2023-2024
Lauren Kopajtic
Fordham University
"Problems of Other Minds (and Hearts): On the Challenges of Being a Smithian Spectator"
12:30 p.m. March 6, 2024, JFT 1010
Rachel Silverbloom
Vassar College
"Hope as Refusal: Queer, Feminist Futurity"
5:00 p.m. November 7, 2023, SH 181
Benjamin Lipscomb
Houghton University
"Life Writing and Life Together: Biography, Empathy, and Community"
3:30 p.m. October 16, 2023, SH 181
John Russon
University of Guelph
“Am I There Yet? Philosophical Reflections on the Meaning of Adulthood”
5:00 p.m. April 10, 2023, SH 181
Mary-Jane Rubenstein
Wesleyan University
“Heaven on Mars: Corporate Messianism in the NewSpace Race”
Online talk - 5:00 pm. Feb. 27, 2023
Ian Olasov
“Public Philosophy: A Manifesto”
6:30 p.m. Sept. 29, 2022, SH 181
Garry Hagberg
Bard College
“Three Intertwined Parts of Wittgenstein’s Philosophy: Word-Meaning, Private Language, and Seeing-As”
Online talk - 5:30 p.m. April 21, 2022
Panel Discussion - “Virtue and Flourishing”
Stephen Angle
Wesleyan University
“Neo-Confucianism on Learning to be Virtuous”
Lorraine Besser
Middlebury College
“The Importance of Curiosity to a Flourishing Life”
Nancy Snow
University of Oklahoma
“Resilience, with a Nod Toward Hope”
Online event - April 7, 2021
Ted Toadvine
“Why Are We Obsessed With the End of the World?"
Feb 10, 2020
Akeel Bilgrami
“Political Ideals and the Significance of Enchantment”
March 5, 2019
Jennifer Herdt
Yale University
“The Ecstatic Pursuit of Happiness”
April 9, 2018
Joel Reynolds
The Hastings Center Bioethics Research Institute
"The Good Biocitizen"
5:00 p.m. Nov. 20, 2017, LC 104
Anne O'Byrne
Stony Brook University
"The Possible and the Impossible: Deconstructing Nazi Politics"
5:00 p.m. April 24, 2017, LC 108
Dustin Peone
Emory University
"The Essay as Philosophical Form"
5:00 p.m. March 6, 2017, LC 108
Jamie Kelly
Vassar College
"Between Whim and Rule: Legal Discretion and Immigration Law"
5:00 p.m. Oct. 30, 2016, LC 107
2015-2016
Eric Steinhart
William Patterson University of New Jersey
"Spirtual Naturalism"
5:00 p.m. Feb 25, 2016, LC 104
Gordon Graham
Princeton Theological Seminary
"Environmentalism as a Religion"
5:00 p.m. Oct. 22, 2015, LC 108
Tim Connolly
East Stroudsburg University
"Zuangzi, Pluralism, and the Committed Life"
5:00 p.m. April 16, 2015, LC 108
Hagop Sarkissian
Baruch College
"Sonance and Resonance: Living in a World of Moral Echoes"
3:30 p.m. Nov. 20, 2014, JFT 1010
2013-2014
Gloria Origgi
Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Institut Jean Nicod, Paris
4:30 p.m. Nov. 7, 2013
Philip Kitcher
John Dewey Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University
"Ethics as a Human Project"
Spring 2014 semester
2012-2013
Michael P. Lynch
Professor of Philosophy, University of Connecticut
"Democracy and Reason"
4:30 p.m. Sept. 20, 2012, LC 104
Stephen Schiffer
Silver Professor of Philosophy, New York University
"Linguistic Competence and Knowledge of Meaning"
3:15 p.m. Nov. 9, LC 104
Kevin Hermberg
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Dominican College
"Husserl and Others: A Pair of Pairings"
4:30 p.m. March 11, 2013, LC 108
2011-2012
Christopher J. Barry
Emeritus Professor of Political Theory, University of Glasgow
"Luxury: A Dialectic of Desire?"
1:30 p.m. Oct. 21, 2011, JFT 1010
Charles Goodman
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Binghamton University
"Buddhism, Selflessness, and Climate Change"
4:30 p.m. Nov. 14, 2011, LC 104
Jazmine Gabriel
PhD University of Oregon; Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Philosophy at SUNY New Paltz
"Selfish Genes and Existential Crises: Is There Dignity After Darwin?"
