Is economic inequality morally justifiable?

Philosophers' Cafe

Friday, January 31 from 3:00-4:30 the Philosophers' Cafe will meet from 3:00-4;30 in GH 316 to discuss social inequality: Is economic inequality morally justifiable? Please join us.

Pat Churchland on Colbert

Neuroscientist and philosopher Pat Churchland talks to Stephen Colbert about morality from a scientific perspective,

9 Philosophy Majors Who Became Extremely Successful In Business

"...philosophy, one of the more cerebral and seemingly less practical majors out there, has produced some incredibly successful people."

1. Former HP CEO Carly Fiorina was a medieval history and philosophy major at Stanford University.
2. Activist investor Carl Icahn was a philosophy major at Princeton University.
3. Former FDIC Chair Sheila Bair was a philosophy major at the University of Kansas.
4. Hedge fund manager George Soros was a philosophy major at the London School of Economics.
5. Former Fannie Mae CEO Herbert Allison Jr. was a philosophy major at Yale University.
6. Former Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin was a philosophy major at Haverford College.
7. Overstock.com founder and CEO Patrick Byrne got a Ph.D. in philosophy from Stanford University.
8. Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield got both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in philosophy.
9. PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel was a 20th century philosophy major at Stanford University.

Read more at businessinsider.com

Philosophy Events for Spring 2014

Events for the philosophically-minded this spring. Mark your calendars!

Film and Philosophy Series
Join us as we screen a feature film, followed with an open discussion of important philosophical themes and questions.

Memento (2001)
February 14, 3:00-6:00 316 GH

Being John Malkovich (1999)
March 21, 3:00-6:00 316 GH

Rashomon (1950)
April 11, 3:00-6:00 316 GH

Philosophers’ Cafe

Join us as we discuss important and current issues of philosophical interest. Open to the public.

“Is economic inequality morally justifiable?”
January 31, 3:00-4:30 316 GH

Topic: Net Neutrality
February 28, 3:00-4:30 316 GH

Topic: Animal Ethics
March 28, 3:00-4:30 316 GH

Topic: TBA
April 25, 3:00-4:30 316 GH

Moral Design is the Latest Form of Intelligent Design

Paul Bloom

Paul Bloom authors, "Did God Make These Babies Moral? Intelligent Design's oldest attack on evolution is as popular as ever" on the New Republic web site.

People can be selfish and amoral and appallingly cruel, but we are also capable of transcendent kindness, of great sacrifice and deep moral insight. Isn’t this evidence for God? This version of “intelligent design” is convincing to many people—including scientists who are otherwise unsympathetic to creationism—and it’s worth taking seriously. Like other intelligent design arguments, it doesn’t work, but its failure is an interesting one, touching on findings about evolution, moral psychology, and the minds of babies and young children.

Digital Humanities Lecture

Digital Humanities Lecture

Anthony Beavers, chair of the department of Philosophy at the University of Evansville and director of the Digital Humanities Laboratory, will deliver a talk on the digital humanities on Thursday, January 23 from 3:00-4:00 in the Digitorium. His talk will be "The Digital Revolution and Research in the Humanities: Why the humanities should not be afraid of computational methods."

Everyone is invited.

Kentucky Philosophical Association Spring 2014 Meeting

The Kentucky Philosophical Association will hold its spring 2014 Meeting on Saturday, April 5, 2014 at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. Please see the call for papers. We want to particularly encourage students to submit essays to the student essay contest.

Kentucky Philosophical Association Spring 2014 Meeting CFP and Student Essay Contest.

Employability Guide: The Philosophy Degree

Where Next? Unlocking the potential of your philosophy degree. Yes, philosophy students are very employable.

Using this employability guide is a way to help you, as a philosophy student, reflect on the skills you are gaining as you study, and gather evidence of these skills being put into practice. Sometimes, in a non-vocational course, it can be hard to see how what you learn in the course of your studies will prepare you for your post-university career. Being comfortable with this yourself, and getting it across to future employers, is vital, particularly in a subject such as philosophy where there are plenty of popular misconceptions about what the subject actually entails.

Read the guide.

Department Reception to Honor Students

Join us Tuesday, December 3 from 4:00-5:30 on second floor Landrum as the department of Sociology, Anthropology and Philosophy honors the achievements it students and fall graduates. Graduating with a philosophy major will be James Simons, Aaron Sprinkles and Teddy Wiseman. Graduating philosophy minors include Claudia Anicama, Maria Koch, Arthur Littlefield, Candice Stanfield, and Robert Townson. Several Religious Studies minors will also graduate: Rosa Christophel, Phylicia Gifford, Jesse Hendricks and James Simons. We are also inducting several students into Phi Sigma Tau, the philosophy honor society. Congratulations Brice Elliot, Maria Koch, Arielle Phillips and Candice Stanfield. Finally we recognize the achievements of this year's Ethics Bowl Team: Cory Clark, Dustin Courtney, Laurence Gerlach, Leighann Goins, Theodore Hays, Arthur Littlefield, John Petrie, Ashley Poe and Robbie Tieman.

