We wish to thank the generous donors to the Department of Philosophy, without whom Philosophy News would not be possible. Please see the back page for details on how you can support the Department in endeavours like this one. UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY FALL 2014 By Ellen Roseman Shelly Kagan, the Clark Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, drew a capacity crowd to the Roseman Lecture in Practical Ethics last fall. He is an engaging, funny and whip- smart speaker. And he chose an intriguing topic, one that is not usually explored in mainstream philosophy courses. The title: What’s wrong with speciesism? In a bestselling 1975 book, Animal Liberation, Australian philosopher Peter Singer claimed that most of us are “speciesists” in our attitude toward, and treatment of, animals. Speciesism is supposed to be a kind of morally unjustified prejudice, akin to racism or sexism, Kagan said in his notes for the lecture. “Although I found that charge compelling for years, I now find that I have my doubts,” he explained. “It now seems to me that most people are not actu- ally speciesists at all, but something rather different.” Shelly Kagan with Ellen Roseman Singer, now a bioethics professor at Princeton University, created a splash when he called for an animal rights movement. Kagan read the book while in graduate school. He became a vegetarian. But in a second reading of the book in 2011, while preparing to give an animal ethics seminar to Yale students, Kagan found some of Singer’s arguments less than persuasive. “People have rights. Animals don’t,” he tells me after the lecture. “There’s a huge crowd of people working on this issue. I thought a lot of the arguments were weak.” Kagan thinks the crucial concept is to define the meaning of a “person.” Going back to British philosopher John Locke’s work ...continued on Page 2 P RACTICAL E THICS – S HELLY K AGAN ON S PECIESISM I AN H ACKING WINS B ALZAN P RIZE ! SEE P AGE 3
Transcript
We wish to thank the generous donors to the Department of Philosophy, without whom Philosophy News would not be possible. Please see the back page for details on how you can support the Department in endeavours like this one.
UN IVERS I T Y OF TORONTO DEPARTMENT OF PH I LOSOPHY
FA L L 2 0 1 4
By Ellen Roseman
Shelly Kagan, the Clark Professor ofPhilosophy at Yale University, drew a capacity crowd to the RosemanLecture in Practical Ethics last fall.
He is an engaging, funny and whip-smart speaker. And he chose anintriguing topic, one that is not usually explored in mainstream philosophy courses. The title: What’s wrong with speciesism? In a bestselling 1975 book, AnimalLiberation, Australian philosopherPeter Singer claimed that most of usare “speciesists” in our attitudetoward, and treatment of, animals.
Speciesism is supposed to be a kindof morally unjustified prejudice, akinto racism or sexism, Kagan said inhis notes for the lecture. “Although I found that charge compelling foryears, I now find that I have mydoubts,” he explained. “It now seemsto me that most people are not actu-ally speciesists at all, but somethingrather different.”
Shelly Kagan with Ellen Roseman
Singer, now a bioethics professorat Princeton University, createda splash when he called for ananimal rights movement. Kaganread the book while in graduateschool. He became a vegetarian.
But in a second reading of thebook in 2011, while preparingto give an animal ethics seminarto Yale students, Kagan foundsome of Singer’s arguments less
than persuasive. “People haverights. Animals don’t,” he tellsme after the lecture. “There’s ahuge crowd of people workingon this issue. I thought a lot ofthe arguments were weak.”
Kagan thinks the crucial conceptis to define the meaning of a“person.” Going back to British philosopher John Locke’s work
...continued on Page 2
PRACTICAL ETHICS –SHELLY KAGAN ON SPECIESISM
IAN HACKINGWINS BALZAN PRIZE!SEE PAGE 3
2 Un ivers i ty o f Toronto
in the 17th century, he defines aperson as a creature that is self-conscious, rational, intelligent andable to communicate. An animal isnot a person, he argues. Onlyhomo sapiens fits that category.Hisone-hour talk went by in a flash.He talked quickly and rarelychecked his notes.
He answered questions with ease.He looked comfortable, showing alevel of informality not alwaysfound in academia. He wore fadedjeans, a flannel shirt and sneakers.His hair and beard could have useda trim. And he sat cross-legged atthe front of the JackmanHumanities Building’s lecture hall.
While other lecturers stand orwalk from side to side, Kagan likesto sit on a table or shelf. He’s veryanimated, crossing and recrossinghis legs, gesticulating with hisarms and turning his head fromside to side.
Don’t take my word for it. You can see him on YouTube,where he appears in many tele-vised lectures, interviews anddebates. Start by watching himintroduce his Open Yale CoursesSeries on death, which hasreceived about 325,000 viewssince 2008.
He adapted the lectures into apaperback book called Death (YaleUniversity Press, 2012), also available as a Kindle and Kobo e-book.
In an online review, one personsaid: “I’ve never had so much funthinking about my own death!
Highly recommended for philoso-phers and non-philosophers alike.”Kagan’s teaching style is very visual, another reviewer said. He explains just about everythingwith examples – and thought-provoking examples at that.
While making a name for himselfin North America talking aboutdeath, he also became famous inChina. “The Chinese were notexposed to any philosophy outsideof Marxism,” he says. Studentsliked the way he sat on the podium with his legs crossed, said a Yale News article in 2010.
“His image, resembling that of an‘immortal’ in Chinese mythology,has made him a star closely followed by the youth in China,”the article said, quoting ChinaNational Radio.
“Ever since Kagan’s philosophyclass Death appeared on theInternet, many young people inChina scramble for the lecturesgiven by this unconventional pro-fessor who could have beenconsidered ‘out of line,’ accordingto the traditional Chinese standardof teaching style and manner.”
Kagan, 59, was born in Skokie,Illinois. He received his B.A. from Wesleyan University inConnecticut (where he met his wife) and his Ph.D. fromPrinceton in 1982. Before movingto Yale in 1995, he taught at theUniversity of Pittsburgh withDavid Gauthier, former chairmanof the University of Toronto’s philosophy department from 1974to 1979. Gauthier, now professoremeritus and living in Toronto,came to the lecture on speciecismand asked a question at the end.
