The schedule for the 2009 conference will be posted in February 2009. Below is the schedule for the 2008 conference.
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12th annual Pacific University Undergraduate Philosophy Conference
April 18-19, 2008
Schedule Overview:
Friday, April 18 (All Friday events in the UCC Church next to Pacific's campus, on the corner of College Way and 21st Avenue)
- 4:00-6:00pm Registration
- 6:30-8:00pm Conference banquet
- 8:00-9:30pm Keynote talk; Jerry Fodor (Rutgers University) "How I Learned to Refute Skepticism and Stop Worrying about The Matrix"
Saturday, April 19 (Registration and all paper sessions in Marsh Hall; meals are in the UCC church)
- 7:30-9:30am Regristration (Marsh Hall second floor lobby)
- 7:00-8:00am Breakfast (UCC church)
- 8:00-9:30am Paper Session #1
- 9:45-11:15am Paper Session #2
- 11:30am-1:00pm Paper Session #3
- 1:00-2:15pm Lunch (UCC church)
- 2:15-3:45pm Paper Session #4
- 4:00-6:15pm Paper Session #5
***************************************************
12th annual Pacific University Undergraduate Philosophy Conference
April 18-19, 2008
Detailed schedule:
Friday, April 18 (All Friday events in the UCC church, next to Pacific's campus, on the corner of College Way and 21st Avenue)
- 4:00-6:00pm Registration
- 6:30-8:00pm Conference banquet
- 8:00-9:30pm Keynote talk; Jerry Fodor (Rutgers University) "How I Learned to Refute Skepticism and Stop Worrying about The Matrix"
Saturday, April 19 (Registration and all paper sessions in Marsh Hall; meals are in the UCC church)
- 7:30-9:30am Regristration (Marsh Hall second floor lobby)
- 7:00-8:00am Breakfast (UCC church)
- 8:00-9:30 Paper Session #1
- PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE (Marsh LL5)
- Amanda Lusky (University of North Carolina at Asheville), "Streams of Language: The Addition of William James to Wittgenstein's Rejection of Private Language"
- Commentator: Kent Olson (Portland State University)
- Chani Mooring (Humboldt State University), "Wittgenstein's Argument against Private Language: A Defense of Meaning as Found in Forms of Life"
- Commentator: Maja Jaakson (University of Ottawa)
- PHILOSOPHY OF SEXUALITY (Marsh 101)
- Jessica Bowen (Thompson Rivers University), "Raunch Culture and Sexual Terrorism: Women's Sexuality as Power"
- Commentator: Michael Russo (Pacific University)
- Conor Walline (Westminster College), "Violence with Consistency (A Response to Mohr)"
- Commentator: Joshua Blanchard (University of Michigan)
- PHILOSOPHY OF MIND (Marsh 106)
- Mariano de Dompablo Cordio (University of Wisconsin - La Crosse), "Is Artificial Intelligence Possible?"
