Dear Friends of the Department:

It is exhilarating to be writing from our renovated quarters in Angell Hall, after a two year relocation at the corner of Hoover and Greene Streets, on South Campus. Though our temporary facilities at the Administrative Services Building were serviceable, the two years off central campus took their toll. Hoover and Greene was not a viable destination for undergraduates. We maintained an Angell Hall "hub," but the scheduled office hours in a shared space were inhospitable to informal interactions with students. The overwhelming majority of our concentrators will not have visited the Department's main office, lounge, or Tanner Library, until this fall. Similarly, we have two classes of graduate students who have spent their careers at Michigan isolated from the central campus area. During our relocation, a number of faculty and many graduate students opted to work at home or more central locations. The maze of narrow corridors at Hoover and Greene greatly reduced collegial interaction even for those who chose to work there. All this changed, in the short space of the second week of July, when the Department returned to Angell. I have been amazed by the number of spontaneous meetings with undergraduates -- even in mid-summer --, and by the increase in contact among faculty and graduate students, fostered by our spacious quarters, with a single central corridor, in Angell Hall.

We expect our Angell Hall facilities to serve as a magnet for informal discussion among undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty alike. We intend to schedule as many classes as possible within the Department's space. This should help draw students to our common areas -- such as the Lounge (2240 Angell) a short way down the hall, and the Tanner Philosophical Library (1171) -- and increase undergraduates' sense of intellectual community and place. A Meeting Room (2271), overlooking State Street, at the northwest corner of the second floor, will accommodate classes of twenty-five students. The seating around the perimeter of tables laid out in a rectangle should be much more welcoming than standard classrooms equipped with fixed rows of desks. Most advanced undergraduate/lower level graduate (400-level) courses, some faculty sections of core courses for concentrators, and Honors Introduction to Philosophy, will be scheduled in the Meeting Room. Smaller seminars, including undergraduate seminars (401 and 402), will meet in a first floor Seminar Room (1164). The Seminar Room will also serve as a Library Annex, housing a portion of a growing Tanner Library collection. The first floor also has a new room (1156) for undergraduates to meet with graduate student instructors. A new graduate workspace eliminates double-decked workstations; there is a small computer room nearby. A kitchenette has been added to the Department's lounge. The new building air conditioning proved an attraction in the summer. We are grateful to LS&A for providing additional space for the Department, and for helping us to outfit new rooms.

Beyond the changes in Philosophy's facilities, there are changes in our neighborhood. Classical Studies is still to the south; however, Mathematics has moved from the third and fourth floors of Angell Hall to a new home in East Hall. English Language and Literature will move into Math's former quarters, once their renovation is complete. The Mason/Angell/Haven complex now includes an entire new building -- temporarily called "The Humanities Building" --, which will house portions of Classics, Comparative Literature, English, and History. These changes are but a part of an extensive construction program in the central campus area in recent years. Though it will take some time for us to become fully settled in the Department's new quarters, we encourage graduates and friends to visit when they are in the area.

We continue to receive generous support from our graduates. As readers of MPN know, in recent years Marshall Weinberg (B.A., '50) has generously enhanced the Endowment for the William K. Frankena and Charles L. Stevenson Prizes, which he established in 1991. I am pleased to report that in 1995 Mr. Weinberg established, in addition, the Marshall M. Weinberg Endowment for Philosophy. In the first instance, income from the new Endowment will be used to fund summer fellowships for graduate students. Financial competition for the best graduate students has become keen, and this is an area where we have needed help. It is rare to find donors who appreciate the importance of graduate education in the humanities. Marshall spent a year in the graduate program in philosophy at Harvard, where he studied with Philipp Frank, C. I. Lewis, and Harry Wolfson. We are grateful to Marshall for his continuing support. Elsewhere in this letter, I provide details in regard to recent recipients of Prizes and Fellowships he has endowed.