Kagan has written four books. The Geometry of Desert (OxfordUniversity Press, 2012) looks atthe idea of giving people what theymorally deserve. He took 20 yearsto complete the work, but it seemsto have paid off. “An extraordinaryaccomplishment,” said LarryTemkin of Rutgers University. “It is the most comprehensive andthoughtful discussion of the topicof desert in the literature.”
It’s easy to see that Kagan lovesteaching. He can’t imagine a better job.“I feel like I’m on a paidvacation,” he says. “I have a reputa-tion of being a hard grader, but I do it out of respect for students.I take a paper apart and put ittogether again, explaining what Iliked and didn’t like. It’s notunusual for my comments to belonger than the paper itself.”
He oozes self-confidence. “My egois very secure,” he tells me. “I’mnot a humble person.” This can beoff-putting to some, but he’s alsoknown as a crowd-pleaser and anunforgettable character. His onlinelectures have touched thousands ofpeople and introduced them to amore rigorous way of thinkingabout life, death and morality.
Shelly Kaganon Speciesismcontinued from Page 1
Department o f Ph i losophy News 3
Ian Hacking has been awarded the 2014 BalzanPrize. The Balzan Prizes are awarded in two scientificareas and two areas in the social sciences and humani-ties each year, rotating through different subjects. This year's theme was Epistemology and thePhilosophy of Mind.
Hacking’s contributions to these areas come from hisgroundbreaking work on questions about the nature ofconcepts and the ways in which we reason with them.In a recent article, Hacking characterizes his project inthe following terms: “How did a species like ours, onan Earth like this, develop a few quite general strate-gies for finding out about, and altering, its world?”
In the Prize Citation, the Committee drew attentionto Hacking’s “fundamental and pioneering contribu-tions to philosophy and the history of social andnatural sciences, for the thematic breadth of hisresearch, for his original epistemological perspectivecentred on a version of scientific realism and definedin contrast with the dominant paradigm in the philos-ophy of science of the twentieth century.”
Only three other philosophers have been awardedBalzan Prizes in the past 54 years: Emanuel Levinas,Thomas Nagel and Ronald Dworkin. The Prize is valued at 750,000 Swiss francs (nearly $900,000).
In 2001, the Balzan Foundation introduced a require-ment that “Prizewinners must destine half of the prizeto finance research projects that are preferably carriedout by young scholars or scientists.”
Ian and several of his colleagues, including formerprovost Cheryl Misak, are developing a project spanning four or five years that will continue and celebrate his work on ‘styles of reasoning’.
While celebrating Ian's past and ongoing achievements,the prize also provides us with an opportunity to look
to the Department's bright future in bothEpistemology and in the Philosophy of Mind.
Franz Huber (St. George), Jennifer Nagel (UTM),and Jonathan Weisberg (UTM) are all rising stars in the field of Epistemology; Imogen Dickie (St.George), Benj Hellie (UTSC), Mohan Matthen(UTM), Diana Raffman (UTM), Bill Seager(UTSC), and Sonia Sedivy (UTSC) have made the department a major center for the Philosophy ofMind. In addition, the St. George department will bemaking a junior appointment in the Philosophy ofMind this year.
Notes from the St. George
DepartmentHaving at the end of June completedmy three-year stint as Undergraduate
Coordinator for the St. GeorgePhilosophy Department, I can lookback with almost euphoric reliefmaniacal laughter an Edvard Munchscream – no no, it was fine really. If anything, I can look back with a certain quiet satisfaction, borderingon pride. Not pride in what I did,since I did very little; pride in our stu-dents and in my colleagues, for whom
so little needed to be done. At a time when the humanities seemto be under attack everywhere, andstudents are under more pressure thanever to choose drearily preprofessionaltraining over an education, we some-how seem to be in very good health. U of T students still love to learn, andour students appreciate the value of
Undergraduate
...continued on Page 5
Ian Hacking wins 2014 Balzan Prize
It has been a privilege serving youand working with all of you overthe past three years. When I was
appointed I worried that colleaguesmight think of bringing in someonewhose primary appointment was atthe faculty of law as some unwelcomeform of academic receivership. I wasdelighted to be welcomed, and to getto know everyone in the departmentmuch better than I had.When I took office, the departmentwas extremely strong. Thanks toeveryone’s efforts, we have consolidat-ed and built on those strengths. I am particularly pleased with the out-standing hires the tri-campusdepartment has made over the pastthree years, each of whom has raisedthe quality of our already strongdepartment.I am delighted to welcome JamesAllen, Andrew Franklin-Hall,Waheed Hussain, Jim John, andNick Stang, who officially joined thedepartment July 1.I leave the department in capablehands. Brad Inwood will be ActingFAS Chair and Interim Graduate Chairfor one year, after which MartinPickavé will take over as Chair.
The end of my termcoincided with SuzannePuckering’s last day asthe department’s Bus-iness Officer and OfficeManager. Suzanne outlast-ed me by a remarkabletwo decades, providing
23 years of outstanding service to theDepartment. Many of you will havealready had an opportunity to meet hersuccessor, Ben Eldridge, over the pastmonth. Please join me in thankingSuzanne and welcoming Ben.Other changes are also taking place.Rachel Barney completed her term asSt. George Undergraduate coordinator.Tom Berry took over that position as ofJuly 1, while continuing in his role as tri-campus TA coordinator.
Peter King has completed his term asPlacement officer, and Mark Kingwellhas taken over.I am grateful to all of them, and toeveryone in the department, whohelped in so many ways to make thedepartment flourish during my years as Chair.I also want to thank the department'smany alumni and friends for their sup-port, both moral and financial, enablingus to provide encouragement for ourundergraduates in the difficult economictimes for “millennials,” their generousfinancial support that has strengthenedour graduate program, and for manyevents that have helped to enrich ourintellectual life. But I am most grateful to the depart-ment’s outstanding staff – in addition to Suzanne, Eric Correia, Anita Di Giacomo, Mary Frances Ellison,
and Margaret Opoku-Pare constantlyamazed me with their astonishing combination of intelligence, profession-alism, patience, and good humor. I’ve remarked before that philosophy is unusual because it is a discipline inwhich there is basically no closure. We continue to debate topics that werediscussed in the Agora in ancient Athens2500 years ago. Our ability to put upwith each other in this respect (and theability of administrators to manage it) is one thing; the ability of our staff tokeep smiling while dealing with such an unusual bunch is truly remarkable.
