FALL 2013
Philosophy Bulletin
THE NEWSLETTER OF THE MIAMI UNIVERSITY PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT
Thinking Interspecies
Philosophers Join 2012–2013 Altman Program
EACH YEAR Miami University’s
Humanities Center sponsors a program known as the Altman Program,
designed to promote cross-disciplinary collaboration in research and
pedagogy. This year, Philosophy faculty Gaile Pohlhaus, Jr. and Kristina
Gehrman, and Philosophy majors
Steven Lakin ’13 and Brian Sopher
’14 joined the Altman program as
Faculty and Undergraduate Scholars.
The program was masterminded and
coordinated by Altman Fellows Jose
Amador of Latin American Studies
and Amanda McVety of History, who
chose the theme, “The Human and
Nonhuman: Exploring Intersections
between Science and the Humanities.”
As part of the year of programming,
the Altman Scholars and Fellows coordinated a series of major campus
events, bringing intellectuals and
public figures to campus to speak on
issues pertaining to the program’s
‘Interspecies’ theme. In the fall, a
screening of the 2011 film Project
Nim, directed by James Marsh, was
a particularly poignant and gripping highlight. Nim Chimpksy (ex-
tra points to the philosopher who can
say whose namesake Nim is! read on
for a clue…) was a chimpanzee who
was the subject of an experimental
attempt to teach a chimp language
by raising him as if he were human.
Since chimps are very unlike humans
in certain ways, and since the humans who were “raising” Nim were
in many ways themselves less-thanstellar people, as you can imagine,
things did not go very well for poor
Nim or the experiment. The audience
of students and faculty present at
the screening were helped to process
some of the ethical, epistemological, and scientific ramifications of
Project Nim by discussion facilitator
Linda Marchant, Altman Scholar and
Chair of Miami’s Anthropology Department, who works with primates
and who is personally acquainted
with some of the chimps who are
featured in the film. Students in Dr.
Gehrman’s Honors course, Science
and Ethics, paired the screening with
a reading of feminist philosopher of
science Elisabeth Lloyd’s devastating criticism of Steven Pinker’s and
Noam Chomsky’s theory of language,
“Kanzi, Evolution, and Language.”
(Send Dr. Gehrman an e-mail if you
want a copy of the article!)
Another major highlight of the Altman program was the opportunity
it afforded students and faculty
to share research and receive input from one another in a series of
lively seminars. Dr. Pohlhaus and
Dr. Gehrman both presented work at
the faculty seminar. In the spring,
programming culminated with a
two-day conference, “Thinking Interspecies,” featuring a keynote address by Thayne Maynard, Director
of the Cincinnati Zoo, and John Kamanga Ole Ntetyian, a Masai elder
and leading conservationist from
Kenya. Steven Lakin and Brian Sopher gave presentations to the public
at a student roundtable discussion
on the final day of the conference.
And we’re not done yet! This fall,
Emily Zakin joins the new cohort of
Altman Scholars, who will treat us
to a year of programming related to
the theme, “Globalization and Belonging.” Stay tuned next time for
a full report on
what is sure to
Miami faculty participate in
be a great year
an interdisciplinary Altman
of Humanities
Seminar, Fall 2012. From
progr a m m i ng
at Miami! And
left to right: Yu-Fang Cho,
if you’re in the
English and Women’s, Gender,
area, we hope
and Sexuality Studies; Jose
you’ll drop in
Amador, Latin American
for some of the
Studies; Gaile Pohlhaus, Jr.,
events.
Philosophy, and Kristina
Gehrman, Philosophy.
Letter from the Chair
Dear Alumni and Friends,
You are all probably aware of the
challenges facing higher education,
and particularly the Humanities,
which some commentators have
taken to calling a ‘crisis.’ The last
few years have seen a deluge of articles and editorials that variously
call on Humanities departments
to recalibrate their curriculum, lament their decline (especially their
supposed failure to attract majors),
doubt their economic value, or,
more rarely (and even more dubiously), celebrate their uniquely
virtuous uselessness. A diligent few
have delved into the data and demonstrated that the supposed crisis is
largely a crisis of perception—there
has been no precipitous drop in
majors and Humanities majors do
not have worse job prospects than,
for instance, business or chemistry
students. Nonetheless, the misalignment of perception and reality
has produced a pervasive ambience
of uncertainty across the humanistic disciplines.
While Miami’s Philosophy Department continues to flourish, and to
attract a record number of majors, it
might still behoove us to remember
that the Greek idea of krisis denotes
a moment for decision and judg-
ment, engaging us in an activity
of discernment that goes hand in
hand with the critical spirit that is
at the heart of philosophical practice. The philosophical tradition of
critique challenges its interlocutors
to reflect on what is given, not to
unthinkingly accept the world or
ourselves as we find them, but to
engage in a permanent questioning
of established forms and to think
about how we live. Viewed in this
way, if there is a ‘crisis,’ it is not
something that has happened to the
Humanities because of economic or
digital upheavals, but something
that resides in the nature of humanistic practice itself: the will to
pose serious questions about identity and purpose (to judge, discern,
distinguish, unsettle and make
meaning).
The Philosophy faculty thus takes it
as our central mission to empower
students to develop the courage to
use their own understanding and to
exercise independent judgment. In
line with the University’s aspiration
to offer the best in undergraduate
education, the Philosophy Department’s primary commitment will
always be to learning generated by
intensive face-to-face discussion, to
the transformative promise of pedagogical relationships rooted in a
shared environment of engaged and
interactive inquiry, and to the cultivation of insight and excellence
in all its forms. These core principles of liberal education (critical
inquiry, dialogue, and reflection)
anchor and animate our classroom
communities as we transmit and
renew the rich inheritance of the
philosophical tradition.
