Past Events

History of Philosophy Workshop: Colin Chamberlain (University College London), "After the Fall: Malebranche on the Law of the Body"

October 11, 2025

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10:00AM - 12:00PM EDT

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Robbins Library, Emerson 211

In Person

Abstract: Malebranche claims that the Fall changes the mind’s relationship to the body from union to dependence . He often describes this change in normative terms: the Fall deprives the mind of its authority to rule the body and puts the body in charge...

Colloquium Lecture: Colin Chamberlain (University College London), "A Different Shade of Realism: Margaret Cavendish’s Materialism about Colour"

October 10, 2025

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3:00PM - 5:00PM EDT

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Emerson Hall 210

In Person

Abstract: Margaret Cavendish is a realist about colour. She holds that grass is green even when no one is around to see it and, more generally, that the colours of bodies are independent of the experiences they elicit in perceivers. At the same time...

Colloquium Lecture: Bart Streumer (University of Groningen), "How Berkeley Can Go Quasi and Lose His Mind-Dependence"

September 19, 2025

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3:00PM - 5:00PM EDT

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Emerson Hall 210

In Person

Abstract: Berkeley defends idealism partly by taking ordinary objects such as tables and stones to consist of ideas. Materialists reject this account of ordinary objects. I argue that Berkeley can undermine this rejection by making quasi-realist moves of...

Harvard Review of Philosophy Colloquium Lecture: José Medina (Northwestern University), "Resisting Under Conditions of Oppression: Silencing, Protest, and Epistemic Activism"

September 18, 2025

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5:00PM - 7:00PM EDT

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Emerson Hall 305

In Person

Abstract: In this talk I will discuss some of the communicative and epistemic challenges that oppressed groups face when they try to resist their oppression. I will focus on stigmatized social groups, such as queer communities, which are subject to...

History Workshop, Work-In-Progress Seminar: Michael Boch, "Kant's Pure Rational Sciences within the Deformalization of Early Modern Logic"

May 19, 2025

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1:30PM - 2:30PM EDT

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Robbins Library, Emerson 211

In Person

Abstract: Kant's place in the history of logic is controversial today. Historians of formal logic (Kneale and Kneale, Bochenski) dispute Kant's importance for the history of logic and even deny him the status of a logician. In recent years, however, there...

Whitehead Lectures: Lucy Allais (Johns Hopkins/Witwatersrand), "Human Free Agency: A Sketch"

May. 1 - May 2, 2025

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3:00PM - 5:00PM EDT

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Emerson Hall 210

In Person

Abstract: My aim in these lectures is to present parts of the account of human free agency that I am currently working on. The idea of the bigger project is to sketch an account of human free agency that brings together its metaphysical, rational/moral...

History Workshop, Work-In-Progress Seminar: John Harpham, “From Freedom to Slavery in Early-Modern Political Thought”

April 28, 2025

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1:30PM - 2:30PM EDT

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Robbins Library, Emerson 211

In Person

Abstract: In early-modern Europe, two traditions of slavery survived from the culture of the classical world. The first one of these traditions was drawn from the Politics of Aristotle, which held that some persons were fitted by nature to be ruled as...

Harvard/MIT Conference

April 12, 2025

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All day

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Emerson Hall 210

In Person

CANCELED Colloquium Lecture: Katie Elliott (Brandeis University)

April 11, 2025

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3:00PM - 5:00PM EDT

In Person

History Workshop, Work-In-Progress Seminar: Clara Carus, "The Notion of Space in Émilie Du Châtelet"

April 9, 2025

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1:30PM - 2:30PM EDT

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Robbins Library, Emerson 211

In Person

Abstract: My talk has two parts. The first part is methodological. Until now, Du Châtelet’s theory of space has always been interpreted in relation to simple beings; Du Châtelet’s term for Leibnizian monads. I argue that we should refrain from importing...

Colloquium Lecture: Alan Hájek (Australian National University), "Consequentialism, Cluelessness, Clumsiness, and Counterfactuals"

April 7, 2025

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3:00PM - 5:00PM EDT

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Emerson Hall 305

In Person

Abstract: According to objective consequentialism, a morally right action is one that has the best consequences. (These are not just the immediate consequences of the actions, but the long-term consequences, perhaps until the end of history.) I will argue...

Happiness and Simplicity Workshop

April 4, 2025

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10:00AM - 5:00PM EDT

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12 Quincy Street, Barker Center, Thompson Room 110

In Person

Registration is reccomended but not required. Lunch will be provided for the first 30 registrants. Alyssa Crittenden (University of Las Vegas, Nevada), “The Ecology of Happiness: What Hunter-Gatherers Can Teach Us About Mood, Community, and Well-Being”...