2016 ANNUAL REPORT

Department of Philosophy

The study of philosophy is excellent preparation for graduate study, for

professional school, for seminary, and for any career path in which clear thought

and expression are valued. It cultivates skill in clear thinking and writing, in

logical criticism, and increases the power and discipline of the imagination.

Auburn’s BA Program approaches the study of philosophy both historically and

analytically, exposing students to the great philosophers and philosophies of the

past and present.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FACULTY AWARDS AND HONORS 3

FACULTY PRESENTATIONS 4

FACULTY PUBLICATIONS 7

8TH ANNUAL AUBURN PHILOSOPHY CONFERENCE 9

AUBURN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 10

AUBURN PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION WORKSHOP 11

AUBURN PHILOSOPHY CLUB 12

AUBURN ETHICS DEBATE TEAM 13

MAJORS AND MINORS 14

FACULTY AWARDS AND HONORS

Shech, E. – International Senior

Research Fellowship, Institute for

Advanced Study, Durham University

Shech, E. – Isaac Manasseh Meyer

Visiting Fellowship, National

University of Singapore

Shelley, J. – Academy of Outstanding

Teachers, College of Liberal Arts,

Auburn University

FACULTY PRESENTATIONS

Gorodeisky, K. “A Rationally Agential

Pleasure,” Colby College Colloquia

Series, 2016.

Gorodeisky, K. “Comments on Errol

Lord’s ‘Knowing What it is Like?’,”

2016 Annual Meeting of the

American Society for Aesthetics,

2016.

Gorodeisky, K. “Aesthetic Pleasure

and the Value of Art: a Value-First

Proposal,” 2016 Annual Meeting of

the Alabama Philosophical Society,

2016.

Gorodeisky, K. & Marcus, E.

“Aesthetic Rationality,” 2016 Meeting

of the Pacific American Society for

Aesthetics, Panel on Aesthetic

Reasons, 2016.

Graham, J. “Integrity as Unity of

Agency: an examination of Christine

Korsgaard’s account in Self

Constitution,” 17th Rijeka

International Conference on

Contemporary Philosophical Issues,

2016.

Lockhart, J. “What Could be Wrong

With a Joyful Do-Gooder,” Auburn

University Philosophical Society,

2016.

Lockhart, J. “Natural Needs,”

Alabama Philosophical Society, 2016.

Lockhart, T. “Epistemological

Disjunctivisms and Random Demons,”

Alabama Philosophical Society, 2016.

Long, R. “Prisons: Reform or

Abolition?,” Association of Private

Enterprise Education, 2016.

Marcus, E. “Assertion and

Transparent Self-Knowledge,” Orange

Beach Epistemology Workshop, 2016.

Marcus, E. “Reconciling Practical

Knowledge with Self Deception,”

Ryerson University, 2016.

Rohrbaugh, G. “Psychologism and

Completion in the Arts,” Annual

Meeting of the American Society for

Aesthetics, 2016.

Rohrbaugh, G. “Psychologism and

Completion in the Arts,” Alabama

Philosophical Society, 2016.

Rohrbaugh, G. “Psychologism and

Completion in the Arts,” British

Society of Aesthetics, 2016.

Shech, E. “Idealizations, Essential

Self-Adjointness, and Minimal Model

Explanation in the in the Aharonov-

Bohm Effect,” Biannual Meeting of

the Philosophy of Science

Association, 2016.

Shech, E. “Topical Idealizations,

Asymtotic-Minimal Model

Explanation, and the Aharonov-Bohm

Effect,” Society for Exact Philosophy

Annual Meeting, 2016.

Shech, E. “Topical Idealizations,

Asymtotic-Minimal Model

Explanation, and the Aharonov-Bohm

Effect,” Canadian Society for History

and Philosophy of Science Annual

Conferences, 2016.

Shech, E. “Comparing Strong and

Weak Emergence in Phase Transitions

and Anyons,” Emergence and the

Limit: A Workshop in Philosophy of

Physics, London School of Economics,

2016.

Shech, E. “Comparing Strong and

Weak Emergence in Phase Transitions

and Anyons,” Workshop on

Symmetry and Symmetry Breaking in

Fundamental Physics, Paris Centre for

Quantum Computing, 2016.

Shech, E. “Comparing Strong and

Weak Emergence in Phase Transitions

and Anyons,” Scale and the Sciences:

A One-day Workshop at The Institute

for Advanced Study, Durham

University, 2016.

