NUS Department of Philosophy

02/09/2021

𝗣𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗼𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗔𝗻𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗡𝗨𝗦 𝗣𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗼𝗽𝗵𝘆'𝘀 𝗗𝗿 𝗭𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗕𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘁’𝘀 𝗣𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝗼𝗽 𝟭𝟬 𝗶𝗻 𝗜𝘁𝘀 𝟰𝟬𝘁𝗵 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻⁠

We are pleased to announce that Assistant Professor Zachary Barnett’s paper, “Why You Should Vote to Change the Outcome”, originally published in Philosophy & Public Affairs, has been selected as one of 2020’s “best” articles to be published in philosophy and will be featured in the latest edition of the prestigious Philosopher’s Annual, a yearly digest edited by Professor Patrick Grimm, Philosopher in Residence at University of Michigan and other leading philosophy academicians.⁠
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In his paper, Dr Barnett–who teaches ethics, epistemology and decision theory–argues against the “prevailing opinion...that voting to change the outcome is irrational, since although the payoffs of tipping an election can be quite large, the probability of doing so is extraordinarily small” by showing that “given certain basic assumptions, the rationality of voting can be proven to hold given two conditions."⁠
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✅ Find out more: https://nus.edu/38BaYFO
📜 Read Dr Barnett’s paper: https://bit.ly/3zAiay2⁠
➡️ Full list of 2020's top 10 papers: https://bit.ly/3yzLXph⁠
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29/07/2021

#𝗜𝗖𝗬𝗠𝗜: 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗛𝗦 𝗢𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟭 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲!
Calling all new students of the National University of Singapore, College of Humanities and Sciences. Our inaugural Orientation event was held 13-15 July 2021. If you missed any of our talks, let us reassure you that you can still catch it, and every other presentation on the following video playlists.
Day 1 All Main Sessions (Common Talks): http://bit.ly/CHSOrientation2021Main
Day 1 XDPs: https://bit.ly/CHSOrientation2021XDPs
Day 2 All Department Talks: https://bit.ly/CHSOrientation2021Day2
Day 3 All Department Talks: https://bit.ly/CHSOrientation2021Day3
Watch and miss nothing!

25/06/2021

Dear Philosophy Class of 2021,

Congratulations for completing your philosophy degree! No, we've not forgotten the traditional class party--we'll just have to wait until we can gather in a large group again.

As with the last year, your profs and admin manager have created a video. We hope you enjoy it help pass the word around to your classmates.

All the best and keep in touch!

-loy

25/06/2021

Hard to imagine but it has been a whole year now, and Class of 2020 will be having your online commencement in a few days, together with Class of 2021*. Once again, congratulations--no, we've not forgotten you!
(*Class of 2021--watch this space 😉)

31/05/2021

Interpretation, Truth and Putnam’s Paradox by Dr Alexander Sandgren

The seminar will take place at 2 PM on 3 June 2021, and will be held online via Zoom at https://tinyurl.com/philo0306

For more information, please visit https://fass.nus.edu.sg/philo/events/interpretation-truth-and-putnams-paradox-by-dr-alexander-sandgren/

There is a kind of argument, a paradigmatic example of which is what Lewis (1984) calls `Putnam's paradox', which have as their conclusion that everything we say is, when interpreted correctly, true. This conclusion is taken by almost everyone to be disastrous, so in as much as its premises are plausible and the argument is valid, we have a paradox on our hands. The most common response to the argument, developed by Lewis himself and others, is to avoid the conclusion by appealing to constraints on interpretation that do not depend on our psychology or conventions, either individually or collectively; some things are just objectively more eligible to be represented in our thought and talk. In this paper I defend a different response to the paradox and outline an underappreciated alternative conception of interpretation indicated by this different response.

12/05/2021

𝗖𝗛𝗦 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟭 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲!

Mark your calendars – CHS Open House 2021 is just around the corner! On 14 and 15 May, explore Interdisciplinary Education for a Brave New World as we line up a slew of cool programmes for you to discover and experience the new National University of Singapore, College of Humanities and Sciences!

