Departmental Newsletter: April - May 2025
David Wong and Wenjin Liu hosted a workshop on Interpersonal Harmony in Comparative Philosophy on April 10 and 11, funded by their FHI-affiliated Harmony Humanities Lab. Here, Agnes Callard talks with Susan Wolf in front of a packed house.
Reuben Stern and Ben Eva did some causation stuff. Here, they’re pictured talking about causation with Betsy Ogburn at the Duke Causation Group workshop. They also wrote a paper titled, “Causal Direction in Causal Bayes Nets,” that is forthcoming in Philosophy of Science.
Maya Kronfeld was awarded the title of Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor for 2025-26! She is also excited that the volume Kant and Literary Studies, which includes her chapter "'The Shapes My Brain Holds': Kantian Spontaneity and Woolf's The Waves," has been published. Her musicological article entitled "Rhythmic Concepts and New Knowledge" was also published in Boundary 2 Online. This summer, she will give an invited talk at the University College London workshop on Spontaneity & Freedom.
She is pictured here with students from her Kant course this spring, who are sporting their vintage Norman Kemp Smith cover t-shirts.
Jennifer Jhun was also appointed Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Philosophy for the 2025-26 academic year, beginning July 1, 2025. This reflects Jennifer’s outstanding contributions to Duke’s program of scholarship, teaching and service.
Ben Eva’s paper “The Case for Incomparability” is now forthcoming in Ergo.
Here is the abstract: According to influential arguments from several branches of philosophy, there exist some gradable natural language expressions that violate the following principle: if x and y are both F to some degree, then either x is at least as F as y or y is at least as F as x. Dorr, Nebel and Zuehl (2022) (DNZ), who refer to this principle as ‘Comparability’, respond to these arguments and offer a systematic case in support of Comparability. In this paper, I respond to DNZ and develop an opposing case against Comparability that (i) buttresses previous criticisms of the principle, (ii) identifies two new arguments against the principle, and (iii) rebuts DNZ’s prospective arguments in favour of the principle.
Ben also gave his Langford Lecture on April 17. The lectureship is awarded to newly promoted or hired faculty members whose work has broad, interdisciplinary appeal.
Ting Fung Ho's paper, “Graph Neural Networks, Similarity Structures, and the Metaphysics of Phenomenal Properties,” has been accepted by The Philosophical Quarterly. The paper explores whether cutting-edge machine learning models can resolve deep metaphysical puzzles about phenomenal similarity.
Kevin Richardson and Ásta hosted the Duke Social Philosophy Conference on May 13 and 14. Kexuan Liu and Thomas Carnes both gave flash talks.
Henry Pickford's paper, "Over the Rainbow," which focuses on the philosophical use of the image in Kant, Benjamin and Adorno, was published in the Journal of Adorno Studies.
His paper, "Reason and Self-Reflection in Dialectic of Enlightenment" is forthcoming in the Berlin Journal of Critical Theory. He also produced an annotated translation of the Christoph Hein play "Passage," which dramatizes the struggles of refugees fleeing occupied France in WWII.
He was an invited participant in the conference "Marxism and Violence" at UNC-Charlotte in April as well.
Elaine Chen presented her work "The Twofold Autonomy Crisis: How Recommender Systems Undermine User Agency and Pathways to Mitigation" at "The Way of Philosophy" Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Conference at East China Normal University, Shanghai. She enjoyed hanging out with humans there.
She also presented her work on oppressive double binds "Breaking Free of the Birdcage: Rethinking Feminist Agency Amidst Structural Constraints" in APA Central and in Midwest Women in Philosophy Conference in February and March.
Gopal Sreenivasan co-edited the Palgrave Handbook on the Philosophy of Rights (Palgrave MacMillan, in press). He also organized and appeared on a panel on “Wronging and Relational Morality” at the Pacific APA in April.
Owen Flanagan's new book, What Is It Like to Be An Addict?, received a nice review in The Wall Street Journal. Owen is also off on a new adventure: he accepted a two-year visiting position at NYU Abu Dhabi starting this fall.