Shech, E. “The Exploratory Role of

Idealizations and Limiting Cases in

Models,” Philosophy of Science

Seminar, University of Bristol, 2016.

Shech, E. “The Exploratory Role of

Idealizations and Limiting Cases in

Models,” Senior Seminar Series,

Centre for History and Philosophy of

Science, University of Leeds, 2016.

Shech, E. “Idealizations, Essential

Self-Adjointness, and Minimal Model

Explanation in the Aharonov-Bohm

Effect,” Sigma Club Lecture, London

School of Economics, 2016.

Shech, E. “Idealizations, Essential

Self-Adjointness, and Minimal Model

Explanation in the Aharonov-Bohm

Effect,” Philosophy Seminar Series,

National University of Singapore,

2016.

Shech, E. “The Exploratory Role of

Idealizations: Anyons and More,”

Representing the Quantum World:

Workshop on Issues in the Philosophy

of Quantum Physics, National

University of Singapore, 2016.

Shelley, J. “The Acquaintance

Principle,” 5th Annual Dubrovnik

Conference of the Philosophy of Art,

Dubrovnik, Croatia, 2016.

Sundell, T. “Two Models of

Conceptual Engineering,” CSMN

Workshop on Conceptual

Engineering, University of Oslo, 2016.

Sundell, T. “Language, Metaphysics,

and the Metaphysics of Language,”

Workshop on the Philosophy of

Disagreement, University of

Hamburg, 2016.

Watkins, G. “Aesthetic Properties as

Primary Properties,” 5th Annual

Dubrovnik Conference of the

Philosophy of Art, Dubrovnik, Croatia,

2016.

Watkins, G. “Objectivity and

Secondary Properties,” 17th Rijeka

International Conference on

Contemporary Philosophical Issues,

2016.

Watkins, G. “Secondary Properties as

Primary Properties,” University

Belgrade, Serbia, 2016.

Watkins, G. “The Objective and the

Hidden,” University of Belgrade,

Serbia, 2016.

FACULTY PUBLICATIONS

Gorodeisky, K. “Doing Art by Doing

Philosophy and Doing Philosophy by

Doing Art: on Andrea Büttner’s

Critique of the Power of Judgment,”

Walker Art Center, Website, 2016.

Gorodeisky, K. “Nineteenth Century

Romantic Aesthetics,” The Stanford

Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2016.

Jolley, K. “Resolute Reading,”

Philosophical Topics 42 (2), 2016.

Lockhart, T. “Why Warrant Transmits

across the Epistemological

Disjunctivist Neo-Moorean

Inference,” Synthese, DOI

10.1007/s11229-016-1218-6, 2016.

Lockhart, T. “Epistemological

Disjunctivism and the Random

Demon Hypothesis,” International

Journal for the Study of Skepticism,

DOI 10.1163/22105700-00001247,

2016.

Lockhart, T. “Frege on Anti-

Psychologism and the Role of Logic in

Thinking,” Theoria DOI

10.1111/theo.12101, 2016.

Long, R. “Virtual Cantons,” in Aviexer

Tucker and Gian Piero de Bellis, eds.,

Panarchy: Political Theories of Non-

Territorial States (Routledge, 2016)

227-233.

Long, R. & Bissell, R., Cox, S.,

Campbell, R., Sciabarra, C. “The

Nathaniel Branden Annotated

Bibliography,” The Journal of Ayn

Rand Studies 16: 260-294, 2016.

Long, R. “Rituals of Freedom:

Libertarian Themes in Early

Confucianism,” Molinari Institute,

2016.

Marcus, E. “To Believe is to Know

that You Believe,” dialectica 70 (3):

375-405, 2016.

Rohrbaugh, G. “Ontology of Art,” in

Oxford Bibliographies in Philosophy,

E. Duncan Pritchard, New York: OUP.

2016.

Shech, E. “Fiction, Depiction, and the

Complementarity Thesis in Art and

Science,” The Monist 99 (3): 311-322,

2016.

Sundell, T. “The Tasty, the Bold, and

the Beautiful,” Inquiry 59 (6): 793-

818, 2016.

Sundell, T. “Eligibility and Ideology in

the Vat,” in The Brain in a Vat,

Goldberg (ed.), Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 2016.