There are very real challenges confronting all of higher education, but
we remain confident that today’s
challenging climate also provides
real opportunities to energize students with the joys of discovery
and reflection. While we must (and
can) clearly communicate the usefulness of philosophical inquiry
with metrics and data, we must
also continue to inspire students to
value rather than fear complexity,
and to live meaningfully. There is
no contradiction in both being and
appearing to be valuable.
Emily Zakin
Chair
Our Mission Statement
To confront the questions and challenges in life that have no easy answers requires, in Kant’s
words, the courage to use one’s own understanding. Our mission in the philosophy department
at Miami University is to empower our students to live courageous and thoughtful lives by
passing on to them the rich inheritance of the philosophical tradition: its great texts, its central
problems and questions, and its distinctive methods of critical thought, reflection, questioning
and self-questioning, lucid argumentation, and cogent writing.
Dr. Rick Momeyer Retires After
44 Years in the Department of Philosophy
In February, a large group of wellwishers gathered at Miami’s Art
Museum to celebrate longtime Miami
Philosophy faculty Dr. Rick Momeyer
and Dr. Rama Rao Pappu, both of whom
retired this year. Dr. Michael Goldman,
Professor Emeritus himself and longtime
editor of the first incarnation of this
newsletter, delivered a moving speech in
Rick’s honor. Excerpts of his speech are
reprinted for you below. As Professor
Goldman told the Bulletin this Spring,
at the time he had also wanted to draft a
“tribute” to Dr. Pappu, but had no venue
in which to present it (Dr. Bill McKenna
had that honor at the reception). Well,
Dr. Goldman, what better venue than the
newsletter that you yourself founded?
For Dr. Goldman’s tribute to Dr. Pappu,
see the next page. May we all be so
lucky as to have lifelong colleagues
whom we admire and respect.
When I came to Miami for my job interview in early 1970, an outsider would
have found the philosophy department a
bit confusing. It seems that the longtime
Chair, Bob Harris, had resigned. I would
learn later that this was in protest against
President Shriver’s unfair treatment of
some activist philosophy faculty. And
while Bob’s name kept coming up I had
no idea who he was. The interview was
… relaxed … this was the most laid-back
group of folks you could ever imagine.
But it seemed to me that the real decision maker in the department was a fellow with a funny name, Rick something
or other. In fact I seem to remember that
it was he who sent me the invitation for
the interview. As I discovered later, Rick
something or other had been at Miami
for all of six months, but he struck me
as a judicious, confident, and insightful
man, the natural leader of a group that
would not tolerate leadership.
For the 44 years he has been at Miami
Rick has always stood out … stood out,
to put it perhaps a bit dramatically, but
Rick Momeyer
with his wife Sue
Momeyer. Attempts
at carbon dating
did not reveal
the exact age of
the photo but it
appears to be from
sometime before
the age of cell
phones.
not inaccurately, as the conscience of
this university. Whether the issue is
university complicity in an unjust war,
as it was in 1970 when he had the honor
of being among those arrested at a sitin at the ROTC building, whether it is
racism, homophobia, sexism, classism,
the disproportionate allocation of social wealth, or any of the other injustices our society or university seems
willing to tolerate, Rick has been a visible and forceful presence on behalf
of the oppressed. In his willingness to
challenge entrenched practices, and to
take on seemingly unwinnable battles
against overwhelming odds. he has had
the courage to confront those with the
power to make his life utterly miserable,
power that they have sometimes exercised. With his colleagues, Rick continued to harass a succession of deans,
provosts, and presidents to make sure
the philosophy department could continue without fear its historically mandated and joyfully embraced role as the
gadfly of the university. It was with his
leadership that the faculty finally, after many years of fruitless effort, had
the opportunity to vote on a collective
bargaining agreement, an agreement
that it foolishly voted down. He worked
tirelessly to save at least some of the
uniqueness of the Western College program, he fought to change the demean-
ing and racist “Redskin” nickname. And
he has always been a vigorous defender
of faculty and student rights, in whatever venue is available to him, from department meetings to … the offices of
deans, provosts and presidents.
What is remarkable about this career in
defense of the underdog is that Rick has
been able to fight these battles without
shrillness, without rancor, without eliciting personal enmity, bitterness, or illwill. He treats his antagonists with respect and for the most part is respected
in return, even by those who disagree
with him.
Yes, Rick is a great teacher and mentor.
And yes, he has had a productive career
as a bioethicist. But there have been and
will be other fine teachers and other fine
scholars; what there is not likely to be is
someone with the courage, stamina, and
will to fight the battles that have to be
fought even when others are reluctant
to take the risk, someone who will see
an injustice where others see business
as usual. So while it is standard fare at
these events, and often even true, to say
that Miami will suffer a great loss when
so and so retires, I think that in this case
this is not hyperbole but a testament to
the moral courage of our colleague and
friend, Rick something or other.
Dr. S.S. Rama Rao Pappu Retires after
45 Years in the Department of Philosophy
‘‘
The dictionary
defines a
cosmopolitan man
as someone familiar
with and at ease
in many different
countries and
cultures. You might
make the mistake of
picturing someone
like James Bond. But
the person you should
think of is Rama Rao.
The dictionary defines a cosmopolitan
man as someone familiar with and at
ease in many different countries and
cultures. You might make the mistake
of picturing someone like James Bond.
