AV整氈窒

 

News and Events

Department News

  • The Austen and Hempel Lectures + Colloquium

The Austen and Hempel Lectures a series of distinguished lectures sponsored by The Department of Philosophy, AV整氈窒, Halifax, NS presenting:

Professor Jennifer Saul. Professor and Waterloo Chair in Social and Political Philosophy of Language at the University of Waterloo.泭Professor Jennifer Saul will present a lecture on Thursday and a colloquium talk on Friday.

Details for both events are below, including Zoom details for the colloquium.

Thursday:

Title: Goodbye to Dogwhistles and Figleaves?

Abstract: Dogwhistles and figleaves are techniques used by politicians to achieve some plausible deniability while violating widely held normsfor example, they help politicians get away with racist speech.泭 Donald Trumps second electoral victory, after a campaign filled with blatant racism, raises the depressing question of whether the US has now moved into an era without the need for to deny things like open racism.泭 This talk will explore these issues and attempt to offer some thoughts toward building a broad base of resistance.
Thursday March 20th 2025 at 7:00pm
AV整氈窒
5850 College St. F200 Theater A
Sir Charles Tupper Medical Bldg.
Halifax, NS B3H 4R2

Friday:

Title: Near-relations of dogwhistles

Abstract: This talk explores a collection of techniques for achieving deniability which are often mistaken for dogwhistles.泭 It argues that they are importantly different from dogwhistles, and that properly understanding these differences is vital to finding ways to push back against manipulative communication.

Friday March 21st 2025 at 3:00pm
Seminar Room 1130, FASS Building
6135 University Avenue

Zoom for Friday:

Dal Philosophy is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Colloquium
Time: March 21, 2025 03:00 PM Atlantic Time (Canada)
泭 泭 泭 泭
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84856149363?pwd=8rrsEjSjzjDcRTbLIU6NNZbparyuMF.1

Meeting ID: 848 5614 9363
Passcode: 022845

  • Remembering Steven Burns泭The Philosophy Department has collected some reminiscences of and tributes to our late friend and colleague, Dr Steven Burns. You can read them泭.
  • Steven A. M. Burns (1941-2024)泭With sadness, the Philosophy Department acknowledges the passing on September 19, at home in the company of his family, of Dr. Steven A. M. Burns, a much-loved colleague who taught at AV整氈窒 and Kings泭for many years. Steven joined the AV整氈窒 Philosophy Department in 1969, not long before defending his D. Phil. dissertation entitled Self-Deception under the supervision of Peter Winch at Birkbeck College, University of London. He was one of a wave of new hires who shaped the Department for over three decades.He later liked to joke that he offered classes on people whose names began with WWagner, Weil, Winch, Wittgensteinbut he also taught, among other topics, Ancient Philosophy, Marxist Theory, andone of his most popular classesPhilosophy of Art. He played a key role in developing the Departments highly successful PhD program, and he supervised thirty-four graduate students, including two PhDs. He served as the Departments Graduate Program Coordinator for thirteen years and also as Chair of the Department from 1988 to 1992. In 2006 he was given the AV整氈窒 Faculty of Graduate Studies Distinguished Service Award. During the 1990s he was instrumental in establishing the Contemporary Studies Program at the University of Kings College, serving as the programs Director from 2001 to 2003. After his retirement from AV整氈窒 in 2006, he continued to teach in CSP until 2013. His publications range over a wide field of topics, from translations of Winch and Weininger and essays on Wittgenstein,泭Hume and Plato, to papers on environmental ethics, the history of Canadian philosophy, Canadian literature (Alice Munro, Leonard Cohen, Robertson Davies), aesthetics, philosophy and film, and understanding jokes. (Wittgenstein reportedly remarked that a serious and good philosophical work could be written that would consist entirely of泭jokes. Steven proved this by writing one). He was the founder of the Atlantic Canada Wittgenstein Reading Group and a champion of Canadian bilingualism and of Canadian philosophy, both in his writing and in his long-time involvement with the Canadian Philosophical Association/泭Association canadienne de philosophie泭(as Associate Secretary, Secretary and program Chair), and the Atlantic Region Philosophers Association (ARPA), at whose 2022 meetings he was celebrated in two special sessions devoted to his work and interests. Some of the essays from those sessions will soon appear in a special issue of泭Dialogue, together with Stevens responses. Steven was loved by everyone who knew him, and his colleagues, students and friends in the Department and beyond will miss him greatly. We extend our sympathies to his family, his partner Janet Ross, their children, Emma, Maggie and Ross, and their partners and children. A memorial concert, featuring some of Stevens favourite music, performed by the Blue Engine String Quartet, will be held at St. Georges Round Church in Halifax on October 20 at 4:00pm. Donations in Stevens memory can be made to the Steven Burns Undergraduate Essay Prize in the History of Philosophy, care of the Philosophy Department. Steven compiled a large library, and the Philosophy Department will be stocking shelves in the Office/Lounge area with some of them. If you knew Steven and would like a memento, please drop by the Department (McCain 1142) and select a book or two from Stevens collection.
  • Letitia Meynell and Clarisse Parons泭, the泭Applied Ethics Primer, is now available in泭
  • Congratulations to Richmond Campbell (Professor Emeritus) and Victor Kumar (BA Hons, AV整氈窒; Assistant Professor, Boston University) whose book,泭泭(2022), was the topic of a symposium session at the annual meeting of the Canadian Philosophical Association.
  • Congratulations泭to Callahan Laing, who is the 2023 recipient of the F. Hilton Page Memorial Prize, awarded to a graduating student whose thesis is judged to be outstanding. Callahans thesis, supervised by Dr. Stephanie Kapusta, is entitled Gender Under Construction: Building a Better Framework.泭
  • Congratulations泭to Alexis Amero, who is the 2023 recipient of the Roland Puccetti Memorial Award for the best essay submitted by a student in a 3000- or 4000-level class. Alexiss essay is entitled On Monogamy and Adaptive Preference Formation: An Argument for Classifying Mononormality as an Autonomy Impairment.泭
  • Congratulations泭to Ford Doolittle, emeritus professor in the Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry and cross-appointed in Philosophy, who has just been elected to the泭Royal Society.
  • Congratulations to Stephanie Kapusta, who has been awarded tenure and promotion to associate professor, effective July 1. 2023!
  • Congratulations to Francoise Baylis and Andrew Fenton for co-authoring an泭泭in 'The Conversation'
  • The department notes with sadness the passing of Terrance Tomkow. Terry was a professor in the department from the mid-70s to the early 90s. He was a forceful influence on many of the professors and students in the department in that period, as well as in Canadian philosophy generally. He helped shape the minds of students who later became professors in various positions across the country. A brief obituary is available here: 泭Some of his work, published and in manuscript form, much of it co-authored with his partner, Kadri Vihvelin, who also held a position in our department, and the bulk of whose career has been in the philosophy department at the University of Southern California, can be read here:
  • Andrew Fenton was recently interviewed泭for an animal studies podcast -泭Buddhist animal research ethics, on the subject,
  • Congratulations泭to Kate Sutherland Hartling, who has been selected as this years winner of泭the KimRilda LeBlanc Memorial Award, which recognizes outstanding interdisciplinary initiatives between the arts and the health sciences, in honour of the memory of this former graduate student in English. Kate, who received her MA in October 2022, was nominated for her MA thesis entitled Condoms and Conditions on Consent: Upholding Intentions, Understanding, and Agency for Consensual Sex.
  • Duncan MacInosh was recently interviewed for the CRAM PodcastExtraordinary Ideas Unleashed, on the subject,
  • Duncan MacIntosh泭recently delivered a guest lecture to the Naval Warfare Officer Symposium, Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Fleet, Atlantic, on philosophical theories of the self as applied to emotional intelligence, self-awareness and leadership.
  • Congratulations to Dr. Francoise Baylis,
  • Congratulations our PhD Student Lara Millman is one of the Open Thinkers 2022. More information can be found via the泭.
  • Clarisse Paron (PhD); and Tejas Pandya (MA) participated in the泭
    Watch Tejas' video泭
    Watch Clarisse's video泭泭

