Rice University Philosophy Department

08/30/2022

Rice University's Philosophy Department is currently seeking to hire a tenure-track Assistant Professor with a specialization in the history of modern philosophy!

To learn more, please visit PhilJobs at this link:
https://philjobs.org/job/show/21074

11/12/2021

Check this out! Rice's new fundraising campaign is aimed, in part, at equipping future leaders with a "strong ethical framework" via the work of an Ethics Institute -- an idea that the Department has been promoting, and quietly working towards, for years.

Fostering diversity and an intellectual environment, Rice University is a comprehensive research university located on a 300-acre tree-lined campus in Houston, Texas. Rice produces the next generation of leaders and advances tomorrow’s thinking.

10/28/2021

From the Rice Philosophy Undergrad Philosophy Club:

Just a reminder that Dr Uriah Kriegel will talk about applying to philosophy grad school, the reality of grad school, and the job market after graduation--this will be hosted Tuesday 11/2 6:30-7:30pm in HUMA 227.

10/27/2021

Check out the Rice Thresher for discussion on classroom mask policy continuation, with quotes from our department chair Tim Schroeder. https://www.ricethresher.org/article/2021/10/rice-community-discusses-classroom-mask-policy-continuation

10/11/2021

Aaaand another, right in time for Halloween, from Rice Philosophy Undergrad Lily Wieland:

Hi all!

Philosophy Club is hosting its first "Death Café," which is an event where people drink tea (or coffee), eat cake, and discuss death. It'll be hosted in the Miner Lounge (in the RMC) from 1-3pm on Saturday 10/23/21.

Please RSVP using this form so we can make sure to have enough tea, coffee, sweets and hors d'oeuvres for everyone!
URL of the form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe_fTJzOxXh6u55VzxC5vHQG4IwmW6vmvO2ygT5_oCnya9x3A/viewform?usp=sf_link

Flyer attached--please feel free to distribute! Hope to see you all there.

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Optional: dress in all black, rings of greasy mascara around your eyes (and really work on that look where you're too young to have seen this much.)

10/11/2021

From the Rice Philosophy Undergrad Philosophy Club:

Hi y'all!
Next Thursday October 14th at 12:30 pm, George Sher is having the Philosophy Club's first Philosophy Talk!
It's titled the "Wild West of the Mind: What if nothing you think or feel (if kept to yourself) is morally wrong?". This talk is an amazing opportunity to get to know Sher's philosophical interests and pursuits outside of the classroom! It's in Huma 227 and there WILL be snacks (:

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And what's fun is that you can think all the nastiest, foulest, cruelest, pettiest things you want about George Sher while he's giving the talk, and he'll have your back!

09/28/2021

This Friday and Saturday, October 1-2, the first joint graduate student conference between Rice University and the University of Houston will take place!

The keynote speaker is Julia Driver (UT Austin). Come mess w/ Texas!

See attached flyer for details, and hope to see you there.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/t4qijv8a9ttwigl/UH%20Rice.pdf?dl=0

09/27/2021

Last Friday, graduate student Derek Miller successfully defended his dissertation proposal. Congratulations, Derek! ABD! ABD!

Derek will be working on the fascinating topic of the imagination. How can acts of the imagination increase our knowledge of the world? What about the act of imagining a centaur, or a unicorn, or a snake biting its own tail? Ask Derek!

09/08/2021

This Friday we will be joined online by L.S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Human Values at Princeton University, Philip Pettit, who will be the first speaker of this fall's colloquium speaker series. He will be presenting a paper titled, "From Responsibility to Freewill".

When: Friday 10 September, 4:15pm
Where: https://riceuniversity.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMsde-tqT0jHd3LU5-OIvZNGfrh7uV95_Xz (password: "Premise1")

Abstract
Making sense of people’s fitness to be held responsible, in its most difficult form, requires explaining how I may blame you for an action in saying truly ‘You could have done otherwise’. In earlier work with Victoria McGeer, I argued that this is explicable as a retrospective counterpart of the prospective exhortation: ‘You can do otherwise’. But does
the fact that you were exhortable to do something, and that you are fit to be held responsible for not having done it, mean that you exercised freewill in taking that action? There are three problems facing the equation of freewill with exhortability but they can all be plausibly resolved.

08/31/2021

Assistant Professor Vida Yao's paper, "Grace and Alienation", was selected as one of the top ten articles in philosophy in 2020 by Philosopher's Annual, and will be included in their 40th Volume of selected papers.

The full list of papers will be released here, shortly: http://www.philosophersannual.org

Prof. Yao's paper can be downloaded from Philosopher's Imprint here:
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/p/phimp/3521354.0020.016/1

ten best philosophy articles of the year

08/11/2021

The Philosophy Department at Rice University in Houston, Texas, invites applications for a tenure-track or tenured position at the rank of assistant or associate professor in biomedical ethics, broadly construed. The successful candidate will have a strong record of research in biomedical ethics, or related areas in moral or political philosophy or philosophy of science, including philosophy of medicine, philosophy of technology, philosophy of disability, bioethics and race, bioethics and gender, and non-western or decolonial philosophies. The successful candidate must also be a skilled participant within the larger medical ethics and medical/health humanities community at and around Rice. They will support the Medical Humanities program at Rice and our collaborative relationships with the institutions of the Texas Medical Center. Assistant and associate professors have a standard teaching load of two courses per semester, at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, and the successful candidate will teach in both Philosophy and in the Medical Humanities program. We are especially interested in candidates committed to teaching a diverse student body. The successful candidate will also perform research in their specialized area and participate in university service through committee work, advising or other duties.

An international database of jobs for philosophers

08/03/2021

Julia Bursten, Rice BA ’08, Ph D Pitt HPS 2015 has been promoted to associate professor with tenure at the University of Kentucky.

Her general areas of expertise are philosophy and history of science, specializing in recent chemistry and physics. She has also recently been elected to the Nominating Commitee of the international Philosophy of Science Association.

You can find out more about Julia's fascinating research at: http://www.juliabursten.org