But the person you should think of is
Rama Rao. This is a man who has traveled to every continent and corner of
the globe, from Nairobi, Kenya to Barcelona, Spain, from Trinidad to Vietnam,
and wherever he goes he is met with respect, sometimes even reverence. This is
a man who has hosted ambassadors and
dined with statesmen, has been honored
by the finest thinkers in his field, and, as
Founder and Director of the International
Congress of Vedanta, has persuaded them
to travel far and wide just to participate
in his conferences, even in backwaters
like Oxford. Rama Rao is past President of the International Association for
Asian and Comparative Philosophy, and
an Associate Editor of the Encyclopedia
of Hinduism and Darsanamulu-Matamulu (Philosophies and Religions), which
was released this year. And he is the
author of 8 books and over 150 articles
on various topics in philosophy and
comparative religion.
’’
I first met Rama Rao when I visited Miami in early 1970 for a job interview. In
my undergraduate years at Columbia, my
graduate studies at Brown, and my first
job on Long Island the only philosophers
I had encountered were white American
males. So I was excited to find I would be
joining at least a moderately diverse department: it was even rumored that there
was a woman scheduled to join in the
Fall. But when I returned in September
Rama Rao was gone! The contingencies
of his visa required him to return to India
for a year, and when it became possible
for him to return the department was not
sure it would be right to hire him without
an open search. The acting chair, Jack
Sommer, exercised for the first and only
time his prerogative to act unilaterally,
and hired him back. The rest is history,
and a history for which we should be
grateful.
Despite this international repute and prolific scholarly career, Rama Rao has remained an active citizen of this university, where he single-handedly created the
study in India program, founded (and for
many years advised) the Indian Student
Association, greatly increased Miami’s
library collection of Eastern philosophy
texts, and made Indian culture part of
the undergraduate experience in Oxford.
Rama Rao also remained an active citizen of the philosophy department, where
he never hesitated to perform departmental duties that no one else was willing to do. And he was and continues to
be an active citizen of the local community, where he has just created a 20,000
volume library and education center,
furnished entirely with books from his
own collection, at the Hindu Temple of
Greater Cincinnati, in honor of his late
wife, Kantham.
When I asked him what he planned to
do after retirement, Rama Rao provided
a list of invitations to teach or lecture
almost anywhere in the world he wanted
to, even right here at Miami in the religion department! In fact since retiring,
already he has taught the first of a series of Certificate Courses in Hinduism
through the Hindu Society of Greater
Cincinnati. And so it is with regret and
gratitude that we wish him well as he
begins the next phase of his remarkable
life.
Michael Goldman
Dr. Pappu and his
late wife Kantham
celebrate their 46th
wedding anniversary
in 2009. For an essay
celebrating Mrs.
Pappu, written by
their son Sridhar,
please visit http://
www.units.miamioh.
edu/philosophy/
Pappu.html.
Dr. Pappu Announces $10,000
Gandhi Memorial Lecture Gift
Akeel Bilgrami of Columbia University Delivers 2012 Gandhi Memorial Lecture
For many years, Dr. Pappu has coordinated one of the Philosophy Department’s
most widely attended lecture series, the
Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Lecture. Each
year the lecture takes place on or around
Gandhi’s birthday, October 2. Thanks to
Dr. Pappu’s active and central role in the
international community of scholars in
Vedic, Gandhian, and more broadly Indian and Asian Philosophy, since the lecture series’ inception Dr. Pappu has been
able to bring an amazing lineup of prominent international scholars to campus.
Most recently we were delighted to hear
from Professor Akeel Bilgrami, Sidney
Morgenbesser Professor of Philosophy at
Columbia University, and Faculty member of Columbia’s Committee on Global
Thought.
Dr. Bilgrami is a prominent public intellectual and the literary executor of the
estate of the renowned post-colonial
thinker Edward Said. He is also a compelling and memorable speaker. On the
day of his lecture, Dr. Bilgrami’s plane
into Cincinnati was delayed, and he and
Dr. Pappu arrived direct from the airport
to an enthusiastic audience of close to
100 students, faculty, and members of
the community. Dr. Bilgrami spoke eloquently and at length, drawing out and
dwelling on the relationships between a
series of closely connected ideas having
to do with nature, the idea of enchantment, and humanity’s relationship to the
rest of the “natural” world. He invited the
audience to meditate on the question:
how did we move from thinking of nature as something sacred and filled with
meaning, to thinking of it as something
to dominate and control? After the talk
concluded, a bright-eyed group of students followed the speaker into the hall,
full of inspiration and questions. The
next morning, as is the custom in our
department, a smaller group of faculty
and graduate students gathered in the
Dr. Akeel Bilgrami
seminar room for further discussion of
Dr. Bilgrami’s work on Muslim identity
in the post-9/11 era.
Dr. Pappu’s leadership and deeply personal investment in this lecture series
will not be possible to duplicate, or even
imitate. He will be sorely missed in this
connection, as he will be missed for the
many other ways in which he has created
a flourishing hub of Indian Philosophy
here at Miami—including a library collection of Indian philosophy texts among
the best and most comprehensive in the
region, a study abroad program to India,
a number of extremely popular Indian
Philosophy courses, the Gandhi Memorial Lecture, and many other extra-curricular and co-curricular events.
Upon his retirement, Dr. Pappu announced a gift to the department in the
amount of $10,000, intended as support
for the Gandhi Memorial Lecture in
years to come. Together with continued,
very generous support from the Humanities Center, and thanks to Dr. Pappu’s
continued expert involvement in the
planning and execution of the event,
we are excitedly looking forward to this
year’s Gandhi lecture, to be delivered by
Dr. Douglas Allen on Gandhi’s birthday,
in the lecture room on the ground floor
of Harrison Hall where Dr. Pappu taught
the majority of his classes.
This Just In!
Many of you know Professor Jim
Kelly, the one-man Philosophy
Faculty of Miami’s Hamilton Campus, and longtime member of the
Philosophy Department at Miami.
