Professor Katherine Brading, Duke University, gave the O’Hara Lecture in Philosophy of Physics virtually on May 20, 2021. Brading’s talk “How Physics Flew The Philosophers’ Nest,” explored the history of philosophy and physics; examining when, how, and why they became separate disciplines. The lecture was followed by a question and answer period moderated by Professor Benjamin Feintzeig.
Abstract:
Today Physics and philosophy are housed in separate departments and, by and large, practiced by… Read more
From fantastical graphic novels to exploring addiction to the philosophy of play, and everything in between, this year's summer book recommendations by the Philosophy faculty once again cover a wide array of subjects. Check out the books that our faculty members have read recently or are planning to read this summer. We hope you find a few new wonderful books to add to your reading list.
S. Marc Cohen
The… Read more
On Friday, June 11, we held our second virtual graduation celebration with our graduates, faculty, family, and friends. While we wish we could have celebrated in person, it was lovely to see our students celebrating their graduation with friends and family supporting them on Zoom. Congratulations to the sixty-five Bachelor of Arts graduates, and the three Doctorate of Philosophy graduates of the class of 2021!
Our ceremony this year also included our graduation alumnus speaker, Judge Salvador… Read more
The Department of Philosophy celebrated the achievements of our undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, and faculty at our annual Awards Ceremony on May 21, 2021. The awards ceremony was held virtually for the second year but that did not lessen our pride or reduce our celebration of our award winners’ accomplishments. Our philosophy community continued its annual tradition of honoring our award winners by having faculty and graduate students… Read more
On April 29, 2021, Dr. Cornel West presented the talk "Critical Thinking and the Cultivation of Your True Self," held in a virtual forum, and presented by the Northwest African American Museum and sponsored by the UW Department of Philosophy, UW Race & Equity Initiative, and UW Department of Communication.
Nationally-renowned public intellectual and award-winning author Dr. Cornel West, professor of Harvard University, joined Dr. Ralina… Read more
Congratulations to Professor Benjamin Feintzeig who was awarded a National Science Foundation grant for his project Quantum Epistemology Beyond Quantum Measurement. The award funds the project from September 2021 to August 2023. Feintzeig will be working on the project with Co-Principal Investigator Samuel Fletcher, University of Minnesota, and Postdoctoral Scholar, Jeremy Steeger, University of Washington.
Here is a summary of the project:
It is well known that quantum mechanics does… Read more
Congratulations to Professor Jana Mohr Lone, the director of the UW Center for Philosophy for Children, on the publication of her new book Seen and Not Heard: Why Children’s Voices Matter. Described by National Book Award winner Jonathan Kozol as "a stirring and important book, which should be widely read," Seen and Not Heard examines… Read more
Professor José Jorge Mendoza will be part of the free APA webinar on Monday, June 21st at 2 pm ET/ 11 am PT for undergraduate students who are interested in pursuing further study in philosophy: Underrepresented Perspectives on Pursuing Academic Philosophy.
The panel also includes Keisha Ray, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Bioethics, University of Texas McGovern Medical School, and Bailey Thomas, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Louisville, and Sahar Joakim,… Read more
The Department of Philosophy is proud to announce that Jack Lucas Chang, a double major in Philosophy and Informatics, is one of the University of Washington 2021 Husky 100! The Husky 100 recognizes 100 UW undergraduate and graduate students from Bothell, Seattle, and Tacoma in all areas of study who are making the most of their time at the UW.
In addition to his classes… Read more
Professor Stephen Gardiner gave the Annual Lecture in Humanities and Social Sciences at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters on March 22, 2021. He spoke about how despite decades of awareness, we are currently accelerating hard into the climate problem in a way that defies standard explanations. This suggests that a focus on the scientific and economic questions is too narrow, and the tendency to see the political problem as one of nation-states facing a traditional tragedy of the… Read more
Several members of the UW neuroethics team (professors Sara Goering, Eran Klein, previous graduate student Michelle Pham, and previous postdoctoral Scholar Laura Specker Sullivan) who participated in the Morningside Group/Neuroethics Taskforce are now part of a large co-authored paper published this month in the journal Neuroethics. The paper “Recommendations for the… Read more
Professor Sara Goering discusses the need for legal privacy rights for one’s thoughts and memories in an article on Gizmodo, which examines the NeuroRights Initiative, formed by Columbia University neuroscientist Rafael Yuste.
“This is a new frontier of privacy rights, in that the things that are inside of our heads are ours. They’re intimate; we share them when we want to share them. And we don’t want that to be made into a data… Read more
PhD candidate Michael Ball-Blakely wrote "Transnational Capitalism and Feudal Privilege: Open Borders as a Tool for Non-Domination" for the APA blog, comparing modern governmental border systems to the feudal caste system and explaining how open borders could serve as a solution to this injustice.
Moreover, many would-be migrants are already in a relationship with high-income countries that serves to benefit the latter at the expense of the former. The current system of divided citizenships,… Read more
When the UW returns in the fall, the faculty will be bringing innovative teaching methods developed during remote teaching back to their in-person classrooms. The Bridging the Distance article features innovative faculty. This includes Professor Ian Schnee, who embraces technology-based teaching methods, making interaction with his students in his logic course engaging and energetic. Read the entire … Read more
HBO Max’s sci-fi series "Made for Love" reveals the dangers of a controversial new technology that uses a brain implant to connect to minds. Is this concept possible?
Sara Goering, a professor of philosophy at the University of Washington with an expertise in neuroethics, tells Inverse that this technology really is being developed. Sort of.
“Certainly there is work being done on how to identify biomarkers or… Read more
Nancy Jecker, Professor of Bioethics and Humanities, discusses if parents and unvaccinated children should continue to wear masks.
Fully vaccinated adults are celebrating their new freedom and removing their face masks. Yet for parents of children under age 12, the rejoicing might be short-lived.
Since children that age do not yet have access to vaccines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says they are better off staying masked when in public and around people they don’t live with… Read more