Department of Philosophy - University of Waterloo

Philosophy Colloquia and Visiting Speakers

[For a current schedule see here, for a list of past events, see here.]

In recent years many distinguished philosophers have visited the campus to offer courses, present papers or seminars, or to participate in conferences. Among them have been Ian Hacking, John Bell, Timothy Williamson, Stewart Shapiro, Anil Gupta, Paul Churchland, Michael Ruse, Joe Ellin, Ron de Sousa, David Gauthier, Bob Hale, Stephen Read, Alasdair Urquhart and many others.
The department also regularly plays host to conferences of various sorts. In 2004, the department hosted an international conference on Neuro-Philosophy that involved some of the most eminent names in the field as well as a cast of rising stars. In 2003 the department hosted the conference A Logical Approach to Philosophy: A Conference in Memory of Graham Solomon, which attracted a slate of well known philosophers from St Andrews, Ohio State and Connecticut, as well as from Toronto, Western Ontario, McMaster and elsewhere. In 2002 we hosted the annual meetings of the Ontario Philosophical Society. In 2001, the department sponsored a conference called The Limits of Warrant, which was attended by representatives from Universities of Alberta, Western Ontario, Aberdeen, California, and Oxford and elsewhere. The University of Waterloo co-sponsored (with Wilfrid Laurier University) the North American Society for Social Philosophy conference in July 2000. In the past the department has held conferences on a variety of other topics, ranging from the philosophy of Susan Langer to gay pornography. The department also hosts the annual mini-conference of the Canadian Association for Reductive Philosophy.

Recently we have been able to fund a number of other initiatives which enrich the intellectual climate of the department. Each summer the department is visited by a distinguished scholar who holds the Humphrey Visiting Chair in Feminist Philosophy for that year. In May 2003, Christine Overall of Queen’s University was the inaugural holder of the Chair. In 2004, the chair was held by Marilyn Frye. We have also been able to bring in distinguished speakers to give series of lectures over the space of a week. Visitors have included Susan Haack, Steven Quartz, and Stephen Read.