Philosophical Resources & Activities

Savan Library

Graduate students have at their disposal the resources of the David Savan Library, located on the Department’s premises at the Jackman Humanities Building, 170 St. George Street, 5th floor. It contains a collection of books and periodicals in philosophy, together with tools for searching philosophy collections.

Carrels and Computers

Graduate students are assigned study carrels which have hook ups for notebook computers; they also have exclusive use of a room containing printers as well as computers offering access to the Internet and to e-mail.

Colloquia

The Philosophy Colloquium meets three or four times each term. It features invited speakers from other universities on a wide range of philosophical topics.  All members of the faculty and graduate students are expected to attend. A reception in honour of the speaker is held following the lecture.

Special Lecture Series

The Jerome S. Simon Lectures are a biennial series given by a philosopher of international distinction. Recent Simon lecturers have been David Kaplan of UCLA (“Meaning as Use”) and Michael Friedman of Indiana University (“Dynamics of Reason: Kantian Themes in the Philosophy of Science”). J. David Velleman of the University of Michigan (“The Self as Narrator”) was the lecturer in 2002-2003.  David Wiggins gave the 2004-2005 Simon lectures (“Objectivity in Ethics”) and Anil Gupta of the University of Pittsburgh gave the 2006-07 lecture (“Two Types of Inquiry”).  Barbara Herman of UCLA gave the 2008-2009 lectures (“Sources of Moral Content”, “Acting Against Principle”).

Group Talks

Occasional lectures are arranged throughout the year by each of the Department’s five Affinity Groups:

• Metaphysics and Epistemology (including philosophy of mind and language)
• Ethics and Political Philosophy
• Logic and Philosophy of Science
• History of Philosophy
• Continental Philosophy

The talks arranged by these groups are open to all interested faculty and students.

Other Special Events

The Philosophy Forum meets occasionally during the year. It provides an opportunity for graduate students and faculty members to present papers in an informal setting.  Each Spring, the Chair of the Department hosts the annual Book Launch, an event which celebrates the publication within the preceding year of new works by members of the faculty. More than a hundred books have been published by the faculty in the past ten years.