Arthur RipsteinFormer Chair, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts & Science;
Former Chair, Graduate Department of Philosophy
Puckering
Arthur surfs away
4 Un ivers i ty o f Toronto
Arthur RipsteinFrom the Previous Chair
The Ups and Downs of Being Chair–Martin Pickavé receives lessons from Arthur Ripstein
Department o f Ph i losophy News 5
UTM Philosophy NewsWe have moved! We loveour new location atthe 2nd floor in theAcademic Annex. It’sgreat having such acozy dining/loungearea and being able toenjoy beautiful views
of the Credit River Valley from ourlarge office windows. The new loca-tion is, however, temporary. We arethere during the process of recon-struction of the old North Building,which will also change its name to“Deerfield Hall”.
We also had many events this year.Our graduate-undergraduate confer-ence in March featured six excellenttalks (three by graduate students andthree by undergraduate students) cov-ering many areas of philosophy. In ourUTM Alumni Series Chris Shirreff,now a graduate student at WesternOntario, presented a fascinating paperentitled “Laughing at Immoral Jokes”(with a response by Belinda Percy).Our speakers for the Seminars inPhilosophy this year were JenniferLackey (Northwestern University),Declan Smithies (Ohio StateUniversity), and Karl Schafer(University of Pittsburgh).
We would also like to take this oppor-tunity to congratulate our Prizewinners: Athena Calarasu (FirstYear Essay Prize), TheodoreLindgreen (First Year Essay Prize),Kevin Persaud (Erindale Prize inPhilosophy), Arianna Falbo (GombayPrize in Philosophy), and MahanEsmaeilzadeh (Gombay Prize inPhilosophy).We are looking forward to anotherexciting year!Sergio Tenenbaum Chair, Department of PhilosophyUniversity of Toronto at Mississauga
the skills we have to teach. (And lastyear, for the first time, we participat-ed in the ‘Backpacks to Briefcases’program, which enabled some of ourstudents to meet – and be encouragedand reassured by – former students ofthe Department who have gone on tosuccess in a huge variety of fields, andhave no regrets.) Every year, the most difficult part of my job was rounding up enoughinstructors and finding enough placesin our courses to come anywhereclose to meeting student demand,without compromising on class sizeand quality in general. For the 2014-15 year, along with ourtwo new tenure-track hires, we have
been fortunate to be able to hire threevisiting Lecturers – welcome toJonathan Rick, Amber Ross, andAshley Taylor! – not to mentionMark Schranz, who is lecturing inthe Department as well as running theSocrates Project, and returning post-doc Asaf Angermann. And every year, the most engagingpart of the job was selecting studentsfor the Socrates Project. There can’t be many universities inthe world, if any, where in every yearthe Philosophy Department can counton finding ten or more majors notonly willing to take on the demandingand stressful job of a TA, but qualifiedto do so: broadly learned in the field,skilled enough as writers to be able toteach others, outgoing and composed
enough to lead tutorials, and matureenough to grade student work. (I don’t like to think about how manyof those criteria I would have flunkedin my own undergraduate years here.) And as a final bit of luck, I have beenable to hand over the office of UGC,now rebranded DUS (Director ofUndergraduate Studies), to TomBerry. I can think of no one more qualifiedfor the job, and only hope he gets asmuch out of the role as I did.
The new UTM Philosophy quarters with Marleen Rozemond, Jonathan Weisberg, Mohan Matthen, and Gurpreet Rattan
6 Un ivers i ty o f Toronto
Notes from the GraduateDepartment
The Department had arecord-high 245 appli-cations to our PhDprogram this year and161 applications toour MA program. This year Torontojoined the North
American trend of hosting a recruit-ment weekend to court the graduatestudents chosen by our admissionscommittee. The weekend broughttogether past, present and futureToronto philosophy graduate stu-dents, featuring talks by Torontoalumni Matthew Fulkerson (PhD2010), now on faculty at UC SanDiego, and Helga Varden (PhD2006), now on faculty at Universityof Illinois, with comments fromToronto graduate students LanaKühle and Dan Hooley. Despite heavy snow and hard winds,enough fun was had that we succeed-ed in recruiting a great first-year PhDclass of 5 women and 7 men, comingin from New Zealand, Hungary, theUnited States and across Canada.We’re doing it again this year, and
we’d like to welcome all members ofthe Toronto philosophy community,including present and former facultyand students, to come out to thealumni talks on Saturday, March 20,2015, by Michael Garnett (PhD2006) of Birkbeck College Londonand Kara Richardson (PhD 2008)of Syracuse University. Details will be posted on the events listing ofour website.Three of our incoming students wonthe prestigious four-year TrilliumScholarship. This is a remarkableachievement for these students, andfor our department—only 20 ofthese are awarded across all divisionsat the University of Toronto.Meanwhile, our second-year PhDstudent Etye Steinberg won the topfederal government prize, the three-year Vanier Scholarship, in recognitionof his academic excellence and leadership in humanitarian causes andthe arts. Three other students won the next-best thing, the Joseph-ArmandBombardier Scholarship: CarolynRichardson, Renaud-PhilippeGarner, and Matthieu Remacle.Robinson Fellowships in AncientPhilosophy were awarded to our students Willie Costello andRobbie Howton.
In May, the graduate students rantheir annual conference, this year onthe theme Normativity: Action, Mind,and Language, with keynote speakersAnandi Hattiangadi of StockholmUniversity and David Velleman ofNew York University. Graduate stu-dent participants came in from as faraway as Southern California and theUnited Kingdom, and were paired upwith graduate and undergraduatecommentators in Toronto.University of Toronto students had anactive year of their own on the con-ference circuit, presenting theirresearch at a great variety of loca-tions, including Dublin, Mexico City,Los Angeles, Vancouver, Coventry,Amsterdam, Seoul, Chicago, Halifax,Tel Aviv, Sherbrooke, Philadephia,Santiago and all three Cambridges(UK, USA and Ontario).
