Philosophy

Tom Pashby, Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy

A workshop for people smart and brave enough to be wrong.

We live in a world full of hot takes, strong opinions, and people who are very sure they’re right. The problem? Certainty makes connection harder. Certainty Is Overrated is an interactive workshop that treats curiosity as a serious (and understanding) superpower. 

Through games, conversations, and thought experiments, you will explore how curiosity fuels imagination, softens snap judgment, and opens the door to empathy, understanding, and freer thinking. 

The Philosophy Department warmly invites you to attend our senior independent research presentations. Please visit the Philosophy Department web page for a detailed schedule with speakers and topics.

The Philosophy Department warmly invites you to attend our senior independent research presentations. Please visit the Philosophy Department web page for a detailed schedule with speakers and topics.

Prof. Amandine Catala, University of Quebec in Montreal 

Recent accounts of epistemic agency and injustice have shown that both notions are greatly enriched and more accurately construed when they are taken to include not only propositional knowledge (knowing-that) but also experiential knowledge, including practical knowledge (knowing-how) and tacit, embodied, and affective knowledge (knowing what-it’s-like). What can such a pluralist account tell us about epistemic repair? 

Remarks and awards for Philosophy department seniors and their families.

Prof. Jed Atkins, Director and Dean; Professor of Civic Life and Leadership at the University of North Carolina offers a seminar surveying some basic forms civic education has taken in the 20th century and possibilities for the future of civic education in liberal arts institutions. RSVP required for lunch: trish@middlebury.edu

Michael Shaw
Professor of Philosophy, Director of Classical Studies
Utah Valley University

Peter Beinart is Professor of Journalism and Political Science at CUNY. He is also a Contributing Opinion Writer for The New York Times, a political commentator on MSNBC, and Editor-at-Large of Jewish Currents. Over the years he served as Editor of The New Republic and wrote for publications like The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Die Zeit, and the Financial Times. He is the author of four books including The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris (Harper, 2010) and The Crisis of Zionism (Times Books, 2012).

Dallas Amico-Korby, Department of Philosophy UC San Diego

Recommendation algorithms are increasingly responsible for sorting information on social media platforms, and people increasingly rely on social media platforms for news and information. This raises the question: when should we trust the recommendations of these algorithms?