Below the fold are most of the ethics-related sessions at the upcoming Pacific Division APA. It’s surprising how many more ethics-related sessions there are at the Pacific than at December’s Eastern meeting. If I’ve missed any session that you think should be added to the list, please feel free to add it in the comment section.
Click here for a copy of the list in text (.rtf) format.
Click here for the full meeting program.
Ethics-related talks at 2006 Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22
MI-A. Mini-Conference on Secrecy: Morning Session
9:30-9:45 a.m.
Welcome: Kay Mathiesen (University of Arizona)
9:45-10:45 a.m.
Chair: David Woolwine (Hofstra University)
Speaker: Adam Moore (University of Washington)
“Privacy, Secrecy, and Government Surveillance”
Commentator: Thomas Grassey (U.S. Naval War College)
11:00 a.m.-Noon
Chair: Martin Frické (University of Arizona)
Speaker: Philip Doty (University of Texas)
“The Ethics of Managing Risk through Secrecy”
Commentator: Kenneth Himma (Seattle Pacific University)
I-D. Colloquium: Ethics
1:00-2:00 p.m.
Chair: Stephanie Patridge (Otterbein College)
Speaker: Sonia Sikka (University of Ottawa)
“On the Value of Happiness: Herder contra Kant”
Commentator: Rachel Zuckert (Rice University)
2:00-3:00 p.m.
Chair: Pekka Vayrynen (University of California–Davis)
Speaker: Benjamin A. Sachs (University of Wisconsin–Madison)
“Can There Be Reasons that Don’t Require?”
**Winner of an Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award**
Commentator: Jill Graper Hernandez (University of Memphis)
3:00-4:00 p.m.
Chair: Daniel Campana (University of La Verne)
Speaker: Luke Robinson (University of California–San Diego)
“Conflicts of Obligation: A Dispositionalist Account”
Commentator: Manuel Arriaga (California State University–San
Marcos)
I-F. Colloquium: Moral Psychology
1:00-2:00 p.m.
Chair: Gary Watson (University of California–Riverside)
Speaker: David Shoemaker (Bowling Green State University)
“Identification, Responsibility, and The Whim Problem”
Commentator: Matt Talbert (University of California–San Diego)
2:00-3:00 p.m.
Chair: Robert Paul (Reed College)
Speaker: Teemu Toppinen (University of Helsinki/University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill)
“The Passions that Rule”
**Winner of an Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award**
Commentator: David K. Chan (University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point)
3:00-4:00 p.m.
Chair: Robert Epperson (Western Washington University)
Speaker: Shieva J. Kleinschmidt (Rutgers University)
“Conditional Desires”
Commentator: Marc Baer (University of California–Irvine)
I-I. Colloquium: Political Philosophy
1:00-2:00 p.m.
Chair: Ellen Cox (Transylvania University)
Speaker: Nicole Hassoun (University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill)
“World Poverty and Individual Freedom”
**Winner of an Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award**
Commentator: Sally J. Scholz (Villanova University)
2:00-3:00 p.m.
Chair: Chris Brown (University of Arizona)
Speaker: Ben Bradley (Syracuse University)
“A Paradox for Theories of Welfare”
Commentator: Simon Keller (Boston University)
3:00-4:00 p.m.
Chair: Henry West (Macalester College)
Speaker: Andrew F. Smith (State University of New York–Stony Brook)
“Liberal Pluralism and the Case for Freedom as Non-Domination”
Commentator: Christopher Griffin (Northern Arizona University)
I-J. Colloquium: Virtue Ethics
1:00-2:00 p.m.
Chair: Larry Fike (Yakima Valley Community College)
Speaker: Daniel Haybron (Saint Louis University)
“Well Being and Aristotelian Perfection”
Commentator: Corinne Gartner (Princeton University)
2:00-3:00 p.m.
Chair: Stephen Brown (Briar Cliff College)
Speaker: Anne Margaret Baxley (Washington University in St. Louis)
“Is Virtue Priceless?”
Commentator: Sean McAleer (University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire)
3:00-4:00 p.m.