Katherine Brading and Jennifer Whyte both gave talks at the 50th anniversary meeting of the Dubrovnik philosophy of science conference. Once a meeting point for philosophers of science from eastern and western Europe, this conference has been held every year, even through the war. Now a much smaller event since the fall of the iron curtain, it retains its informal atmosphere imbued with the magic of the ancient city of Dubrovnik. This year, Katherine was reunited with James McAllister with whom she co-organized a PSA symposium many years ago on "Phenomena, Data, and Patterns". Rich discussions on topics old and new were enjoyed by us all.
The paperback version of Katherine Brading's book on Emilie Du Châtelet was released in April (Emilie Du Châtelet and the Foundations of Physical Science, Routledge), and Alison Peterman’s review of it was published in Philosophy of Science.
Rich Eva—our philosopher-friend in the Pratt School of Engineering—hosted Character Forward's Spring Workshop, which offered an introduction to ethics and virtue theory to Pratt faculty and staff, last month.
Katherine Brading and Felipe de Brigard organized and hosted “What I Was Wrong About,” an April 16 event focused on mistakes faculty members have made in their professional lives and what they have learned from them.
Brading and de Brigard sat on a panel with Provost Alec D. Gallimore, history professor Thavolia Glymph and Sanford School professor Frank Bruni and detailed stories from their past mistakes. More than 60 faculty members and students participated and shared stories.
“The idea is all of us have gotten things wrong at some point,” De Brigard said in introducing the discussion. “But we almost never hear from other people telling us how they have learned from things that they have gotten wrong. That’s what tonight is about.”
Read more about the event and the stories Brading and de Brigard told here.
Congratulations, graduates!
The department held its undergraduate diploma ceremony on May 10. Fourteen students received their bachelor's degrees.
Faith Chong and Zhibo Huang — both graduates with distinction — spoke at the ceremony. Chong's thesis, titled "On the Possibility of Evil: Freedom, Choice and Responsibility within the Kantian Moral Framework," was advised by Andrew Janiak. Huang's thesis, titled "Taking Psychology and Culture Seriously: A Debunking Argument Against Beliefs about Moral Norms," was advised by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong.
In her speech, Chong reflected on the philosophical education she received at Duke:
"Overall, philosophy has made me a better person. It has made me more confident and more intelligent, both in an academic and emotional sense. Safe to say, it was the best decision ever for me to study philosophy, and I recommend everyone to not be intimidated by what you don't know and follow your heart to pursue the interests that mean most to you. Most importantly, I would like to thank everyone who has believed and supported me thus far. It’s a testament to Duke's Philosophy Department that I was able to do all this starting from zero."
The same day, Caleb Hazelwood and Michael Veldman were honored at the university's PhD hooding ceremony.
Caleb's dissertation was titled "Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Models." He was co-advised by Alex Rosenberg and Robert Brandon, and Dan McShea, Marc Lange and Charles Pence served on his committee. Caleb also graduated with a Master of Science in Biology and a Certificate in College Teaching.
Michael's dissertation was titled "Force, Cause, and Explanation: Euler on the Metaphysics of Science." He was co-advised by Katherine Brading and Andrew Janiak, and Jennifer Jhun and Jeffery McDonough served on his committee. Michael also graduated with a Master of Arts in Mathematics and a Certificate in College Teaching.
The department also celebrated another successful year at its end-of-year party on April 24:
Ask Tayfun, Or Don’t: The (Unsolicited™) Advice Column
This month I have some advice for Lindsay, my new boss. We all know the difference between solicited and unsolicited advice, but equally important is the distinction between good advice and bad advice—or badvice, as I call it. One might think that, not being a person of virtue, next best would be to be a person of goodvice—such was Caleb, bless his heart. But I should like to say a few things in defence of badvice. For without badvice from others there would be no feeling that we know better, no angst to goad us on in the quest to come up with bettervice. Badvice is what spurs on the horse of aretē in the gallop of aspiration. Badvice is what pulls on the black heartstrings of degenerates and conpeople, enticing them to reform their ways. Badvice or worse (or vice versa) is what led Russell to proclaim: “I can only say that, while my own opinions as to ethics do not satisfy me, other people's satisfy me still less.” (A Reply to My Critics) So next time you feel like giving someone advice, remember: while goodvice is a cul-de-sac from which no lasting lessons emerge, badvice, much like bad philosophy and vice proper, flourishes the more it is shared.