2011

SOPHIA sponsored two events in 2011 and is organizing a panel for the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association. These are listed with the upcoming event first, followed by the two symposia in reverse chronological order.



Our next 2011 event after the Neuroscience symposium is our panel at the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association. The conference as a whole will be taking place in Washington, D.C.'s Marriott Wardman Park hotel from December 27th through the 30th. SOPHIA will be sponsoring a panel called “Defending Philosophy in the Academy.” The room and time for the panel are to be announced. Dr. John Lachs of Vanderbilt University will chair the session. The following is the list of participants and their presentation titles:

“Defending Philosophy in the Academy,” the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, in a room and at a time To Be Announced.

Chair: Dr. John Lachs of Vanderbilt University
Presenters/Presentations:
1. Kenneth Stikkers of Southern Illinois University Carbondale
“Defending Philosophy, Defending Humanity”
2. George Lucas of the U.S. Naval Academy
“Philosophy, Military Forces, and National Security:  the Philosophical Education of Warriors in a Democracy”
3. Bertha Manninen of Arizona State University
“Glenn Beck vs. WK Clifford: Philosophy and the Ethics of Belief”
4. Tuomas Manninen of Arizona State University
"Philosophy and Science - (Not so) Strange Bedfellows: Stories from a Science and Religion Class"

2010

In 2010, SOPHIA underwent a few changes in leadership and engaged in some planning for future events and directions. We are held a meeting at the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association in December of 2010. The result of further efforts in 2010 will be a few events planned for 2011 as well as a number of grant applications. Plus, the meeting in December was a success and led to growing interest in the society and its approach to philosophical engagement.

The SOPHIA panel at the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association was on philosophy and disability, in particular, as a panel honoring the work of Dr. Anita Silvers. The panel was simply called "Symposium on the work of Anita Silvers.” Dr. Eric Thomas Weber, Executive Director of SOPHIA, chaired the session and organized a trustees breakfast for Thurday morning, 12/30. The panelists were to include Dr. Nancy Tuana of Pennsylvania State University, who was unable to attend due to weather, Dr. Licia Carlson of Providence College, who has recently released her book, The Faces of Intellectual Disability, with Indiana Unviersity Press. Dr. Silvers offered a response to Dr. Tuana and Dr. Carlson. Here are the details of the meeting in short:

SOPHIA Symposium on the work of Anita silvers
Tuesday 12/28/2010, 7:30 – 10:30 pm, Session GVI-10, at the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, in a room To Be Announced.

Chair: Eric Thomas Weber, University of Mississippi
Presenters/Presentations:
1. Synopsis of Silvers’ present book project
 2. Nancy Tuana, Penn State University
“Conceiving Justice: Bringing Difference to Theory”
 3. Licia Carlson, Providence College
“Philosophical Prosthetics: Towards an ethics of inclusion”
 4. Anita Silvers, San Francisco State University
“Reply to Tuana and Carlson”
 5. Announcement on Sophia's 2011 events and opportunities

2009

The Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA) organized a number of workshops in 2009, as well as a panel at the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association.

The first symposium was called "Ethics at the End of Life." It took place at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS, on January 30th through the 31st. Dr. John Lachs, Centennial Professor of Philosophy from Vanderbilt University, joined us as the workshop facilitator and keynote speaker. For more information, click here or email the workshop organizer here. To see a promotional story put together in Inside Ole Miss, click here.

The second workshop was the "Midsouth Environmental Symposium," which took place at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale on April 22nd of 2009. For more information click here or email the workshop organizer, Dr. Doug Anderson.

The third workshop, titled "Responding Ethically to Climate Change in the Willamette Valley," took place at the University of Oregon in the fall of 2009. We have a few photos to share of the event and a report that you can read about the symposium.

Finally, at the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, we organized a panel on the subject of philosophy and the economic crisis. The panel was called "Avoiding Moral Blindness in Business." Dr. Doug Anderson chaired the session. We had two presenters: Dr. Ken Stikkers of Southern Illinois University gave a paper titled "What's an Economy Good for? An Aristotelian Rethinking of Economics." Dr. Eric Thomas Weber of the University of Mississippi gave a paper called "Pragmatism, Deontology, and Market Regulation."

Feedback on SOPHIA Events

We have received extensive feedback on our "Ethics at the End of Life" symposium, which you can read here. The following are a few representative comments.

"This event did as good a job as I've ever seen of getting philosophers and the public into conversation. We need more gatherings like this."

"I would like to see more MHC [Mississippi Humanities Council] funded events like this. This was far more engaging than traditional lecture model."

"This was a wonderfully rich symposium on a very important topic. Thanks."

"I really liked the 'cozy-ness' and openness fostered by the way this symposium was set up. It was much more conversational than what I had anticipated and invited comments rather than inhibited them."

Click here to see all the comments together.