News:
♦ The department is on facebook! Come join us:
♦ Dr. Yanming An is organizing a summer study abroad program in China for students of philosophy and religion at Clemson. This is a terrific opportunity to travel, earn course credits, and learn a lot (both in the classroom and beyond). All classes are taught in English, and you do not need to be a philosophy major to participate. More information about the program can be found here.
♦ The Department recently completed its first annual whitewater rafting trip! Organized by Dr. Kelly Smith, 20+ majors, alumni, faculty, and friends of the department braved the mighty Nantahala river. Check out the photos on the department's official facebook page here.
♦ Congratulations to the Clemson Ethics Bowl Team for finishing second in the national championship! This follows Clemson's first-place win last year. This back-to-back national first- and second-place performance is unprecedented in the history of the Ethics Bowl competition!
Click here for more information
Front row, L to right (the team members): Brad Saad, Kelsey Sontag, Rahul Loungani, Michael DeWitt, Nikesh Patel
Second Row, L to R (assistants): Margaret Nicholson, Neil Barrett, Kelsey Sontag, Caroline Rash, Ian Wood (not pictured)
Back row (coaches): Kelly Smith, Charlie Starkey
Recent Events:
♦ Jesse Prinz (UNC Chapel Hill) gave a talk on Nov. 21st at 3:30 PM in Hardin 228.
Title: "An Empirical Defense of Moral Relativism"
About the Speaker:
Jesse Prinz is currently the John J. Rogers Distinguished Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. In the spring he will be returning to his hometown of New York City as Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York, Graduate Center.
Jesse has research interests in cognitive science, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of language, moral psychology, and aesthetics. His first three books are: Furnishing the Mind: Concepts and Their Perceptual Basis (MIT: 2002), Gut Reactions: A Perceptual Theory of Emotion (OUP: 2004), and The Emotional Construction of Morals (OUP: 2007). He also has two forthcoming titles: Beyond Human Nature (London: Penguin; New York: Norton) and The Conscious Brain (Oxford). He has published numerous articles on concepts, emotions, morals, consciousness, and other topics.
Abstract of "An Empirical Defense of Moral Relativism":
We've all met people whose moral or political values seem to differ from our own. Conservatives view liberals with horrified disbelief and conversely. And moral differences are even more dramatic when we consult the anthropological record. But the mere fact that people disagree doesn't mean that there is no fact about who is right. The argument from moral disagreement to moral relativism depends on the fundamental nature of morality. I argue that empirical research on morality supports relativism, and threatens the view that there is a single true morality. I also address a number of objections that purport to show that relativism is false or dangerous doctrine.
A facebook event page for the talk can be found here.
♦ The Conference "Human Flourishing & Restoration in the Age of Global Warming" took place at Clemson University on Sept. 5-7, 2008. One of the organizers of the conference was Assistant Professor of Philosophy Allen Thompson. An extensive website documenting the conference can be found here.