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Dear Friends of the Department,
Greetings, and welcome to this window upon the Department. Peering in, you'll see that this has been a good year at many levels. Here are a few highlights before I launch into details.
In the face of economic trends that sometimes push students to seek more practical-seeming areas of concentration, Michigan students continue to show their lively interest in the world of ideas, and the number of majors and minors in Philosophy continues to grow, as does the total number of credit hours of Philosophy taught. Our concentrators are a committed and rewarding group of students to teach, and we are pleased to report that this past year we had an unusually strong group of graduating Philosophy concentrators--so much so, in fact, that for the first time we found the undergraduate records of no fewer than three seniors so strong that we awarded the Frankena Prize to each.
A similar trend-bucking commitment to Philosophy can be seen at the graduate level. The number of applications for graduate studies at Michigan is climbing, making selection of the small number we are able to admit difficult but exciting. The result has been strong entering classes full of philosophical accomplishment and promise, and a delight to work with.
It seems that Philosophy, despite its venerable age, remains in robust good health.
One source of this robustness is the renewal Philosophy receives from interaction with other disciplines. Philosophy is sometimes said to be the Queen of the Sciences, an image that suggests a gracious aloofness. But developments in other areas of inquiry have often been key sources of philosophical challenges and innovations. We're fortunate to have in this Department faculty representing a broad range of perspectives on the relationship of philosophy and other disciplines, as well as faculty with a diverse array of involvements with on-going work in fields as diverse as physics, evolutionary theory, linguistics, mathematics, psychology, psychiatry, and law. This makes for a lively atmosphere with many sources of new questions as well as many new ways of looking at some perpetual questions.
This year's Michigan Philosophy News features a faculty contribution by Jessica Wilson, who joined us in 2001, and specializes in metaphysics and the philosophy of science. Her contribution describes a project, supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, to deepen her understanding of contemporary physics and permit her to work directly with theoretical physicists in developing an interpretation of the basic elements of the world and their laws. We hope you'll enjoy reading it.
I'm sure we all join together--current members of the Department, Alumni, Alumnae, and Friends--to congratulate the 2003 Graduates and Ph.D.s, and send them best wishes for the future. And let me personally wish you all a rich and rewarding year!
Sincerely,
Peter Railton, Chair
John Stephenson Perrin Professor of Philosophy
Faculty News
This year saw a number of faculty receive special recognition. David Velleman has been named a Collegiate Professor in acknowledgement of the remarkable stature his work has swiftly achieved, and of his many contributions to the Philosophy program at Michigan. Prof. Velleman, whose research has ranged widely over fundamental questions in the philosophy of mind, theory of action, and theory of practical reason, will become the G.E.M. Anscombe Collegiate Professor, in honor of the well-known English philosopher: "Miss Anscombe", as she was known in the sometimes stuffy atmosphere of post-war Oxbridge, played a seminal role in 20th-century philosophy of mind; her work remains essential reading, and we were fortunate to have had her come to Michigan as a visiting faculty member. A list of only a few titles from among Prof. Velleman's many papers gives some impression of the diversity and daring of his interests: "The Guise of the Good", "Identification and Agency", "Don't Worry, Feel Guilty", "Narrative Explanation", "A Rational Superego", and "Love as a Moral Emotion". And some idea of the gathering influence of his work can be gained from the fact that both Oxford and Cambridge University Presses have recently assembled collections of his papers, under the titles The Possibility of Practical Reason (Oxford) and Self to Self (Cambridge), while a colloquium was organized around his work at the University of Gottingen last January. He also gave the Jerome Simon Memorial Lectures at the University of Toronto last October.
Larry Sklar, last year named the C.G. Hempel and W.K. Frankena Distinguished University Professor, this year presented his inaugural lecture, "Dappled Theories of a Uniform World". Professor Sklar is only the second current member of the Department to be named a University Professor, and he thus joins the most elite rank of the Michigan Professoriate. The recipient of many awards and honors, and author of numerous books and scores of articles, Professor Sklar's work in the philosophy of science and philosophy of physics is internationally recognized as setting a standard for philosophical clarity, historical nuance, and appreciation of essential issues. Indeed, the underground ironic classic Philosophical Lexicon gives as the meaning of the adjective 'sklar', "Balanced and comprehensive", as in "He made everything sklar for us".
