Placement Practice Job Talk—Michael Szlachta

Michael Szlachta is a graduate from our PhD program and currently a visiting assistant professor at St. Francis Xavier University. Please join us for his practice job talk, which will begin at 3:00 PM sharp.

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86091533295?pwd=Q0ZwV1NwMkd0V2lIRzkxSDBmQzZ4UT09

Passcode: 64uPJV

Talk Title

Godfrey of Fontaines and the Challenges of Extreme Intellectualism

Talk Abstract

Godfrey of Fontaines, a medieval compatibilist about freedom and determinism, faces a challenge. His compatibilism seems to have the consequence that no exterior act, like giving someone a gift or stealing a neighbour’s pears, is imputable to a human agent such that she can be praised or blamed for doing it. I explain how Godfrey responds to this challenge by arguing that a human being has power over the interior acts of apprehension and appetition, from which every exterior act proceeds. I also draw attention to the intentionality of interior acts to make sense of how the apprehensive and appetitive potencies of human beings are really the subjects of apprehension and appetition, respectively.