Toronto graduate student researchwas accepted for publication in awide range of journals, including TheJournal of Philosophy, PhilosophicalStudies, Philosophical Quarterly, Analysis,The British Journal for the History ofPhilosophy, and Philosophy of Science.Jennifer NagelAssociate Chair, Graduate Studies
UTSC Philosophy News
In the Winter of 2014,the Department ofPhilosophy at UTSCconcluded a very successful search inEthics and PoliticalPhilosophy, and hiredWaheed Hussain,
who joined us on July 1, 2014, as anAssistant Professor. Hussain's main research interests liemostly at the intersection of moraland political philosophy, economicsand business. His work has appeared ina variety of academic journals, includ-ing Philosophy & Public Affairs, Economicsand Philosophy, Journal of Business Ethics,Business Ethics Quarterly, Social Theory
and Practice and the Journal of MoralPhilosophy. Before coming to Toronto,he was an assistant professor at TheWharton School of the University ofPennsylvania. Hussain and JuliaNefsky are together a formidableteaching team, covering most of cen-tral courses in Ethics and in PoliticalPhilosophy.Also in the Winter of 2014, JessicaWilson was one of this year's tworecipients of Dr. Martin R. Lebowitzand Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize forPhilosophical Achievement andContribution, awarded by the Phi BetaKappa Society in conjunction with theAmerican Philosophical Association.The two award recipients, Wilson andJonathan Schafer (Rutgers), will pres-ent a special symposium at the EasternAPA in December, entitled “The Role
of Grounding in Metaphysics”. Thiswill be a wonderful showcase ofProfessor Wilson’s philosophicalachievements. Please join me in congratulating her.Meanwhile, our DepartmentStudents’ Association has an active andinteresting year planned ahead,including a Mind Night; a PoliticalPhilosophy night; several discussionnights; and an UndergraduateConference planned for March 2015.On a more personal note, Julia Nefskygave birth to her son Miles in May2014. Please join me in congratulatingher and her husband, Alex Rennet.Philip Kremer Chair, Department of PhilosophyUniversity of Toronto Scarborough
Department o f Ph i losophy News 7
I’ve been asked to write a short piece on how, or indeed whether, being a philosopher was relevant to the job of being a provost of a large
university. For those in a state of blissful unaware-ness about what that job is, the provost of theUniversity of Toronto is the chief academic officerand the chief budget officer for the whole of the university.
All the deans report to theprovost, as do the vice-provosts (for faculty andacademic life, students andstudent life, graduate educa-tion, and so on), the head oflibraries, and many others.
Labor and legal matters fallinto the provost’s orbit –indeed, there is hardly a cor-ner of the University thatdoes not. To say the least, thejob is extremely interesting.
Philosophy comes into thepicture in that a provost isengaged in constant decision-making and policy-making,often delicate, and withalmost always immediate orfar-reaching consequences.
Being able to analyze a problem, revise one’s view inlight of arguments from others, sift through com-peting reasons, defend and communicateconclusions once they have been carefully made, areall vital skills.
All of this happens to be part and parcel of what wedo as philosophers. Philosophers live in a culture ofjustification. We also live in a culture of reflection,and being reflective about the aims and values of aninstitution is critical for anyone who has any kind ofleadership role.
One needs to think hard about, and always keep inmind, the true values of a university such as ours: apublicly-supported university with the vital task ofeducating the next generation and in conductingoutstanding research and scholarship.
It also turns out to be quite handy that philosophicalprovosts are used to putting forward a view andthen having it attacked. If one goes into an academicadministration not knowing how to handle impas-sioned dissent, one goes into it with a verysignificant deficit. I was mindful of my debt to thosesharp minds and personalities who gave my views arough ride at countless conferences and philosophy-
departmental colloquia. It was good training.
There are differences, to besure. At times, decisions in theprovost’s office have to bemade at lightning speed, espe-cially when crises arise (andwith 87,000 students and acorresponding number of faculty and staff, they ariseweekly). At times, the giveand take of reasons operateswithin the constraints ofpressing economic and political facts, although it is aquestion that must always beasked whether those factsshould be worked with orworked against.
At least in some parts of philosophy, we can reason less burdened by contingent and changing contexts, and we canalmost always have the luxury of taking our time tocome to our views. That said, if you are wonderingwhat to do with that PhD in philosophy, it turns outthat it’s a great preparation for a role in academicadministration, and indeed in all sorts of positionsin government, private enterprise, and civic life.
Cheryl MisakProfessor, Department of PhilosophyVice-President & Provost, University of Toronto, 2009-2013
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO - DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY
PHILOSOPHY NEWSwww.philosophy.utoronto.ca Editor: Anita Di GiacomoDesign: Alvin Ng/Dragon Snap Design
Donald Ainslie,University CollegePrincipal and former Chair ofPhilosophy (2003-2011), has beenpromoted to Full
Professor. Donald’s area of expertise is the history of modernphilosophy, especially Hume.
James Allenhas joined UTM Philosophy as a Full Professor. He comes to usfrom University ofPittsburgh, and hisspecialty is Ancient Philosophy.
Tom Berry hasbeen appointedDirector ofUndergraduateStudies. He willcontinue to act asthe TA Coordinator.
AndrewFranklin-Hallstarted his appoint-ment as an AssistantProfessor in July atthe St. George cam-pus. His specialty isMoral and Political Philosophy.
Waheed Hussainjoined UTSCPhilosophy as anAssistant Professorthis summer. He’s a specialist inPolitical and MoralPhilosophy and Applied Ethics.
Brad Inwood(UniversityProfessor, CanadaResearch Chair inAncient Philosophy,with a majorityappointment at the
Department of Classics) has beennamed Acting Chair of the St. George UndergraduateDepartment and the Interim Chairof the Graduate Department ofPhilosophy while Martin Pickavétakes a rest from administration.
James (Jim) Johnwho has been withus since 2006 hasbeen cross-appoint-ed to the CognitiveScience Program atUniversity College.
Martin Pickavé (CanadaResearch Chair in MedievalPhilosophy, with a minorityappointment at the Centre for
Medieval Studies) hasbeen named Chair of the St. GeorgeUndergraduateDepartment for a five-year term over aseven-year periodeffective July 1, 2014 to June 30,2021. Since Martin has been AssociateDirector of the Centre for MedievalStudies and the Director of theCollaborative Program in Ancient andMedieval Studies for the past threeyears, he decided to take a year’sbreak from bossing people around.