Chair: Sharyn Clough (Oregon State University)
Speaker: Jason Baehr (Loyola Marymount University)
“Virtue and Reliability”
Commentator: Derek Turner (Connecticut College)
I-M. Mini-Conference on Secrecy: Afternoon Session
1:30-2:30 p.m.
Chair: Don Fallis (University of Arizona)
Speaker: Mark Alfino (Gonzaga University)
Title: “Ethical Issues in Trade Secrets for Professional Services”
Commentator: Tony Doyle (City University of New York)
2:45-3:45 p.m.
Chair: Peter Lewis (University of Miami)
Speaker: David Resnik (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences)
“Secrecy in Scientific Research”
Commentator: Catherine Womack (Bridgewater State College)
II-A. Invited Paper: Ethics and Aesthetics
4:00-6:00 p.m.
Chair: William Peck (Reed College)
Speaker: Derek Matravers (Open University)
“Art or Morality: Which Is More Important?”
Commentators: Julia L. Driver (Dartmouth College), Eileen John (Warwick University)
II-B. Colloquium: Applied Ethics
4:00-5:00 p.m.
Chair: Judith Wagner DeCew (Clark University)
Speaker: Lorraine Besser-Jones (University of Waterloo)
“The Implications of Social Psychology for Corporate Responsibility”
Commentator: Lisa Rivera (University of Massachusetts–Boston)
5:00-6:00 p.m.
Chair: Rebekah L. H. Rice (Whitworth College/Brown University)
Speaker: Scott A. Anderson (University of British Columbia)
“Can You Coerce Someone with a Death Wish?”
Commentator: Mary Clayton Coleman (Bard College)
II-G. Symposium: Terrorism
4:00-6:00 p.m.
Chair: Anne Baril (University of Arizona)
Speaker: Mohammed Abed (University of Wisconsin–Madison)
“The Meaning and Meaningfulness of Terrorism”
Commentators: Steven Scalet (State University of New York–Binghamton)
Andrew Valls (Oregon State University)
II-H. Mini-Conference on Secrecy: Keynote Address
4:00-6:00 p.m.
Chair: Kay Mathiesen (University of Arizona)
Keynote Speaker: Alasdair Roberts (Syracuse University)
“Blacked Out: Government Secrecy in the Information Age”
Commentator: Alan Mattlage (University of Maryland)
THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006
III-A. Author-Meets-Critics: Joshua Gert, Brute Rationality: Normativity and Human Action
9:00 a.m.-Noon
Chair: Fred Schueler (University of New Mexico)
Critics: Paul Hurley (Pomona College)
Christian Miller (Wake Forest University)
Sergio Tenenbaum (University of Toronto)
Author: Joshua Gert (Florida State University)
III-B. Invited Symposium: Autonomy/Freedom of Will
9:00 a.m.-Noon
Chair: Bonnie Kent (University of California–Irvine)
Speakers: Daniel Guevara (University of California–Santa Cruz)
“Freedom of the Will, Autonomy and Normativity”
Nomy Arpaly (Brown University)
“Freedom vs. Reason”
Commentators: Sarah Buss (University of Iowa)
Oliver Sensen (Tulane University of New Orleans)
III-C. Invited Symposium: Moral Phenomenology
9:00 a.m.-Noon
Chair: Mark Timmons (University of Arizona)
Speakers: John J. Drummond (Fordham University)
“Moral Phenomenology and Moral Intentionality”
Julia Annas (University of Arizona)
“The Phenomenology of Virtue”
Stephen Darwall (University of Michigan–Ann Arbor)
“The Second-Personal Phenomenology and Psychology of Reactive Attitudes”
III-E. Invited Symposium: The Ethics of Outsourcing
9:00 a.m.-Noon
Chair: Norah Martin (University of Portland)
Speakers: John McCall (St. Joseph’s University)
“Justifying a Liveable Wage”
Denis Arnold (University of Tennessee–Knoxville)
“The Ethics of Global Outsourcing”
Commentator: Richard DeGeorge (University of Kansas)
IV-B. Author-Meets-Critics: Russ Shafer-Landau, Moral Realism: A Defence
1:00-4:00 p.m.