Most of the time will be spent mingling with food, friends, faculty and all our students who are majoring or minoring in our programs. Please stop by if only for a few minutes to grab some food and say hi.

Philosophers' Cafe: Wikileaks, Hacktivism and the Ethics of Whistle-blowing

Philosophers' Cafe

The Philosophers' Cafe will convene this Friday at 3:00 in GH 316 to discuss Wikileaks, Hacktivism and the Ethics of Whistle-blowing. Stop by and bring your friends.

2013 NKU Ethics Bowl Team

2013 Ethics Bowl Team

On November 9 the NKU Ethics Bowl team traveled to Marion, IN to participate in the 2013 Regional Ethics Bowl Competition. Teams from different schools debate real-life ethical issues in front of a panel of judges who rank the performances and the arguments. NKU won their debate against Xavier but lost by only a few points to Butler and to Taylor. The NKU team included Cory Clark, Dustin Courtney, Laurence Gerlach, Leighann Goins, Theodore Hays, Arthur Littlefield, John Petrie, Ashley Poe and Robbie Tieman (Ashley and John were not able to travel with the team for this contest). The team practiced for weeks prior to the competition, preparing responses to case studies available in advance. Dr. Yaw served as faculty advisor and coach. Congratulations on a great contest!

2013 Ethics Bowl Team

Film and Philosophy: High Noon

High Noon

Join us Friday, November 8 from 3:00-6:00 in GH 316 when we screen and discuss the classic western film High Noon. What's the right thing to do? Should one act from a sense of duty? Does religion provide moral answers? What can we expect form our community? Gary Cooper portrays the retired sheriff who takes the Kantian point of view.

Dress for Success

Greek Philosophers

Nancy Hancock's PHI 280 Ancient and Medieval Philosophy students dressed the part this week.

Science and Philosophy

On the importance of recognizing the relationship between philosophy (and other humanities) and science. The authors revisit the case of H.M. who was unable to form new long-term memories but could learn new skills. What is the difference between knowledge of skills and knowledge of facts: know-how and know-that?

Constructing an argument in mathematics or history is one kind of human activity. Football and cabinetmaking are others. We argue that skilled human activity generally requires the acquisition and manipulation of knowledge, as well as implicit processes that do not depend on propositional knowledge (for example, increased dexterity). It is hard, and perhaps not possible, to forge a theoretically significant distinction between working with one’s hands and working with one’s mind.

THE STONE October 27, 2013, Is the ‘Dumb Jock’ Really a Nerd?By JASON STANLEY and JOHN W. KRAKAUER

Become a Philosophy Major

Experience Philosophy in Greece

Philosophy in Greece

In the spring of 2014 we are offering PHI 394 Study Abroad--Greek Philosophy that includes two weeks of study in Greece (May 14-27). There are no pre-requisites for the course; we hope to attract students with diverse interests and backgrounds. The cost for a triple room is estimated at $3700 (double $3765 and single $4115). That includes airfare, hotel, travel between sites, breakfasts and two dinners. We will spend most of our time in Athens but also explore Delphi (home of the Oracle of Delphi), Mycenae, Corinth, and Epidaurus. We also plan to visit the island of Mykonos for a couple of days. It will be a fantastic experience. See our flyer for more information.

Philosophers' Cafe: Is There a Moral Grammar?

Philosophers' Cafe

Join us Friday as we discuss questions about the nature of morality. Is our knowledge of moral rules like our knowledge of the rules of grammar? And what kind of knowledge is that?

The talk will be presented as Pecha Kucha: twenty slides, twenty seconds each. Lots of great discussion.

Friday, October 25, 3:00-4:00 in GH 316.

Why Study Logic?

Logic is the means by which we manage reasoning's vulnerability to luck. Once we see that the form of a piece of reasoning is evaluable independently of the content of its premises, we make a large swath of our reasoning invulnerable to luck. This invulnerability is a focal objective of deductive logic – the aim is to show how, in the case of certain forms of reasoning, the truth of our premises absolutely guarantees the truth of our conclusions. This is a high calling, indeed.

3quarksdaily: Why Study Logic?

Information, Knowledge & Intelligence

Alistair MacFarlane writes about information, knowledge and intelligence and about whether computers could one day hold an intelligent conversation.

Information describes: it tells us how the world is now. Knowledge prescribes: it tells us what to do on the basis of accumulated past experience. Intelligence decides: it guides, predicts and advises, telling us what may be done in circumstances not previously encountered, and what the outcome is likely to be.

Information, Knowledge & Intelligence | Issue 98 | Philosophy Now

Film and Philosophy: Fight Club

Fight Club

Join us October 11 from 3:00-6:00 in NKU's Digitorium when we will screen and discuss Fight Club. Questions about self, self perception, self discovery, society, advertising, appearance and reality, and much more.

Part of our Film and Philosophy series.