The Department has also received the final installment of a gift to the Obert C. Tanner Philosophy Endowment from the Tanner Charitable Trust. As I reported last year, these additions to the Tanner Endowment, in combination with College funds, have enabled us to refurbish and update the existing Library rooms, and to upgrade the new Seminar Room/Library Annex across the hall, beyond baseline plans for the renovation. We again thank The Reverend Carolyn Tanner Irish (who received her B.A. in Philosophy from Michigan in 1962), Chair of the Board of the Trust, for this generous gift. The late Obert Clark Tanner, and Grace Adams Tanner, provided funds to establish the Tanner Philosophical Library in Angell Hall in 1970. The recent contributions insure our enjoyment of this marvelous resource for the next quarter century.

Ultimately, we best repay our donors and contributors with a sense of satisfaction in the quality of our faculty and undergraduate and graduate programs. The results of the 1993 National Research Council National Survey of Graduate Faculty were released last fall. In the Relative Rankings of Research-Doctorate Programs in Philosophy, Michigan ranked seventh in scholarly quality of program faculty (sixth based on responses from faculty at institutions with top-rated programs), and seventh in program effectiveness in educating research scholars. (I put to the side Pittsburgh's program in the History and Philosophy of Science.) Though such ratings are reassuring, they cannot do justice to the distinctive strengths of individual programs.

The past year brought reminders of some of those strengths at Michigan. Allan Gibbard was invited to accept election to the White's Professorship of Moral Philosophy at Oxford University. The Professorship becomes vacant this fall, upon the retirement of Bernard Williams. The White's Chair, founded in 1621, is one of Oxford's oldest professorships. We are delighted for Allan that he received this extraordinary recognition, and fortunate that he decided to remain at Michigan.

Also this year, Larry Sklar was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and awarded the Lakatos Prize in Philosophy of Science for his Physics and Chance (Cambridge, 1993), which treats the bewildering conceptual problems that arise in connection with statistical mechanics. Larry has also been invited to be the John Locke Lecturer at Oxford for 1997-98. In other external recognitions, David Velleman was awarded both National Endowment for the Humanities and Guggenheim Fellowships, for research on the connection between personal identity and the good life. Ian Rumfitt was awarded a National Humanities Center Fellowship, for research on the development of Frege's philosophy of language.

A number of faculty received University recognitions. Kendall Walton was appointed James B. and Grace J. Nelson Professor of Philosophy. The Professorship, funded by the Nelson Endowment for the Teaching of Philosophy, is awarded to "a person of outstanding reputation for learning and teaching ability" in philosophy. Ken's Mimesis as Make-Believe: Foundations of the Representational Arts (Harvard, 1990) has rapidly won wide recognition for its subtle and detailed development of an innovative theory of the representational arts, such as pictures, sculpture, and fictional novels, plays, and films. In addition to its impact on philosophical aesthetics, Mimesis has been influential in academic and professional arts communities. Ken is currently at work on a book on the philosophy of music. (Offerings of his recently introduced 400-level course on this topic, cross-listed, with the School of Music, have been over-subscribed.)

Stephen Darwall received a University Humanities Award, which provides released time for research. The Award will support Steve's work on a book on the rise of modern ethics, a volume in the Evolution of Modern Philosophy series for Cambridge University Press. Edwin Curley received an LS&A Research Excellence Award, in recognition of Ed's recent work on seventeenth century philosophy of religion and political philosophy, especially Spinoza's reaction to Hobbes, and Hobbes' philosophy in its own right. Finally, Ian Rumfitt received an LS&A Excellence in Education Award. Ian has a knack for engaging undergraduates, even in our most challenging courses.

In other faculty news, Donald Munro has retired from active faculty status, and been named Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and of Chinese. Don received his A.B. degree (1953) in Philosophy from Harvard, and his Ph.D. degree (1964) in Chinese and Japanese from Columbia. He joined the Philosophy Department at Michigan in 1964, and held a joint appointment with Asian Languages and Cultures beginning in 1991. He served as Interim Chair (1993-94) and Chair (1994-95) of ALC, and was a member of the College Executive Committee (1986-89). One of the world's leading specialists in Chinese philosophy, Don has published a major trilogy of books -- The Concept of Man in Early China (1969), The Concept of Man in Contemporary China (1977), and Images of Human Nature: A Sung Portrait (1988). A recipient of ACLS, Ford Foundation, Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and Social Science Research Council Fellowships, his research and teaching has been highly interdisciplinary, linking philosophy with art and literature and the social sciences.