Dr. Kelly has been a member of our
department for over 30 years. He
received his PhD from Ohio State
University and has maintained an
active interest in Philosophy for
Children and the importance of
teaching philosophy to children
and high schoolers. This summer
he officially announced his retirement, pulled up stakes, and moved
—not to Florida, not to Arizona,
not even to Palm Springs, but to
Burlington, Vermont! There we
know he will enjoy a sometimes
chilly, but natural-beauty-filled
retirement with his wife Sarah,
whose new position at St. Michael’s
College in Burlington inspired Dr.
Kelly to make the leap into the
post-professorial phase of life.
As those of you who know him
will be well aware, Dr. Kelly is a
Socratic philosopher to the core,
and he is adept at the Socratic art
of the relentless, revealing line of
questioning. Dr. Kelly’s refreshing, pointed, and illuminating
philosophical presence in our
department will be missed by us
all. Congratulations, Jim, on your
retirement!
Do you have a memory or
story about Dr. Kelly that
you’d like to share? Send
us a line and we’ll be sure
to include it in the next
edition of the newsletter,
when we will be running a
full retirement tribute in
his honor.
Philosophy Student Life at Miami
Singer Scholar
Shannon Carmody
Each year, the Philosophy department is
pleased to award Linda Singer Memorial
Scholarships to one or more Philosophy
students who have distinguished themselves academically. The scholarship is
made possible by a generous gift to the
department from the family and friends of
Linda Singer. This year’s Singer Scholar,
senior Philosophy major Shannon Carmody, doesn’t quite fit the stereotype of
the philosopher with head in the clouds
and only the vaguest of game plans postgraduation. As a member of Miami’s
nationally-renowned synchronized skating team, Shannon calmly manages early-morning practices and regular travel
for competitions on top of a full load of
coursework at Miami, which should make
law school no sweat for her in the Fall. As
Shannon explains it, her interest in law is
rooted in philosophical curiosity. She got
interested in law because she wanted to
know, “How did certain ideologies come
to thrive within our society, and how did
this determine legality and illegality of
human behavior?” In pursuit of answers
to this question, Shannon turned to philosophy, and the rest is (or soon will be)
history.
Of course, as we all know, once you
crack open the crazy world of philosophy, you realize there are no easy
answers and that there are hard philosophical questions to be posed about
just about any area of human life, not
to mention all of reality. It should be no
surprise, then, that Shannon carried out
an Undergraduate Summer Scholar research project this summer (2013) in a
completely different area—Environmental Philosophy. Shannon’s research project concerned the question of whether
there is a practical, environmentally
sound ethic, one that could actually be
followed and practiced by human beings
in our own present cultural and historical circumstances. And, if so—what is
Beinecke Scholar Brian Sopher (’14) and Singer Scholar Shannon Carmody (’14).
that ethical code, and what reasons are
there to think that it is one that people
can and should actually follow? As part
of the Undergraduate Summer Scholars program, Shannon will be presenting the final paper from this project at
the Undergraduate Research Forum this
Spring, on Miami’s campus. Congratulations to Shannon for her many academic
achievements!
Junior Philosophy Major
Brian Sopher Wins
Beinecke Scholarship
Brian Sopher, Philosophy major and
winner of this year’s Hall Prize for his
essay, “Kallipolis as Utopia”, was also
the recipient this year of the prestigious
Beinecke Scholarship, a national prize
that funds graduate study in a student’s
area of choice. The following news brief
was contributed by Humanities Center
Director Tim Melley. Check out the original article at http://miamioh.edu/news/
article/view/18628.
Miami University junior Brian Sopher is
one of 20 college students nationwide to
receive the 2013 Beinecke Scholarship,
a national fellowship for students who
plan to pursue graduate studies in the
arts, humanities or social sciences.
Each scholar receives $4,000 immediately prior to entering graduate school
and an additional $30,000 while attending graduate school.
Sopher, a philosophy major and linguistics minor from Hilliard, OH, plans to
pursue graduate studies in philosophy
and social theory.
He is “without a doubt one of the brightest students I have ever taught, at any
level, graduate or undergraduate,” said
Gaile Pohlhaus, associate professor of
philosophy.
Sopher will work with Pohlhaus this
summer on an Undergraduate Summer
Scholars project, “Philosophy after Wittgenstein.” He was also one of four undergraduates selected as a 2012–2013 Humanities Center Altman Student Fellow.
“Brian has a kind of equanimity and
personable demeanor that one does not
often find in philosophers,” Pohlhaus
said. “He is very grounded and sensible.
And he has a kind of joy in his work that
is sustaining for those who pursue an
intellectual life.”
Philosophy Department Hosts First Annual Alumni Career Panel
Everybody who’s even thought about
majoring in philosophy (and mentioned it out loud) is familiar with that
blank stare, followed by the inevitable
question, “What are you gonna do
with a degree in philosophy?” You can
almost see the thought bubble to the
side of the heads of such questioners,
with Socrates in a haze of what might
be pot smoke sitting happily inside.
And it’s true that philosophy is not in
itself easily recognized as a profession these days. We in the Department
sometimes like to say that philosophy
is for when things like careers and
other major life structures don’t go
according to plan. The philosophical
mind will be well-equipped to cope
with whatever life brings. But in fact,
there’s no good reason on earth why
we philosophers shouldn’t have jobs,
and good jobs, too! After all, philoso-
More than 100 US colleges and universities are eligible to nominate a student
for a Beinecke Scholarship.
The Beinecke Scholarship Program was
established in 1971 to provide substantial
scholarships for the graduate education
of students of exceptional promise and
that have received need-based financial
aid.
The program seeks to encourage and enable highly motivated students to pursue
opportunities available to them and to be
“courageous in the selection of a graduate course of study in the arts, humanities and social sciences.”