- Commentator: Logan Fletcher (University of Toronto)
- Aaron Frein (University of Puget Sound), "How to Kill a Zombie with Words: A Response to Chalmers-Style Mind-Body Dualism"
- Commentator: Olin Robus (Montana State University)
- PHILOSOPHY AND THE MILITARY (Marsh 201)
- Meaghan Gandy (University of Mississippi), "Military Matters"
- Commentator: Jon Hiser (University of Portland)
- Robert Brian Gingerich (Patrick Henry College), "A Dire Contagion: War, Plague, and the Iliad"
- Commentator: Jeff Breitenfeldt (Pacific University)
- ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY (Marsh 206)
- Ivan Heyman (University of Washington), "Seneca's Cynical Side: Withdrawal and 'The Social Embeddedness of Virtue'"
- Commentator:
- Ben Schultz (Swarthmore College), "Morality and Discourse in the Phaedrus and the Euthydemus"
- Commentator: Carl Templin (University of Toledo)
- HAPPINESS (Marsh 207)
- Stephen Kenney (Washington University), "On Annas and the Problem of External Goods"
- Commentator: Kristin Williams (Reed College)
- Geordie McComb (University of Victoria), "A Defence of Qualitative Hedonism As Interpretation and Account Well-being"
- Commentator: Sarah Thoubian (American University of Beirut)
- THE SELF (Marsh 212)
- Heather Stevens (Whitworth University), "Self vs. Others: Black Consciousness"
- Commentator: Jon Khan (York University)
- Alex von Stein (Lewis & Clark College), "A Lockean Account of Personal Identity"
- Commentator: Ben Reese (Pacific Lutheran University)
- EXISTENTIALISM & PHENOMENOLOGY (Marsh 213)
- Ronald Baumiller (Duquesne University), "Del Sentimiento Trágico de la Vida and die Ewige Wiederkehr: An Essay Concerning the Immortality of the Soul"
- Commentator: Spencer Murphy (Gonzaga University)
- Michael McEvilly (Washington University), "'Like That in a Fairy Tale or Story': Indirection in Kierkegaard's Late Authorship"
- Commentator: Elton Kelly (Lewis & Clark College)
- METAPHYSICS (Marsh 214)
- Rachel Lyon (St. Ambrose University), "Freedom of Destiny and Endless Potentialities"
- Commentator: Chuck VanHoff (North Carolina State University)
- Clark McVey (Missouri State University), "On Fate and Luck"
- Commentator: Michelle Bingamon (Pacific University)
- PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE (Marsh LL5)
- 9:45-11:15 Paper Session #2
- PRAGMATISM (Marsh LL5)
- Maja Jaakson (University of Ottawa), "Theory and Practice in John Dewey's 'Escape from Peril'"
- Commentator: Justin Azevedo (University of Oregon)
- Brian Ballard (University of California, Santa Cruz), "Peirce's Pragmatism from the Outside"
- Commentator: Zubin Bagai (University of Portland)
- PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE (Marsh 101)
- Simona Airmar (St. Andrews University), "Names and Definite Descriptions"
- Commentator: Alex von Stein (Lewis & Clark College)
- Jeremy Wyatt (Texas Christian University), "Expressive Speech Acts and Conversation: A Moderate Proposal"
- Commentator: Drew Karlberg (Calvin College)
- ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY (Marsh 106)
- James Ramirez (University of Missouri - Kansas City), "Parmenides: On Separation of the Forms"
- Commentator: Ronald Baumiller (Duquesne University)
- PHILOSOPHY OF MIND (Marsh 201)
- Sarah Thoubian (American University of Beirut), "Functionalism and the Chinese Room Thought Experiment"
- Commentator: Aaron Frein (University of Puget Sound)
- Andrew McCall (Truman University), "A Defense of Representationalism"
- Commentator: Rebecca Ok (Reed College)
- EPISTEMOLOGY (Marsh 206)
- Michael Ball-Blakely (University of Tennessee), "The Impossibility of Epistemic Deductions"
- Commentator: Geordie McComb (University of Victoria)
- Oliver Foland (Humboldt State University), "A Critique of Foundational Beliefs"
- Commentator: Michael Ball-Blakely (University of Tennessee)
- METAPHILOSOPHY (Marsh 207)
