News & Events

News

Congratulations to Prof. David Hunter (external link) , whose book manuscript entitled Sortal Quality: Pleasure, Desire, and Moral Worth has been accepted for publication by Oxford University Press. Here is a brief description:

My book is about the role goodness-of-a-kind plays in our moral psychology. It is the sort of goodness we have in mind when we say that something is a good pen or a good bit of evidence, or that someone is a good swimmer or a good person. I prefer the label 'sortal quality' because it better marks how it differs from simple or intrinsic goodness and absolute value. On my view, we can make good sense of pleasure and desire and of the idea of a good person even if nothing is simply good or has absolute value. In the book, I discuss how we can know about sortal quality, how we take pleasure in and enjoy it, and how the various sortals we fall under are tied to our desires. Wanting, I argue, is a matter of lacking something that would do us some good by improving our quality in some way. It is a matter of failing to be as good as one could be. The final chapter is about being a good person, understood as a case of sortal quality, and draws on John Rawls' ideas about goodness as rationality. My thinking is deeply indebted to the English philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe's work. But my deepest debts are to the great writings of the American philosopher Judith Jarvis Thomson.

The TMU philosophy department is hiring! We invite applications for a tenure-track position in Epistemology. The area of competence is open, but we have a strong preference for candidates who demonstrate willingness and ability to teach Critical Thinking. Application Deadline: Dec. 1. [Details.]
Congratulations to MA graduate Michael Butler (external link) (Class of 2012), who has been appointed as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Ethics at the University of North Dakota.
Congratulations to Prof. Michael Milona (external link) , who has just had these two papers acceped for publication in prestigious venues:

"The Story of Romantic Love and Polyamory" (with Lauren Weindling), forthcoming in Journal of Applied Philosophy (early view here (external link) ).
"Despair" (with Katie Stockdale), forthcoming in Ergo: an Open Access Journal of Philosophy (penultimate version is here (external link) ).

The first issue of the TMU undergraduate student philosophy journal has just been published here (external link) ! Congratulations to BA students Alexander Casucci, Danielle Tucci, and Jade Simpson, and everyone else involved in producing it, and to all the authors whose work was selected!
Congratulations to former philosophy student Jan Wozniak, who has been named TMU's first recipient of an Autism Scholars Award. Jan completed his BA in English and Philosophy, and also his MA in Philosophy, at TMU, and is currently completing a BA in Psychology.