Chair: Terence Cuneo (Calvin College)
Critics: David Copp (University of Florida)
Sarah Stroud (McGill University)
Author: Russ Shafer-Landau (University of Wisconsin–Madison)
IV-F. Invited Symposium: Intellectual Virtue
1:00-4:00 p.m.
Chair: Abrol Fairweather (University of San Francisco)
Speakers: Michael Stocker (Syracuse University)
“Intellectual Emotions (Some Remarks)”
Duncan Pritchard (University of Stirling)
“Virtue and Luck”
Robert Roberts (Baylor University) and Jay Wood
(Wheaton College)
“Virtues and Intellectual Practices”
Commentator: James Montmarquet (Tennessee State University)
IV-J. Colloquium: Ethics
1:00-2:00 p.m.
Chair: Peggy DesAutels (University of Dayton)
Speaker: Rebecca Lynn Stangl (University of Virginia)
“Particularism and Thick Ethical Properties”
Commentator: Nathan Nobis (University of Alabama–Birmingham)
2:00-3:00 p.m.
Chair: Bertha Alvarez Manninen (Purdue University)
Speaker: Michael Beaty (Baylor University)
“Thomson, First- and Second-order Ways of Being Good, and the Mysterious Relation Puzzle”
Commentator: Caroline Simon (Hope College)
3:00-4:00 p.m.
Chair: Monica Aufrecht (University of Washington)
Speaker: Jason Kawall (Colgate University)
“On Complacency”
Commentator: Lijun Yuan (Texas State University–San Marcos)
V-F. Colloquium: Personal Identity
4:00-5:00 p.m.
Chair: Theodore Guleserian (Arizona State University)
Speaker: Neal A. Tognazzini (University of California–Riverside)
“On Being a Morally Responsible Stage”
**Winner of an Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award**
Commentator: Jason Turner (Rutgers University)
V-J. Symposium: Metaethics
4:00-6:00 p.m.
Chair: Kirk Wolf (Delta College)
Speaker: Sharon Street (New York University)
“Evolution and the Schizophrenia of Quasi-realism about Normativity”
Commentators: Max Kölbel (University of Birmingham/LOGOS Barcelona)
Mark van Roojen (University of Nebraska–Lincoln)
FRIDAY, MARCH 24
VI-F. Invited Symposium: Valuing and the Emotions
9:00 a.m.-Noon
Chair: Timothy Bloser (Cornell University)
Speakers: Julie Tannenbaum (University of California–Santa Cruz)
“Emotional Expressions of Moral Values”
Justin D’Arms (Ohio State University) and Daniel Jacobson (Bowling Green State University)
“Rational Regret, Rational Action”
Agnieszka Jaworska (Stanford University)
“Valuing and Caring”
Commentator: Jodi Halpern (University of California–Berkeley)
VI-G. Colloquium: Ethics
9:00-10:00 a.m.
Chair: Susan Stark (Bates College)
Speaker: Douglas Portmore (Arizona State University)
“Are Moral Reasons Morally Overriding?”
Commentator: Noell Birondo (Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville)
10:00-11:00 a.m.
Chair: Dan Boisvert (California State University–Bakersfield)
Speaker: Elise Springer (Wesleyan University)
“On Avoiding Performative Contradiction in Moral Criticism”
Commentator: Daniel Farnham (University of St. Thomas–St. Paul)
11:00 a.m.-Noon
Chair: John Draeger (Buffalo State College)
Speaker: Jason Brennan (University of Arizona)
“On Behalf of Moral Principles”
**Winner of an Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award**
Commentator: Alastair Norcross (Rice University)
VII-C. Author-Meets-Critics: Richard Mohr, The Long Arc of Justice: Lesbian and Gay Marriage, Equality and Rights
1:00-4:00 p.m.
