Information
Philosophy in the Community is a lecture and discussion series organized by the Philosophy Department at the University of Saskatchewan. It is in place as a public service, so that we may share the rewards and pleasures of philosophical reflection with the members of our community. Philosophical thinking, reading and analysis is part of the life well-lived.
This series is free, no registration is needed. No philosophical background is required; intellectual curiosity is. Coffee provided.
*This event is in the basement of Emmanuel Anglican Church. The standard way to enter is on the southwest side of the building via a flight of stairs. People with mobility issues are welcome to send a note to emer.ohagan@usask.ca to arrange for other access. Please do this well in advance of the event. An external ramp on the north side of the building provides entry to the church, and from there an elevator can be used to get to the basement
For more information, contact: emer.ohagan@usask.ca
Follow Philosophy in the Community on
| Location | The Refinery Emmanuel Anglican (formerly St. James) Church Basement 607 Dufferin Avenue (at 12th Street, just off Broadway) |
| Time | 7:00 – 9:00 PM |
| Dates | Second Friday of each month, September through March: |
2023-24 Fall and Winter Series
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September 8, 2023 What Do We Owe Each Other? |
In a duly famous article, "Famine, Affluence, and Morality,"Utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer defends the following principle:"if it is in our power to prevent something very bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral significance, we ought to do it." While seemingly uncontroversial, the principle has far-reaching consequences. Many of us can forgo luxuries without losing anything of moral significance, thus we should be giving those resources to those who live in poverty. In this presentation, O'Hagan will outline Singer's argument and then invite the audience to participate in small group discussions., followed by the usual Q&A. The discussion will help us develop our own thinking on the broader question, 'what do we owe each other?' "For those interested, Singer’s paper can be found here:
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Musical Ontology: Works, Versions, and Lineages
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Musical works, such as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, are philosophically puzzling entities. The main reason for this is the phenomenon of musical multiplicity, the fact that there can be multiple performances of a given musical work, none of which can be individually identified with it. Moreover, simple attempts to accommodate multiplicity by identifying works with structural types or kinds run afoul of musical flexibility, the fact that there can be structurally different performances of any given work. Finally, whatever relation between works and performances one endorses, an adequate account of musical works also needs to explain musical audibility, the fact that one can hear a work by means of listening to performances which are distinct from it. In this talk, a number of common theories of musical works are shown to run into insuperable difficulties and an alternative which avoids these problems is defended. |
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November 10th, 2023 Understanding and Resisting Epistemic Injustice |
Epistemic injustices are wrongs incurred on individuals in their capacity as knowers in society. This talk will draw upon Miranda Fricker’s Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing to briefly explain the two sorts of injustices outlined in this book: testimonial injustice, where an individual's testimony is not adequately valued due to their social position, and hermeneutical injustice, where a gap in society's shared conceptual resources prevents one from being understood. The second part of the talk aims to demonstrate that certain cases of religious offense give rise to situations that should be classified as instances of epistemic injustice. |
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December 8, 2023 What exactly is the ethics of care? |
Coming Soon! |
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January 12, 2023 Why Should We Trust Scientists? |
Coming Soon! |
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February 9, 2023 Free Will and Mad Scientists |
Coming Soon! |
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March 8, 2023 What Is the Anthropocene? Philosophical Perspectives |
Coming Soon! |