Nicholas Stanghas joined the St.George departmentas an AssistantProfessor. His areasof specialty are EarlyModern Philosophy,Kant, Metaphysics, and Aesthetics.
Byeong-Uk Yi hasbeen promoted toFull Professor. He joined UTMPhilosophy as anassociate professorin 2006. Byeong’smain research interests are metaphysics and philosophy of language, logic and philosophy of mathematics.
Faculty Appointments & Promotions
Ainslie Pickavé
Franklin-Hall
Hussain
Stang
Inwood
John
Berry
Graduate StudentBrian Embrywas the winner of the 2013Martha Lile LoveAward for Excellencein Teaching Philosophyfor his course in 17th
Century Philosophy.
Alumna JoannaLangille (HonoursBA 2006), a Doctor ofJuridical Science student at UofT’sFaculty of Law, hasbeen awarded the pres-
tigious Pierre Elliott TrudeauFoundationscholarship. Joanna is a lawyer and schol-ar of international law and legal theory.
Graduate Student Eric Mathisonreceived the 2013Martha Lile Love EssayAward for his essay, “The Insufficiency of Neutrality forEnvironmental Policy”.
Awards and Honours
Embry Langille
Yi
Mathison
...continued next page
Allen
Photo: Christopher Dew
Depar tment o f Ph i losophy News 9
Graduate StudentJohanna Thomawon the 2014Martha Lile LoveEssay Award. Herpaper “Temptation,Risk-Taking, and Regret” was judged to be the best in a strong field this year.
The David Savan Prize for the best dissertation went to Jacob Weinrib(PhD 2013) for his thesis Authority,
Justice and the Law: AUnified Theory, whichhas also been acceptedfor publication byCambridge UniversityPress. This year, Jacobis the Dworkin-BalzanPostdoctoral Fellow at New YorkUniversity School of Law.
Professor Jessica Wilson has beenawarded the Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize
for PhilosophicalAchievement andContribution by the ThePhi Beta Kappa Societyin conjunction with theAmerican PhilosophicalAssociation for a symposium on “Grounding inMetaphysics.” Jessica and co-prize winnerJonathan Schaffer will be presenting thesymposium at the December meeting ofthe Eastern Division of the AmericanPhilosophical Association.
RETIREMENTIngrid LemanStefanovicSomeone once said that the problem with retirement isthat one never gets a day off! This is particularly true inmy case, having retired from the University of Torontoto serve as Dean of the newly-formed Faculty ofEnvironment at Simon Fraser University.
As one of only five Faculties in the country dedicated tothe interdisciplinary study of environment, the unit pre-sented me with a challenge that builds on some of myhappiest times at UofT when I helped to create theCentre for Environment (now renamed the School ofthe Environment). That opportunity could only havearisen because of the administrative experience that I hadgathered in serving as Associate Chair, Undergraduate, inthe Department of Philosophy from 1997-2000.
Having completed my undergraduate and graduatedegrees in philosophy in the 1970s at the University ofToronto, it will always be home to me. The experienceof being hired in the early 1990s to teach in the verydepartment where I had defended my PhD only rein-forced that sense of home. Wayne Sumner took achance in hiring me, given my interdisciplinary back-ground, and for this opportunity, I remain alwaysgrateful. To this day, when the QS University rankingsreport that UofT is #1 in the country, I feel honored tohave spent the bulk of my career at a university of thisimmense stature.
Currently, I am the first philosopher and only humani-ties Professor to be hired in the Faculty of Environmentat Simon Fraser University. Surrounded by a team of
extraordinarily productive environmental scientists, Iam particularly pleased to be able to show this audiencehow perceptions, values, attitudes and hidden para-digms drive environmental decision making. While nolonger at the Department of Philosophy at UofT, I findmyself sharing my experiences from Toronto often.
Importantly, I am pleased to be in a position to take myphilosophical message to students in a different domain,beyond a philosophy department setting.
I continue to supervise one student from UofT and toserve on the committees of two others. I also continueto employ one student from the Department ofPhilosophy as an RA on a SSHRC-funded grant. It ishard to leave those wonderful students behind and I amhappy that I have not been forced to do so.
Many colleagues remain my friends for life, and in clos-ing, I invite you to keep in touch and hope to continueto collaborate and socialize with my friends from thisextraordinary Department for many years to come! (If you are heading out west, do feel free to contact meat [email protected]!)
I had the privilege of being André’s colleague fortwenty-seven years. I participated in the conferencein his honour when he retired at the age of sixty-five. I presided over his re-retirement in my capacityas department chair, when, after fifteen years ofpostretirement teaching, he became, as he wryly putit “Professor emeritus emeritus.”
We have a very diverse philosophy department alonga number of dimensions – intellectual style, topic,even geography. André bridged everything that any-one ever thought of as a divide. He taught the entirehistory of philosophy, ranging from the ancientGreeks through to Nietzsche and Freud, but he alsotaught contemporary philosophy. He wrote andtaught thinkers and topics ordinarily classified asanalytic and others classified as continental; heworked in both theoretical and practical philosophy.He even taught at all three University of Torontocampuses.
André loved to teach and was much loved as ateacher. He would walk into his classes and say“hey hey” to get the students’ attention, and away he would go. His fascination with the material, andhis joy at presenting it was infectious.
He was also the most wonderful colleague you couldimagine. It wasn’t just that he came to every talk,was interested in every topic, sat in on colleagues’classes, and so on. He did all of that, more than any-one else ever did. But he also – partly because hishappiness was so infectious – made everyone feelconnected to him and to each other. If you hadasked everyone in the department to name the twoor three colleagues with whom they felt closest,everyone would have included André on their list. If you had asked the staff, all of them would havelisted André first.
In the published obituary, André’s family describedhim as a “happy philosopher.” That’s certainly an aptdescription of him; I want to say a little bit about theway in which he was each of a philosopher and happy.
André was a philosopher in every positive sense of that term. Someone who didn’t know muchabout philosophy, or didn’t know André, might havetaken his interests to be those of a philosopher in a pejorative sense, an eccentric professor with theories entirely removed from the concerns andrealities of ordinary life. But André wasn’t that kindof philosopher at all.