Comings and Goings
As many of you know, our distinctive
joint undergraduate-graduate seminars
continue to be a centerpiece of the Philosophy program at Miami, offering
undergraduates a chance to participate
in a graduate-style seminar, while giving graduate students the opportunity
phy majors consistently outperform
virtually all other disciplines on the
LSAT, MCAT, and GRE. And we can
write, not to mention think, clearly.
But in order to go out and get that
great job you’re so highly qualified for,
you have to know what kind of job you
want. So this year the department decided to take what we hope will be the
first of many steps towards helping our
students identify and secure rewarding jobs with their Bachelor of Arts in
Philosophy. Career Paths for Philosophy Students, the first annual Alumni
Q&A panel for students in Philosophy,
took place on March 20 in Hall Auditorium. Alums Vybhav Jetty (BA ’11),
Tina Barrett (BA ’97 and MA ’99) and
Rachel Siciliano (BA ’09 and MA ’11)
were on hand to share how Philosophy has helped them in their careers
to develop their research interests in
depth. Department life wouldn’t be the
same without our MA students. Once
again we are pleased to welcome a great
incoming class of Master’s students
this fall, and sad but proud to be saying goodbye to our wonderful graduating MA class of 2013! The class of 2013
was by all accounts an especially stellar
group, and sure enough they received
a record number of offers of admission
to excellent PhD programs around the
country. Of those who decided to enter PhD programs this fall, Sam Gault
is now at Penn State, Sarah Gorman is
at Vanderbilt, Ryan van Nood is at Purdue University, and Dave Atenasio is at
Loyola University of Chicago. We know
we must have done something right because the remaining three of our graduates decided to stay in Oxford for the
year! Christian Black is working and
trying to decide whether he wants to go
down the Philosophy PhD path. Adam
Rensch is making a studio recording of
an album and finishing his novel. And
in medicine, law, and publishing respectively, and to tell students what to
expect from a career in their chosen
field. Vybhav is currently in medical
school at the University of Cincinnati,
Tina is a lawyer in private practice in
the greater Cincinnati area, and Rachel
works for Cengage Learning as a learning consultant.
As we continue to seek ways to help
our current students turn their philosophical training into a satisfying, rewarding post-college career, we’d love
to hear from our alums about how Philosophy has made a difference to your
careers. Thanks to our great alums
Vybhav, Tina and Rachel, for volunteering their time to make a difference
to the next generation of philosophy
majors!
Daniel Allen is teaching full-time at
Miami’s Hamilton campus, as a Visiting
Instructor in the position that Jim Kelly
recently vacated. We are so proud of this
wonderful and talented class of graduating majors, and we miss all of you already! We hope you will come back and
visit often. (And we’ll see those of you
who are in town at the coffee shop and
colloquia…)
We also had fun hosting the second
annual Philosophy Department Graduation Reception this spring, and we
hope to see even more of our graduating majors and MA students there this
time around. (You may not want us to
meet your parents, but we want to meet
them!) Every graduating student who
attends the departmental reception gets
a one-of-a-kind Miami University Philosophy Department coffee mug, to help
you stay awake in the real world. Those
of you who graduated a while ago may
even want to consider coming back for
a mug! We promise, they’re very witty.
Faculty Notes
Congratulations are owing this year to
Dr. Elaine Miller, who was promoted to
Professor of Philosophy, or “Full Professor” in 2013, and to Dr. Gaile Pohlhaus,
Jr., who received tenure and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2012!
In honor of their accomplishments we’ve
asked them to share a little bit with us
about their current research and teaching projects. Congratulations to Elaine
and Gaile!
Gaile Pohlhaus, Jr.
er asked, does John really know that it’s
time to feed the meter? Sure, John has
a justified, true belief, but is it knowledge? If not, then knowledge cannot be
defined as justified true belief.
Gettier’s counter-examples are a cornerstone of contemporary epistemology,
and yet a survey of undergraduate students revealed that some people don’t
tend to have the same intuitions that
Gettier had about his own examples. Dr.
Pohlhaus is interested in what this says
about the role of intuition in the theory of knowledge. The study appears to
suggest that what epistemologists say is
obviously intuitive is not obviously intuitive. If so then the role of intuition in
the theory of knowledge is suspect. But
she is interested in understanding philosophical intuition in such a way that it
is a legitimate way a knowing. Intuiting
may be a process by which we make explicit the implicit propositions on which
our way of seeing things hangs.
Elaine Miller
Dr. Gaile Pohlhaus, Jr.
Now that she has tenure, Dr. Pohlhaus
has a number of research projects underway. Dr. Pohlhaus recently attended
a conference at the Japanese Advanced
Institute of Science and Technology in
Tokyo, Japan, which inspired her to
contemplate a foray into a new area of
inquiry. Gettier counter-examples are a
series of cases that are designed to undermine the concept of knowledge as
justified, true belief. For example: John
knows he has to feed his parking meter
at 12:30 PM. The clock in the waiting
room says that it is 12:30. However, unbeknownst to John, the clock stopped
exactly 12 hours ago. It is 12:30 PM, and
based on the clock, which has always
worked in the past, John is justified in
believing that it is 12:30 PM. But, Getti-
Dr. Miller’s book, Head Cases: Julia
Kristeva on Philosophy and Art in Depressed Times is forthcoming from Columbia University Press. Here’s a synopsis from the publisher:
both the individual and cultural
level. She revisits Kristeva’s
reading of Walter Benjamin with
reference to melancholic art and
the imagination’s allegorical
structure; her analysis of Byzantine
iconoclasm in relation to Freud’s
psychoanalytic theory of negation
and Hegel’s dialectical negativity;
her understanding of Proust as
an exemplary practitioner of
sublimation; her rereading of
Kant and Arendt in terms of art
as an intentional lingering with
foreignness; and her argument that
forgiveness is both a philosophical
and psychoanalytic method of
transcending a “stuck” existence.
