alexis Burgess (Stanford University)
"Standing in the way of a Science of Meaning: Mainstream Semantics + Deflationary Truth"

Speaker: Mohammed Abed (California State University, Los Angeles)
"Genocide as a Process of Social Group Destruction"

2010-2011

Speaker: Davit Pitt (California State University, Los Angeles)
"How to Distinguish a Statue from a Lump"

Speaker: Ted Sider (New York University)
"Is Metaphysics about the Real World"

Speaker: Janet D. Stemwedel (San Jose State University)
"Sifting Sound Science from Snake-oil: In search of demarcation criteria for science as actually practiced"