Remembering André GombayMAY 4, 1933 – FEBRUARY 28, 2014
Department o f Ph i losophy News 11
He was an excellent philosopher in the ways inwhich people were philosophers late in the last century and are early in this one. We live in an agein which philosophy has undergone a kind of professionalization. By the standards of professionalphilosophers, he was an excellent philosopher, anactive participant in professional life, teaching,supervising graduate students, writing importantarticles on multiple topics, overseeing an enormouseditorial project and writing a major book onDescartes.
What was most striking about André was that, at thesame time, he was a philosopher in a very differentsense of the term, a sense that was very much alivein the ancient world, where a philosopher was aperson who lived a life in a certain kind of way, inlight of a commitment to a distinctive way of under-standing the world.
André managed to combine these two very differentways of being a philosopher in a single life, and thefact that he was a philosopher in the ancient Greeksense made him so much more interesting than mostprofessional philosophers.
When he wrote about Descartes, André was partic-ularly interested in the role of deceit in Descartes’sfirst and third Meditations; where others saw theintroduction and subsequent dismissal of the deceiv-ing demon as a sort of rhetorical flourish to engagewith a more radical version of traditional forms ofscepticism, André understood deceit to be a morefundamental issue for Descartes. As a result of thisrefocus, he was able to find things in the text thatothers had overlooked.
André’s interest in issues of deceit and what his for-mer colleague, Calvin Normore, referred to as“counterprivacy” shaped the ways in which helooked at philosophical questions, and also the wayin which he lived his life. André’s interest in deceitwasn’t restricted to his Descartes scholarship; hewas also impatient with the constant moralizingabout honesty that is a central feature of our cul-ture, and no better disposed to those philosophers,such as Kant, who were quick to condemn deceit inall of its forms. His disdain for the moralizers wasnot the product of any desire to excuse any sort ofconduct on his own part; indeed, André was among
the most forthright people that you could evermeet.
The philosophy department used to mount aContinuing Studies course on the great philosopherson a series of Tuesday evenings; André gave the lec-ture on Descartes, which was always a favourite ofthe students. André loved teaching those classes;invariably someone would come to tell him thatDescartes had articulated thoughts that they hadalways had in an inchoate way. The course had a significant impact on André also; I remember oneWednesday morning, more than twenty years ago,when Jackie Brunning picked us up at the corner ofBloor and Spadina to drive out to Erindale, as it wasthen called. André had given his Descartes lecturethe night before, and was struck by how eager thestudents were to engage with the material.
He wondered whether this was because theyweren’t being graded, and he became very interest-ed in (and opposed to) grading as a practice. He began campaigning, quietly for its abolition; he wrote a Nietzschean “genealogy” of grading, discovering its origins in the Jesuits, and the ways in which it had been repurposed in subsequent cen-turies, a persistent practice constantly rediscoveringits own rationale.
Like his interest in lying, André’s interest in gradingwas not driven by the desire to get himself off thehook. André was no different from most professors;he loved his job, but grading was not his favouritepart of it. But he never campaigned – and I’m quitesure he never even thought – that the problem withgrading was that it was a colossal waste of his timeand effort. Instead, the problem with grading wasthat it drew the attention of students away from afull engagement with the ideas before them.
André’s interest in deceit and his interest in gradingwere, I think, instances of a much more general outlook, one that made him suspicious of ways inwhich human beings are forever trying to measureeach other and hold each other to standards. Hereis another example: in 1995, the popular neurolo-gist Oliver Sacks published a hugely popular bookcalled An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales.André wrote a review of it for the Globe and Mail.
...continued on Page 13
12 Un ivers i ty o f Toronto
Martha Lile Love came to Toronto in the 1970sas a graduate student with a passion forClassical Indian philosophy, a topic she had
first encountered during her undergraduate studies inphilosophy at Smith College. She enrolled in Toronto’sMA program in South Asian Studies, working onSanskrit texts with Professor Bimal Matilal, who wenton to become Spalding Professor of Eastern Religionsand Ethics at Oxford.
Throughout her years in graduate school, Marthamaintained strong interests in Western philosophy aswell, taking courses in philosophy of language andlogic with Professors Hans Herzberger and JohnSlater, among others. She travelled with her fellowstudent and partner Brendan Gillon (MA 1979,Sanskrit & Indian Studies) to the Centre for theAdvanced Study of Sanskrit at Poona University;together, they worked on a study of the Ny-ayapravesa, a core text in Buddhist logic.
While in India, Martha discovered that she had breastcancer, and returned to Toronto for treatment.Doctors were ultimately unable to save her, and shedied in April of 1979, at the age of 29. The articleGillon and Love wrote together, “Indian LogicRevisited: Ny-ayapravesa reviewed” was published in theJournal of Indian Philosophy the following year.
Those who knew Martha have indelible memories ofher intelligence and vitality. Brendon Gillon describesher as “a truly remarkable woman, both as a personand as an intellectual. I feel very fortunate to haveknown her.” Martha’s friend Lee Manchester (MA1973, PhD 1980) describes her as “a warm and engag-ing person, full of life, excited about her studies andher passions.” Professor Emeritus and DepartmentalHistorian John Slater remembers her well. “MarthaLile Love was among the most gifted students it wasmy good fortune to teach in a long career. She wasgifted in several ways. She was very intelligent; shequickly became expert in formal logic, writing elegantproofs of the most difficult problems that either thetextbook or I set for the class.
“In addition she became expert in the language used in discussing formal logic. She would have made anexcellent teacher of the subject. Her personality was
another of her assets. She was easy to get to know andeven easier to get along with; she was popular with herpeers, the centre of attention in the group when themembers of the class were socializing both before andafter class.
“The great distress her fellow students and teachers feltwhen they learned she had cancer is eloquent testimo-ny to her popularity. Her strength of character wasexhibited in the way in which she faced the devastatingnews of her illness and its likely progress. I recall herdiscussing it with me without exhibiting an ounce ofself-pity. Very few people are able to do that. She wastruly an admirable young woman.”
The month after Martha died, the department established a memorial fund in her name, to recognizeexcellence in philosophical writing. This fund issues anannual prize for the best essay submitted in a philoso-phy graduate course; essays are nominated by facultymembers and judged anonymously.