Focusing on specific artworks
that illustrate Kristeva’s ideas,
from ancient Greek tragedy to
early photography, contemporary
installation art, and film, Miller
positions creative acts as a form
of “spiritual inoculation” against
the violence of our society and its
discouragement of thought and
reflection.
Dr. Miller will be on research leave during the Spring of 2014, during which
time she will be working on a project
about the influence of women thinkers
on German Romanticism.
While philosophy and
psychoanalysis privilege language
and conceptual distinctions and
mistrust the image, Julia Kristeva
recognizes the power of art and the
imagination to unblock important
sources of meaning. She also
appreciates the process through
which creative acts counteract and
transform feelings of violence and
depression.
Reviewing the psychoanalystphilosopher’s entire corpus, Elaine
P. Miller considers Kristeva’s
“aesthetic idea” and “thought
spectacular” in their capacity to
reshape depressive thought on
Dr. Elaine Miller
Department Welcomes
Two New Visiting Faculty
Members
A warm welcome to both of our new
members of faculty, from all of us here
at Miami!
We’re very pleased to have Dr. Christopher King and Dr. Michael Brodrick join
the department as visiting faculty for the
2013-2014 academic year. Dr. King and
Dr. Brodrick both received their PhDs
from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee,
continuing a growing tradition of close
ties between Miami and Vanderbilt. Dr.
Brodrick has interests in pragmatism,
philosophy of time, philosophy of religion, bioethics, and Asian philosophy.
His recent work starts from the philosophy of George Santayana, and aims to
articulate a secular spirituality. Beginning with the value of contemplative
absorption, Dr. Brodrick argues for the
existence of ends in themselves (such
as contemplative activity), and suggests
that they are indispensable to the moral
life, and important to quality of life. His
book, Unconditional Value, is currently
under review. Prior to joining us at Miami, Dr. Brodrick was on the faculty at
Indiana University–Purdue University,
Indianapolis. He will be teaching Moral
Issues in Health Care, Death and Dying,
and other courses at Miami.
Fennen and Gehrman
named Alumni Teaching
Scholars
Dr. King joins us most recently from
Chicago, where he taught at St. Xavier
University and Lake Forest College. He
defended his doctoral thesis, entitled
“Democracy, Deliberation, and Political
Legitimacy”, at Vanderbilt University
in 2007. His research focuses on Political Philosophy and Democratic Theory,
particularly problems of political authority, legitimacy, and justification. He
has recently published “Economic Theories of Democratic Legitimacy and the
Role of a Normative Consensus (Politics,
Philosophy and Economics, 2013) and
“Problems in the Theory of Democratic
Authority” (Ethical Theory and Moral
Practice, 2012). Recent presentations
include “Against Equal Consideration,”
at the Central Division meeting of the
American Philosophical Association.
Dr. King will teach Philosophy of Law
(Jurisprudence) and other courses at
Miami.
Miami faculty have always been committed to excellence in teaching, and in
fact our department was long home to
a journal devoted to Teaching Philosophy, aptly named Teaching Philosophy
and founded by longtime department
members Michael Goldman and Rick
Momeyer. This year, two of our faculty
members, Kristina Gehrman and Keith
Fennen, are participating in a University
program known as the Alumni Teaching
Scholars program. The ATS program is
dedicated to improving teaching excellence through helping participants engage in the Scholarship of Teaching and
Learning (SoTL, for short). The scholarship of teaching and learning is basically the study of the best practices of
all things having to do with effective
teaching and promoting student learning. The ATS program gives participants
the opportunity to design and conduct a
study in their own classroom. These research projects serve a dual function: to
contribute to the growing literature on
teaching and learning, and to improve
faculty members’ own teaching practices, enabling them to better promote
their students’ learning.
Dr. Fennen’s Alumni Teaching Scholars
project involves two parts. The first part
centers on crafting assignments that
will aid in the mastery of philosophical
concepts through using those concepts
in writing and in speech. A central part
of this task will involve classroom experiences where students must adopt
the philosophical system or concept of a
thinker and debate and discuss a question with other students that have adopted the persona of a different thinker.
The second part of the project, which
relies upon the first, aims to achieve a
more even level of participation among
students. Too often, 25% of the class
generates 90% of the discussion, and
too often there is a gender gap in that
25%. The teaching project aims to address and rectify this situation through
innovative, fun, and active participation while simultaneously increasing
the mastery of the material.
For her ATS project, Dr. Gehrman will be
investigating the impact of one kind of
teaching intervention on the number of
women who go on to take another course
in Philosophy. According to the best information currently available, only about
30% of philosophy majors nationwide are
women. And yet introductory Philosophy
classes usually reflect the gender composition of the typical student body—that is,
they are roughly 50% women. Somehow,
between that first intro class and the rest
of their lives, a disproportionately large
number of women get turned off to Philosophy, and never take another course.
What’s going on? Dr. Gehrman plans to
explore the possibility that describing,
explaining, and demonstrating philosophical methods in a way that emphasizes collaboration, problem-solving, and
relevance to important social and practical life issues will boost the number of
women who go on to take another philosophy course.
Tune in next time for some preliminary
results from both of our Alumni Teaching Scholars.