- Victor Briere (Pitzer College), "Non-Cognitivism and Error Theory: A Self-Defeating Commitment"
- Commentator: Nathan Dailey (Denison University)
- Stephen Steward (Western Washington University), "Wisdom, Knowledge, and Sound Judgment"
- Commentator: Joseph Levitan (Brandeis University)
- EXISTENTIALISM & PHENOMENOLOGY (Marsh 212)
- James Goebel (California State University, Fullerton), "Death and Discourse: An Inquiry into Meaning and Disruption"
- Commentator: Kristin Thornburg (Lewis & Clark College)
- METAPHYSICS (Marsh 213)
- Carl Templin (University of Toledo), "Grasping the Concepts of Infinity and Zero"
- Commentator: Melissa Schumacher (North Carolina State University)
- Steven Zane (University of Puget Sound), "The Two-Dimensionalist Case against the Conceivability-Possibility Relation"
- Commentator: Simona Aimar (St. Andrews University)
- HAPPINESS (Marsh 214)
- Alex Lampros (Penn State University), "A Discussion of the Ethical Foundation of Happiness with Regard to the Metaphysical Locality between Aristotle and Schopenhauer"
- Commentator: William Campbell (Pacific University)
- PRAGMATISM (Marsh LL5)
- 11:30-1:00 Paper Session #3
- RAWLS (Marsh LL5)
- Robin Zheng (Washington & Lee University), "Mutual Respect: Rawlsian Justice between Liberal and Decent Peoples"
- Commentator: Chuck VanHoff (Lewis & Clark College)
- ETHICS AND PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION (Marsh 101)
- Karolin Mirzakhan (St. Edward's University), "The Role of Forgiveness in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit"
- Commentator: Alex Lampros (Penn State University)
- Matt Hambro (Lewis & Clark College), "A Critique of Petitionary Prayer"
- Commentator: Brian Ballard (University of California, Santa Cruz)
- PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE (Marsh 106)
- Kent Olson (Portland State University), "Always"
- Commentator: Gareth Reeves (University of Victoria)
- Julian Stone-Kronberg (University of Puget Sound), "Inescapable Interpretation: A Defense of Radical Interpretation"
- Commentator: Kelly Vincent (Whitworth University)
- METAPHYSICS (Marsh 201)
- Scarlett Andrews (University of Mississippi), "Do You Believe in Ghosts?"
- Commentator: Clark McVey (Missouri State University)
- Raquel Spencer (West Virginia University), "On Death and Epicurean Reasoning"
- Commentator: Andrew Hartfiled (Missouri State University)
- PHILOSOPHY AND ANIMALS (Marsh 206)
- Jeff Breitenfeldt (Pacific University), "Hume's Ethical Duty to Animals: Widening the Sphere of Morality beyond Rights"
- Commentator: Nick Saarela (Grand Valley State University)
- Lindsey Webb (Pacific Lutheran University), "Chimpanzees and Descartes: An Unlikely and Problematic Relationship"
- Commentator: Ben Grenz (Willamette University)
- EXISTENTIALISM & PHENOMENOLOGY (Marsh 207)
- Jill Bieker (DePaul University), " The Construction of Subjectivity According to Merleau-Ponty"
- Commentator: Melissa Ruhl (University of Oregon)
- David Sodi (Clark University), "The Concept of Ambivalence in Existentialism As Depicted in Dostoyevsky"
- Commentator: Farzad Mozafarzadeh (California State University, Fullerton)
- MOTIVATION (Marsh 212)
- Rebecca Ok (Reed College), "Desires, Dispositions, and Smith's Defense of the Humean Theory of Motivation"
- Commentator: Stephen Steward (Western Washington University)
- Ben Reese (Pacific Lutheran University), "Me, Myself, and Mead: The Problem of Positivism and the Human Self"
- Commentator: Rachel Leadon (Willamette University)
- EPISTEMOLOGY (Marsh 213)
- Aaron McClain (University of Tennessee), "Is Truth Required for Knowledge?"
- Commentator: Arthur Tu (Carnegie Mellon University)
- Laith Al-Shawaf (American University of Beirut), "Harman's The Inference to the Best Explanation"
- Commentator: Melanie Ross (Boise State University)
- POWER & DOMINATION (Marsh 214)
- Isaac Chapman (Webster University), "A Freirian Critique of Educational Policy in the U.S."
