Spring 2022
February 16 – Meghan Sullivan, Wilsey Family Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame
Location: Wake Forest University Benson Center 401B
“Love and Arbitrariness”
Should we have reasons for our preferences about other people? This talk will argue that we should, and then will do the heavy lifting of trying to identify what such reasons could be and how we might respond to them. The talk develops a specific kind of arbitrariness problem for love and friendship. Then it looks at four prominent theories of love and reasons and shows how they fail to adequately address the arbitrariness problem. The final part will introduce you to a new theory, agapism, and sketch its main commitments. I will suggest how it solves the arbitrariness problem.
March 24 – Win-chiat Lee, professor of philosophy and Tatum Family Faculty Fellow, Wake Forest University
Location: Wake Forest University Benson Center 410
“Human Rights and Nationality as the Right to Have Rights”
Human rights are rights we can claim as human beings, regardless of nationality. Hannah Arendt is skeptical of such rights. In her book, The Origins of Totalitarianism, she famously coins the term “the right to have rights” to refer to what is lost by racial and ethnic minorities when they become stateless as the result of racial or ethnic purity nationality laws, exposing them to perils such as persecution, slavery, and even extermination. Can human rights be claimed only when humanity becomes a state-like political community?
March 31 – Herman Rapaport, Reynolds Professor of English, Literature, Wake Forest University, will speak on his new book on Derrida (co-sponsored talk)
Location: Wake Forest University Tribble Hall DeTamble Auditorium (A110)
April 14 – Massimo Renzo, Yeoh Professor of Politics, Philosophy & Law, Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London
Location: Wake Forest University Benson 401A
“Breaking Bad. Autonomy, Wrongdoing and Meaning in Life”
Can there be value in autonomously choosing to pursue a life of wrongdoing? Most philosophers reject this view. I will try to defend it. I will also argue that adopting this view does not have any of the counterintuitive implications one might be tempted to associate with it.
April 24 – Braswell Philosophy Conference
Location: Wake Forest University Tribble Hall DeTamble Auditorium (A110) – Cancelled
The Braswell Philosophy Society and Philosophy Department at Wake Forest University is holding their 2nd Annual Moral and Political Philosophy Conference Sunday, April 24, 2022. This event is open to the public.
The submission deadline has been pushed back to Saturday April 2nd! Any paper pertaining to philosophy across a variety of disciplines including social and political issues, ethics, religion, metaphysics, or epistemology are welcome for submission. This paper can be a piece specifically created for this conference, or a paper you have already written and feel proud of.
If you’d like to know more, all of the information about the conference and paper submissions can be found on the flyer attached below, or you can email the Braswell Vice President Kylie Yorke at yorkka19@wfu.edu.