Departmental Newsletter: February 2026

THE DUKE PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT HISTORY PROJECT

This Month in Departmental History

Professor Bernard Peach was an ethicist and, when he arrived at Duke in 1951, the 12th faculty member ever hired by the philosophy department.

He and his wife also rented rooms — usually by the day or week — in their 3,200-square-foot home at 920 Dacian Avenue. Here's an ad for the property that appeared in the Duke Chronicle on February 8, 1955:

Ads frequently mention rooms for dates; one on November 23, 1954, notes: "special attention to Duke dates."

Happy Valentine's Day, from Professor and Mrs. Peach.

The department welcomed Therese Cory, our 2026 Edward P. Mahoney Visiting Professor in Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy, this month. Cory is associate professor of Thomistic Studies at the University of Notre Dame. 

She gave her first lecture, titled "Two Medieval Models of Thought and Its Objects," on Feb. 19. You can still catch her two remaining talks:

• "Structural Racism: A Thomistic Approach" on Tuesday, March 17 from 5-7 pm in Classroom Building 103
• "Knowing is Growing: Aquinas on the Being and Life of Intellects" on Wednesday, March 25 from 5-7 pm in Friedl 107

Lindsay Huth, Audrey Ledbetter, and Mary Purcell organized and hosted Project Vox's first-ever Teacher Development Workshop on Saturday, Feb. 21. Eight teachers from local middle and high schools gathered at Bostock Library to talk about how to lead philosophical discussions in their classrooms — which included a fun and compelling practice discussion on the question: What is love?

The group also reviewed and helped refine lesson plans that the Project Vox team is developing for high school classrooms. These lessons incorporate marginalized philosophers into standard social studies and English curricula and give students a chance to develop critical thinking skills and engage with big questions.

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong will give a keynote talk on "Can Generative AI be a good therapist?" at the Parr Center/IZEW Tübingen Workshop on AI, Ethics, and Education on Wednesday, March 4. Almost every slide shares its title with a song. Walter will be careful to remind the audience that, even though we love to collaborate with UNC, Duke basketball is much better (and will beat them the following weekend).

Alex Rosenberg gave a talk titled “Blunt Instruments, The Outline,” at the Department of Decision Science at Emory University on February 9.

Secondary faculty member Kevin Weinfurt (Department of Population Health Sciences) has signed a contract with Cambridge University Press for a book entitled "Making Sense of Health Concepts: A Philosophical Guide for Clinical Research." The book was motivated in part by Kevin's time working for the FDA and witnessing challenges in assessing health outcomes that were conceptual rather than technical.  

The first section of the book discusses the role of health concepts throughout the clinical research process and presents a philosophical approach to the analysis of health concepts. The second section explores the conceptual geography, from structures and processes of the body through Ballung-type concepts such as "well-being." The third section addresses specific challenges in assessing and analyzing health outcomes in clinical research, showing how a more nuanced conceptual analysis can clarify, solve, or dissolve the problem.

Rich Eva gave a research spotlight at the Society-Centered AI Conference on the topic of "Technology & Suffering." The gist: (1) some forms of hardship seem essential to human flourishing, (2) technology is often intentionally built to eliminate hardship, (3) what should we do to preserve the kinds of hardships needed for human flourishing? 

Maya Kronfeld received a "Top 5 Percent" instructor award in teaching excellence for her Fall 2025 undergraduate course, "The Mind-Body Problem in Philosophy and Literature." Maya and her class are pictured above.

Ask Tayfun, Or Don’t: The (Unsolicited™) Advice Column

“We need to be friends with ourselves in our pursuit of wisdom, to exhibit empathy for our own thoughts, not to be too harsh in self-criticism, while also being considerate when engaging in critical discussions with others to support the development of their thinking.” (Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir, in “Vitalising critical thinking: Embodied critical thinking in a philosophical context")

Inspired by this quote, Katherine asks: “When should I jump in with a quick objection if someone is struggling to articulate their view?” She also answers: “Never. This includes when the someone is yourself.” While I agree with her wise words, I would make an exception for jumping in with a quick pre-answered question when someone is struggling to articulate unsolicited advice, since it makes my job that much easier! Indeed, I’ve had dreams of a similar nature where students would send in their papers pre-graded, along with the comments they thought I would most likely make, and I’m sure Gopal has had dreams where I send him my drafts in a similar manner. Well, self-advice is still advice, so while I unfortunately cannot share my meager royalties with you, I will instead share this joke about British royalty that I think you may appreciate:

Q: Why did the late Queen Elizabeth never go horseback riding with the Duke of Edinburgh walking beside her?
A: With Philip afoot, she prefers to accompany in a trolley instead.