- Commentator: Casie Dunleavy (Central Washington University)
- Edmund Zagorin (University of Michigan), "The Politics of Dimensionality and the Modern Subject"
- Commentator: James Goebel (California State University, Fullerton)
- 1:00-2:15 Lunch (UCC church)
- 2:15-3:45 Paper Session #4
- ETHICS (Marsh LL5)
- Phillip Downes (Central Washington University), "Refuting Moral Luck"
- Commentator: Matt Hambro (Lewis & Clark College)
- Gareth Reeves (University of Victoria), "Was It Good for You, Too?: The Compliance Problem for Contractarianism"
- Commentator: Raman Voorhis (Lewis & Clark College)
- MARX (Marsh 101)
- Joshua Blanchard (University of Michigan), "Two Views of Domination: Horkheimer and Adorno against Marx"
- Commentator: Kiel Johnson (Lewis & Clark College)
- Casie Dunleavy (Central Washington University), "What the World Needs Is a Moral Marx"
- Commentator: Kasey Pilcher (Gutenberg College)
- EPISTEMOLOGY (Marsh 106)
- Joseph Levitan (Brandeis University), "Issues Concerning the Evolutionary Psychologist's View of Modularity"
- Commentator: Melissa Gardland (Spring Hill College)
- Bryan Reece (Oklahoma Baptist University), "Intellectual Virtues and Reliability"
- Commentator:Jeremy Wyatt (Texas Christian University)
- PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE (Marsh 201)
- Melissa Garland (Spring Hill College), "The Price of Escaping the Vat"
- Commentator: Justin Snedegar (West Virginia University)
- EXISTENTIALISM & PHENOMENOLOGY (Marsh 206)
- Robert Guerin (Duquesne University), "Tragedy and the Desire to Be God"
- Commentator: Karolin Mirzakhan (St. Edward's University)
- Travis Petersen (Central Washington University), "Influences of Phenomenology and Logical Positivism on the Natural Sciences"
- Commentator:
- KILLING (Marsh 207)
- Ronald Ross (Wittenberg University), "When the Lambs Stop Screaming: Empathy, Personhood, and the Male-Dominated Phenomenon of Serial Killing"
- Commentator: Kaycie Rueter (University of Portland)
- Susan Stevens (Denison University), "The Wrongness of Killing from Classical and Preference Utilitarian Perspectives"
- Commentator: Kenneth Silver (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
- LEIBNIZ & SPINOZA (Marsh 212)
- Kelly Glover (University of Toronto), "Leibniz's Mid-Life Substance-Abuse Problem"
- Commentator: Matt Braich (Lewis & Clark College)
- Michael Russo (Pacific University), "Tales from Spinoza's Twilight Zone: On the Possibility of Alternative Substance Despite Common Interpretations of Spinoza"
- Commentator: Jennifer Kullas (St. Michael's College)
- MOTIVATION (Marsh 213)
- Kristin Williams (Reed College), "A Denial of Photocopy Virtue: A Problem of Student Passivity in Moral Education"
- Commentator: Rebecca Young (University of California, Berkeley)
- METAPHILOSOPHY (Marsh 214)
- Melissa Ruhl (University of Oregon), "Philosophy as Continual Becoming: The Child in Levinas and Buber"
- Commentator: Ivan Heyman (University of Washington)
- Kristen Wallace (Gutenberg College), "Reason as a Principle of Orientation"
- Commentator: Ben Creasy (Pacific University)
- 4:00-6:15 Paper Session #5
- ETHICS (Marsh LL21)
- Drew Karlberg (Calvin College), "The Myth of the Amoralist: A Challenge for Motivational Externalism"
- Commentator: Aaron McClain (University of Tennessee)
- Kenneth Silver (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), "Why the Consequentialist Would Not Push the Fat Guy"
- Commentator: Phillip Downes (Central Washington University)
- Ashley Goo (Central Washington University), "Anarchy, State, and Utopia or a Life 'After Virtue': MacIntyre's Stand against Nozick's Position and Lack of Moral Desert"
- Commentator: Susan Stevens (Denison University)
- PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE (Marsh LL5)
- Logan Fletcher (University of Toronto), "From Finite Tension to Determinate Extension: Meaning Finitism and the Cryptographer's Constraint"
- Commentator: Rachel Lyon (St. Ambrose University)
- Olin Robus (Montana State University), "Science, Non-Epistemic Values, and Basic Research"
- Commentator: Nathan Zimmerman (Fort Hays State University)
