Bucknell Philosophy Colloquium: "The Social Sciences and Philosophy: Allies, Rivals or Enemies?" (3/22)

THE NEXT TALK IN THE BUCKNELL PHILOSOPHY COLLOQUIUM SERIES:

William Lewis (Skidmore College)
"The Social Sciences and Philosophy: Allies, Rivals or Enemies?"

Friday, March 22 at 4:30 pm
Willard Smith Library (Vaughn Lit 125)

Bill Lewis is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Chair of Philosophy and Religion at Skidmore College. He is the author of Louis Althusser and the Traditions of French Marxism (Lexington Books, 2006). His scholarship focuses on the relationships between political activity, self- and group-understanding, and scientific knowledge. In this talk, he will examine different possible models for conceiving the relation between philosophy and the social sciences.


This lecture is sponsored by the Philosophy department and is free and open to the public. Please join us!

At The Threshold: Interdisciplinary Panel on Art, Perception, Engineering and Time

Maria Balcells of the Philosophy department will be joining Samek Director/Chief Curator Richard Rinehart and Maurice Aburdene of Electrical Engineering for an interdisciplinary panel discussion at the Samek Art Gallery (LC, 3rd floor) this Wednesday, March 20th from 6-7 pm. 

The panel will discuss the Samek's current exhibition by electrical engineer and new media art pioneer Jim Campbell, and the exhibit's relationship to art, engineering, and perceptions of imagery and time. Professor Balcells will speak on the notions of our consciousness and how Campbell's use of electric engineering "fools" our minds, so to speak, on how we perceive an image. Professor Aburdene will discuss and show demos of the processes behind electronics. Finally, Rick Rinehart will give an overview of the new media genre and how this form of art crosses disciplines.

Please join us for what will be an interesting and insightful evening. Feel free to invite any other potentially interested folks as well! A reception will follow in the gallery.  

For more information, see: "At the Threshold": Interdisciplinary Panel

(Note: the original date for this event was 2/13/13, but it has been rescheduled for 3/20/13).

"The Island President" at the Campus Theatre

Next up in the Green Screens film series, "The Island President": Tuesday, March 5th at 7:30 PM in the Campus Theatre, with a post-screening discussion.

ON FEBRUARY 7, 2012, MOHAMED NASHEED RESIGNED THE PRESIDENCY UNDER THE THREAT OF VIOLENCE IN A COUP D'ETAT PERPETRATED BY SECURITY FORCES LOYAL TO THE FORMER DICTATOR. THIS FILM IS THE STORY OF HIS FIRST YEAR IN OFFICE. 

Jon Shenk’s The Island President is the story of President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, a man confronting a problem greater than any other world leader has ever faced—the literal survival of his country and everyone in it. After bringing democracy to the Maldives after thirty years of despotic rule, Nasheed is now faced with an even greater challenge: as one of the most low-lying countries in the world, a rise of three feet in sea level would submerge the 1200 islands of the Maldives enough to make them uninhabitable.

The Island President captures Nasheed’s first year of office, culminating in his trip to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009, where the film provides a rare glimpse of the political horse-trading that goes on at such a top-level global assembly. Nasheed is unusually candid about revealing his strategies—leveraging the Maldives’ underdog position as a tiny country, harnessing the power of media, and overcoming deadlocks through an appeal to unity with other developing nations. When hope fades for a written accord to be signed, Nasheed makes a stirring speech which salvages an agreement. Despite the modest size of his country, Mohamed Nasheed has become one of the leading international voices for urgent action on climate change (Synopsis from the film's website).

"Chasing Ice" at the Campus Theatre

As part of the Environmental Center's "Green Screens" documentary film series, the critically-acclaimed documentary, three years in the making, of arctic melting comes to the Campus Theatre on Tuesday, February 26th at 7:30PM with a post-screening panel discussion.

2013 Sellars Lecture: Sally Haslanger, "Structural Injustice: What It Is and How It's Hidden"

Thursday, February 28th
Forum, Langone Center: 7PM
Reception to follow in Walls Lounge

Professor Haslanger is Professor of Philosophy and Director of Women's and Gender Studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her areas of specialization are analytic metaphysics, epistemology, feminist theory, and social philosophy. A collection of her papers, Resisting the Real: Social Construction and Social Critique was published by Oxford University Press in 2012. She has also co-edited three volumes: Adoption Matters: Philosophical and Feminist Essays, with Charlotte Witt, Theorizing Feminisms, with Elizabeth Hackett, and Persistence, with Roxanne Marie Kurtz. In 2009 she founded the Women in Philosophy Task Force and has collaborated extensively with others to promote gender equity in academia in general, and in philosophy in particular. In 2010 she was awarded the Distinguished Woman Philosopher of the year by the Society of Women in Philosophy. Haslanger gave the Carus Lectures, the American Philosophical Association’s most prestigious lecture series, in 2012 and is President-Elect of the Eastern Division of the APA.

Professor Haslanger | Photograph by Jon Sachs

See here for a recent Q&A with Professor Haslanger, courtesy of MIT.

Darwin Day Lectures: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Pleistocene Rewilding!

Happy Darwin Day! If you love science and philosophy, you should come out on Thursday to listen to Harry Greene, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University, speak on "Natural History, Aesthetics, and Conservation":

The diversity of life on earth is under serious threats from multiple human-related causes, and science plays well-known roles in addressing management aspects of this problem. My presentation will describe how natural history also plays a vital role in enhancing our appreciation for organisms and environments, thereby influencing the value judgments that ultimately underlie all conservation. I will first explain how an 18th century philosopher’s distinction between “beauty” and “sublime” can be used in the context of Darwin’s notion of “descent with modification,” then illustrate this approach with frogs, rattlesnakes, the African megafauna, Longhorn Cattle, and California Condors.

Thursday, February 14th at 7:30PM in Rooke 116. 
The talk is hosted by the Biology Department and co-sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program and the Departments of Geography, Philosophy, and Religion.

Professor Greene will also be giving a colloquium on Friday at noon in the same room on "Pleistocene Rewilding: Lions in a Den of Daniels?"

More than five years ago a group of us published papers in Nature and American Naturalist proposed partially restoring the lost North American Pleistocene megafauna with conspecifics and closely related proxies for tortoises, cheetah, elephants, and other species. In this seminar I will summarize our initiative and the subsequent response from conservation biologists and the public, with emphasis on implications for conserving biodiversity on a rapidly changing earth.

These should both be fascinating talks! Come out and make Darwin your valentine.

At The Threshold: Interdisciplinary Panel on Art, Perception, Engineering and Time

Maria Balcells of the Philosophy department will be joining Samek Director/Chief Curator Richard Rinehart and Maurice Aburdene of Electrical Engineering for an interdisciplinary panel discussion at the Samek Art Gallery (LC, 3rd floor) this Wednesday, February 13th from 6-7pm.

The panel will discuss the Samek's current exhibition by electrical engineer and new media art pioneer Jim Campbell, and the exhibit's relationship to art, engineering, and perceptions of imagery and time. Maria will speak on the notions of our consciousness and how Campbell's use of electric engineering "fools" our minds, so to speak, on how we perceive an image. Maurice will discuss and show demos of the processes behind electronics. Finally, Rick Rinehart will give an overview of the new media genre and how this form of art crosses disciplines.

Please join us for what will be an interesting and insightful evening. Feel free to invite any other potentially interested folks as well! A reception will follow in the gallery.

For more information, see: "At the Threshold": Interdisciplinary Panel