Stephen Darwall, will present his inaugural lecture as incoming President of the American Philosophical Association, Central Division, this coming April. His important recent book, Welfare and Rational Care (Princeton Press), was the subject of a symposium at the University of Rome in June. A pioneer in the contemporary philosophical study of autonomy, he now is continuing his ground-breaking work on the interpersonal side of moral life in a forthcoming book, The Second-Person Standpoint, the subject of a series of seminars given as Grean Distinguished Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Ohio University this past spring.
Last year, we took pleasure in announcing the appearance of Louis Loeb's much-awaited book, Stability and Justification in Hume's Treatise, a major contribution to the scholarship on Hume's controversial views on belief and skepticism. Professor Loeb's work, which seeks to find in Hume not only skepticism, but the basis for a constructive contribution to the theory of justified belief, was this year the subject of two lively symposia at the American Philosophical Association's Central Division Meetings. This year also saw the appearance of a collection of Peter Railton's papers in ethics, Facts, Values, and Norms (Cambridge University Press).
Next year, in addition to Jessica Wilson's interdisciplinary project in ontology and theoretical physics, Jim Joyce will begin his active collaboration with statistician Michael Woodruffe and astronomer Mario Mateo on the value of certain methods of statistical analysis as aids to research on the fundamental question of dark matter, that seemingly "missing mass" that must exist if the expansion of the universe is not to go on without end, but which is proving exceptionally difficult to observe! Their project seeks to develop more powerful techniques of data analysis to infer the distribution of dark matter from what can be observed of the distribution and motion of stars. Meanwhile, Peter Ludlow, Jason Stanley, and Rich Thomason continue their work straddling philosophy and linguistics, an intensity of research that has quickly made Michigan one of the leading programs in the field. Together, they organized a Semantics Workshop at Michigan last November, a successful event which will be repeated this year as well. Prof. Thomason additionally was co-editor of the 25th anniversary issue of Linguistics and Philosophy. Prof. Stanley, a wide-ranging philosopher, was recognized by the Philosopher's Annual for the year 2001 as co-author of "ten best" article, "Knowing How". Finally, Elizabeth Anderson, whose research extends from social epistemology and feminism to the philosophy of law, received both the John D'Arms Award for Distinguished Graduate Mentoring in the Humanities, and honorable mention in the Berger Prize competition of the American Philosophical Association for her article, "Expressive Theories of Law".
Distinguished Visiting Faculty
We were delighted to welcome to Michigan a veritable string of distinguished faculty visitors from--of all places!--sunny Palo Alto. In the Fall Term, Professor Debra Satz of Stanford, a rising new talent in ethics and political philosophy, came as the Weinberg Distinguished Visiting Professor of Philosophy. In addition to teaching a course in political philosophy and a graduate seminar, she presented the Weinberg Lecture on "Noxious Markets: Why Some Things Should Not Be For Sale". In the Winter Term, Professor John Perry, also of Stanford, was Nelson Philosopher-in-Residence. His work is familiar to philosophers in many fields for surprising insights into the relations of individuals, thoughts, language, and the world. He presented a series of seminars on his current work, and in his public lecture, he asked, "Is There Any Hope for Compatibilism?" Happily, there is at least some, he concluded. And this past year's Tanner Lecture on Human Values was given by Professor Claude Steele, a former colleague in Psychology here at Michigan who is now the Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences at Stanford. He presented his widely-cited research on stereotype effects, "The Specter of Group Image: Its Unseen Effects on Human Performance and the Quality of Life in a Diverse Society". Commentators on the lecture were Professor Anita Allen Castellitto (Law, University of Pennsylvania), who will be known to a number of you as a former Michigan graduate student, Professor Glenn Loury (Economics, Boston University), and Professor James Sidanius (Psychology, UCLA). Thanks to the generosity of donors, these distinguished visitors have provided the Department, and the wider University of Michigan community, with a striking array of food for thought.
