{"id":8323,"date":"2022-01-05T13:43:33","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T18:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/philo\/?page_id=8323"},"modified":"2026-04-27T14:04:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T18:04:20","slug":"philosophy-seminar-series","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/philo\/events\/philosophy-seminar-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Philosophy Seminar Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philosophy Seminar Series is a lecture and workshop series run every semester by the Philosophy Graduate Student Association. Graduate students, faculty, and esteemed guests present every Friday.<\/p>\n

Spring 2026<\/h2>\n

Feb 17 – Bridget Berdit<\/a>, “‘Let Us Speak the Truth’: On Schopenhauer\u2019s Ethical Ideal”<\/em><\/p>\n

Feb 24 – Jacob Joyce<\/a>, “Gnosis, World, and History: World Denial and the Birth of Modern Philosophy”<\/em><\/p>\n

Mar 3 – Keaton Jahn<\/a>, “Are There Proper Sensibles?: A Merleau-Pontian Exploration”<\/em><\/p>\n

Mar 17 – Paolo Degiorgi<\/a>, “Logic as First Philosophy”<\/em><\/p>\n

Mar 31 – Sam Berrettini<\/a>, “Skeptical Inquiry: Its Goals and Effects”<\/em><\/p>\n

April 7 – Rosalie Looijaard<\/a>, ““Achieving Understanding from Narrative”<\/span>“<\/em><\/p>\n

April 21 – Pol Pardini Gisbert<\/a>, “Understanding Together: When Conspiracy Thinking Goes Right”<\/em><\/p>\n

May 5 – Eli\u0161ka Wichterlov\u00e1<\/a>, TBD<\/p>\n

Fall 2025<\/h2>\n

Sept 26\u00a0–\u00a0Fernando Nogueira Lopes<\/a>, “Ambiguities of Nostalgia: Some Considerations on Love and Time”<\/em><\/p>\n

Oct 10\u00a0–\u00a0Alex Papanikolaou<\/a>, “Heidegger and Meister Eckhart on Detachment”<\/em><\/p>\n

Oct 17\u00a0–\u00a0Daniel Star<\/a>, “Promiscuity and Moral Realism”<\/em> or “On why having a reason to eat a car doesn’t undermine moral realism”<\/em><\/p>\n

Oct 24\u00a0–\u00a0Alex Dickison<\/a>, “The Hierarchy of the Senses”<\/em><\/p>\n

Oct 31\u00a0–\u00a0Daniel Munro<\/a>, “Artificial Mystics and Ancient Minds: Conversational Pathways to Belief in the Supernatural”<\/em><\/p>\n

Nov 7\u00a0–\u00a0Zhiwei Min<\/a>, “The World-horizon and the Phenomenological Project of Ultimate Grounding”<\/em><\/p>\n

Nov 14\u00a0–\u00a0Rosalie Looijaard<\/a>, “Encountering the Other in Hermeneutics: Narrative as Differential Lens”<\/em><\/p>\n

Nov 21 – Miguel Ohnesorge<\/a>, “Why Earthquakes have a ‘size’ but cognitive abilities do not (yet)”<\/em><\/p>\n

Spring 2025<\/h2>\n

Feb 5 \u2013 Sam Berrettini<\/a>, “Beauty, Power, and Education: Socratic Pedagogy and the Tyrannical Soul in the Alcibiades I.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Feb 19 \u2013 Kailyn Smith<\/a>, “Theoretical Physics and Theories of Lament”<\/em><\/p>\n

Feb 26 \u2013 Jacob Joyce<\/a>, “A World Brimming with Angels: Medieval and Modern Angelology”<\/em><\/p>\n

March 5 \u2013 Rose Levi<\/a>, “<\/span>Reciprocity \u2260 Reciprocity<\/span><\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

March 19 \u2013 Eleanor Oser<\/a>, topic TBD<\/p>\n

March 26 \u2013 Alex Papanikolaou<\/a>, \u201cRole Playing Games and Goal Formation\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

April 2 \u2013 \u00a0Eli\u0161ka Wichterlov\u00e1<\/a>, \u201cIn Defense of Fragmentalism: Phenomenological Considerations\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

April 9 \u2013 Michaela McSweeney<\/a>, \u201c<\/span>Grasping by Depicting<\/span><\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

