Marjorie Grene, a Leading Philosopher of Biology, Is Dead at 98 - Obituary Obit - NYTimes.com.

Philosophy Spring Semester Colloquium

“Is a Pacifist State Incoherent?”

Professor Alan Tomhave

Department of Philosophy, Occidental College

Thursday, March 26, 2009

4:30 p.m. - Fowler 202

States are typically assumed to enforce dictates through the use of force. If we take pacifism to be roughly the claim that the use of violence is morally impermissible, and add the claim that all force is violence, we are left with the claim that the idea of a pacifist state is incoherent. This talk will make the case that the pacifist state is not incoherent. In making this case, we will try to clarify some minimal notion of what the state is and consider a couple of different ways to think about anarchism, as well as clarifying the rough characterization of pacifism offered here.

Everyone is welcome.

Refreshments will be served.

Made possible by the Remsen Bird Fund
Philosophy Department Occidental College

Philosopher Developed ‘Deep Ecology’ Phrase - washingtonpost.com. (a more detailed obit than the NY Times obit)

Arne Naess, Norwegian Philosopher, Dies at 96 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com.

The Cognitive Science Program & Philosophy Department Present

Julie Yoo
Cognitive Science Program - Occidental College

Some Modern Approaches to the Modern Problem of Mind-Body Interaction

Today’s problem of mind-body interaction is quite different from the traditional version of the problem that first confronted philosophers in the 16th century. Philosophers in the 16th century were mystified by how the body, a physical system, could causally interact with a non-physical mind. Today’s philosophers no longer think that the mind is a non-physical entity, but there is still a deep problem about how to explain how our thoughts causally influence our actions. In this talk, Prof Yoo will introduce and explain the modern version of the mind-body problem, and will lay out some of the more promising approaches to solving it.

Fowler 112, Wednesday, November 19th, 5:00pm

Refreshments will be served.

EVERYONE IS WELCOME!

Book Review - ‘Descartes’ Bones,’ by Russell Shorto - Review - NYTimes.com.

Galileo Still Sends Church Spinning As Statue at the Vatican Is Considered - WSJ.com.

Today’s Los Angeles Times “Column One” feature is about “Philosophy Talk,” a radio talk show hosted by Stanford University’s Ken Taylor and John Perry.  You can listen to the show at www.philosophytalk.org.

See this L.A. Times article. Then go back to Hume, Wittgenstein, and lots of other philosophical treatments of this issue!

We’ve just received word of a new undergraduate journal, the California Undergraduate Philosophy Review. The journal, created to provide a forum for the best undergraduate philosophy work in the state of California, currently has its home at California State University, Fresno. Works from all California undergraduate students, in all fields of philosophy and religious studies, are welcome. Please use the flyer attached to post or pass on to students.

Instructions for authors are available on the website, http://www.cupr.org. Papers accepted by the journal will appear online first at our website and later in the year, in hard copy. Additional information and announcements will be posted at the website.