Department of Philosophy

Graduate Conferences

Each year, the graduate students of the Department of Philosophy host a graduate conference at Virginia Tech.

Fall 2009

6-7 November 2009: Contemporary Philosophy of Science

The sixth annual Virginia Tech graduate philosophy conference will be held on 6-7 November on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg. The keynote speaker is James F. Woodward (California Institute of Technology). All talks will be presented in 3100 Torgerson Hall. Download the program here.

Friday 6 November

Evening Session chaired by Elc Estrera

  • 4:00pm: Bryan Miller (Johns Hopkins), "Some Problems with Kind Splitting Arguments." Commentary by Cristin Chall.
  • 5:00pm: Bengt Autzen (LSE), "Roush’s Theory of Evidence: The Best of Both Worlds?" Commentary by Andrew Garland.

6:00pm: Keynote Address by James F. Woodward (Caltech)

"Causation in Biology: Stability, Specificity, and the Choice of Levels of Explanation"

Saturday 7 November

Morning Session chaired by Beth Hupfer

  • 10:00am: John Saladino (Biola University), "The Demise of Scientific Explanation?" Commentary by Tanya Hall.
  • 11:00am: Thomas Metcalf (UC Boulder), "Scientific Naturalism, Synthetic Identification, and the Normative." Commentary by Jordan Busse.
  • 12:00pm: Lunch.

Afternoon Session chaired by Jonathan Dixon

  • 2:00pm: Agnes Bolinska (Toronto HPS), "Epistemic Representation and Contessa’s Interpretational Account." Commentary by Eric Hodges.
  • 3:00pm: Alex Koo (Toronto HPS), "Mathematical Explanation in Science: Arguments for Mathematical Realism." Commentary by Andy Creighton.
  • 4:00pm: Coffee Break.
  • 4:30pm: Emerson P. Doyle (Western Ontario), "Is Quantum Entanglement Really an Example of Ontological Emergence?" Commentary by James Smith.
  • 5:30pm: Kevin McCain (Rochester), "Interventionism Defended." Commentary by Mike Mazza.

Fall 2008

7-8 November 2008: Twentieth Century Ethics

  • Keynote Speaker: Simon Blackburn (UNC), "Beauty, Truth, and Goodness"
  • Noah Levin (Bowling Green State University), "A New Type of Order: `Resuscitate-for-Donation'
  • Markus Labude (Yale University), "Deserved Pre-Punishment"
  • Drew Kalberg (Northern Ilinois University), "Moral Discourse and Assertion: A Reply to Kalderon's Argument from Intransigence"
  • Daniel Koltonski (Cornell University), "Deferential Friends"
  • Nathaniel Jezzi (Cornell University), "Kantian Constructivism and Self-Legislation"
  • Elijah Weber (Colorado State University), "The Social Contract, the Conservative Attitude, and Antibiotics Development"
  • Matthew Braddock (Duke University), "Evolutionary Psychology's Moral Implications"
  • Ryan Millsap (University of Maryland), "Reasons, Entailment Relations, and Raz"

Fall 2007

2-3 November 2007

  • Keynote Speaker: Fred Dretske (Duke), "What We See: The Texture of Conscious Experience"
  • Chris Kahn (Florida), "Coherent Selves and Pereboom's Four-case Argument Against Compatibilism"
  • Nicholas Simmons (Kansas), "On Fodor's Philosophy of Mind: and Why He May Need to Make Another Concession"
  • Michael Ferreira (Ohio State), "Emotive Kinds and the Possibility of Emotive Content in Music"
  • Brian Fiala (Arizona), "Materialism and the Psychology of Explanation"
  • Andrew Bailey (Notre Dame), "No Pairing Problem"
  • Matthew Kopec (Wisconsin), "Reference and the Cause of Non-Existent Objects"
  • Kevin Jobe (Oklahoma State), "The Capital of Consciousness: an Epistemology of Human Nature"
  • David Bzdak (Syracuse), "On Amnesia and Knowing-How"

Fall 2006

3-4 November 2006

  • Keynote Speaker: Brian Leiter (Texas), "Why Tolerate Religion?"
  • Douglas Edwards (St. Andrews), "The Minimalist Theory of Goodness and Moral Twin Earth"
  • Joshua Heter (Western Michigan), "The Impotence of Social Conxstruction on Morality"
  • Carl Barnes (UCSB), "Negation and Expressivism"
  • Russell Powell (Duke), “The Law and Philosophy of Preventive War: An Institution-Based Approach to Collective Self-Defense”
  • Josh May (UCSB), “Altruism, Egoism, and Negative-State Content”
  • Charles Repp (Toronto), “The Normative Significance of Truth in Williams’s Reasons Internalism”

Fall 2005

28-29 October 2005

  • Keynote Speaker: Helen Longino (Stanford)
  • Elizabeth Fenton (Virginia), "Humanity and Human Rights"
  • Francis Longworth (Pittsburgh), "Causation Is Not De Facto Dependence"
  • Ed Matusek (South Florida), "The Friend-Enemy Distinction"
  • Sarah Scott (New School for Social Research), "Knowing the One"
  • Matt Stichter (Bowling Green), "No Lack of Character"
  • Ty Raterman (UNC), "Well-Being and Preferences"