Notes from Miami Alumni
In last year’s newsletter, we asked you
to drop us a line and tell us what you’ve
been up to. Many of you responded, by
email, on Facebook, and even by snail
mail! Many our alums have gone on to
pursue advanced academic degrees, from
Owen Cantrell who is working on a
PhD in English, to Charlie Porter ’07
who is “working on a Master’s in Critical
Studies from USC’s School of Cinematic
Arts”, to Aaron Nash ’09 who is currently pursuing a PhD in Chemistry at
San Diego State University/ UCSD. Here
are some more responses:
Sarah Stitzlein ’01 writes: What a
pleasure to catch up with Mother Miami through the philosophy newsletter.
Here’s my update: After Miami, I attended the University of Illinois where I
received a PhD in philosophy of education in 2005. I recently returned to Ohio
… and was fortunate to find a position in
philosophy of education and curriculum
theory at the University of Cincinnati.
Now I’m living across the street from
my in-laws who help care for my infant
son—the product of a Miami merger. My
most recent book is called Teaching for
Dissent: Citizenship Education and Political Activism (do you sense Rick’s influence on that one?). The book looks at
the philosophical foundations of dissent
in the work of the American Founders
and the pragmatists who followed them
and then claims students have a positive right, as citizens in a democracy,
to learn the skills of political dissent in
schools. The book recently received the
2012 Critics Choice Award.
Heather Kendrick ’98 writes: I am delighted to discover that the Philosophy
Bulletin has been revived. I used to look
forward to receiving it, and was sad
when it temporarily became defunct. I
received an MA in Philosophy at Miami,
and those two years (1996-1998) were
among the happiest of my life so far. I
look back very fondly on my time at Miami. My name when I started the program was Heather M. Kendrick, [and]
my name is now Heather M.N. Kendrick.
The second middle initial is for Nebus,
after Joseph Nebus, the brilliant mathematician whom I married this past June.
[Editor’s note: congratulations, Heather
and Joseph! Heather is now Professor
Kendrick in the Department of Philosophy and Religion and Central Michigan
University.]
pily, I can report that I recently had an
article published in Christianity and Literature on solidarity in Uwem Akpan’s
short story collection Say You’re One of
Them. I remember with fondness a 19th
Century Philosophy course [taught by]
Dr. Zakin, and evenings of close reading
of Hegel, Nietzsche, and Marx among
others.
Jason Burgett ’95 writes: That old
guard of Miami philosophers, if you will,
did more to shape my (warped) mind
than eight years of Methodist Sunday
school, so thank you for that, and I wish
each one of you a wonderful and welldeserved retirement. I think Miracle
Max (The Princess Bride) unknowingly
described what these philosophical fellows should do in their retirement when
he said, “Have fun storming the castle!”
I can’t imagine any of these men putting down their “swords” in the battle
of ideas (beg your pardon for the violent
metaphor, there). I live in Wooster, Ohio,
with my wife and two sons. I practice
law in my own firm, coach aspiring
competitive runners (both adults and
high school cross country runners), and
spend lots and lots of time chasing my
boys, serving on small boards, and trying to get in the occasional fishing and
hunting trip with good friends and my
boys.
George Felis BA ’89, MA ’97 writes: A
Freshman Honors Seminar titled Moral
Reasoning in Fall of 1985 was the only
class I had with Rick Momeyer, but it
hugely altered my intellectual and academic trajectory. His influence took a
while to sink in fully, but by my Junior
year I realized I should be studying philosophy instead of physics, and went on
to pursue an MA and PhD. Today, I’m
teaching classes and writing papers that
still reflect ideas that began percolating
in my head in Rick’s seminar, and I do
my best to pass on to my own students
the skills in analyzing and writing arguments that I began learning in his
class. I only hope that I can be as inspirational and influential for a few of my
own students as Rick was for me.
Stephen Szolosi writes: After studying theology in Minnesota at St. John’s
University, I continued my graduate
work at Stony Brook in Comparative Literature where I completed my doctorate.
My dissertation examined how labyrinthine imagery and form contributed to
treatments of mystery in medieval and
post-modern works of literature. I’ve
taken a position as the Director of Campus Ministry at Gonzaga College High
School in Washington, DC, [where] I
have great opportunities to engage students in reflection on questions pertaining to faith, justice, and self-knowledge.
[T]he classes I had at Miami still make
their contribution to the work I do. Hap-
John H. Eberle ’81 writes: Why did I
study philosophy? I was told by the then
Senior Partner at the Cincinnati Law
firm of Taft, Stetinius & Holister that
Philosophy majors made the best overall lawyers for their ability to read and
think critically and to argue on their
feet from a rational and logical perspective. I was the first man to take Linda
Singer’s Philosophy of Feminism class.
I admire Linda to this day and miss her.
She was first and foremost a superb
teacher. Although the old guard is leaving, I vehemently hope you are replacing them with professors who continue
their commitment to excellent teaching,
who accept opposing viewpoints and
enjoy their discussion, and are open
to non-academics being a vibrant part
of the program. You, and they, will be
rewarded. In closing, to one knucklehead frat-boy, non-traditionalist from
Cincinnati—you truly, truly mattered.
My deepest thanks to Mike, Rick, Pete,
Rama Rao, and Linda for all you did.
You live eternally in the minds of those
you taught.
Beth Thompson ’79 writes: I enjoyed
every class I took with Dr Pappu—his
enthusiasm and optimism were so refreshing. Thanks for your work with
all the students through the years—you
have truly inspired so many. Rick was
my advisor at Miami. We had lots of
lively debates as you can imagine! I so
appreciated all the time he took to talk
with and listen to me. I now am a film
buyer for independent theater owners —
doing it for 33 years—lots of BS involved
in the film business.… Miami and Rick
Momeyer will always have a place in my
heart! Learning BS from the best—priceless!
