Eminent philosopher Thomas Nagel (Cornell BA ‘58), Professor of Law and Philosophy at New York University will deliver the annual Kretzmann Philosophy Lecture for Undergraduates on Friday, April 18 at 4:30 pm in Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall. The title of his lecture is Public Education and Intelligent Design: A Dissenting View.
The Provost’s awards for distinguished research recognize younger tenured faculty whose scholarly achievements are combined with continuing commitment to Cornell. The 2008 Provost’s award for research in the humanities has been awarded to Charles Brittain for his groundbreaking translation of Cicero’s Academica, the most important source for the ancient philosophy of skepticism which developed among the successors of Plato. Reviewers wrote: “Eminently useful, well thought-out, and expertly executed” “There is no other publication on the Academica which sets out the philosophical issues of this text with great clarity while at the same time providing an accurate sense of chronology in close contact with the sources.” Especially praised is the translation’s accessiblity to philosophical readers, with a reliable introduction on its context and textual history, which for the first time gives the study of ancient skepticism a place in the undergraduate philosophical curriculum. Brittain came to Cornell as an Assistant Professor in 1996, and is now Professor of Classics and Philosophy, and a member of the program in Medieval Studies; he has served as Director of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies in Classics, and is currently Department Chair.
Jacob Klein and Daniel Koltonski have been awarded Charlotte Newcombe Dissertation fellowships for 2008-09 by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation.
Douglas Young
Mathew Lu
Joseph Yarbrough
Kate Waidler
Derk Pereboom and his co-authors will speak about their recent book Four Views on Free Will (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007) at a symposium at the Pacific Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association in Pasadena, March 20, 2008 at 9:00am. The other speakers will be Michael McKenna (Florida State University), Robert Kane (University of Texas, Austin), and Manuel Vargas (University of San Francisco).
The Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines at Cornell has awarded Daniel Koltonski a Buttrick-Crippen Fellowship for 2008-09 for his proposal for a first-year writing seminar “The Language of Rights: Its Uses and Abuses.”
Stanford H. Taylor ’50 BS ChemE ’51 and his wife Jo Ann have given $4 million to endow the chair of the Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell. The Taylors’ gift is an expression of a passionate commitment to the life of the mind and Mr. Taylor’s vision for the critical, creative, and integrative role of philosophical thought in our endeavors to live meaningful lives in the twenty-first century.
Mr. Taylor’s interest in philosophy was sparked by a high school “Great Books” course and an ethics course during his undergraduate years at Cornell. After building a successful career in business, Mr. Taylor returned to reading, thinking about, and discussing philosophical texts and issues. The pursuit of that avocation has led to a conviction about the power of philosophy to transform society by bringing rational discourse and critical reflection to its most important discussions.
By providing an endowment to strengthen the Sage School of Philosophy, Mr. Taylor intends to promote world-class teaching and research on critical intellectual frontiers. Emerging science, encounters with other cultures, competing theoretical models and methodologies, and myriad other fast-changing developments in the modern world challenge us to reflect in sustained and sophisticated ways on what it means to be human and how to live a distinctively human life. The kind of impact philosophy can have on our culture and the kind of philosophical training the Sage School can provide to Cornell students, Mr. Taylor believes, will help to assure that future generations have the intellectual resources necessary for meeting these challenges.
The Sage School of Philosophy is excited about the possibilities this endowment opens up. It will immediately and dramatically strengthen philosophy at Cornell.
The following books by Sage School faculty have appeared in 2007:
Michelle Kosch’s recent book, Freedom and Reason in Kant, Schelling and Kierkegaard (Oxford University Press, 2006), will be the subject of an author-meets-critics session at the Eastern Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association, December 28-30, 2007.
The Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines at Cornell has awarded Sara Streett a Buttrick-Crippen Fellowship for 2007-08. Sara will develop and teach a first-year writing seminar “Ethics, Poverty, and the Global Economy.”