Over the years, the prize has gone to many Torontograduate students who have gone on to distinguishedcareers in philosophy. Trish Glazebrook (PhD1994), now Chair of the Department of Philosophyand Religion at the University of North Texas,
A LOVE STORY
Remembering Martha Lile Love
Department o f Ph i losophy News 13
remembers having felt “lost in the crowd” at the startof her time at Toronto, coming in from a much smallerdepartment. Winning the Love Award brought a sud-den sense of recognition: “I felt that the award and thediscussions that followed gave me a presence and identity in the Department that was extremely impor-tant to me as a member of the intellectual community,as if the award moved me from outsider to insider.”
Deborah Knight (PhD 1993), now AssociateProfessor at Queen’s University, has vivid memories of the Kant course for which she wrote her prize-winning essay—“It was a great course and Margie[Morrison] was a terrific teacher,”—and observesthat, of all the papers she wrote during graduateschool, “It was particularly nice that a paper I’d put alot into received the recognition of the Love prize.”
For many philosophy graduate students, the awardbrought a sense that they had chosen the right path.Dennis Klimchuk (PhD 1995), Associate Professorat Western University, recalls his winning essay as “thefirst thing I’d written on what turned out to be thearea in which I wrote my thesis and a few things since.”
In a similar spirit, Evan Thompson (MA 1985, PhD 1990), now a Fellow of the Royal Society andProfessor at the University of British Columbia,
recalls that “Winning the prize and presenting thepaper confirmed my feeling that I had made the rightchoice to do Philosophy in graduate school (my under-grad degree was in Asian Studies).” Jane Friedman,who started her PhD here and is now an AssistantProfessor at New York University, also felt bolstered:“I was just starting out in philosophy and so it wasgreat to feel as though I was on the right track.”
Over the years, the Martha Lile Love fund has expanded to include recognition of teaching done bygraduate students as well: the most recent winners of the teaching prize are Lana Kühle (PhD Toronto2014), who has just started work at Illinois StateUniversity, and Brian Embry, who is planning todefend his thesis this coming year.
Looking back through the file of notes, prizeannouncements and donation letters associated withthe award, we found a letter from Martha’s motherShirley Love, dated December 1986. Shirley writes, “I am pleased that some students are getting a littleboost from Marty – who always wanted to help.”
As a department, Toronto is truly lucky to have hadMartha Love as part of our community, and to feel her love living on in the annual awards in her name.
André conceded that the examples were interesting,though the voyeurism of Sacks’s presentation wasn’tto his taste. But the central focus of his review was a caution: he wondered what Sacks would have made of Leonardo da Vinci, what disorder he would havefound in him, and what aspects of Leonardo he wouldthereby overlook. Imposing grids on people preventsus from fully appreciating other human beings and lifein its fullness. André’s engagement with Descarteswas in part an effort to separate out the greatphilosopher who appreciated life from the resolutelyreductive stick-figure “Cartesian.” André was able toappreciate the good in people and the fortune in hisown life because of this more general outlook.
This brings me to the particular manner in which hewas happy. He was definitely happier than mostpeople, but there are other people who are happy.What was so remarkable about André can bebrought out by a contrast: many people are happybecause they’re shallow. André’s happiness was not
like that: he was that most unusual person, the onewho is happy not because he’s shallow but becausehe is deep. As I said in my message to the depart-ment when he died, he is a model to us all. I miss him terribly. by Arthur Ripstein
On October 23 the department held a memorialevent for André Gombay. Former colleague CalvinNormore (now at UCLA) gave an acute and eloquent paper, ‘The more perfect the work, themore skilled the craftsman: Gombay and Descartes’to a packed room. This was followed by more per-sonal reminiscences of André by former colleaguesand students. Speakers included Lana De Gasperis(Honours BA 2011), Jon Miller (PhD 2002),Professor Arthur Ripstein, Professor MarleenRozemond, and Professor Emeritus Ronald de Sousa. The department is very grateful toMarleen Rozemond for organizing so fitting anevent in honour of our beloved colleague.
...continued from Page 11André Gombay
14 Un ivers i ty o f Toronto
EVENTS & ACTIVITIES DURING 2013-2014World Philosophy DayScott Shapiro, Charles F. Southmayd Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, was our speaker for the 2013 WorldPhilosophy Day Lecture. His talk, “The Law of the World,” was very well received.
In response to the need for general philosophy journalsthat are efficient, open access, inclusive, and transparent,Professors Franz Huber and Jonathan Weisbergstarted a new online philosophy journal in July 2013.The new journal, Ergo, accepts submissions on all philo-sophical topics and from all philosophical traditions.Ergo uses a triple-anonymous peer review process and ispublished by Michigan Publishing at the University ofMichigan. It is sponsored by the Departments ofPhilosophy at the University of Toronto and theUniversity of Toronto Mississauga.
Ergo received over 250 submissions in its first year. The first issue was published after just 10 months ofoperations and featured four papers: in philosophy of science, early modern philosophy, experimental philosophy, and epistemology. Nine more papers are forthcoming, spanning a widerange of topics including phenomenology, ontology,feminist metaphilosophy, language, and the metaphysicsof love.
To take a look at Ergo, visit www.ergophiljournal.org
Scott Shapiro (4th from the right) with undergrads Sosseh Assaturian, Christopher Sullivan,Deborah Mazer, Kyle da Silva, Peter Povilonis, Elizabeth Benn, and Mackayla Peters
NEW INITIATIVES
Minorities and Philosophy (MAP) is an inter-departmen-tal organization the aims of which are to encourageminority participation in philosophy and provide a forumfor discussion of philosophy from minority perspectives. MAP is a relatively new initiative; many of its 31 chap-ters (including our own) just finished their inauguralyears. And I’m pleased to report that our year was a suc-cessful one. Our chapter held two events this past year. In the fall,Jenny Saul (Sheffield), Gurpreet Rattan (Toronto), andCelia Byrne (Toronto) participated in a panel discussionon issues of implicit bias in philosophy. In the spring,
Chike Jeffers (Dalhousie) gave a talk enti-tled “The Ethics and Politics of CulturalPreservation”. Both events were very wellattended and met with great enthusiasm. It is our hope that this enthusiasm willcontinue to grow in the coming year. We are currently still planning the year’sevents, so any suggestions for speakers or topics are certainly welcome. If you are interested in supportingor becoming involved with MAP, please contact Jeremy Davis ([email protected]). We look forward to seeing you at the next MAP event!
