While science and theology may remain at odds over what happens when we die, philosophers like Jeff Noonan are focused on getting the most out of life while they’re still here on earth.
“Socrates said that philosophy is preparation for death,” said Dr. Noonan, who will deliver a public lecture on the subject next week. “He didn’t mean that in a morbid way. He meant that through the process of reflection we hopefully live better.”
When someone reasons to a conclusion by weighing factors favouring that conclusion against those telling against it, and in the end decides that the pros outweigh the cons, do the cons remain as weighing against the conclusion, thus making the argument weaker than it would have been had there been only the pro factors to consider?
The Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation and Rhetoric (CRRAR) is offering two Graduate Student Fellowships in the Winter semester 2013. Conditions and description are as follows:
A search committee invites nominations and applications until January 31 for the position of head of the Department of Philosophy.
The position will commence July 1, 2013, for a term of three to five years. Candidates must hold a tenured position in the department. For more information, please see the online posting of the internal search.
Philosophy professor Gail Presbey of the University of Detroit Mercy will deliver a free public lecture Thursday in downtown Windsor to celebrate World Philosophy Day.
Her lecture, entitled “Revolution and/or Evolution? Grace Lee Bogg’s sustainable activism for Detroit,” begins at 7 p.m. at the Phog lounge.
Jeff Noonan, head of the UWindsor philosophy department, will follow with a commentary. He says Philosophy Day provides an opportunity to remind everyone of the universal scope and public importance of work in the discipline.
When social issues arise, who truly has the knowledge that will affect how policies are made? A discussion on Friday, November 9, will focus on climate change, as well as the questions of who the “knowers” or experts are, and whose knowledge claims can be taken seriously.
An exhibition of installation and video work by MFA candidate Michael Dirisio will provide context for a discussion of financial precarity and alternative economies, Thursday, November 2, in the main gallery of Mackenzie Hall.
“The event will address the role that political art can play in engaging with the city and with each other, and how it can prompt a reconsideration of social norms and conventions,” says Dirisio.
Impulse is the catalyst of an argument and initiates the decisions that follow, says philosophy professor Christopher Tindale.
“Impulses do not arise from nowhere; they are related to past states,” he says. “I am interested in how the impulse for anything begins, and how our resulting arguments are directly affected by how we make choices.”
He will explore the origin of impulse as a stimulus for argumentation in a free public lecture entitled “Inventing Arguments” on Friday, October 26, at 2 p.m. in room 207, Essex Hall.
The argumentative theory of reasoning challenges the traditional view that the function of reasoning is to help us get better beliefs and improve our decision-making, says philosophy professor Christopher Tindale.
“Instead, the theory presents reasoning as a purely social phenomenon that has developed in order to help us convince others and monitor the ways other people try to convince us,” he says. “One interesting consequence is that apparent flawed reasoning is itself a useful adaptation that aids in persuasion.”
The Humanities Research Group will present thought-provoking discussion during Humanities Week, September 10 to 14 on the University of Windsor campus.
Physics professor Gordon Drake, principal of Canterbury College, will analyze current thinking on the topic of free will in his free public lecture “Free Won’t,” at 4 p.m. Monday, September 10, in Alumni Hall’s McPherson Lounge. Dr. Drake will examine some of the underlying assumptions that may not necessarily be correct within the context of science, religion, and artificial intelligence.