Chair: Jami Anderson (University of Michigan–Flint)
Critics: Chris Cuomo (University of Cincinnati)
Timothy Murphy (University of Illinois–Chicago)
Author: Richard Mohr (University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign)
VII-F. Invited Symposium: Eastern and Western Virtue Ethics
1:00-4:00 p.m.
Chair: Christopher G. Framarin (University of Calgary)
Speakers: Nancy Sherman (Georgetown University)
“Equanimity–Stoic Style”
Bryan W. Van Norden (Vassar College)
“Virtue Ethics and Confucianism”
VIII-C. Invited Paper: Kantian Equality
4:00-6:00 p.m.
Chair: John Uglietta (Grand Valley State University)
Speaker: Laurence Thomas (Syracuse University)
“Kantian Equality and the Moorings of Experience”
Commentators: Paul Guyer (University of Pennsylvania)
Angela Smith (University of Washington)
VIII-G. Colloquium: Forgiveness
4:00-5:00 p.m.
Chair: Thompson Faller (University of Portland)
Speaker: Lucy Allais (University of Sussex)
“Aspirational Forgiveness”
Commentator: Lisa Shapiro (Simon Fraser University)
5:00-6:00 p.m.
Chair: Daniel Considine (University of Southern California)
Speaker: Rodney C. Roberts (East Carolina University)
“The Gift of Forgiveness”
Commentator: Charlotte Brown (Illinois Wesleyan University)
SATURDAY, MARCH 26
IX-B. Author-Meets-Critics: Jeanine Grenberg, Kant and the Ethics of Humility: A Story of Dependence, Corruption, and Virtue
9:00 a.m.-Noon
Chair: Jeffrey Wilson (Loyola Marymount University)
Critics: Patrick R. Frierson (Whitman College)
Robert B. Louden (University of Southern Maine)
Author: Jeanine Grenberg (St. Olaf College)
IX-C. Author-Meets-Critics: William J. Talbott, Which Rights Should Be Universal?
9:00 a.m.-Noon, Council
Chair: Stephan Johnson (City College of San Francisco)
Critics: Carol C. Gould (George Mason University)
James Nickel (Arizona State University)
David Reidy (University of Tennessee)
Author: William J. Talbott (University of Washington)
IX-F. Invited Symposium: Practical and Theoretical Reason
9:00 a.m.-Noon
Chair: Dion Scott-Kakures (Scripps College)
Speakers: David Owens (University of Sheffield)
“Deliberation: Theoretical and Practical”
David Macarthur (University of Sydney)
“Skepticism and Reason”
Commentator: Nishi Shah (Amherst College)
X-A. Author-Meets-Critics: Virginia Held, The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global
1:00-4:00 p.m.
Chair: Leslie Francis (University of Utah)
Critics: Eva Feder Kittay (State University of New York–Stony Brook)
Rosemarie Tong (University of North Carolina–Charlotte)
Author: Virginia Held (City University of New York–Graduate School)
X-C. Author-Meets-Critics: Randolph Clarke, Libertarian Accounts of Free Will
1:00-4:00 p.m.
Chair: Daniel Speak (Azusa Pacific University)
Critics: Alfred Mele (Florida State University)
Timothy O’Connor (Indiana University–Bloomington)
Derk Pereboom (University of Vermont)
Author: Randolph Clarke (University of Georgia)
X-F. Invited Symposium: Experimental Philosophy
1:00-4:00 p.m.
Chair: Shaun Nichols (University of Utah)
Speakers: Joshua Knobe (University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill)
“Folk Psychology and Moral Judgment”
XI-B. Invited Symposium: Kant
4:00-6:00 p.m.
Chair: Karl Ameriks (University of Notre Dame)
Speakers: Eric Watkins (University of California–San Diego)
“Kant and the Experience of Freedom”
Tamar Schapiro (Stanford University)
“What is a Necessary Evil?”
Commentators: Robert Hanna (University of Colorado–Boulder)
Angela M. Smith (University of Notre Dame)
XI-F. Colloquium: Responsibility and Punishment
4:00-5:00 p.m.