Don cared deeply about undergraduate education, and designed a magnificent training and evaluation program for the Department's graduate student instructors. Don was a founder and original coordinator for China's Evolution Under Communism, a course cross-listed in Asian Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, and Sociology. He has had an enormous impact on Chinese Philosophy through the training of graduate students; Philosophy Ph.D.'s he has supervised hold positions at Davidson (Philosophy), Hong Kong (Philosophy), Indiana at Bloomington (East Asian Languages and Culture), Vermont (Philosophy), and Connecticut Wesleyan (Philosophy and East Asian Studies), among others. Don continues to work with a number of graduate students who will be completing their degrees in the near future. The Department is expanding its Tanner Library collection of volumes in Asian Philosophy in Don's honor.

It is with great regret that I report that Ruth Millikan has resigned to return to the University of Connecticut, beginning this academic year. Ruth's account of the biological notion of proper functions and its applications in philosophy of mind and philosophy of language has had wide influence. In the two years that she was half-time at Michigan, Ruth contributed much to intellectual life here, including the introduction of a 400-level course in Philosophy of Biology. Her tenure with the Department was too short. We wish her well. We also say farewell to Paul Franks, who was a Junior Fellow at the Society of Fellows during 1993-96. His courses at Michigan included Hegel, German idealism and romanticism, and Jewish philosophy. Beginning this Fall, Paul will be Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Indiana.

On a happier note, Dan Sperber will be returning for a second visiting appointment -- joint with Law and Psychology -- this Winter. Dan holds a permanent research professorship at the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and at the CREA in Paris. His most recent book is Explaining Culture: A Naturalistic Approach (1996). He will be teaching a course in philosophy of language, and a seminar (with Heidi Feldman, of the Law School) on reason in human affairs.

There is much vitality in our undergraduate programs, notwithstanding the two years at Hoover and Greene. This May, Charles Hughson received the fifth William K. Frankena Prize for Excellence in the Undergraduate Program. Hughson will complete an Honors thesis in philosophy of language and philosophy of mind, as well as an Honors concentration in Mathematics, this year. Cody Gilmore, who received the Frankena Prize the year before, and begins graduate work in Philosophy at Princeton this fall, delivered a paper on Parfit on personal identity at the New England Undergraduate Philosophy Conference at Tufts. This was the second year in a row that one of our concentrators was on the Conference program, and the third consecutive year that concentrators here attended the Conference. Under the leadership of Zeno Lee, the Undergraduate Philosophy Club had an active year, meeting weekly. The Club also introduced a philosophy book exchange, and a new Department tee shirt.

Eight undergraduates completed Philosophy Honors theses during the 1995-96 academic year: Rob Davis, "How Human Freedom to Determine Character Affects Our Conceptions of Akrasia and Mental Illness"; Cody Gilmore, "Survival and Personal Identity"; Steve Graines, "Antoine Roquentin's Search: Sartre, Heidegger, and Camus"; Jacques Habra, "Kafka's Consciousness"; Bryan Lauer, "Human Natures, Moral Animals: Friedrich Nietzsche as Evolutionary Philosopher"; Chris McCleary, "Moral Realism Examined"; James O'Doherty, "The Problem of Friendship"; and Bill Plevan, "Maimonides and Religious Pluralism." We congratulate these graduates on their accomplishments, and also thank those who served as their faculty supervisors -- Frithjof Bergmann, Linda Brakel (Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), Ed Curley, Steve Darwall, Paul Franks, David Hills, Eric Lormand, Phyllis Morris (who was Visiting Professor of Philosophy), Peter Railton, Don Regan, and David Velleman.

Since the early 1980's, we have been increasing faculty presence in introductory courses. We are adding three such courses this coming academic year. A faculty-taught Introduction to Symbolic Logic (Philosophy 303) will replace a course by the same name previously taught by graduate students. In addition, Larry Sklar will offer The Worldview of Modern Science (320), and Eric Lormand will offer Mind, Matter, and Machines (340). Philosophy 320 is intended to appeal to students with interests in physics, science, and engineering; 340 should be of special interest to students with backgrounds in psychology, cognitive science, and computer science. None of the three courses carries a prerequisite.

