Brett E. Blanch Memorial Scholarship

Philosophy majors are encouraged to apply for the Brett E. Blanch Memorial Scholarship. Application forms can be picked up in Main 204. (Please ignore the posted deadline; we will continue to accept applications through March 18th.) To be eligible, you must be a major, have at least nine upper-division credits in Philosophy, and have a 3.5 gpa in the major. Also, since our faculty is so small, we have dispensed with the requirement of having letters of recommendation from your professors. Instead, we will just put our heads together and talk about you!

“Must we mean what we say?”

Here is an interesting philosophical profile of Stanley Cavell, a philosopher at Harvard who has been a pioneer in applying philosophical thought to materials (like music, poetry, and films) that had been long thought to be irrelevant to philosophy. A representative quote:

A philosopher who limits the meaning of her words to carefully set out definitions, attempting to root out all ambiguity, in effect says, “I say, and you should hear, only what I mean.” Cavell insists that language cannot be limited in this way. Language, to Cavell, is ambiguous not because it is imperfect, awaiting precise definition, but because we do not all see in the same way; it is a reflection of our basic predicament as distinct human beings. Thus, we must dare to mean what we say, take responsibility for all the meanings our words might be taken to have—even if those meanings go beyond what we understand as our intentions—because in our unintentional (though perhaps meaningful) slips, and the misapprehensions, mistakes, and insights of those with whom we speak, we bring together not just words but worldviews.

Human Library

USU Libraries is hosting a “Human Library” event this Wednesday (Feb 27) from 10-2 in LIB 101.  A colleague suggested me for this Human Library, which is titled “Spiritual Pathways.”  The idea is that you can come and check out a “human book” and, I assume, ask them questions and have a conversation.  I honestly don’t know what to expect, but it seems like a good thing to provide people with the occasion to ask questions of another person.  It will be interesting.  One, in a sense, “enters the mind” of another person when you read their book.  How will that experience differ when you check out a human book?

Check out this link to see the human books in the catalogue for the Wednesday event.

UVU Philosophy Conference new deadline, March 1st

Submission Guidelines

Submission Deadline: March 1st, 2013 at UVUPC13@gmail.com

• Word count: 300-500 (abstract), 2500-3500 (full paper).
• Consideration for (non-cash) prizes requires full paper submissions.
• Paper should include: name, email, phone number, institution.
• Accepted Formats: .doc, .docx, .odt, PDF, LaTex. (please not Pages).
• Topics: Everything Philosophy, broadly defined.
• Conference (tentative) Dates: March 21-22, 2013.
• Please direct questions to: adam.wilson@uvu.edu
http://www.uvupc.blogspot.com