Department

All Sessions will be held in the Heritage Room at the Kellogg Center
Guest Speaker: Grant Gillett, Professor of Medical Ethics at the Bioethics Centre
                                                    and Professor of Neurosurgery at the Dunedin School

Animal ethics is a relatively recent phenomenon in philosophy and throughout society at large, but the questions are very old. Aristotle and the Stoics debated whether animals have a psyche or soul. This course is structured as a high-level philosophical introduction to the central questions in animal ethics. It is appropriate for graduate students or students preparing for graduate study in animal-related disciplines, as well as for undergraduates with well-developed skills in reading and analyzing philosophical texts.

The Zerby Essay Prize this year goes to Karl DeVries for his essay entitled Kant’s Refutation of the Ontological Argument. The following is taken from the selection committee’s report: “The winner of this year’s Zerby Prize tackled one of the most enduring and challenging arguments for the existence of God, namely the ontological argument.

I am happy to report that our undergraduate program is in good shape. 150 students are currently enrolled in the philosophy program (major and minor), which is an increase of  45% since the beginning of this semester. The philosophy minor, in particular, turns out to be a popular choice, and we intend to increase the number of philosophy students during the next two years through even more intensified recruitment.