Alumni News
2007
This has been an exciting year for the philosophy department. We moved into the beautiful humanities and philosophy spaces in the new Barshinger Life Sciences and Philosophy building. We have record numbers of majors and class enrollments, an active philosophy club and a busy schedule of colloquia and conferences. The fall semester has already featured a talk on metaphysics, a philosophy club discussion on the ontology of music, a reception for majors and minors, a movie night and an overnight trip to Princeton for a conference on Leibniz.
Beth continues her invaluable role at the heart of the department in the most pleasant manner imaginable. She has worked at F&M for 21 years now and run philosophy for eleven. Last year Beth celebrated her golden wedding anniversary after 50 years of marriage! She enjoys traveling around the country to visit her children and grandchildren. This summer she saw one granddaughter graduate from high school in Ohio and another get married in South Carolina and welcomed her seventh grandchild in Colorado. Beth also attended the wedding of alumni Sarah Short and Jesse Funk. She loves her new office space and is looking forward to seeing everyone at Homecoming weekend.
Besides teaching and advising our record number of students, the faculty has been productive in our research and program development. Professor Murray recently finished three co-authored papers with students. The first is an article written with Andrew Goldberg on the evolutionary psychology of religion that will appear in a volume from Oxford University Press. The other two pieces were co-authored with David Taylor who just started in the PhD program at Stanford. Both of those papers are on the argument for atheism from divine hiddenness. The first was published in a collection from Routledge Press, and the second will be delivered at the APA convention in Baltimore in December (alums welcome!). He wants to let his students from Reason and Religion, and the 300 level Philosophy, Science, and Religion courses know that his book on animal suffering will be published with Oxford University Press. The title is Red in Tooth and Claw: Theism and the Problem of Animal Suffering. Students from those courses have been acknowledged by name in the preface for their help in shaping the book during those courses!
Professor Murray also continues to be actively engaged with the philosophical world in China. He taught a two weeks seminar at Tsinghua University in the summer with Professor Timothy O'Connor from Indiana, and will lecture at Shandong University in October.
Glenn Ross also traveled to China. In the past two years he presented papers at Fudan University, Shanghai, on the epistemology of belief: "Philosophical Inquiry and the Ethics of Religious Belief” and "Philosophical Education in a World of Diversity". During his upcoming sabbatical in the spring semester of 2008, he plans to develop a study abroad program for F&M students in China and will continue his research and writing on the epistemology of belief. He is teaching two courses this fall term: symbolic logic and a seminar in epistemology. His seminar is focused on topics that are closely related to his current research on the nature of belief, particularly, how logic places constraints on rational belief and whether the obligations of rationality require a robust control over belief formation.
Bennett Helm recently completed his book manuscript entitled Love, Friendship, and the Self: The Emotional and Interpersonal Grounds of Autonomy. This book provides an account of the nature of love and friendship, revealing the essentially social nature of persons. He has also presented a number of talks on this and related topics, including a series of presentations in Switzerland and Germany. This year he chairs the SPM program, will once again offer his lab course on mobile robotics, and has developed a new course on Zeno’s paradoxes, which promises “a fascinating mix of philosophy, math (including set theory, numbers theory, and transfinite arithmetic), and just a bit of contemporary physics”.
Stephan Käufer and David Merli returned from research leaves. They regret not having seen the class of 2007 graduate and hope to see some of you at Homecoming. Prof. Merli served as Visiting Assistant Professor at the Ohio State University during the 06/07 academic year. He had a great time in Columbus but is glad to be back in Lancaster. He continues to work on topics in meta-ethics, especially the semantic and epistemological significance of moral disagreement. Prof. Käufer presented a new series of papers on Heidegger at conferences in Berkeley and Pacific Grove.
Lee Franklin greatly enjoyed his first year at F&M. While working on papers about Plato's epistemology, he also advised the philosophy club. Lee and his wife Marci also welcomed their first child, Sonya, in March.