Head to the CHS Open House website for full programme details and register today!
Day 1 – The CHS Curriculum: http://bit.ly/CHSOH21-Day1
Day 2 – The CHS Experience: http://bit.ly/CHSOH21-Day2

20/04/2021

#𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗙𝗔𝗦𝗦@𝗖𝗛𝗦: 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀, 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲𝘀
As part of the campaign leading up to our Open House in May, we're holding 'live' Masterclasses presented by three of our award-winning Faculty, and our Departments are hosting 'live' Q&A sessions for prospective students. Not to be missed if you wish to discover our curriculum, outside classroom opportunities and the myriad programmes available when you join the FASS community.

Featured lectures include:
* 𝘌𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 by Assistant Professor Zachary Barnett,
* 𝘙𝘰𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘍𝘦𝘵𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘱𝘴𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤: 𝘈𝘯 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘚𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮 𝘪𝘯 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘈𝘴𝘪𝘢 by Associate Professor Irving Johnson,
* 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘦𝘭𝘧-𝘈𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘔𝘢𝘺 𝘔𝘦𝘢𝘯 by Dr Peace Wong Yuh Ju,

Already intrigued? Sign up for our Masterclasses now: http://bit.ly/DF2021M

Full details and links to ‘live’ Q&A Department sessions: http://bit.ly/DF2021News

11/11/2020

Congrats to Mr. Jonathan Sim!

FTEA 2020 Winner Jonathan Sim Puts Students in Charge of Their Learning November 9, 2020   In homage to children's educational TV series Sesame Street, Mr Sim made sock puppets to explain loops as a concept for GET1050 Computational Reasoning, which moved to virtual learning in Semester 1, Academic...

10/06/2020

Dear Philosophy Class of 2020,

Congratulations for having overcome all the academic hurdles between you and your philosophy degree! Just because we aren’t able to do our usual class party this year, it doesn’t mean we have forgotten you. In fact, the actual commencement ceremony is still being planned for the coming year when things are, hopefully, better.

In the meantime, the department—your profs and admin manager—have produced a message collage video for you. We can’t guarantee that it will be one of those little things that makes a big difference, but we certainly hope it will mean as much to you as it has been for us to put it together.
(This is the updated version with the two typos corrected.)

So, enjoy, and help pass the word around to your classmates.

All the best and keep in contact!
-loy

04/06/2020

Dear Philosophy Class of 2020,

Happy to see everyone essentially done with your degree—we are all just waiting for the final official results at this point. In the meantime, we hope you are having a good rest.

It's unfortunate but we can't have the usual class party this year, so I'm looking for a way to round everyone up and stay connected with the department's news and alumni events. If at the very least, I can get as many to like or follow (that’s an inclusive “or” there) the department's page [i.e., this page], it will be good. This way, if we have anything for everyone, I can quickly blast it out. (Hint hint: we have something very relevant for you that’s going out around 10 June.)

Separately, NUS (CFG and FASS) is pushing out a whole bunch of resources for your job search. So do look out for them as well.

All the best!
-loy



PS: The above went out by email. But I don't know if everyone would see that. Class of 2020--please help propagate to classmates--Thanks!

The NUS Department of Philosophy is a thriving community of people who share a love of philosophy.

19/03/2020

This paper defends the Causal Principle ‘everything that begins to exist has a cause’. Contrary to the claims of some scientists and philosophers, fundamental physics does not exclude efficient causation and quantum physics has not shown that the Causal Principle is violated given that (1) quantum events do not begin to exist without necessary conditions, (2) our current understanding of physics is limited, and (3) there are viable deterministic interpretations of quantum phenomena. On the other hand, (1) an inductive argument, (2) an argument from the concept of non-being, and (3) a Modus Tollens argument have been offered in the literature in support of the Causal Principle. I explain why the third argument is superior to the other two, and I develop this argument in response to the objection that, even if things do not begin to exist uncaused within our universe, it might be the case that our universe itself begun to exist uncaused (Oppy 2010; 2015; Almeida 2019).

The talk will take place at 2pm, on 26 March 2020, Thursday, at the Philosophy Meeting Room, AS3-05-23.

For more information, please visit http://blog.nus.edu.sg/philo/2020/03/19/in-defence-of-the-causal-principle-by-dr-andrew-loke/