Graduate students, as well as faculty, have an enormous impact on undergraduate education. Last April, we awarded the John Dewey Prize for graduate student excellence in undergraduate instruction to Jeffery Allen. Jeff has developed a highly successful method of teaching informal logic, asking students to critique arguments that appear in contemporary political and moral discussion. At the same ceremony, we awarded the Stevenson Prize for Excellence in the Graduate Program to James Woodbridge. James, who holds an Andrew W. Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship this year, works on naturalistic interpretations of the nature of truth. Nadeem Hussain and Krista Lawlor have been awarded Rackham Predoctoral Fellowships. Nadeem (who received the Dewey Prize the year before last) is working on Nietzsche's account of the status of values; he declined the Predoc in favor of a Charlotte Newcombe Fellowship. Krista is working on the role of perception in our appreciation of music.

The job market for students completing the Ph.D. remains harsh. Of five Michigan Ph.D.'s seeking placement last year, only one was on the market for the first time. Two of the five received tenure-track positions -- Daniel Jacobson at College of Charleston, and David Sobel at Bowling Green State University. As I wrote last year, the students who are not being placed in tenure-track positions are excellent teachers and researchers. We are making every effort to offer up to two terms of half-time teaching (as Visiting Assistant Professors) to our own Ph.D.'s who are not initially successful in seeking an academic position.

In addition, we are trying better to support our continuing graduate students. We committed funds to a program of summer fellowships following the second year of full-time study. (Weinberg Summer Fellowships, supported by the new Weinberg Endowment for Philosophy, were awarded to Karen Bennett and Craig Duncan for last summer.) In addition, we committed funds to a program of travel grants for professional development for our graduate students. Recognizing these and other efforts, this year Rackham selected Philosophy as a recipient of both Mellon Foundation and Rackham summer fellowship funds. The Mellon Fellowship program seeks to stimulate the achievement of candidacy within three years and the completion of the Ph.D. within six years. The Department is proud to have been selected as a participant.

For the fifth consecutive year, graduate students both organized the annual spring colloquium (our fifteenth) and served as commentators. The topic was "Science, Scientists and the Philosophy of Science," with talks by John Dupré (Stanford), Miriam Solomon (Temple), and George Wilson (Ohio State). The commentators were Richard Schoonhoven (on Dupré), Jitendra Subramanyam (on Wilson), and James Woodbridge (on Solomon). Their contributions were central to the overall success of the program. We are grateful to James and Michael Weber for organizing a highly successful weekend.

Our Nelson Philosophers-in-Residence were Christine Korsgaard (Harvard) -- who returned to complete a two-part visit -- in the Fall, and Donald Davidson (Berkeley) in the Winter. Philosophers-in-Residence deliver a public lecture, give two seminars, and meet with students and faculty. Other speakers during the year included Susan Haack (Miami), Robert Nozick (Harvard), Paul Woodruff (Texas), and Allen Wood (Cornell). The year saw informal discussion groups on aesthetics (organized by David Hills and Ken Walton), Aristotle (Stephen Everson), Spinoza (Ed Curley), medieval philosophy (Nadeem Hussain and Manyul Im), and mind and language (Eric Lormand). Allan Gibbard offered a faculty colloquium, and Ruth Millikan a colloquium for faculty and graduate students.

Our custom has been to include a substantive philosophical article in each issue of Michigan Philosophy News. This year, we include instead "Computing in Philosophy," by David Velleman. For a number of years, David has provided oversight of the Department's computer technology; last year he mounted the Department's World Wide Web home page. He has also developed a highly successful computer-assisted course in introductory logic. Within the University, David has contributed widely to thinking about information technology, as a member of the Provost's Ad Hoc Committee on the Future of the University Library and the Vice-President's Task Force on Research Computing. He was also a representative to the CIC/Big Ten's Provost's Symposium on Instructional Technology. In his article, David reviews instructional computing, research computing, and philosophy resources on the Web, and calls attention to policy issues that informational technology raises for the academy.

Sincerely,

Louis E. Loeb,

Chair

Back to Top