Skip to content

Events

Social Events and Workshops

Philosophy Reading Room

A weekly opportunity to read for class, research, or just for fun.  

Each Wednesday (except for Spring Break), January 22nd–May 14th 2025, 2:30–4:30pm
SE2 102 (first floor of Science & Engineering 2)

Philosophy Speaker Series

A series of academic talks by guests and local faculty. Information from past talks are in the Events Archive and some recordings are available on our Youtube channel. All talks are on a Friday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in COB2 267, unless otherwise specified. (Please note that this is a different building from Fall 2024.)

"Recommended Selves: Authenticity and Algorithmic Filtering"

Étienne Brown (San José State) February 7th, 2025
Recording

By allocating their attention to pieces of content, algorithmic filtering shapes the daily behavior of billions of users when they interact with a digital platform. Beyond conditioning what we do, can recommendation algorithms influence who we are? This paper suggests that they do. Specifically, I contend that recommender systems affect users’ capacity to be their authentic selves in both positive and negative ways. I start by offering an account of authenticity that builds on two ideals: volitional alignment and self-understanding. I then explain how algorithmic filtering works and impacts authenticity. While recommender systems frustrate users’ second-order desires by relying on uninformative behavioral signals, they also facilitate self-understanding by inciting users to question their identity. I end by discussing how controllable and explainable recommenders would best enable users to be authentic. Contrary to a recent objection, algorithmic filtering can be an important source of self-knowledge for users.

 

"A Reconstruction of Aristotle’s Lost Work the Protrepticus (Exhortation to Philosophy) as a Dialogue"

Monte Johnson (UC San Diego) February 21st
4-5:30pm COB1 276 (note location)
Recording

Like his teacher Plato, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) wrote several dialogues, but all of them have been lost. It is possible, however, to reconstruct at least one of them out of quotations of the work in later Greek authors: the Protrepticus (Exhortation to Philosophy). Aristotle wrote the Protrepticus as a defense of Academic Philosophy against its detractors. In this talk, I will provide you with an English translation of our reconstruction, explain our theory of its structure and the characters in the dialogue, and discuss some of the arguments, including why some ancient Greeks criticized philosophy, and how philosophy can be defended as not only practically useful, but also intrinsically valuable and in fact transformative.

"700 Words at a Time: Lessons Learned from Doing Philosophy in the Newspaper"

Andrew Fiala (Fresno State) March 1st
12pm COB2 295

For 14 years, Dr. Andrew Fiala has written a column on ethics, religion, and politics for the Fresno Bee, which also runs in other McClatchy newspapers including the Sacramento Bee. Fiala has written for a variety of other non-academic venues, and has appeared on Philosophy Talk and other radio programs and podcasts. In 2017, one of his columns was recognized by the American Philosophical Association.  Fiala's goal in his public work is to represent philosophy and the humanities to the general public, while modelling the spirit of open-minded, critical inquiry.  In this talk, he will share some examples of his public philosophy work, while reflecting upon the general challenge of writing for a general audience.

(This event is being organized by the UC Merced Center for the Humanities. Register here.)

“Appearance or Reality: Does AI Need Emotions?”

Colin Allen (UC Santa Barbara) March 14th
SSM 116 (note location)

Commercially available AI systems for the detection of sentiment or emotions from human faces, text, and non-verbal behavior are already widely deployed, even if they don’t fully live up to the marketing hype. At the same time, generative AI models are now capable of producing text and images that lead some people to attribute emotions to them. Such capacities are often argued to be important for effective human-machine interaction, but the actual limitations of current systems mean that their deployment comes with some hazards. Furthermore, these capacities do not amount to machines having their own emotions, a potential development that is regarded by some commentators as even more hazardous. Perhaps incrementally improving the capacities of machines to detect emotions and to appear to have them suffices for smooth human-machine interaction but a further question exists about whether human-level intelligence crucially depends on emotions, or whether it exists despite emotions. I will argue that the likely answer to this question is the former — emotions are crucial to intelligence — but answering this question definitively requires conceptual, theoretical, and experimental work at the interface of philosophy and cognitive science. I end by sketching the research program that this entails, and questioning the wisdom of pursuing such a research program. 

"Does the Future Need Us? The Ethics of AI in Education”

Panel Discussion and Forum
March 4th
3-4:30pm COB1 116

Panelists Hanna Gunn (Philosophy), Jeff Yoshimi (Philosophy & Cognitive Science), and Rosemarie Bongers (Applied Math & Data Science and Computing) will discuss the ethical, social, and pedagogical implications of AI in higher education, engaging both supportive and critical perspectives on AI. 

RSVP encouraged: https://tinyurl.com/27r3nfqn

Mailing List

To get updates by email, please visit: https://lists.ucmerced.edu/mailman/listinfo/philosophyevents

Examined Life 

Examined Life is an informal group that comes together on a weekly basis to brainstorm philosoophical questions or topics. We choose a question/topic from participant's suggestions in the following four categories:

  • What I have been thinking about,
  • What everyone is talking about,
  • What no one is talking about,
  • and A bold idea.

Our goal with Examined Life is to create a space where individuals from any major can come together to discuss philosophical topics of their choice.

For Fall 2024, Examined Life will meet Wednesdays from 1:45-2:45 in Science and Engineering 2: 102 - Activity Center

Contact Devyn Williams <dwilliams55@ucmerced.edu> for more information.

Minorities and Philosophy

Minorities and Philosophy at University of California Merced is an undergraduate led chapter of MAP International that is committed to examining and addressing issues of minority participation within academic philosophy. MAP at UC Merced facilitates conversations on issues in philosophy pertaining to gender, race, minorities, sexual orientation, class, and disability. If you would like to be added to the mailing list (this is separate from the philosophy program mailing list), register here. Contact Devyn Williams <dwilliams55@ucmerced.edu> for more information.

For Fall 2024, MAP is tentatively scheduled to meet Tuesdays from 5:45-6:45pm in Glacier (GLCR) 120.

Information for Visitors

All of our department events are open to students, faculty, and members of the public, both here at UC Merced and in our extended community.