4:30 p.m. Dec. 5, 2011, CSB Auditorium
2010-2011
Anne O'Byrne
Associate Professor of Philosophy at Stony Brook University
"Exile from the Republic of Conscience: Seamus Heaney and the Work of the Poet"
3:30 p.m. Sept. 28, 2010, JFT 1010
Charles Butterworth
Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland
"Political Aspects of Prophecy in Medieval Islamic Philosophy"
5:30 p.m. Oct. 14, 2010, JFT 1010
Tarun Biswas, Associate Professor of Physics, SUNY New Paltz, and Bruce Milem, Associate Professor of Philosophy, SUNY New Paltz
"God, Physics, and the Multiverse"
5 p.m. March 4, 2011, JFT 1010
Christopher Buckman, Alumni Lecture Series
PhD expected, University of Buffalo
"A Place for the Ugly in Kant's Aesthetics"
5 p.m. March 14, 2011, JFT 1010
Virginia Burrus
Professor of Early Church History, Drew University
"Augustine's Queer Theology of Marriage"
5 p.m. April 21, 2011, JFT 1010
2009-2010
Nickolas Pappas
Professor of Philosophy, City College & the Graduate Center, City University of New York
“Artistic Representation is the Worst Thing Anyone Can Do – but Compared to What?”
4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 8, 2010, JFT 1010
Timothy Gilmore, Alumni Lecture Series
Ph.D. (English), expected, University of California, Santa Barbara
“After the Apocalypse: Wildness as Preservative in a Time of Ecological Crisis”
5 p.m. Tuesday, March 23, 2010, JFT 1010
Linda Martín-Alcoff, Inaugural Lecture, Eleanor H. Kuykendall Endowed Lecture Series
Professor of Philosophy, Hunter College & the Graduate Center, City University of New York
“Discourses of Sexual Violence in a Global Framework”
5 p.m. March 10, 2010, LC 108
Michael Humiston
Department of Philosophy, State University of New York, New Paltz
“Knowledge and Contexts”
Oct. 14, 2009, JFT 1010
Sasha Shivers, Alumni Lecture Series
Ph.D., expected, Binghamton University
“Myth in Unexpected Places”
5 p.m. Nov. 19, 2009, JFT 1010
Jay Garfield
Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy, Smith College
“Buddhism and Skepticism”
5 p.m. Nov. 2, 2009, JFT 1010
2008-2009
Theresa Morris, Alumni Lecture Series
Ph.D., 2009, New School University
“Hans Jonas’s Ethic of Responsibility”
5 p.m. April 16, 2009, JFT 1010
Andrew Light
Center for Global Ethics and Department of Philosophy, George Mason University
“How to Start a Culture War: The Emerging American Experience with Nanotechnology”
March 30, 2009
David Raynor
Department of Philosophy, University of Ottawa
“Why David Hume is Britain’s Greatest Philosopher”
Feb. 18, 2009
2007-2008
Robert Audi
Professor of Philosophy and David E. Gallo Professor of Business Ethics, University of Notre Dame
"Religion and Democracy"
5 p.m. March 5, 2008, CSB Auditorium
Byron W. Van Norden
Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy & Department of Chinese and Japanese, Vassar College
“The Enigma of Confucius”
Nov. 6, 2007
2005 - 2006
Byron Kaldis
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Hellenic Open University, Athens
“From Business Ethics to Bioethics: Divergence and Interconnection”
Uma Narayan
Professor of Philosophy, Vassar College
“Informal Sector Work, Micro-credit, and Third World Women’s Economic Empowerment: A Critical Perspective”
Sean Kelly
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University
“Content and Constancy: Phenomenology and the Psychology of Perception”
Wayne Proudfoot
Professor of Religion, Columbia University
"Religion and Naturalism"
Simon Critchley
Professor of Philosophy, New School University
"Philosophy as Poetry--on Wallace Stevens"
Sharon Street
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, New York University
"A Darwinian Dilemma for Realist Theories of Value"
2004 - 2005
Merold Westphal
Professor of Philosophy, Fordham University
"On Whether the Announcement of God's Death is an Exaggeration"
Michael Della Rocca
Professor of Philosophy, Yale University
"A Rationalist Manifesto: Spinoza and the Principle of Sufficient Reason"
John Churchill
Executive Secretary, Phi Beta Kappa
"Explanations Come To An End Somewhere: Wittgenstein and Liberal Education"
Wade L. Robison
Ezra A. Hale Professor of Applied Ethics
Rochester Institute of Technology
"Flipping Coins and Other Decision-Procedures"
2003 - 2004
Michael Davis
Sara Yates Exley Chair in Teaching Excellence and Professor of Philosophy
Sarah Lawrence College
"The Philosophy of Leo Strauss: An Introduction"
Joan Stambaugh
Professor Emerita of Philosophy
Hunter College
"On the Meaning of Ambivalence"
Daniel Hutto
Professor and Head of Philosophy
University of Hertfordshire
"The Limits of Spectatorial Folk Psychology"
Michael A. Sells
Emily Judson Baugh and John Marshall Gest Professor of Comparative Religions
Haverford College
"Islam: A Religion of Peace?"
Bruce Milem, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, SUNY New Paltz
David Appelbaum, Professor of Philosophy, SUNY New Paltz
Karin Andriolo, Professor of Anthropology, SUNY New Paltz
Panel Discusssion: "Thinking about Religion: What's the Point of Religious Studies?"