Jeffers
Colloquium Beatrice Longuenesse(Yale University) spoke at our March 6 colloquium on “Kant on Persons”
UPCOMING EVENTSColloquia and Special LecturesMarch 24-26, 2015 – JenniferHornsby (Birkbeck), Simon Lectures
April 30-May 1, 2015 – GraduateConference on The First PersonPerspective
May 7, 2015 – Huw Price(Cambridge), Colloquium
Each talk will take place at the JackmanHumanities Building, Room 100, (170 St. George Street) at 3:15 pm and will be followed by a reception.
Please check our website, www.philosophy.utoronto.ca for details.
The Department’s 27thAnnual Book Launch, held on March 13, 2014, featured:Lloyd P GersonFrom Plato to PlatonismCornell University Press, 2013Lloyd P Gerson, (translation,introduction, commentary)PLOTINUS EnneadV.5 That the Intelligibles are not External to the Intellect, and on the GoodParmenides Publishing, Las Vegas, 2013Willi Goetschel, editorHermann Levin Goldschmidt. Haltet euch an Worte: im ganzen! Texte un Thesen Passagen Verlag, Vienna, 2013Ian HackingWhy is There Philosophy of Mathematicsat All?Cambridge University Press, 2014D.S. Hutchinson, editorAristotle: His Life and School. Carlo NataliPrinceton University Press, 2013
Elmar KremerAnalysis of Existing: Barry Miller’sApproach to GodBloomsbury, NY, 2014Deborah Hellman and SophiaMoreau, editorsPhilosophical Foundations of Anti-Discrimination LawOxford University Press, 2013Diana Raffman Unruly Words: A Study of Vague LanguageOxford University Press, 2014
Vincent Shen, editorDao Companion to Classical Confucian PhilosophySpringer, Dordecht, 2014Yolaine Escande, Vincent Shen, andChenyang Li, editorsInter-culturality and Philosophic DiscourseCambridge Scholars Publishing,Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, 2013Lambert Zuidervaart, Allyson Carr,Matt Klaassen, and Ronnie Shuker (editors)Truth Matters: Knowledge, Politics, Ethics, ReligionMcGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013
Alumni are invited to attend the 2015 Philosophy Book Launch which will be held on Thursday, March 12, 2015, 4-6 pm, at the Jackman Humanities Building, 170 St. George Street, Room 418.
2014 PHILOSOPHY BOOK LAUNCH
Authors Lloyd Gerson, Elmar Kremer, Sophia Moreau, Vincent Shen, Willi Goetschel. Not pictured: Ian Hacking, DS Hutchinson, Diana Raffman, Lambert Zuidervaart.
Department o f Ph i losophy News 15
This year’s CareerNight took placeJanuary 22. We were honouredto have three ofour alumni comeand speak with our3rd and 4th year stu-dents (left to right): Angela Misasi(Honours BA2006), Manager,Business Strategies,BMO FinancialGroup; KimMcLaren(BA 1991), Principal, Greenwood Secondary School & SOLE AlternativeSchool, Toronto District School Board; and Horatio Bot (BA 1990),Director, Financial Services, Faculty of Arts & Science, University of Toronto.
Please Support the Department of PhilosophyName: ___________________________________________________________________________________________Address: _________________________________________________________________________________________
City: ________________________________ Province: _________________ Postal Code: _______________________
o Are you a grad? If so, what year: _____ Degree _______ Discipline _____ Faculty or College ______________________o I would prefer that my name not be included in listings of donorsYES, I would like to support:
o The Philosophy Department Trust Fund (Project 0560001565) The Chair’s discretionary fund is directed to student financial support, visiting lecturers, conferences and other programming.
o Philosophy Alumni and Friends Graduate Scholarship (Project 0560011740)o The Donald Ainslie Graduate Scholarship in the Department of Philosophy (Project 0560012949)o Other: __________________________________________________________
Payment Options: please select oneOption #1
o Cheque enclosed (payable to University of Toronto) in the amount of $ _____________Option #2
o Credit Card payment in the amount of $ ___________o VISA o MasterCard o AMEX
_______________________________________________ ______________________________________________Name on card SignaturePlease charge Monthly/Quarterly/Semi-Annually/Annually (please circle one)
Installment(s) of $ _____________ for a total of $ ______________
Beginning in ________________ (month), 20___ Ending in _________________ (month), 20___
Please return this form and your donation to:Donations Management, 21 King’s College Circle, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3J3. Questions? Please contact contact Jacob Wesolowski, Development Officer, Faculty of Arts and Science at (416) 978-2722 [email protected], or visit our website at https://donate.utoronto.ca/philosophy
American Citizens & Residents - Internal Revenue Code, Section 501(c)(3): American citizens (or residents) who are not alumnior related to alumni of U of T, as well as corporations and foundations requiring a U.S. tax receipt can contribute to the Universitythrough: The Associates of the University of Toronto, Inc., c/o Mr. Gary Kaufman, Treasurer, 58 West 84th Street, Suite 2F, New York, NY 10024 U.S.A. For more information on giving to U of T through the Associates, please call toll free 1-800-699-1736or e-mail [email protected] Code: 0570052402/ Charitable Reg. BN 1081 62330-RR0001A tax receipt will be sent to you by mail.Thank-you for your support!
Philosophy News is the Department’s Newsletter for Alumni and Friends of Philosophy.Items for inclusion should be sent by fax to (416) 978-8703 or by e-mail to <[email protected]>YOUR PRIVACY: The University of Toronto respects your privacy. We do not rent, trade or sell our mailing lists.The information on this form iscollected and used for the administration of the University’s advancement activities undertaken pursuant to the University of Toronto Act, 1971. If you have any questions, please refer to <www.utoronto.ca/privacy> or contact the University’s Freedom of Information and Protection of PrivacyCoordinator at 416-946-7303, McMurrich Building, Room 201, 12 Queen’s Park Crescent West, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8.If you do not wish to receive future newsletters from the Department of Philosophy, please contact us at 416-978-2139 or at [email protected]
170 St. George Street, 4th floorToronto, Ontario M5R 2M8
