Philosophy

What should we know about the COVID pandemic? Where can we find accurate information? How can we share that information with others in a respectful way? UF Ethics in the Public Sphere is sponsoring a public conversation at Cypress and Grove Brewery (1001 NW 4th Street) at 7 pm on Nov. 30 to discuss these and other questions raised by misinformation regarding the COVID pandemic.

The UF Ethics and the Public Sphere project is hosting a virtual (Zoom) conversation about the ethical issues raised by cyber speech. Some questions to be considered include: When should digital speech be restricted? When does digital discourse become digital violence? Which parties bear responsibility for stopping digital abuse?

The UF Philosophy Department will host its annual Food and Talk event on March 15. It is free and open to all UF undergraduates. This year's topic is time travel.

The UF Informatics Institute hosted a Mini-Symposium on AI Ethics and Policy, organized by Dr. Duncan Purves. Video recordings of the symposium are available on the event page.

The UF Undergraduate Philosophy Society and UF’s Minorities and Philosophy chapter are hosting a conference for undergraduate students interested in philosophy.

The annual South Eastern Graduate Philosophy Conference (SEGPC) will be held via Zoom on April 15-16. This year's keynote speaker is Dr. David Grant (University of Florida).

The Department of Philosophy will host a reception for its faculty and graduate students to mark the beginning of the new academic year and to welcome our new graduate students. 

Over the course of a year in 2019 and again in 2022, Dr. Barry Lam (UC Riverside) embedded himself with police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges looking for the philosophical issues that arise from the day-to-day administration of criminal justice. This talk discusses some of his findings and questions they raise about whether justice must sometimes be undemocratic.

Dr. Otávio Bueno (University of Miami) will give a colloquium talk, titled "Scientific Models and Modal Knowledge," exploring whether models in science are a source of modal knowledge.

The University of Florida Levin College of Law Race and Crime Center for Justice is pleased to introduce their fall Justice in Conversation Series, where Dr. Arina Pismenny (UF) and Dr. Eduardo Medieta (Penn State) will discuss philosophy, race, and justice.

The UF Ethics and the Public Sphere project is hosting an event on the topic of academic freedom, with presentations by Professor Clay Clavert and Dr. Paul Ortiz (and pizza!). The event is co-sponsored by the Philosophy Department.

Erik J. Larson, an author, tech entrepreneur, and computer scientist, will give a talk that surveys the landscape of AI and argues that it is misguided to think of artificial intelligence as akin to human intelligence.

Professor Deborah Hellman (University of Virginia) will give a talk exploring the nature and normative significance of proxies. For example, if the Supreme Court rules that university admissions may not consider race, what of other variables that are proxies for race?

Professor Rob Sparrow (Monash University) will give a talk arguing that if AI presents a "responsibility gap" (roughly, AI cannot be held accountable for its outputs), then it also presents a "testimony gap" (roughly, AI cannot be held accountable for the epistemic value of its claims).

Professor Cameron Buckner (University of Houston) will give a talk titled "Sentimental Machines: New Inspiration for Artificial Social and Moral Cognition from Adam Smith and Sophie De Grouchy."

The 2023 South Eastern Graduate Philosophy Conference (SEGPC) will be held on April 27-28, with Sarah McGrath (Princeton) delivering the keynote address and Lyndal Grant (UF) delivering the capstone.

UF Philosophy's Dr. Amber Ross will participate in an expert panel about AI issues related to Ethics, Health Disparities, Data Privacy, and Governance through an international lens.

Dr. Chakrabarty (University of Chicago) will seek to explain why making a distinction between the globe and the planet as humanist categories calls for a new philosophical anthropology. This talk is part of the Scales of Belonging speakers series sponsored by the Center for Humanities and the Public Sphere.

Dr. Naomi Zack (Lehman College, CUNY) will give the first talk in our Philosophy, Race, and Justice Speaker Series.

Dr. Paul C. Taylor (UCLA) will give the second talk in our Philosophy, Race, and Justice Speaker Series.

Dr. Taylor will give a colloquium talk titled "Uneasy Sanctuaries: Unthinking Race-Thinking" in the Friends of Music Room.

Dr. Kvart will give a colloquium talk titled "Steering-Thrust Pragmatics and a Pragmatic Perspective on Assertion" in the Philosophy Department Library.

Dr. Kvart will give a second colloquium talk concerning some philosophical implications of Steering Thrust Pragmatics in the Philosophy Department Library.