Philosophy

Forthcoming Event: 2018-2019 Grunebaum Lecture February 7, 2019, 3-5pm Zemsky Presentation Room, Alumni Center, Myisha Cherry, Title TBA

December 2018: Professor John Torrey gives talk on "How Social Recognition Prevents Rectifying Injustices Against Black Americans" Listen to the podcast

Abstract: Black Americans have made many arguments that racial injustices committed against them should be rectified.  Two issues arise from these arguments - how should we understand what is it to rectify these injustices; and what can explain why these arguments have not been taken seriously in America?  I argue two things.  First, that rectificatory justice, a type of justice specifically designed to set unjust situations right, can explain what it is to rectify those injustices.  Second, that how Black Americans are socially recognized affects their ability to receive rectificatory justice.

August 2018: The Department is happy to welcome John Torrey as a Provost's Faculty Fellow! John joins us from the University of Memphis. He specializes in African-American Philosophy, Social and Political Philosophy, and Applied Ethics. He will be teaching a topics class in African-American Philosophy in the Spring.