How to declare a major in philosophy!

1) Make sure you’ve met the pre-requisite: passed one philosophy course with a grade
of C or better. If you have not met this pre-requisite but are currently enrolled in a
philosophy course, talk to the DUP (Ross Cameron) to see if you can declare.

2) Make a plan for how you are going to meet the major requirements. This should be
10 courses at 2000 level or above if you are intending on single majoring, or 8 courses
at 2000 level or above if you are intending on double majoring (as you will be able to
share 6 credits with your other major). Two courses (6 credits) can be transfer courses,
but you must approve these with the DUP.

Your plan should include five courses that meet the core distribution requirements (see
https://philosophy.virginia.edu/undergraduate/major). The remaining courses (5 if you
are single majoring, 3 if you are double majoring) can be anything you like at the 2000
level or above.

Your plan should include the courses you intend on taking in future semesters. Of
course, you may not know yet exactly what courses will be offered. Look at past Fall
and Spring semesters (You can see what has been offered by changing the semester in
the drop down menu at the start of this page: https://philosophy.virginia.edu/courses),
and that is a good guide as to what will be offered in future Fall and Spring semesters.
But remember, this is just a plan. You’re not signing up for courses. If you change your
mind, or some of the courses you put down just now end up not being offered, that is
fine. It’s just a plan, and it can change, so long as the courses you end up taking meet
the major requirements.

Note on the logic requirement: There are basically two ways to meet the logic
requirement: by taking PHIL 2420 or PHIL 1410.1 If you choose to meet the
requirement with 2420 then that is simply one of your 10 (8 if double majoring) courses
in your plan, and you don’t need to worry. If you use 1410 for the logic requirement,
however, then this course won’t count towards the major requirements. That means
your course plan should consists of 11 classes (or 9 if you are double majoring): 1410,
and 10 (8) classes at 2000 level or above.

If you want any help or advice in choosing courses, feel free to reach out to individual
professors, or the DUP.

3) Go to https://college.as.virginia.edu/forms and find the section for Declaration of
Major and Minor Forms. Click on the link, and that should start a DocuSign process.
Fill in your details, and then fill in your planned courses. Leave the box for major
advisor blank - the DUP will assign that. Once you’ve filled in all your details, finish the
DocuSign and it will be sent to the DUP for approval!

1 PHIL 5420 also satisfies the requirement, but this rarely runs.

If you have any questions about the requirements or the process, contact the DUP
(Ross Cameron).

https://illimitable.virginia.edu/mind-wandering/

https://aeon.co/essays/womens-pain-it-seems-is-hysterical-until-proven-otherwise

CLASS OF 2020 CELEBRATION OF VIRTUAL CONFERRAL OF DEGREES, MAY 16, 1 P.M. EDT

https://deadspin.com/a-philosophers-definitive-and-slightly-maddening-ca...

https://sites.google.com/view/compassuva/

Considering a career in philosophy? Or perhaps simply considering a graduate degree in philosophy? Then the Compass Workshop at the University of Virginia is a good place to start. We are offering this workshop for undergraduates who are interested in furthering their academic study in philosophy beyond a bachelor's degree. As an offshoot of the Minorities and Philosophy program (MAP), the workshop's primary goal is to provide a space for otherwise underrepresented groups in philosophy to meet and engage with the discipline in a comfortable environment. While this workshop takes place in various forms on other campuses (like Princeton, where the workshop was first offered), our workshop will be a day of discussions centered on three papers from different sub-disciplines in philosophy, to be read in advance. In addition to these three paper discussions, there are two panel discussions. One panel is with members of the University of Virginia's philosophy department faculty, and another is with the department's graduate students.

Graduate student Nikolina Cetic wins a best poster prize from the Society for Philosophy and Psychology 2019! "Mind-Wandering Makes Us Free." (Co-authored with Zac Irving)

Cora Diamond, Kenan Professor of Philosophy Emerita at UVA, was the Humboldt Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the University of Leipzig for the Winter Semester, and co-taught a seminar on Wittgenstein. The University at Leipzig also hosted a conference on her work, called "Cora Diamond: Logic and Ethics".  She also presented a paper, "Truth in Ethics", at a 3-day intensive philosophy seminar (on her work and that of James Conant) at the Centre for Ethics at the University of Pardubice in the Czech Republic. And she gave the Dewey Lecture at the Eastern Division meeting of the APA in January.

Centenary of Icelandic Independence and Sovereignty

University of Iceland Aula, 7–8 September 2018

Conference on the value of universities for Icelandic society and industry in the past and the future

The University of Iceland received a grant from the state centenary committee, who are responsible for official celebrations of the centenary, in order to hold an international conference on the value of universities for Icelandic society and industry in the past and the future. The primary goal is to shed light on the impact that education and research have on the development of society, not least the ways in which the education system and research work can be used to promote continuing economic prosperity and a thriving society, thereby strengthening Iceland as an independent democratic state in the 21st century. The conference planning committee decided to divide the event into two sections. . Emphasis is placed on critical discussion of the role and future of universities – in particular the University of Iceland – and the role universities play in shaping society through teaching and research.

