Welcome to the Philosophy Department at Oakland University

Philosophy is the analysis and evaluation of the basic assumptions and inferences that we make in formulating arguments: about reality, truth, knowledge, reasoning, human nature, the ultimate goals of life, right and wrong conduct, and public institutions, laws and policies. Ultimately, philosophy is concerned with the examination and development of a coherent and rationally defensible view of the world and our place in it. It is a rigorous discipline of "thinking about thinking" (Aristotle's definition) that has been around since the ancient beginnings of recorded human civilization. And it remains a vital part of the intellectual culture of the 21st century world.

The Oakland Philosophy Department Web pages bring you a number of philosophical resources. They contain links about members of the Oakland philosophy community and their publications, links about the Philosophy Club at Oakland University, and many links to resources of broader philosophical interest, such as the Logic Cafe, the only interactive and completely online logic textbook and tutor.

There are many good reasons to major in philosophy. Check out our Links page for more about the practical value of a philosophy degree.

NEWS & UPCOMING EVENTS

Kevin O'Bryan, a junior Philosophy major, has won a Holzbock Scholarship for the 2012-2013 school year. Kevin will be able to apply the $3000 award towards his future studies at Oakland. Congratulations to Kevin!

Congratulations to Professor Eric LaRock for winning a highly competitive research fellowship. Next winter he will be working on a project called Neuroscience and the Soul with Jeffrey Schwartz (UCLA, Medical School), Richard Swinburne (Oxford), Dean Zimmerman (Rutgers), Tim O'Connor (Indiana), William Hasker (Huntington), J.P. Moreland (Talbot), and many more participants. All of these scholars are proponents of emergentism (in one form or another), so Professor LaRock is likely to learn a lot from them in the process of working out the details of his own evolutionary emergentist account of consciousness and persons.

2012 Burke Lecturer: The 2012 Burke Lecturer is Professor Ronald Aronson, a distinguished professor of the History of Ideas at Wayne State University. His talk, entitled, "Reconstructing Hope Today," will take place on Wednesday, April 4, 2012, at 7pm in Banquet Room A of the Oakland Center. This talk will begin with the question, "Is there reason to hope today?" Aronson will argue that, while a cynical mood has come to pervade our society as the products of collective hope -- unions, social programs, public schools and government -- are increasingly attacked, recent events may give us reason to hope for a world of greater collective belonging and action. For more information about the talk, see here. Admission is free, but reservations are requested. To reserve a space, call (248) 370-3390 or email zimmerm2@oakland.edu.

Matt Evans from the University of Michigan department of philosophy will be giving a talk on “The Blind Desires of Republic IV” Friday, March 9th, 2012, 12:00-1:30 pm in 364 SFH.

The Philosophy Department is saddened to announce the death of Emeritus Professor of Philosophy Richard J. Burke. Professor Burke died February 14, 2012, at age 79. He was the first faculty member hired by Oakland University and he taught in the department for 46 years (1959-2005). Professor Burke shared his love of philosophy with thousands of students and he left an indelible mark upon the Philosophy Department and the entire University. Among his many gifts to Oakland University was an endowment for the Richard J. Burke Lecture Series in Philosophy, Religion, and Society. This annual event has since brought major social philosophers to the Oakland campus, including Daniel Dennett, Peter Singer, and Richard Falk. Because of Professor Burke's generosity, this lecture series will continue for many decades into the future. See here for a complete obituary. A memorial service for Professor Burke will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 24, 2012 at St. John Fisher Chapel, 3665 Walton Boulevard, Auburn Hills, Michigan (248-373-6457).

4th Annual Philosophy Essay Contest: $1000 will be awarded to the winner of this year's departmental essay contest. See here for details.

The Philosophy Department is pleased to announce that the Eugene Howe McDonald III Memorial Philosophy Award ($300) will be awarded in the Winter 2012 semester. The winner will be a senior-level advanced philosophy major who has demonstrated excellence and hard work in her or his studies overall, judged based on GPA in overall coursework at Oakland University. For more information, see here.

At our 10/26/2011 department meeting we approved new requirements for a BA in Philosophy at Oakland University, starting in 2012-2013.

All of us in the Oakland University Department of Philosophy are very happy to welcome our new Administrative Secretary, Ann Zimmerman!