8TH ANNUAL AUBURN PHILOSOPHY CONFERENCE

Talbot Brewer (University of Virginia) “Acknowledging Others”

Agnes Callard (University of Chicago) “Aristotle's Non-Comparative, Non-Reflective Theory of Deliberation”

Kyla Ebels-Duggan (Northwestern University) “Inarticulacy and Reasonable Commitments”

Stephen Engstrom (University of Pittsburgh) "Virtue and Vice in Aristotle and Kant"

Erica Holberg (Utah State University) "Getting to Virtuous Agreement with the Agreeable for Kant"

Tamar Schapiro (Stanford University) “What could ‘incline without necessitating’ the will?”

Karen Stohr (Georgetown University) "Knowing Better: Self-Improvement in Aristotle and Kant"

Michael Thompson (University of Pittsburgh) “The Human is Nothing Alien to Me”

Jennifer Whiting (University of Pittsburgh)

Julian Wuerth (Vanderbilt University) “Virtue and Kant’s Irreducibly Sensuous Human”

AUBURN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

The Auburn Philosophical Society consists of a group of professors, students,

guest speakers, and other guests. It meets approximately every other Friday. At a

typical meeting consists in the presentation of a philosophical talk followed by

questions and discussion.

Guest Speakers for 2016:

Reshef Agam-Segal (Virginia Military Institute)

Jim Hamilton (Kansas State University)

Christine Korsgaard (Harvard University)

Yujin Nagasawa (University of Birmingham, UK)

David O’Connor (University of Notre Dame)

David Sanson (Illinois State University)

Tim Sundell (University of Kentucky)

AUBURN PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION WORKSHOP

In the Spring of 2016 the Auburn Philosophy and Religion Workshop began. The

Workshop is a collegium for student enrolled in the Philosophy and Religion

Minor, as well as other interested students. In the Spring, the Workshop hosted

David O’Conner of Notre Dame as a distinguished lecturer. He gave two

memorable talks--one on religious art, the other on Plato. Also during the Fall,

the Workshop ran a Reading Group on Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy.

The Group met once a week to read together. The Spring also featured a

roundtable on Religious Pluralism. In the Fall, the Distinguished Lecturer was

Yujin Nagasawai of the University of Birmingham (UK). He gave challenging

lectures on the problem of evil and on a proof of God’s existence (known as the

Ontological Argument). There was a roundtable on Prayer. The Reading Group

read Confucius and Herbert Finagarette’s Confucius, The Secular as Sacred.

AUBURN PHILOSOPHY CLUB

The Auburn Philosophy Club is composed of students interested in philosophy

who come together to learn about and discuss informally philosophical topics of

interest. The club runs hand in hand with the Auburn chapter of Phi Sigma Tau

and is open to every student who has broad philosophical interests and a desire

to participate and contribute to the philosophical life of the group.

In 2016, the club had two memorable trips, one to the Central Meeting of the

American Philosophical Association in Chicago and the other to the Annual

Meeting of the Alabama Philosophical Society in Pensacola. During the first of

these, the students got to hear talks by some of world’s leading philosophers.

During the second trip, they heard, among other things, a paper by one of their

own: Dannial Budwhani, who won the Alabama Philosophical Society’s

Undergraduate Paper Award.

In the Fall, the club hosted a philosophical panel on the topic of happiness in a

local coffee shop. Three faculty members and three students gave excellent

presentations and fielded questions from a local audience.

For its Film and Philosophy series, the club screened The Wind Rises and Baraka

and then discussed philosophical issues these films raise.

Last but definitely not least, the club hosted informal discussions with visiting and

local philosophers including David Sanson (Illinois State), Tim Sundell (Kentucky),

James Hamilton (Kansas State), and Antonio Capuano (Auburn).

AUBURN ETHICS DEBATE TEAM

The Philosophy Department Sponsors the Auburn Ethics Debate Team.

Throughout Fall Semester the Team prepares for competition at the Southeast

Regional Ethics Bowl. The competition focuses on 15 applied ethics cases,

distributed sometime in early September. Students analyze the central ethical

tensions of each case, crafting arguments and illustrations to support their claims

about what ethical duties the relevant parties face, who is to praise or to blame

morally for actions described in the case, and how relevant ethical goods such as

utility, justice, autonomy, and integrity might be maximized. Students then

present their views and critique the presented views of others in several rounds

of highly structured debate at the regional competition.

The 2016 Southeast Regional Ethics Bowl took place at the University of Central

Florida, Orlando, on October 29, 2016. Auburn’s team placed 8th out of 18 teams.

2016 Ethics Debate Team:

Dannial Budhwanni

Emily Campbell

Lucas Copeland

Garret Kizer

CJ Jackson