1. Universities and sovereignty

This will be a discussion of the role of universities in strengthening sovereignty in democratic­ states, in particular the way in which the University of Iceland has contributed to the development of the Icelandic nation. Possible topics for consideration include: What role did the University of Iceland play in the establishment of Iceland as a sovereign state? How can universities support the adaptation of Icelandic culture and language to the rapid technological changes of modern society, thereby maintaining­ the cultural sovereignty of the nation? How can universities promote higher levels of equality in society and thereby enable as many people as possible to actively participate? What role have institutions such as the University of Iceland played in strengthening Icelandic industry and ensuring the future competitiveness of the country?

1. The University of Iceland and the democracy of science

The role of universities has long been twofold; on the one hand they are forums for scientific research, which is unconstrained by national borders, and on the other hand they serve the specific society in which they are located. The first rector of the University of Iceland, Björn M. Ólsen, discussed the University's responsibilities in an address at the founding ceremony on 17 June 1911. He spoke of universities as "national schools", on the one hand, and as citizens of the "democracy of ­science" on the other. Universities are "cosmopolitan institutions at the same time as they are national institutions", as he put it. In recent years, significant emphasis has been placed on the links between the University of Iceland and the rest of the world and the importance of international rankings. This raises the ­question of whether the idea of the "national school" is simply no longer valid in this age of globalisation, since it impedes the University's attempts to establish itself as an international research­ university.

1. The University of the future

Universities now stand at a crossroads, regarding both teaching methods and organisation. Traditionally the university was (at least in theory) a community of teachers and students, combining research and learning, and students were in daily contact both with their teachers and each other. Will the university of the future be completely different? Will higher education shift from traditional institutions to large international corporations offering university studies primarily through distance learning? How can we anticipate the impact that the 'Fourth Industrial Revolution' will have on the way universities operate?

1. Universities and innovation

Innovation is a key concept in contemporary (Icelandic) politics, but its meaning can be unclear and people understand the word in different ways. The question is, therefore, what is meant by 'innovation', and how can universities – and the education system as a whole – support more diverse and dynamic innovation in society?

Following the conference, we intend to publish a book, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, of articles based on lectures given at the conference.

Jorge Secada (Philosophy) was quoted in Quartz in an article about former FBI director James Comey's appointment to teach a class in ethical leadership at the College of William and Mary, his alma mater: Ethicists explain exactly why James Comey isn’t qualified for his new gig teaching ethics

Elizabeth Barnes' theory of disability (presented in her 2016 book The Minority Body: A Theory of Disability, published by Oxford UP) was cited in a Washington Post article. The article describes recent developments in the intersex rights movement as "in step with the larger disability rights movement, which argues for replacing assumptions of 'bad-difference' with acceptance of 'mere-difference,' in the terminology of philosopher Elizabeth Barnes."

Members of the Philosophy Department are participating in a three year research project on Human and Machine Intelligence. The project is co-directed by Paul Humphreys and Vincent Ordonez Roman (Computer Science) and is designed to identify differences and similarities between human and computer modes of learning, understanding and representation. More information can be found at http://hmi.virginia.edu

Ian McCready Flora in a WalletHub debate on whether money is the root of evil. 

https://wallethub.com/blog/money-is-the-root-of-all-evil/31418/#ian-mccready-flora

A. John Simmons discussed his new book, Boundaries of Authority, on the New Books in Philosophy podcast. The podcast is available here:

http://newbooksnetwork.com/a-john-simmons-boundaries-of-authority-oxford...

 The Good Life: Philosopher Explores the Varied Human Condition

Cora Diamond gave the third annual Georg Henrik von Wright lecture in Helsinki on May 18. There is a link to a video of the lecture, plus an explanation of the lecture series, here:
http://www.helsinki.fi/wwa/von_Wright_Lecture.html
There was a conference on Cora's work, "Morality in a Realistic Spirit", at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, in July.

Beginning in Fall 2016:

Galen Barry (PhD 2015) will be Assistant Professor at Iona College.

Matthew Duncan (PhD 2015) will be Assistant Professor at Rhode Island College.

William Hasselberger (PhD 2012) will be Assistant Professor ("Professor Auxiliar") at Catholic University in Lisbon, Portugal.

Luke Hunt (PhD 2016) will be Assistant Professor at Radford University.

Gwendolyn Nally (PhD 2014) will be Assistant Professor at The University of Missouri - Kansas City.

Douglass Reed (PhD 2015) will be Assistant Professor at the University of Rhode Island.

CONGRATULATIONS, ALL!

http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/local/professor-s-love-for-the-univers...

Prof. Sahar Akhtar was featured in WalletHub’s recent article about 2015's best and worst cities for pet lovers.  You can find the piece here: http://wallethub.com/edu/best-and-worst-cities-for-pet-lovers/5562/#sahar-akhtar

The department mourns the passing of our colleague John Arras, Professor of Philosophy and Porterfield Professor of Bioethics, who died unexpectedly on March 9th. John was a widely respected scholar of bioethics and a beloved member of our department, which he joined in 1995. At the time of his passing, he was serving on the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, a Fellow of the Hastings Center, and Director of the UVa program in Bioethics. John was passionate about his teaching, and won several prestigious teaching awards, including the Outstanding Faculty Award from the Virginia State Council of Higher Education (2006).

Galen Barry successfully defended his dissertation, entitled "A Dissertation Forged in Hell: An Account of Power and Possibility in Spinoza", on October 15th.  Congratulations, Galen!

Congratulations to Charles Rathkopf, who was awarded the Philosophy of Science Recent PhD Essay Award, for his paper "Localization and Intrinsic Function," Philosophy of Science, 80 (2013) 1-21.