Graduate Student News
The climax of graduate career is completion of a successful Ph.D. dissertation, often the culmination of years of thought and writing. This past year saw that summit reached by three students: Blain Neufeld, who defended his thesis on "Civic Respect and Political Plural Subjects"; Kevin Toh, trained in both Law and Philosophy, defended his dissertation, "Essays on Normativity and Describability of Law"; and Stephen Peterson presented his completed work, "Belief-Desire Coherence".
Among the Michigan Ph.D.'s who ventured out onto this year's difficult job market, most found safe harbors: James Bell (who will be on a special 2-year fellowship at Oberlin), Charles Goodman (who will be an Assistant Professor at SUNY-Binghamton), Edward Hinchman (Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Kevin Toh (Assistant Professor, University of Indiana-Bloomington), Andrea Westlund (Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), and Rivka Weinberg (Professor, Scripps College).
The annual John Dewey Prize for excellence in graduate-student teaching went to Christie Hartley, for remarkable success conveying the substance of philosophy, a quality repeatedly emphasized in student evaluations of her courses. And the Stevenson Award for an outstanding candidacy dossier went to Stephen Daskal for his papers on "Innocent Mistakes" and "Why Have a Welfare State?"
The graduate students also plan and organize an annual Graduate Colloquium in Philosophy on a topic of their choosing. This past year the theme was "Moral Responsibilities", and the Colloquium brought together three external philosophers, each of whose papers received a public comment from one of our own graduate students. As always, the professionalism of the graduate students helped make this an effective and valuable event. Professors Gideon Yaffe (University of Southern California), Gary Watson (University of California-Riverside), and Gideon Rosen (Princeton, a former Michigan colleague) brought three distinctive perspectives to bear on the difficult topic of responsibility.
Undergraduate News
As mentioned above, the undergraduate program at Michigan continues to prosper impressively, attracting fresh interest and yielding highly accomplished graduates. The annual graduation reception affords the Department a chance to recognize these students before an appreciative audience of friends and family. In particular, it is the occasion for awarding the William K. Frankena Prize (made possible by a grant from Marshall Weinberg) for overall excellence in the Concentration. The prize was well-earned by David Baker (a double-major in Physics and Philosophy who will enter the graduate program at Princeton this fall), William Campbell (with a minor in German Studies, he will go on to Berkeley), and Ryo Kikuchi (who will go on to Stanford). The Haller Prize for the best undergraduate paper is awarded each term. The Fall 2002 Prize went to David Baker for his paper, "Spacetime Ontology and Einstein's Cosmological Constant".
Honors theses in Philosophy again showed a remarkable range: David Baker, "Spacetime Ontology and the Cosmological Constant"; Joshua Hill, "Kant's Dissertation and Intellectual Intuition"; Zubin Rao, "Three Modes of Representation in Music and the Other Arts: Reproduction, Symbolism and Recharacterization"; Jennifer Spamer, "Paradoxes of Pleasure and Pain: Kierkegaard, Postmodernism, and the Horror Film". This diversity gives a strong sense of the wonderful capaciousness of philosophical curiosity, and the inventiveness of our students.
With all this formal intellectual effort going on, members of the Undergraduate Philosophy Club nonetheless continued a time-honored tradition of informal meetings in a local coffee house for philosophical discussions, their topics ranging from the existence of God to the nature of consciousness.
Finally, even as we are going to press with Michigan Philosophy News, so is Meteorite, our handsome undergraduate journal. For this issue, Issue 4, eight papers were chosen from over 150 that were received from undergraduates around the world in response to their call for submissions. The papers selected to appear will appeal to a broad range of philosophical interests, and concern topics that include vagueness, aesthetics, and Adorno. Issue 4 also features an interview with Allen Wood (Stanford University), an internationally known scholar of the history of philosophy. More than a publication, Meteorite has also served as an active forum of philosophical exchange amoung our undergraduates
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