Richard Dawkins will be meeting OU students for lunch & a discussion on 10/13, 10AM to noon. Contact jnwall@oakland.edu for info. This recent article and video from the New York Times provides helpful context.

Now you can follow Oakland University's Philosophy Department on Twitter!

Oakland University will be hosting the Upper Midwest Regional Ethics Bowl competition, December 3, 2011.

Congratulations to our alumni: Justin Black graduated in the spring of 2011 with his Juris Doctorate from The University of Detroit Mercy School of Law; and Kamil Koleczko will start work towards his law degree in August 2011, also at UDM.

Congratulations to Eric LaRock for his well-deserved promotion to Associate Professor with tenure, effective August 2011!

Upcoming Department Colloquium: Brian Bruya (Eastern Michigan) will be giving a talk at Oakland November 7, 2011 at 5:00 pm. Topic and location TBA.

Upcoming Philosophers' Workshops: TBA

Congratulations to Brendan Learnihan-Sylvester for winning the 3rd Annual Burke Philosophy Essay Contest with his submission, "Making Consciousness Useful." Brendan has won the prize two years in a row!

The Oakland University Philosophy Club meets regularly during fall and winter semesters for food and conversation in the Fireside Lounge of the OC on Tuesdays at 5pm. Meetings are open to all Oakland students, faculty and alumni. For more information about locations and topics, go to the Philosophy Club web page and join the Facebook group!

2011 Burke Lecturer: The 2011 Burke Lecturer was Dr. Susan Haack, Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Cooper Senior Scholar in the Arts and Sciences, Professor of Philosophy, and Professor of Law at Miami University. Professor Haack presented a lecture entitled, "Cracks in the Wall, a Bulge Under the Carpet: The Singular Story of Religion, Evolution, and the U.S. Constitution," Thursday, February 10, 2011, at 7p.m. in Banquet Room B of the Oakland Center. Her talk explored "the history of the evolution of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and specifically its role in cases involving the teaching of evolution in public high schools. This legal history will be informed by the conjecture that over many years, a relatively modest understanding of the Establishment Clause due to James Madison has been largely, though not completely, displaced by a more ambitious understanding due to Thomas Jefferson; and punctuated by philosophical asides on questions about the (in)compatibility of the theory of evolution with religious beliefs, the meaning of 'theory,' and the demarcation of science."

News: Congratulations to Phyllis Rooney for her article “Gendered Reason: Sex Metaphor and Conceptions of Reason” (1991), which has been selected for inclusion in a special 25th anniversary volume of the journal Hypatia. Quite an honor! Read the Oakland News story here.

News: Congratulations to Sandy Sala, our beloved administrative assistant for receiving well-deserved recognition as Oakland's Employee of the Month for April 2010!

2010 Burke Lecturer: Shadia Drury was the visiting Burke Lecturer, April 15-16, 2010. Dr. Drury is Canada Research Chair in Social Justice and Professor in the Departments of Political Science and Philosophy at Regina University. In addition to time spent in informal discussions in the department lounge and over lunches and dinners, Drury's busy schedule included the following: A discussion of the question "Is Morality the Imitation of the Gods?" in Elysa White's PHL/REL 325 on Thursday the 15th; the fifth annual public Burke Lecture on "American Exceptionalism" in the evening of the 15th in the OC Gold Rooms; and a talk on "Philosophical Assumptions of American Foreign Policy" the following morning in the Oakland Room. It was a great pleasure to hold many engaging discussions with Dr. Drury on a wide array of interesting topics. We're grateful to her for coming, and grateful to Dr. Richard Burke for making her visit possible. Thanks to you both!

2009 Burke Lecterur: Daniel C. Dennett of Tufts University was our fourth annual Burke Lecturer. His public lecture, “Religion as a Natural Phenomenon,” took place Monday, April 6, in the Oakland Center Banquet Rooms, before a packed house of over 600 audience members from on campus and from the surrounding community. “Dennett holds that many aspects of humanity, including social matters like religion, can be understood in terms of evolution, Darwinian or cultural,” said John Halpin, associate professor and chair of philosophy. “Dennett argues that fundamental questions about humanity, from those about the mind. Dr. Dennett was on campus for a variety of stimulating and enjoyable philosophical discussions over the course of two days. Many thanks to Dr. Dennett for his intellectual generosity. And many thanks to Dr. Richard Burke for making it all possible!