Recent Publications

  • Mark Fortney. "The Attention Economy and the Right to Attention: Some Lessons from Theravda and Mahyna Thought".泭Journal of Buddhist Ethics.泭
  • co-edited by Clarisse Paron,泭 Derek Andrews, Andrew Fenton, Michael Hymers, and Letitia Meynell is now available in泭Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review. Papers include by Michael Hymers and by Steven Burns, as well as a number of others by graduates and friends of the department. (Most papers are open access.)
  • Ford Doolittles book,泭 is now available (and open access) from MIT Press.
  • Andrew Fenton,泭co-authored Cambridge Element is now online (it's open access, so forever free as an e-book).
  • Erik Nelson,泭"Kantian Animal Moral Psychology: Empirical Markers for Animal Morality" published in泭Ergo, an Open Access Journal of Philosophy July, 2024.泭
  • Duncan MacIntosh's essay, We Have Met the Grey Zone and He is Us: How Grey Zone Warfare Exploits Our Undecidedness about What Matters To Us, was published in April 2024 in Regan and Sari, eds.,泭Hybrid Threats and Grey Zone Conflict: The Challenge to Liberal Democracies泭with Oxford University Press.泭
  • In January, Duncan MacIntosh's paper,泭The Convergence of National Rational Self-Interest and Justice in Space Policy: Extending the Contractarian Reduction of Morality to Rationality Into The Final Frontier, was published in泭The Final Frontier: Ethical and Philosophical Issues of Space Travel and Colonization, a special issue of泭The International Journal of Applied Philosophy.泭
  • In November, Duncan MacIntosh's essay, "Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Weaponized: A Theory of Moral Injury", was published as a chapter in McDaniel, Seamone, and Xenakis, eds.,泭Preventing and Treating the Invisible Wounds of War: Combat Trauma, Moral Injury, and Psychological Health泭(Oxford University Press, 2023).泭
  • by Celso Neto (past Philosophy postdoc, currently at Exeter University), Letitia Meynell, and Chris Jones has been published in泭Biology and Philosophy.
  • Duncan MacIntosh's essay, The Sniper and the Psychopath: A Parable in Defense of the Weapons Industry, has been published in Schoeni and Vestner, eds.,泭
  • Simplicity in Wittgensteins 1929 Manuscripts by Michael Hymers recently appeared in泭Wittgensteins Philosophy in 1929, edited by Florian Franken Figueiredo (New York: Routledge, 2023).泭
  • Tyler Hildebrands book泭泭has been published by Cambridge University Press as part of the泭Elements in Metaphysics泭series. The electronic version is free until 16 March 2023.