- Nathan Zimmerman (Fort Hays State University), "Science as a Form of Art"
- Commentator: Chani Mooring (Humboldt State University)
- PHILOSOPHY OF ART (Marsh 101)
- Jason Barry (University of Colorado), "Tackling Beardsley's Aesthetic Theory of Art"
- Commentator: Molly Gibson (Lewis & Clark College)
- Nick Saarela (Grand Valley State University), "Art and Nothing But Art: The Warring Phenomenological Aesthetics of Nietzsche and Merleau-Ponty"
- Commentator: Rachel Longstreet (St. Ambrose University)
- Rebecca Young (University of California, Berkeley), "Elucidation of Martin Heidegger's 'The Origin of the Work of Art'"
- Commentator: Ben Schultz (Swarthmore College)
- ASIAN PHILOSOPHY (Marsh 106)
- Christian Mecham (Central Washington University), "Cast Off Body and Mind: The Teachings of Buddhism as Applied to a Phenomenological Model"
- Commentator: Alan Peters (Pacific University)
- Arthur Tu (Carnegie Mellon University), "Lao Zi's Skepticism and Its Conceptual Influence on the Development of Song Dynasty Neo-Confucianism"
- Commentator: Azalea Ebbay (Lewis & Clark College)
- Emily Wallen (Rockford College), "Unity in Duality: Quantum Physics and 'Eastern' Philosophy"
- Commentator: Evan Hailstone (Pacific University)
- KANT (Marsh 201)
- Julian Gonzalez (St. Edward's University), "Kant's Courage and Its Residence in Today's Reality"
- Commentator: Ben Tyson (Lewis & Clark College)
- Matt Braich (Lewis & Clark College), "Strawson and Allison on Kant's Transcendental Idealism"
- Commentator: Kelly Glover (University of Toronto)
- Nathan Dailey (Denison University), "Free Actions of the Will in the Critique of Practical Reason"
- Commentator: Jenni Barnes (Lewis & Clark College)
- PHILOSOPHY OF TIME (Marsh 206)
- Chuck VanHoff (North Carolina State University), "Time Dilation Is Not Time Travel"
- Commentator: Adam Alexander (Viterbo University)
- Justin Snedegar (West Virginia University), "Good-bye (for Good) Growing Block"
- Commentator: Stephen Steward (Western Washington University)
- Glen Nesse (Western Washington University), "A Defense of Discrete Space-Time"
- Commentator: Travis Petersen (Central Washington University)
- SOCIAL & POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY (Marsh 207)
- Andrew Hartfield (Missouri State University), "On Justice as Power"
- Commentator:
- Augustus Sol Invictus (University of South Florida), "Reviving Galton's Monster: An Ethical Reassessment of Eugenics"
- Commentator: Angela Knowles (University of California, Berkeley)
- Jon Khan (York University), "To Pause Modernity"
- Commentator: Robert Brian Gingerich (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
- EPISTEMOLOGY (Marsh 212)
- Jennifer Jhun (Northwestern University), "Perception Does Not Have Intentional Content"
- Commentator: Steven Zane (University of Puget Sount)
- Melanie Ross (Boise State University), "Epistemic Nature: Do Compatibilists Have the Resources to Secure Doxastic Voluntarism?"
- Commentator: Heather Stevens (Whitworth University)
- Kelly Vincent (Whitworth University),"On Alvin Plantinga's Epistemic Notion of Warrant: 'The Impossibility of Warranted False Belief'"
- Commentator: Joshua Blanchard (University of Michigan)
- POSTMODERNISM (Marsh 213)
- Justin Azevedo (University of Oregon), "Presence, Embodiment, and Differance"
- Commentator: Edmund Zagorin (University of Michigan)
- Adam Alexander (Viterbo University), "Jacques Lacan's Theory of Aggressiveness"
- Commentator: Noah Maizels (Lewis & Clark College)
- Skylar Thompson (University of San Francisco), "The Pursuit of the Self Amongst the Ruins"
- Commentator: Alfredo Asusano (California State University, Fullerton)
- EMOTIONS (Marsh 214)
- Meredith Johnson (St. Michael's College), "Defining Emotions"
- Commentator: Scarlett Andrews (University of Mississippi)
- Melissa Schumacher (North Carolina State University), "Moral Values as Natural Kinds"
- Commentator: Chritine Ball-Blakely (University of Tennessee)
- Jennifer Kullas (St. Michael's College), "Theories of Human Emotions: William James vs. Martha C. Nussbaum"
- Commentator: Lindsey Webb (Pacific Lutheran University)