Chair: Agnes Curry (St. Joseph College)
Speaker: Benjamin S. Yost (University of California–Berkeley)
“Should I Not Kill? Could I Not Kill?: Murder, Shame, and the Death Penalty”
Commentator: Francois Raffoul (Louisiana State University)
5:00-6:00 p.m.
Chair: Sandra Woien (Arizona State University)
Speaker: Erin I. Kelly (Tufts University)
“Compatibilism and Retributivism”
Commentator: Troy Jollimore (California State University–Chico)
XI-H. Symposium: Consequentialism
4:00-6:00 p.m.
Chair: Andrew Jordan (University of Washington)
Speaker: Jean-Paul Vessel (New Mexico State University)
“Defending a Possibilist Insight in Consequentialist Thought”
Commentators: Mark Decker (University of Nebraska–Lincoln)
Lou Goble (Willamette University)
XI-I. Symposium: Descartes’s Moral Epistemology
4:00-6:00 p.m.
Chair: Diana Palmieri (University of Western Ontario)
Speaker: Gary Steiner (Bucknell University)
“The Fundamental Limits of Reason in Descartes’s Moral Thought”
Commentators: John Marshall (University of Virginia)
Amy Schmitter (University of Alberta)
XI-J. Symposium: Duties of Military Service
4:00-6:00 p.m.
Chair: Marcus Arvan (University of Arizona)
Speaker: Cheyney Ryan (University of Oregon)
“The Chickenhawk Argument”
Commentators: George Klosko (University of Virginia)
Rahul Kumar (Queen’s University)
XI-L. Symposium: The Ethics of Abortion
4:00-6:00 p.m.
Chair: Alice Sowaal (San Francisco State University)
Speaker: Elizabeth Harman (New York University)
“Sacred Mountains and Beloved Fetuses: Can Loving or Worshipping Something Give It Moral Status?”
Commentators: Laurie Shrage (California State Polytechnic University–Pomona)
Mary Anne Warren (Independent Scholar)
SUNDAY, MARCH 26, 2006
XII-H. Colloquium: Kantian Ethics
9:00-10:00 a.m.
Chair: Melinda Rosenberg (University of South Florida)
Speaker: Steven Sverdlik (Southern Methodist University)
“Motives, Maxims, and Deontic Relevance”
Commentator: Robert Johnson (University of Missouri–Columbia)
10:00-11:00 a.m.
Chair: Joseph Grcic (Indiana State University)
Speaker: Timothy Rosenkoetter (Dartmouth College)
“Kantian Moral Feeling as a Singular Referring Representation”
Commentator: Richard Galvin (Texas Christian University)
11:00 a.m.-Noon
Chair: Ken Rogerson (Florida International University)
Speaker: Mary C. MacLeod (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)
“Kant on Morality and Temporality”
Commentator: Corey Dyck (Boston College)
I must confess to often using who is doing the paper or comments as my main guide in choosing what to go to. In this case there really are a number of excellent speakers and commentators. Enough that I’m sure I’ll have to miss some very good talks just to maintain my ability to function.
The contrast with the Eastern Division meetings is striking. But then it seems like the job market has become the primary activity and purpose of the Eastern.
The Pacific meetings are just longer than the Easterns, as well as having more concurrent sessions (I think).
I’m on the Eastern Program Committee (and I’ve just agreed to be the chair next year). At the main meeting of the committee, there was a general awareness that the program at the Easterns is not as good as the other conventions, and there was some desire to try to fix it. The Executive Committee sent along a request that the program be studded with stars next year, but the Program Committee resisted that suggestion.
Obviously, the best way to catapult the Eastern program would be to make it all metaethics. Aside from that, what else might we try?
Ethics-interested persons might be interested in this session as well…
XII-G. Colloquium: Epistemology
9:00 a.m.-Noon
9:00-10:00 a.m.
Chair: Dylan Mayer (University of Washington)
Speaker: Jeremy Fantl (Haverford College)
“Observer-Dependence in Ethics and Epistemology”
Commentator: Matthew Chrisman (University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill)
10:00-11:00 a.m.