Cecilia Shapiro writes: I am amazed that
Rick Momeyer is no longer the young
teacher that I met in 1970. Though I no
longer work for pay outside the home, as
we used to defiantly say, I just assumed
that Rick’s road at Miami would go ever
on. While the details of 1970 are pretty
faint, I am sure that Rick Momeyer is the
reason that I became a philosophy major. His combination of wisdom, wit, patience, and encouragement is the perfect
example of why we should encourage all
students to study the liberal arts. If my
experience is the norm, then Rick helped
many students appreciate the benefits of
thinking hard—during college and for the
rest of our lives.
Vern Westfall ’65 writes: A wonderful
surprise to hear from the department that
stretched my mind and launched me into
a life full of adventure, adventures of
the mind and the of the physical world.
I am a non academic philosopher but
definitely a philosopher, and I have been
collecting concepts all over the world for
the past 48 years. (I’m not done yet.) My
latest novel, Darwin’s Paw, takes place in
the philosophy department of Miami U.
[My] books are available as ebooks and
Darwin’s Paw will also be out in print in
the next few weeks. Undergrads in philosophy beware. You too may be launch-
What can you do with philosophy
if you don’t follow a PhD track?
Some suggestions from Miami Alum
John H. Eberle ‘81:
1. Work on Wall Street as an analyst. This I did for over 15 years and
I still do financial analysis to this day.
Training in logic and rational thought
is never wasted. I’ve done well,
earning my CFA and doing high-end
quantitative analysis for firms in the
southeast US.
2. Go to law school, which I did not
(my then-fiancee, now wife, refused
to be married to a lawyer.) though I
scored in the top 1.5% of all students
taking the LSAT in the fall of 1980 and
was accepted to three law schools
even with barely a 3.0 GPA.
3. Go to Med School. They LOVE
philosophy majors for the same reasons law firms do. As long as you can
do well on the MCAT— you have a
shot. If you study medical ethics as a
sub major, even better.
4. Become a billionaire entrepreneur. Or President of the US
(Clinton). From the CEO of Dominos to Peter Thiel, to George Soros
to Ivan Boesky to name only a few,
ing yourself into a world of ideas that
will carry you away.
And finally, we were particularly delighted to hear from a member of Miami’s
Class of 1942, Mr. Arthur B. Schenefelt. Mr. Schenefelt writes: “Friends,
how thrilling, your activity on behalf of
Philosophy at Miami. [Now] in my 93rd
year, I was the sole Philosophy Major at
Miami, graduating with honors in 1942.”
Mr. Schenefelt studied with “beloved
Philosophy Prof. W.W. Spencer, widely
recognized expert on Plato”. His son,
philosophy majors do very well as entrepreneurs and “new thinkers.” The
MU department trained me to think
beyond the obvious and this can lead
to extraordinary ideas. We also tend
to be stubborn (YOU try to convince
Average Dad to pay for a philosophy
degree) and bright. A dullard would
not survive Rama Rao’s Philosophy of
Law class, and I nearly didn’t. I can still
hear him chastising me as he dipped
that awful snorting-snuff because he
knew I could do better. [editor’s note:
close observers of the photo in this newsletter will notice that Rick Momeyer
smoked a pipe in his youth. Rama Rao
took snuff. As you can imagine this generated more than a few stares from people
in such places as Midwestern American
airports in the 1960s.]
5. Earn more than almost any
other undergraduate degree.
(Check out http://wisdomandfollyblog.
com/2008/12/20/want-to-get-rich-major-in-philosophy/ for the evidence.)
So—what did a non-academic get
from philosophy degree? A wonderfully rich (not just talkin’ money) life
and a decent living. I would wish that
for all.
Michael Shenefelt, obtained his PhD in
Philosophy from Columbia, and is now a
professor of Philosophy at NYU, in their
Global Liberal Studies program. Mr. Arthur Schenefelt’s accomplishments ran
in Who’s Who America. He concludes,
“More power to you. A.B. Shenefelt”.
Thanks to all our alums for keeping us
updated on your own major life events,
and for helping us to remember and celebrate our retirees. We hope to continue hearing from all of you in the years
ahead.
DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY
501 East High St.
Oxford, OH 45056
Three Annual Memorial Lectures Continue
Each year our department has the privilege of hosting three Memorial Lectures:
The Linda Singer Memorial Lecture, the Harris Memorial Lecture, and the
Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Lecture. This year, we are proud to welcome Professor
Cressida Heyes from the University of Alberta to deliver the Harris lecture on
Thursday, September 19. Dr. Heyes currently holds the Canada Research Chair in
Gender and Sexuality. The lecture will be followed by the usual lively roundtable
discussion with Dr. Heyes on the morning of Friday, September 20. Shortly
thereafter, Professor Douglas Allen of the University of Maine, will give the
Gandhi Memorial Lecture on October 2, Gandhi’s birthday.
Finally, we are especially thrilled this year to be able to link the Singer lecture to
the 2013-2014 Altman Program’s series of events. On February 13 at 4 PM in the
Shriver Center, Professor Wendy Brown of the University of California, Berkeley
will give the Linda Singer lecture, with a talk entitled “Does Human Capital Have
a Gender? Homo Oeconomicus and the Neoliberal Transformation of Politics.”
This talk too will be followed by a roundtable discussion the following day, in the
Bachelor Hall Reading Room at 11 AM: Walled States: A Colloquium on Professor
Brown’s Research.
We hope that some of you will be able to join us on campus for some or all of
these events!
We’d love to
hear from you!
Alums and friends of the department, we’d love to know
how you’re doing! Send us an
update, tell us how philosophy
continues to play a role in your
life, whether within the ivory
tower, on the ground, or even
someplace we’ve never imagined. Send updates for publication in next fall’s newsletter to:
[email protected],
or give us a shout on Facebook
(at Miami University Ohio
Philosophy Department).