Fellowships and Scholarships of $15,000 for Georgia State Masters Program

Dear Gardeners, please share this information with any students who may be interested.  Thanks, Eddy!

The Masters program in the Philosophy Department at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia is accepting applications from qualified students for its two Neurophilosophy Fellowships, a Legal/Political Philosophy Scholarship, and a German Philosophy Scholarship.  Fellowships and Scholarships cover tuition, provide $15,000/year for living expenses and up to $500/year for travel to conferences. Fellowships have no teaching duties for two years. Scholarships have no duties in the first year but require teaching in the second year.  A flier with more information is here.  The deadline for applications is March 15.

More information on the departments areas of strength in these three areas is here.  In addition to Andrea Scarantino and I, the department's strength in neurophilosophy and empirically informed philosophy of mind will improve with the addition of George Graham next year.  Students on the Neurophilosophy Track also have the opportunity to participate in GSU's interdisciplinary Brains & Behavior Program.

The Masters program in the Philosophy Department at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia is accepting applications from qualified students for its two Neurophilosophy Fellowships, a Legal/Political Philosophy Scholarship, and a German Philosophy Scholarship.  Fellowships and Scholarships cover tuition, provide $15,000/year for living expenses and up to $500/year for travel to conferences. Fellowships have no teaching duties for two years. Scholarships have no duties in the first year but require teaching in the second year.  A flier with more information is here.  The deadline for applications is March 15.

More information on the departments areas of strength in these three areas is here.  In addition to Andrea Scarantino and I, the department's strength in neurophilosophy and empirically informed philosophy of mind will improve with the addition of George Graham next year.  Students on the Neurophilosophy Track also have the opportunity to participate in GSU's interdisciplinary Brains & Behavior Program.

Why reading defenses of hard determinism makes people morally worse.

"A study suggests that when people are encouraged to believe their behavior is predetermined — by genes or by environment — they may be more likely to cheat."

Details here.

Commentary Opportunity at Pacific APA

I'm on the Program Committee for the Pacific APA. Recently two commentators have notified me that they are unable to attend this year's conference. One paper is on free will/moral responsibility, the other is on concept empiricism. If anyone is interested in commenting on a paper at the 2008 Pacific APA, please let me know ASAP

Thanks! Joe

Fischer Awarded Hourani Prize

An announcement from David Hershenov:

The University of Buffalo Philosophy Department is proud to announce that John Martin Fischer has been chosen to deliver the Fall 2008 Hourani Lectures. His topic will be Free Will and Moral Responsibility. The Hourani Lectures are given every two years by philosophers working in either ethics or Islamic philosophy. The endowment generously left to the University at Buffalo Philosophy Department by the late George Hourani provides for an award of $12,000 to the speaker. Previous Hourani lecturers have been Jeff McMahan, Anthony Appiah, Martha Nussbaum, Onora O'Neill, and Shelly Kagan.

Dates of the talks: 9/24, 9/26, 10/1, 10/3, 10/6, and 10/10.

Other details are available at the University at Buffalo Philosophy Department webpage.

Congratulations John!

CEU Summer University

Andras Szigeti tells me that he is organizing a course on moral responsibility as a central concern of philosophical ethics and metaphysics. The course will take place in Budapest, 14-25 July 2008 and will be hosted by Central European University's Summer University (CEU SUN). Instructors include Mark
Balaguer, Tim O'Connor, Terry Horgan, Janos Kis, Thomas Schmidt and Andras Szigeti.

You can find information about the course here. Applications for places with bursaries are still accepted -- the new deadline for these places will be announced shortly.

Agency on the Job Market

Are there are any Gardeners on the job market this year? If so, I'd be interested to hear their thoughts on issues such as the following:

1) What did you put for your AOS?
2) Did you try to market yourself more as an ethicist or as a metaphysician (or something else)? And how well did it work? Did you have to change your approach depending on the particular school?
3) Did you feel like having a specialty in free will/moral responsibility was harmful to your chances in any way? Was it beneficial?
4) Any advice for Gardeners who will be on the job market in the next couple of years?

I know we have talked about some of these issues on here before, but there may be people with fresh perspectives to share. Anyone should feel free to weigh in, though, even if you weren't on the job market this year. I get the feeling that marketing a free will specialty is a somewhat delicate matter, and I wonder how people go about handling it.

(P.S.  I realize the job market is still going strong, so people should feel free to post anonymously if they want.)

The Garden Bears Fruit

(At least if by 'The Garden' you understand 'one of our contributors' and by 'bears fruit' you understand 'has a baby'.)

Our warmest congratulations to Kevin and Allison Timpe, who recently welcomed a healthy son into their family: Jameson Lloyd Cooper Timpe. Here are a couple of pictures of the cute little guy.

David Hodgson Talk

Just in case there are any Gardeners in Sydney, here's the announcement for a talk that will be given by David Hodgson:

Topic            

Justice David Hodgson’s Paper “Guilty Mind or Guilty Brain; Criminal
Responsibility in the Age of Neuroscience”

As well as being a Judge of Appeal in the Supreme Court of New South Wales,
Justice David Hodgson has published books in the areas of philosophy of mind
and ethics and has written numerous philosophical articles many of which
focus on the issue of free will. The target paper for this discussion is of
particular interest as it draws together discussions from philosophy of mind
and the criminal law. It may also be of interest to a wider audience as the
paper considers the implications of developments in neurosphysiology,
cognitive science, artificial intelligence, psychology and psychiatry for
the criminal law.

The paper is available online here.

Date and Time

Wednesday 27 February (5pm until 6:30pm)

Venue

Minter Ellison Conference Room
Level 13
Law Faculty of Law, University of Sydney
173-175 Phillip Street
Sydney

Format:

1) Allan McCay will give an introduction to Justice Hodgson’s
paper and raise some issues for discussion

2) Justice Hodgson will reply

3) Open Discussion

4) Drinks