rla Fehr and Heather Douglas (University of Waterloo)Colloquium Series - WINTER 2012

There may be one or two additions to this schedule. Abstracts will be posted as available. Note that this is an academic philosophy colloquium series.

If you'd like to be on the mailing list announcing these events, please contact:
vbrett@uwaterloo.ca

See here for past events, colloquia, and speakers.

***Talks are in Hagey Hall, Room 373 at 3:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted***

Friday, January 20, 2012
Rachel Rhys Mckinnon (University of Waterloo)
Reasonable Assertions: Why you don't need to know what you're talking about
There’s a widespread conviction in the norms of assertion literature that an agent’s asserting something false merits criticism. As Williamson puts it, asserting something false is akin to cheating at the game of assertion. Most writers on the topic have consequently proposed factive norms of assertion – ones on which truth is a necessary condition for the proper performance of an assertion. However, I argue that this view is mistaken. I suggest that we can illuminate the error by introducing a theoretical distinction between the norm of a practice and its goal. In light of this distinction, we can see that proponents of factive norms tend to mistake the goal of a practice for the norm. In this paper I present an analogy between the norms and goals of placing wagers and the norms and goals of assertion. One may place a bet and lose without being subject to criticism. I argue that the same is true for assertion: in some contexts one may warrantedly assert something false provided that one has adequate reasons in thinking that it’s true. I also propose a new candidate for the central norm of assertion, which I call the Supportive Reasons Norm.

Co-hosted by Women's Studies
Friday, February 3, 2012 - CANCELLEDCANCELLED
Alice MacLachlan (York University)
Practices of Public Apologies

19th Annual Philosophy Graduate Student Conference - March 1 and 2, 2012

Please see http://artsweb.uwaterloo.ca/~pgsa/conference-details.html for further details and abstracts.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Carly Minsky  (University of Oxford) 12:30 p.m. in HH 334
Feminist Epistemology of Science – Navigating Between Anarchism and Oppression

Jeff Dale  (University of California, Davis) 1:30 p.m. in HH 334
Disqualification Not Disqualified: Indeterminacy and an Ontological Argument

Justin Ross Morris  (University of Windsor) 3:00 p.m. in HH 334
Empathetic Engagement as an Epistemic Responsibility

Kathryn Pogin (University of Notre Dame) 4:00 p.m. in HH 334
Avoiding the Nazi Problem

Matt LaVine  (University of Buffalo) 5:00 p.m. in HH 334
Common Sense and Method in the History of Analytic Philosophy

Friday, March 2, 2012

Parzhad Torfenhezhad (Concordia University) 10:00 a.m. in HH 334
Understanding Carnap’s Language

Rachel Rhys McKinnon  (University of Waterloo) 11:00 a.m. in HH 334
Betting on Assertion: Understanding Norms of Assertion

Ryan J. Comeau  (Kent State University) 2:00 p.m. in HH 334
Skeptical Worries about Semantic Externalism and Scientific Knowledge

Dr. Helen Longino (Stanford University) 3:30 p.m. in HH 373 (keynote speaker)
The Sociality of Scientific Knowledge: Not Just an Academic Question

Note: PGSA - Philosophy Graduate Student conference keynote speaker
Friday, March 2, 2012 at 3:30 p.m. in HH 373
Helen Longino (Stanford University)
Co-hosted by Women's Studies
The Sociality of Scientific Knowledge: Not Just an Academic Question
I have argued for a strong interpretation of the social character of scientific knowledge, basing this both on features of the organization of scientific inquiry and on logical features of evidential reasoning.  In this talk I will review and update the arguments for this interpretation and urge that it has implications beyond the philosophical circles within which it is debated.

In celebration of 50 years of Philosophy at Waterloo
Thursday, March 8, 2012
*Note: 2:00-4:00 p.m. in Siegfried Hall at St. Jerome's University
James Conant (University of Chicago)
The World of a Movie
In conjunction with St. Jerome's University Department of Philosophy

Friday, March 9, 2012
James Conant (University of Chicago)
Two Varieties of Skepticism: Cartesian and Kantian

Friday, March 23, 2012
Carla Fehr and Heather Douglas (University of Waterloo)
Science, Technology, and Society Day
Please see this link for further details.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Waterloo Brain Day
Please see http://ctn.uwaterloo.ca/brainday.html for further details.
Sponsored by the Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience, Cognitive Science Program, and the Faculty of Arts.