Department of
Philosophy

The Value of Place and Space: Two philosophers seek a moral dimension to our current views

Katie McShane is an ethicist; Idris Hamid is a metaphysician. She studies a love of place; he investigates dimensions of space.  She tackles environmental policy discourse; he’s enveloped in Islamic cosmology. Although these thinkers come from different worlds personally and philosophically, they do share a common perspective on what’s lacking in modern conceptions of place and space—a sense of value.

Spring 2019

Healthcare, social media, and a web of moral issues

The Internet has changed the landscape in which we, as humans, relate, and ethicists need to keep pace. With increases in anxiety and depression, the creation of echo chambers of information, and access to tele-medicine for rural communities, bioethicists like Dr. Moti Gorin are now looking at how online technologies affect human health and well-being.

Winter 2018

The Meaning of Water: Identity, Place, and Purpose

Water lies at the heart of what it means to be human and what it means to flourish in our own place in the world. From a philosophical and ethical perspective, our particular understandings and interpretations of water reveal our sense of identity (the who), our sense of place (the where), and our meaning and purpose in the world (the why).

Spring 2018

The Case for Limits: One Professor’s Take on the Immigration Debate

Philosophy Professor Phil Cafaro makes an economic and environmental argument for reducing immigration in his recently published book.

Winter 2017

From Trash Animals to Sacred Cows: exploring human-animal relationships across the globe

Inspired to understand animals on their own terms, Kelsi Nagy pursued a master’s degree focused on animal ethics and environmental policy. She has edited a book about our relationship with “trash” animals and continues to study complex animal-human relationships.

Spring 2017

Applying Ethics: How Philosophy Brings Clarity to Emerging Challenges

In applied ethics we teach our students how to think creatively and rigorously about our world—how it is, how it might be, and how it ought to be. Because the absence of clear, careful thinking so often leads to confusion, error, and calamity.

Winter 2016

When is it ethical to euthanize your pet?

Dr. Bernard Rollin examines the ethics of euthanizing pets.