Chair: Helmut Wautischer (Sonoma State University)
Speaker: Deborah Sue Mower (University of Wisconsin–Madison)
“Something’s Rotten in Denmark: Inference to the Best Explanation”
Commentator: Fritz McDonald (City University of New York–Graduate School)
11:00 a.m.-Noon
Chair: Albert Flores (California State University–Fullerton)
Speaker: Michael Cholbi (California State Polytechnic University–Pomona)
“Belief Attribution and the Falsification of Motive Internalism”
Commentator: Todd Weber (Monterey Peninsula College)
Fritz, I missed those sessions. Thank you very much for adding them to the list.
Jamie, the Executive Committee requested “that the program be studded with stars next year”? That’s very troubling to me. Thanks to you and the Program Committee for resisting that suggestion. I wish I had other suggestions at this point, but I can’t think of any right now, other than just publicizing widely that the Program Committee is pushing strongly to up the number and quality of papers at next year’s meeting. Perhaps just knowing that will convince more folks to submit papers?
Dan,
Well, not in so many words. They said that the program needs “more pizzazz”, and that there were to be more invited sessions and fewer submitted papers accepted. But there was no doubt what was intended.
There are actually quite a lot of papers submitted — I understand last year each program committee member had to referee ninety (yes, 90) papers. That’s more than the other meetings. So the number isn’t the problem. Uh. I leave you to draw your own conclusions.
More invited sessions might in fact make the program look more attractive, and it might make the program better. I guess we’ll have some evidence about that next year at this time, since the 2006 Easterns will have more invited sessions.
Right, Jamie. There is no doubt what was intended. I find it very troubling.
Balancing the quantity and quality of papers is difficult, I’m sure. The point of proposing more invited sessions, I imagine, is to increase the quantity, while maintaining the quality, of papers. But if there are now too few quality submissions, then the papers to be presented by the invited speakers should not have any difficulty being accepted through the normal submission procedure (assuming they are of good quality), and will end up on the program anyway.
Dan,
then the papers to be presented by the invited speakers should not have any difficulty being accepted through the normal submission procedure
But those papers are unlikely to be submitted. Stars don’t (often) submit papers for APA sessions. (Now we’re all stopping to think, “Huh, so I guess I’m not a star. Well, that’s what I figured, but now I know for sure.”)
By contrast, the Madison Metaethics Workshop had submitted papers by Gibbard and Darwall in its first two years (not to mention the many asteroids). Maybe I should get Russ to give me his secret!
Now that’s how “down to earth” (read: unstarlike and naive) I am…I don’t even know that stars don’t submit papers! 🙂
Jamie,
This might be heresy, but have folks ever considered lengthening the word limit on colloquium papers? If we assume that we don’t want longer conferences, that would mean fewer papers. But it would also mean greater selectivity, and therefore (presumably) better papers. Also, they would be better not only because the Program Committee would be more selective, but because it’s just harder to do as much in 3000 words. Even 500 (let alone 1000) more words would allow a new range of papers to be submitted. I have a hunch, anyway, that many papers have been disfigured while undergoing surgery to get them under the 3000 word limit.
Of course, none of this explains why Eastern might not be as good as the other divisions (since they all set the 3000 word limit).
Josh, that might make the papers better on average, but I don’t like the idea of cutting down the number of papers. There are lots of members who care a lot about getting the chance to present their ideas at conferences and don’t get many opportunities. I mean, the strategy might be effective but its cost is high.
Yes, that cost would be significant. One other thought: other disciplines often have longer conferences (e.g., the A. Psych. A. meets for a full week, I think, with many, many more concurrent sessions). Again, though, the cost of this kind of change would be high, especially in the week Eastern is held.
My econ/philosophy colleague tells me that many, most or all (I can’t remember) econ. conferences require a $100 fee just to submit a paper, and there’s no guarantee of acceptance.
Perhaps something like that would reduce the numbers of submissions, but increase the quality of submissions and decrease the workload for referees (the ref’s apparently get paid for doing this for econ. conferences).