See Hom Swear...

Departmental colloquium: "A Puzzle About Pejoratives"

Prof. Christopher Hom (Texas Tech University)

Friday, October 30, 4:00 PM - PHIL 264

Abstract and draft of the paper available here: http://www.webpages.ttu.edu/chom/Papers.html

"Peterpalooza": RESCHEDULED

Peter Railton (John Stephenson Perrin Professor of Philosophy, University of Michigan)

Public Lecture: "Happiness, Satisfaction, and Morality"

Friday, October 16, 4:00 PM - Engl/Phil LH01 [RESCHEDULED]

Departmental colloquium: "Rationality in Belief and Desire: A Unified Account"

Saturday, October 17, 10:00 AM - Phil 264 [RESCHEDULED]

Because of flight delays, Prof. Railton will not be able to present on Thursday night, and will instead give his public talk on Friday afternoon.

Hope you can join us!

Fall Colloquia Series

The 2009-2010 Philosophy Colloquia Series is now underway, and we have some great talks lined up this semester!

Niko Kolodny, U.C. Berkeley, Oct 1-2

Peter Railton, U. of Michigan, Oct 15-16

Christopher Hom, Texas Tech, Oct 30

Darren Hudson Hick, Texas Tech, Nov 13

David Miguel Gray, Texas Tech, Dec 4

Check the link below for times and locations:

http://www.depts.ttu.edu/philosophy/events/talksf09.php

Philosophy Grad Conference in Metaethics

The Texas Tech Philosophy Third Annual Graduate Student Conference on metaethics kicks off this Friday, April 3.  Graduate students from around the country will be presenting papers, and many of our own graduate students will be commenting.  The keynote speaker will be Geoffrey Sayre-McCord from UNC-Chapel Hill.  You can access Prof. Sayre-McCord's website here:

http://philosophy.unc.edu/smccord.htm

And the conference schedule here:

http://www.philosophy.ttu.edu/dept/GradConf2009.doc

The Stanford Encyclopedia entry on metaethics would also be something useful to look at:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/metaethics/

Hope to see you there!

Beginning Philosophy

Plato, Descartes, Locke, Hume, Reid, Armstrong... discuss away. And good luck on your first philosophy exam.

Active Learning?

If you were a student in my teaching seminar last semester, I know you are already shuddering at the post's title. Take a look at this NY Times article about active learning in intro physics classes at MIT (& other schools)--then take a look at the comments, especially the ones from MIT students who actually have to take those "TEAL" classes: they tell very different stories. Is the new style of classroom and teaching the way to go? How do we know what's the best teaching method?

http://community.nytimes.com/article/comments/2009/01/13/us/13physics.html?s=1&pg=2