dissertation defense upcoming

Carlos Cortissoz-Mora

PSYCHOLOGY OF THE STATE, POLITICS OF THE SOUL
A STUDY OF PLATO’S CITY-SOUL ANALOGY

Friday, May 2nd
10am-noon

LT-1210

why make philosophy a cultural touchstone ...

... while pouring out a constant stream of stupid about it?

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/09/adviser-to-texas-gops-greg-abbott-no-evidence-that-women-are-significant-thinkers/

according to Slate, this will make you weep*

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/04/07/college_coach_pay_a_chart_that_will_make_academics_weep.html

* excepting, of course, that portion of the readership of this blog that consists of D-I coaches.

SPEL Colloquium

Prof. Dr. Rainer Forst
Goethe-Universität zu Frankfurt

"Transnational Justice and Democracy: Overcoming Three Dogmas of Political Theory"

Tue 29 April
5-7pm
UUW 324

misc.

I wonder if this has any bearing on the ideal of a well-ordered society:

"Spite is Good. Spite Works"

Although groups of excessively spiteful or selfish players quickly collapsed, and rigidly fair-minded societies were readily destabilized by influxes of selfish exploiters, the flexible sharers not only proved able to coexist with the spiteful types, but the presence of spitefuls had the salubrious effect of enhancing the rate of fair exchanges among the genials. By the looks of it, Dr. Smead said, “fairness is acting as a defense against spite.”

The results echo other recent research suggesting that human decency and cooperation require a certain degree of so-called altruistic punishment: the willingness of some individuals to punish rule breakers even when the infraction does not directly affect them — challenging the guy who broke into the line behind you, for example.

“It could be that Nietzsche was right about punishment,” Dr. Forber said, “that it originated as spite and only later was turned into a mechanism for maintaining fairness and justice.”

can't find my other links, so this will have to do for "misc."

Graduate Application for Degree (GAFD)--Deadline is Monday

If you think that you will be taking a degree this semester, you MUST complete the Graduate Application for Degree (GAFD), available now on the Graduate School website. The deadline is Monday, April 7 to guarantee inclusion in the Commencement program.

Here’s the link for your graduation checklist:  http://www.binghamton.edu/commencement/students/checklist.html

For more information, visit the commencement website:  http://www.binghamton.edu/commencement/index.html

*note: you should do this if you think it might be somewhat possible that you could be taking a degree this semester. it's easier to cancel later than to register late.

Brown Bag Lunch

Discussion of Kenneth Walden, "The Aid that Leaves Something to Chance," Ethics 124:2

CompLit Conference room (15th floor)
April 10th (that's a THU)
11:45am

*this is the kind of brown bag lunch where you actually have to bring your own lunch. in a brown bag.