Recent Department Colloquia: Professor Mika LaVaque-Manty of the University of Michigan (Political Science & Philosophy) gave a talk on Friday 4/1/11 entitled, “’For There Must Be Force. . .’: Kant, Autonomy, and Hierarchies in Education”; On 3/11/11, Friday, as part of the interdisciplinary Global Security Forum series, as well as the Philosophy Department Colloquium series, Dr. Lars Peter Rensmann of the Political Science Departments at the University of Potsdam and the University of Michigan (visiting), gave a talk about “Grounding Cosmopolitics: Rethinking Crimes against Humanity and Global Political Theory with Arendt and Adorno.” On 11/19/2010 Professor Susan Vineberg of Wayne State University gave a talk about “Indispensability and Explanation.” On 10/6/2010, Radu Neculau (U Windsor) gave a talk about "Identity Recognition and the Normative Challenge of Crowd Psychology." On 3/19/10 Matt Fernkany, an OU alum ('99) and Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at MSU, gave a talk entitled "Is being good good for you?" in Gold Room A. Robert Pennock of Michigan State University gave a public talk on intelligent design and visited the Capstone course (on philosophy of evolution) on February 4th, 2010. On Thursday, 12/3/09, Margaret Crouch of Eastern Michigan University presented a selection from her current book manuscript on "Global Perspectives on Sexual Harassment." In addition to her talk, Professor Crouch was available at an informal lunch with faculty and students in the Kresge Library. Dr. Crouch's visit was made possible by interdisciplinary support from Philosophy, Political Science, Women & Gender Studies, and MALS. On 11/18/09, Simon Cushing, Associate Professor of Philosophy at UM Flint, presented his paper, "Don't Fear the Reaper", on the Epicurean philosophy of death. The first Colloquium of the 2009-2010 academic year featured Leo Stan, currently on a fellowship at the Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism at the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Stan presented some of his recent work on Kierkegaard. On 2/12/09 Matthew Katz of Central Michigan University gave a talk on "Mental Magnitudes and the Language of Thought".

Recent Philosophers' Workshops: On March 17, 2010, in the department lounge, Mark Rigstad presented work in progress on domination as the central concern of republican political philosophy. On Wednesday, 11/11/09, 12-1pm, Fritz McDonald presented some of his recent work in metaethics. On Wednesday, 10/28/09, Phyllis Rooney presented her paper, "Feminism and Argumentation: A Response to Govier." Grant Yocom presented his paper, "The Ethical Character of Mitsein: A response to the problem of instrumental rationality," on Wednesday 9/30/09. John Halpin presented his paper-in-progress on "Fine-Tuning Arguments and the Concept of Law," on Wednesday 1/28/09.

Recent Philosophy Club meetings: Monday, April 12, Professor Fritz McDonald discussed the question "What is Truth?" in Room 130 of the Oakland Center; Professor Koppelman-White gave a talk on next year's Capstone topic, the philosophy of evil, on Wednesday, March 17 at 5:00pm in the Heritage room of the OC. Monday, March 8 at 5:00pm, in Lake Superior A, Professor Paul Graves led a discussion on the possibility of a theistic science. Monday, February 15, at 5:00pm in Gold Room B of the OC, in honor of Valentine's Day, the discussion was on "The Philosophy of Sex," and free food and beverages were provided. On 11/30/09 Phyllis Rooney discussed “Women, Feminism, and Philosophy” At the 11/23/09 meeting, Pat Trentacoste gave a talk on "Perceptual Wisdom at the Crossroads: Where Practical Aesthetics Meets Practical Ethics." James Wroblewski presented a paper for the club called "Moral Responsibility through Moral Processes" on October 26. Mark Rigstad introduced leading approaches to the political ethics of immigration at the October 19th meeting. Trevor Martin presented his paper, "Possible Absolutes in Ontology," at the October 5 meeting.

Ethics Bowl: Oakland University's interdisciplinary Ethics Bowl Team had three wins and no losses in the preliminary rounds of regional competition in November 2009, and were leading going in to the final match by a 56 point differential. They were narrowly edged out (by three points) in the final match by the University of Wisconsin's team. Here's hoping they get a rematch as they advance to the national competition. Congratulations for an outstanding performance to Coach Lisa Campbell and to team members, Jimmy Wroblewski (philosophy), Chris Darin (integrative studies), Elizabeth DeRoo (political science and communications), and Brian Williams (undecided)!