April 23 \u2013 Alex Dickison<\/a>, \u201cAnalogy, Aquinas, & Analytic Philosophy<\/em>\u201d (tentative)<\/p>\n

Fall 2024<\/h2>\n

September 4: Jacob Joyce<\/a>, “Expression and Analogy in Leibniz’s Metaphysics”<\/span><\/p>\n

September 25: Caroline Wall<\/a>, TBD<\/p>\n

October 9: Cinzia Aruzza<\/a>, \u201cForeigners and Civic Theoria in Plato’s Laws\u201d<\/p>\n

October 23: Ben Crowe<\/a>, \u201cFichte’s Ethical Community\u201d<\/p>\n

October 30: Keaton Jahn<\/a>, \u201cOn The Disclosure of Moral Values In The Arts: A Value-Realist Account\u201d<\/p>\n

November 6: Eleanor Oser<\/a>: TBD<\/p>\n

November 13: Antoine Pageau-St-Hilaire<\/a>, \u201cHeidegger on Aristotle on Truth\u201d<\/p>\n

December 4: Leticia Castillo Brache<\/a>, TBD<\/p>\n

Spring 2024<\/h2>\n
January 26: Merve Tapin\u00e7<\/a>, “Epistemic Aspirations and Unalienated Self-Knowledge”<\/div>\n
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February 2: Daniel Star<\/a> & Joel Van Fossen<\/a>\u00a0(Hosei University), “Aesthetic Appreciation, Aesthetic Judgments, and Love”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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February 9: Paul Katsafanas<\/a>, “Devotion, Faith, and Grit”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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February 16: Matt Brewer<\/a>, “When Can Absence of Evidence Be Evidence of Absence?”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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February 23: Jacob Joyce<\/a>, “Nicholas of Cusa’s Trinitarian Participatory Ontology”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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March 8: Jack Harris<\/a>, “Autonomy in Algorithms?: A Case Study in Medical Decision Making”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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March 22: Dan M\u00e9ndez<\/a>, “Sebastian R\u00f6dl’s Self-Consciousness and Objectivity: An Introduction to Absolute Idealism”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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April 5: Kristian Sheeley<\/a>, “Virtue and Asceticism in Plato”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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April 12: Antoine Pageau-St-Hilaire<\/a>, “Al\u00eatheia<\/i>\u00a0in Aristotle and Gadamer”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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April 19: Paolo Degiorgi<\/a>, “Analytic Philosophy and Idealism”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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April 26: C. Allen Speight<\/a>, “The Philosophical Challenge of Early Art”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Fall 2023<\/h2>\n

September 15: Daniel Dahlstrom<\/a>, “Themes of Heidegger\u2019s thinking, early and late.”<\/p>\n

September 22:\u00a0Jacob Joyce<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cConceiving the Mind: A Rationalist Theory of the Mental Faculties\u201d<\/p>\n

September 29:\u00a0Jack Harris<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cReconsidering Autonomy Within The Four Principles of Bioethics\u201d<\/p>\n

October 6: Caroline Wall<\/a>, “Nietzsche\u2019s Views on War”<\/p>\n

October 13: Amber Sheldon<\/a>, “AI and Animal Ethics”<\/p>\n

October 20:\u00a0Leticia Castillo-Brache<\/a>, “Parachute Science and the Legacy of Scientific Colonialism in Paleontology Today: Exploring Harmful Hidden Narratives.”<\/p>\n

November 3: Casey Grippo<\/a>, “The State and Individuation”<\/p>\n

November 10:\u00a0Paolo Degiorgi<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cCategory Mistakes and Time\u201d<\/p>\n

November 17: Fernando Lopes<\/a>, \u201cThe End of Philosophy as the Beginning of Hope: Rorty on Romanticism and Love\u201d<\/p>\n

December 1:\u00a0Victor Kumar<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cThe Evolution of LGBTQ Progress\u201d<\/p>\n

December 8: Marc Gasser-Wingate<\/a>,\u00a0“Aristotle on Human and Animal Experience.”<\/p>\n

Spring 2023<\/h2>\n
February 17: Caroline Wall<\/a>, “The Eye Demands Beauty: Aesthetics and Philanthropy in the Late 18th Century”<\/div>\n
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February 24: Matilde Carrera<\/a>, “A Name is Forever: Implications of Past Taxonomical Attributions in Paleontology”<\/div>\n

