Spring 2015 Schedule

The Spring 2015 schedule is available. Philosophy majors who need to make an advising appointment should contact Rudy Garns (garns@nku.edu) or make an appointment online.

Cultural Evolution

Last May, Daniel Dennett gathered, at the Santa Fe Institute, a handful of people who have written about cultural evolution. The general impression was that (as he tweeted some time later) "the meeting revealed a lot of unexpected common ground".

Summaries from participants available here.

Why A Philosopher Teaches Privacy

While privacy education requires philosophical insight, relevant philosophical analysis must be applied to constantly shifting technological, social, legal, and political conditions.

Why A Philosopher Teaches Privacy

Philosophy Referee Hand Signals

"The next time you’re presiding over an intense philosophical debate, feel free to use these hand signals to referee things. "

Philosophy Referee Hand Signals

Philosophy and Science: Double Team? » IAI TV

So even before we get to the ethics and the politics, I would say right from the very beginning, science and philosophy are intertwined. Philosophers need to keep pointing that out.

Philosophy and Science: Double Team? 



'via Blog this'

Don’t Dismiss the Humanities

Nicholas Kristof of the NY Times writes

So let me push back at the idea that the humanities are obscure, arcane and irrelevant. These three philosophers influence the way I think about politics, immigration, inequality; they even affect what I eat. 

It’s also worth pointing out that these three philosophers [Berlin, Singer, Rawls] are recent ones. To adapt to a changing world, we need new software for our cellphones; we also need new ideas. The same goes for literature, for architecture, languages and theology.

Don’t Dismiss the Humanities

The humanities strengthen the study of science

Elizabeth H. Simmons, dean of Lyman Briggs College, acting dean of the College of Arts and Letters, and University Distinguished Professor of Physics at Michigan State University, writes about the value of a humanities education for scientists.

In the end, Cushing’s brain collection vividly reminds us why it is crucial to immerse natural science students in interdisciplinary science studies that incorporate the social sciences and humanities. It is not merely because hot new fields are said to lie at the unexplored intersections of fields whose borders were arbitrarily codified decades or centuries ago (though that is true). It is not merely because the terms interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary, and trans-disciplinary are presently in vogue (though that is also true). It is because such cross-training produces scientists who are both more capable of extraordinary breakthroughs and more mindful of their broader impacts. The humanities truly strengthen science.

The humanities strengthen the study of science

Undergrad Philosophy & Religion CFPs

A nice blog that posts call for papers for undergraduate philosophy conferences.



Undergrad Philosophy & Religion CFPs

On human nurture | The University of Chicago Magazine

Jesse Prinz

Profile of philosopher Jesse Prinz.

Prinz’s work, which one of his CUNY colleagues applauds as “intellectually promiscuous,” draws on philosophy, cognitive neuroscience, experimental psychology, and other disciplines to explore the ways humans have moved beyond that reptilian origin. Prinz has written a lot, all of it united by an uncompromising empiricism—his position that our diverse sensory and cultural experience, varying from person to person and place to place, is the ultimate foundation for our concepts, conjectures, and knowledge. “The study of the human mind,” he has written, “is fundamentally the study of place.” In other words, nurture over nature. “The headline news in telling our story,” he says, “is in telling the story of learning and change.”

On human nurture | The University of Chicago Magazine

Philosophy student wins on The Voice

Philosophy student Josh Kaufman wins on The Voice. He's taking a break from studying philosophy at Northern Illinois University. 

Spring 2014 Graduation

Saturday May 10 is the College of Arts and Sciences' Commencement ceremonies. Graduation will begin at 9 am and it will conclude around 11:30. At 11:30, immediately after the ceremony our department will be co-hosting a post-graduation gathering for our students and faculty. There will be snacks and refreshments.

The event will be in the Founders Room of the NKU Soccer Complex, from 11:30-1 pm. The Soccer complex is located adjacent to the Bank of Kentucky Center and the parking lot around the BoK Center. It is very easy to find and close to BoK where Commencement will be held. The elevators take you up to the beautiful Founders Room on the second floor.

One of our department's graduates, Mayra Guzman, has the prestigious honor of being selected as the student Speaker for the ceremony and she has received the NKU President’s award.

Department Reception

As the spring semester winds down, let me remind you that next week we will have a department reception to recognize graduating seniors and celebrate student achievements. Please attend; mark you calendars.

Tuesday, April 22, from 5:00-7:00 in SU 104

The reception is open to everyone and refreshments will be served. We will hand out Outstanding Senior awards and induct new Phi Sigma Tau members. The brief awards ceremony will be surrounded by lots of time to mingle with family, friends and faculty.

Philosophers' Cafe

This Friday, 3 PM in GH 316. The Philosophers' Cafe. We'll discuss the ethical issues surrounding the human use of animals.

Join us!

Philosophy Advising

Philosophy students who need an advising appointment can go to https://rudygarns.youcanbook.me/. Sign up for a 30-minute slot. Email me at garns@nku.edu if you have questions.

NKU Student Forum

NKU students are invited to attend a Strategic Plan feedback session on Wednesday, April 2, from 3:30-4:30 p.m., in the University Center Ballroom.

This hour-long session will consist of four 15-minute rounds that will allow you to give your insights and feedback at stations set up around Ballroom on topics (enrollment strategies, academic innovation, student retention and success, financial resources, marketing and public awareness, facilities and sustainability, technology support, and community engagement) that are of most interest to you.

It’s like speed dating for our future. This is your chance to help shape NKU as we approach our 50th Anniversary in 2018. We hope to see you there!

You can learn more about the forum and RSVP at this website: http://www.nku.edu/features/2014/march/studentforum.html

Fall 2014

Time to register for fall classes.

Film and Philosophy: Being John Malkovich

Being John Malkovich

Join us this Friday, March 21, from 3:00-4:30 in GH 316 as the Film and Philosophy series presents Being John Malkovich. The 1999 Spike Jonze movie is most certainly the funniest film on free will, personal identity, and the nature of mind that you will ever see. Discussion and snacks, as always.

Enhanced punishment: can technology increase life sentences?

Rebecca Roach, a philosopher at Oxford, talks about how new technologies might change future punishment.

Technology, then, offers (or will one day offer) untapped possibilities to make punishment for the worst criminals more severe without resorting to inhumane methods or substantially overhauling the current UK legal system. What constitutes humane treatment in the context of the suggestions I have made is, of course, debatable. But I believe it is an issue worth debating.

Enhanced punishment: can technology increase life sentences?

Also, read this interview with Roach at Aeon Magazine, Hell on earth: What happens to life sentences if the human lifespan is radically extended? A philosopher talks about future punishment

The Experience Machine

What makes life worth living? Robert Nozick introduces a thought experiment--the experience machine--to refute one answer to the question.

Suppose there were an experience machine that would give you any experience you desired. Superduper neuropsychologists could stimulate your brain so that you would think and feel you were writing a great novel, or making a friend, or reading an interesting book. All the time you would be floating in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain. Should you plug into this machine for life, preprogramming your life's experiences?... Of course, while in the tank, you won't know that you're there; you'll think it's all actually happening. . . . Would you plug in? What else can matter to us, other than how our lives feel from the inside?

3quarksdaily: The Experience Machine

Philosophers among the most famous people

Still wondering whether Philosophy is worth studying? The ten most famous people in the last 6,000 years.

1. Aristotle
2. Plato
3. Jesus Christ
4. Socrates
5. Alexander the Great
6. Leonardo Da Vinci
7. Confucius
8. Julius Caesar
9. Homer
10. Pythagoras

Who’s More Famous Than Jesus? - NYTimes.com