The Philosophy Department recently welcomed Professor Jason Stanley, Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University to campus to give the 2022 Roy Wood Sellars Lecture. In fact, Professor Stanley was our Sellars Lecturer for 2020, scheduled for March 19th, 2020 — that is, a few days after much of the country shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. His lecture, “Free Speech and its Discontents” drew on research he has been pursuing in a book in progress (co-authored with David Beaver) entitled The Politics of Language and philosophically engaged issues that have very much been part of recent public […]

October 13th at 4:30PM Traditional Reading Room, Bertrand Library (free and open to the public) Sponsored by the Philosophy Department and the Bucknell Humanities Center Knowledge of the external world is a persistent problem for empiricists, because if our ideas all come from experience, there does not seem to be a way to pierce the veil of perception to access anything beyond our sensations. Locke defines knowledge as the agreement of ideas, making it extremely subjective. This definition seems to create a further problem insofar as knowledge of the external world should have some conformity with an objective state of […]

We had a great turnout and a great time at the 2021 celebration of World Philosophy Day. Great to see everyone. Here are some photos.

The Philosophy Department (together with the Philosophy Club and Phi Sigma Tau Honors Society) hopes you’ll join us at some upcoming events. If you would like to join our mailing list to stay in the loop on events and department news, please click here to add yourself. Philosophical Film Screening: October Food for Thought Lunch: Monsters! Thursday, October 14th @ 12:10PM (after International Coming Out Day photo)Benches on the Quad above Freas Hall (rain location: Willard-Smith Library) What is a monster? What do we find “monstrous” and why? Philosophical Film Screening: November Thursday, November 4th @ 7PM Campus Theatre (free […]

Our first Department event of Fall 2021 was a department social and induction of four new members to the Phi Sigma Tau Philosophy National Honors Society. They are:Meagan Hathaway ’22Peyton Kendall ’22Tnsae Mulu ’23Tyler Williams ’22 Congratulations! Some photos from the event. . . .

Professor Adam Burgos will be co-presenting the Gonzaga University Philosophy Department Colloquium with his collaborator there, Dr. Alejandro Arango on Thursday March 25th at 7:30PM (eastern time) via Zoom. All are welcome. Abstract: The debate about the definition of Latinidad as a social identity has fluctuated between accounts that put it closer to ethnicity (mainly represented by the work of Jorge J. E. Gracia) or closer to race (mainly represented by the work of Linda Alcoff). We present and defend the claim that the multiplicity of features and experiences of Latinos in the United States is best accounted for by steering away […]

Thursday, October 29th at 4:30PM (online) What are your fellow students up to? What are they writing on, thinking about in their courses, research projects, and beyond? We hope you’ll join us for an online mini-conference. We have four students giving short (<10 minute) talks on their recent work. A Zoom link will be emailed out to students and posted on the Bucknell Message Center; if you would like to attend and don’t have the link, please look there (or email jkbaker@bucknell.edu). If you have the link and would like to share it with friends and family, please feel free. […]

In 2002, UNESCO established the third Thursday of November as World Philosophy Day: Philosophy is an inspiring discipline as well as an everyday practice that can transform societies. By enabling us to discover the diversity of the intellectual currents in the world, philosophy stimulates intercultural dialogue. By awakening minds to the exercise of thinking and the reasoned confrontation of opinions, philosophy helps to build a more tolerant, more respectful society. It thus helps to understand and respond to major contemporary challenges by creating the intellectual conditions for change. This is worth celebrating. So for the second year in a row, […]

Join us for a very special Halloween edition of Food for Thought on October 31st from 12-1PM in Willard Smith Library. Food for Thought is a series of philosophical talks for students and facilitated by students. The series is brought to you by Phi Sigma Tau (the International Honors Society in Philosophy) and the Philosophy Club

Please join us on Tuesday, November 5th at 4PM in the Willard Smith Library (Vaughan Literature Building) for a departmental seminar by Visiting Assistant Professor, Robby Finley. A short reception with snacks & refreshments will be available starting at 4PM; the talk will begin around 4:15PM.