2002 - 2003
Reva Wolf
Associate Professor of Art History
SUNY New Paltz
"Homer Simpson as Outsider Artist "
Brian Davies
Professor of Philosophy
Fordham University
"God and Evil"
John Kekes
Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy
SUNY Albany
"A Case for Conservatism"
Rachel Cohon
Professor of Philosophy
SUNY Albany
"Hume on Pleasure, Motivation, and Morality"
Kathleen G. Damiani
"Seeking Sophia, Personified Wisdom"
Theodore Sider
Professor of Philosophy
Rutgers University
"Time Travel"
2001 - 2002
Michael Mathias
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Union College
"Commerce and Character"
Sabine Roehr
Adjunct Professor of Philosophy
SUNY at New Paltz
"The Theory - Practice Gap: Some German Reactions to the French Revolution"
Bruce Milem
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
SUNY at New Paltz
"God, Desire, and the Infinite in Nicholas of Cusa"
David Konstan
John Rowe Workman Distinguished Professor of Classics
Brown University
"Ancient Anger"
2000 - 2001
Paul Eisenberg
Professor of Philosophy
Indiana University
"Nietzsche's Revolution in Ethics"
Gregory Moses
Professor of Philosophy
Marist College
"Martin Luther King and his Revolution of Conscience"
1999 - 2000
Edward Wierenga
Professor of Religion and Classics
University of Rochester
"Timelessness Out of Mind: On the Alleged Incoherence of Divine Timelessness"
Zdenka Kalnicka
Associate Professor of Philosophy and Vice-Dean for Foreign Affairs
Ostrava University, Czech Republic
"Images of Water and Women in Philosophical Texts and Artworks
Daniel Jacobson
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Franklin and Marshall College
"Comic Moralism: How Bad Can a Good Joke Be?"
1998 - 1999
David Rosenthal
Professor of Philosophy
CUNY Graduate Center
"The Nature of Consciousness"
Tom Davis
Professor of Philosophy
Ulster Community College
"Science, Religion and the 'New' Philosophy"
Margaret Gilbert
Professor of Philosophy
University of Connecticut, Storrs
"Considerations on Collective Guilt"
Nicholas Wolterstorff
Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology
Yale Divinity School
"Is Religious Belief Intellectually Responsible?"
Berel Lang
Professor of Philosophy
Trinity College
Hartford, Connecticut
"Genocide and Group Rights"
1997 - 1998
Rosamond Rhodes
Associate Professor of Medical Education and Director of Bioethics Education
Mt. Sinai School of Medicine
"Physicians, Assisted Suicide, and the Right To Die"
David Kelley
Institute for Objectivist Studies
"Ayn Rand's Concept of Egoism"
John Richardson
Professor of Philosophy
New York University
"Nietzsche contra Darwin"
Stephen David Ross
Professor of Philosophy & Comparative Literature
Binghamton University
"The Abundance of Nature and the Tyranny of Kinds: Toward an Inclusive Ethics"
Harry G. Frankfurt
Professor of Philosophy
Princeton University
"Some Thoughts About Caring"
Earl Conee
Professor of Philosophy
University of Rochester
"Popular Philosophy"
1996 - 1997
Henri Bortoft
Professor emeritus
Tonbridge School
Kent, England
"Goethe and the Feminine Science of Nature"
Zeverin Wande Emagalit
Former Lecturer
Makerere University
Kampala, Uganda
"African Philosophical Frameworks"
Edwin Delattre
Dean of Education and Professor of Philosophy
Boston University
"Intellectual Integrity and Genuine Opportunity of Education"
Louis Pojman
Professor of Philosophy
United States Military Academy
"Equality and Desert"
Richard Feldman
Professor of Philosophy
University of Rochester
"Naturalism in Epistemology: The Connection Between Epistemology and Empirical Studies of Human Reasoning"
1995-1996
Alan Harkavy
Professor of Physics Emeritus
SUNY-New Paltz
"A Physical Basis for the Will?"
Randy Dipert
Professor of Philosophy
United States Military Academy
"The Life, Philosophy, and Aesthetics of C.S. Peirce"
1994-1995
Donald D'Elia
Professor of History
SUNY-New Paltz, and
Rabbi Joseph Strongin
Congregation Ahavath Achim (New Paltz) and Adjunct Professor of History
SUNY-New Paltz
"The Nature of Religious Faith"
Kingsley Price
Professor of Philosophy Emeritus
The Johns Hopkins University
"Educational Objectives: A Recent Message from Hermeneutics"
Bonnie Myotai Treace
Head Monastic
Zen Mountain Monastery
Mt. Tremper
"The Search for Spirituality"
John Kekes
Professor of Philosophy
SUNY-Albany
"Collective Responsibility as a Problem for Liberalism"
Robert Clark
Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Iowa State University
"Buddhism and the Western Mind"