March 17 \u2013 Faculty presentation: Daniel Star<\/a>, “The Artistic Rights of Photographers”<\/span><\/p>\n

April 7 \u2013 Eli\u0161ka Wichterlov\u00e1<\/span><\/a>, “From the Dionysian Celebration to Fanaticism”<\/span><\/p>\n

April 21 \u2013 Merve Tapin\u00e7<\/a>, “Blameworthiness and Self-Ignorance”<\/span><\/p>\n

April 28 \u2013 Faculty presentation: Juliet Floyd<\/a>, “Wittgenstein on Religion as a Form of Life: From a ‘Jamesian Type’ to Remarks on Frazer”<\/a><\/p>\n

Fall 2022<\/b><\/h2>\n
September 23: Daniel Dahlstrom<\/a>, “Appropriation and Being: Issues in Heidegger’s Later Thinking”<\/div>\n
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October 21: Miguel Ohnesorge<\/a>, “The Epistemic Privilege of Measurement: Motivating a Functionalist Account”<\/div>\n
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October 28: Pol Pardini Gispert<\/a>, “Fanaticism, Moral Residue, and Absolute Values”<\/div>\n
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November 4: Casey Grippo<\/a>, “Blameless Conspiratorial Thinking”<\/div>\n
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November 18: Paul Katsafanas<\/a>, “The Puzzle of Commitment”<\/div>\n
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December 2: Sally Sedgwick<\/a>, “Consolations of World History: Kant versus Hegel”<\/div>\n
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December 9: Jack Harris<\/a>, “Assessing the Tools of Narrative Ethics”<\/div>\n

Spring 2022<\/b><\/h2>\n
February 4: Rachell Powell<\/a>, “Social Norms & Superorganisms”<\/div>\n
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March 4: Name Pronunciation Workshop, facilitated by Lewis Wang<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
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March 18: Michaela McSweeney<\/a>, “Social Structural Objects”<\/div>\n
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March 25: Matilde Carrera<\/a>, “Discursive Injustice: The Hearer’s Accountability in Speech Acts”<\/div>\n
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April 1: Aja Watkins<\/a><\/span>, “Experiential Learning” Teaching Workshop<\/span><\/div>\n
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April 8: Caroline Wall<\/a>, “The Realm of Our Invention: On the Role of Parody in Nietzsche’s Thought”<\/div>\n
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April 29: Jack Harris<\/a>, “Procreative Beneficence”<\/div>\n
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May 6: Marc Gasser-Wingate<\/a>, “Perception & Reason in Aristotle’s Epistemology”<\/div>\n

Fall 2021<\/h2>\n

September 24<\/strong> – Lewis Wang<\/a> presents, “How Do We Assess Softer Learning Goals?” An Inclusive Teaching Workshop.<\/p>\n

October 8<\/strong> – Paul Katsafanas<\/a> presents, “The Fanatic & The Last Man: On Nietzsche, Critical Reflection & Our Evaluative Commitments.”<\/p>\n

October 15<\/strong> – Casey Grippo<\/a> presents, “The Relationship Between Disease & Symptoms.”<\/p>\n

October 22<\/strong> – Aja Watkins<\/a> presents, “Writing Grant Applications.” A Graduate Workshop.<\/p>\n

October 29<\/strong> – Federica Bocchi<\/a> presents, “Teaching An Inclusive Course.” An Inclusive Teaching Workshop.<\/p>\n

November 12<\/strong> – Matthew Brewer<\/a> presents, “Academic Skepticism: An Overview.”<\/p>\n

November 19<\/strong> – Leticia Castillo Brache<\/a> presents, “In the Wake of Climate Change: Policy & Climate Refugees.”<\/p>\n

December 3<\/strong> – Victor Kumar<\/a> presents, “Evolution & Progress.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Philosophy Seminar Series is a lecture and workshop series run every semester by the Philosophy Graduate Student Association. Graduate students, faculty, and esteemed guests present every Friday. Spring 2026 Feb 17 – Bridget Berdit, “‘Let Us Speak the Truth’: On Schopenhauer\u2019s Ethical Ideal” Feb 24 – Jacob Joyce, “Gnosis, World, and History: World Denial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":933,"featured_media":0,"parent":34,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/philo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8323"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/philo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/philo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/philo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/933"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/philo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8323"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/philo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10310,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/philo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8323\/revisions\/10310"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/philo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/philo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}