Philosophy Talks 2024-25

Fall 2024 Speaker Series

Richard Yetter Chappell (University of Miami)

Department Colloquium: Permissibility is Overrated
Friday, September 6th, 3:00-5:00 pm

HUMA 260

Abstract:  Moral philosophers have traditionally focused on delineating right from wrong. I argue that this project is overrated, and that ethical theorists should instead give primacy to the question of what matters (or is worth caring about). I present a deontic leveling down argument against the significance of permissibility, and note a striking divergence in normative authority: that whereas the normative authority of traditional deontic concepts can coherently be questioned, the importance of what matters is undeniable. I close by considering the practical implications of our choice of theoretical moral concepts, and how the proposed shift to thinking in terms of what matters might help us to secure a better future.

Julianne Chung (York University)

Department Colloquium: Zhuangzi Applied: The Creative Power of Global Skepticism
Friday, October 4th, 3:00-5:00 pm

HUMA 260

Abstract:  Global skepticism is very often considered to be idle, useless, or worse: a direct and substantive impediment to human flourishing. This attitude, however, is not universal. In a variety of philosophical traditions, such skepticism is connected with a capacity to promote what are commonly construed as benefits, rather than drawbacks, and held to be a powerful navigational tool. Focusing on a discussion of aspects of the Zhuangzi, a classic of Chinese philosophy, part one of this presentation explains how a globally skeptical orientation invited by features of this text can be interpreted as engendering a form of creativity that involves spontaneity and adaptivity rather than novelty or originality: that is, at first pass, as centrally involving contextually unanticipated or unplanned developments, whether substantively new or original, or not. Part two then elaborates ways in which the creativity-engendering, globally skeptical, aspects surveyed can be applied in human life. It explores the possibility that rather than being unnecessary for, or an impediment to, the creative activities outlined, the globally skeptical orientation under consideration is necessary for them to proceed optimally, such that one is neither overly stifled nor too easily carried away while engaging in them.  

 

Spring 2025 Speaker Series

Cameron Buckner (University of Florida)

Department Colloquium: Moderate Empiricism and Deep Learning Research
Friday, March 28th, 3:00-5:00 pm

HUMA 260

Abstract:  In recent years, deep learning systems like AlphaGo, AlphaFold, DALL-E, and ChatGPT have blown through expected upper limits on artificial neural network research, which attempts to create artificial intelligence in computational systems by replicating aspects of the brain's structure. These deep learning systems are of unprecedented scale and complexity in the size of their training set and parameters, however, making it very difficult to understand how they perform as well as they do. In this talk, I outline a framework for thinking about foundational philosophical questions in deep learning as artificial intelligence. Specifically, my framework links deep learning's research agenda to a strain of thought in classic empiricist philosophy of mind. Both empiricist philosophy of mind and deep learning are committed to a Domain-General Modular Architecture (a “new empiricist DoGMA”) for cognition in network-based systems. In this version of moderate empiricism, active, general-purpose faculties--such as perception, memory, imagination, attention, and empathy--play a crucial role in allowing us to extract abstractions from sensory experience. I illustrate the utility of this interdisciplinary connection by showing how it can provide benefits to both philosophy and computer science: computer scientists can continue to mine the history of philosophy for ideas and aspirational targets to hit on the way to more robustly rational artificial agents, and philosophers can see how some of the historical empiricists’ most ambitious speculations can be realized in specific computational systems.