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Visiting Speaker Series

Every semester, our department invites several guest speakers to lecture on various topics. All lectures are free, and are open to all members of the community and to the general public.

They will take place in the Oakham Lounge, 2nd Floor, Oakham House (63 Gould St), from 3:00-5:00 on the dates listed below.

If you have questions about our speaker series, please contact this year's organizer, Dr. Pirachula Chulanon (pirachula@torontomu.ca).

 

Fall 2026

October 1, 3-5pm.
(UMass Dartmouth)
Why Read Philosophy by Problematic Philosophers?

Abstract: Many figures in the history of philosophy are problematic. They express views incompatible with the moral and rational equality, dignity, and intrinsic value of all persons. Should we stop reading, studying, or teaching those philosophers? I argue that there are potential benefits to what I call sober readings of problematic philosophers. These are readings that acknowledge a problematic philosopher鈥檚 intellectual and moral failures alongside their triumphs. Sober readings have the potential to undermine a certain form of epistemic injustice, and to promote several intellectual virtues. I use Kant as an example, arguing that obsequious readings of Kant promote a pervasive form of epistemic injustice while also thwarting the development of intellectual virtue. I briefly discuss an example of a sober reading of Kant, then conclude by rejecting several familiar defenses of obsequious readings of problematic philosophers.

 
October 29, 3-5pm.
(Harvard/UNM)
What is the Human Plight?

 
December 3, 3-5pm.
(Purdue)
Hegel鈥檚 Civic Republicanism

 

Archive of Previous Visiting Speakers

  • October 9, 2025, 3:00-5:00pm,  (Concordia University), Judgment and Interpretation in Johann Clauberg鈥檚 Logica vetus et nova (1654).
  • October 30, 2025, 3:00-5:00pm,  (Arizona State University), Bad Faith Arguments.
  • November 6, 2025, 3:00-5:00pm,  (University of Texas at Austin), Music and the Regulation of Existential Feelings in Grief.
  • November 13, 2025, 3:00-5:00pm, Nikolas Kompridis (Adjunct Faculty Member, 自淫系列), Critical Theory and the Meaning of the Blues.
  • November 27, 2025, 3:00-5:00pm,  (Simon Fraser University), Myth, Fascism and the Dialectic.
  • March 5, 2026, 3:00-5:00pm,  (Virginia), The Corruption of Salience: The True Digital Threat to Autonomy (Co-authored with Blake Harris).
  • March 26, 2026, 3:00-5:00pm,  (Northwestern), Kant鈥檚 Cosmological Sublime.
  • April 2, 2026, 3:00-5:00pm,  (Cardiff),The Axiological Foundations of Taste (and the Aesthetic Foundations of Axiology).
  • April 9, 2026, 3:00-5:00pm,  (Rutgers), The Problem of Perfectly Natural Change.

 

  • October 10, 3:10-5:00p.m., (Brock University), "Speech and Body: Reconsidering the Relationship Between Phenomenology and Language in Merleau-Ponty."
  • October 24, 3:10-5:00 p.m., (University of North Dakota), "Out of Touch: Finding Our Way with a Praxis of Sensible Attention." (Jointly hosted by the Society for Women of Ideas)
  • October 31, 3:10-5:00 p.m.., (University of Ottawa), "Emptiness as a Cure in Madhyamaka Philosophy."
  • November 14, 3:10-5:00 p.m., (Eastern Michigan University), "The Politics of Vulnerability: Merleau-Ponty, Butler, Family Systems Theory, and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict."
  • November 21, 3:10-5:00 p.m., (Columbia University), "Resting on a Mistake: New and Old Keys for Analysis in Philosophy and the Arts."
  • March 6, 3:10-5:00 p.m., (University of Guelph), "Heidegger鈥檚 Phron膿sis and Neo-Aristotelian Virtue Ethics."
  • March 13, 3:10-5:00p.m., (University of Richmond), "Fine Attention, Broad Awareness: Avoiding the Cost of Ignorance."
  • March 20, 3:10-5:00p.m., (University of Washington), "Forms and Concepts in Plato鈥檚 Parmenides."
  • March 25, 3:10-5:00 p.m., (NOVA University of Lisbon), 鈥�'We have been the colourists': Nietzsche on Overcoming Nihilism."
  • April 3, 3:10-5:00p.m., (Princeton University),
    "Collective Phenomenology."

  • October 26, 3:10-5:00pm: (Universit茅 Laval). Title: "Is Ancient Stoicism Anthropocentric?"
  • November 9, 3:10-5:00pm: (McMaster University). Title: "Toward a Behavioral Account of Social Institutions".
  • November 21, 3:10-5:00pm: (Emory University). Title: "Racists, Fascists, and Other Dejects: Authoritarianism Reconsidered"
  • November 30, 3:10-5:00 pm: (University of Oxford). Title: "Transcendental Arguments and Metacritical Thinking"
  • February 1, 3:10-5:00pm: (Memorial University). Title: "Hegel on Ethicality, Conscience, and Colonialism"
  • February 15, 3:10-5:00pm: (University of Lethbridge). Title:  "Epistemic Trust and Civil Disobedience"
  • March 14, 3:10-5:00pm: (Rutgers University). Title: "Armed Self-Defense"
  • March 26, 3:10-5:00pm: (University of Cape Town). Title: "Intellectual Goods: A 鈥淣atural Perfectionist鈥� Account"
  • April 11, 3:10-5:00pm: (Rutgers University). Title: "Accept No Substitutes: Against Best-System Theories without Naturalness"
  • April 12, 12:00-2:00pm: Dr. Taiaiake Alfred. Title: "It's All 自淫系列 the Land"

  • Sept. 13, 3:00-5:00pm: (Deakin University). Title: "Cohen and Heidegger on Principles and Anarchy"
  • Oct. 4, 3:00-5:00pm:  (University of Toronto). Title: 鈥淚s this Me? A Story about Personal Identity from a 4th Century M膩dhyamika Treatise鈥�
  • Nov. 23, 3:00-5:00pm: (Washington). Title: "Trauma's Empty Promise"
  • Nov. 30, 3:00-5:00pm:  (University of Toronto). Title: "Metaontology and Temporality in Heidegger: Problems and Prospects"
  • Jan. 31, 3:00-5:00pm:  (Cornell University). Title: "Weaving Politics".
  • Mar. 21, 3:00-5:00pm:  (University of Pittsburgh). Title: "The First Acts of Kantian Cognition"
  • April 11th, 3:00-5:0pm:  (Western University). Title: "Facing Up to the Problem of Intentionality"

  • Sept. 21, 3:10-5:00pm: (University of Tennessee) Title: "Trauma鈥檚 Trilemma: On Self-Deception, Distraction, and Self-Respect"
  • Nov. 9, 3:10-5:00: (King's College London). Title: "Dreaming and Idealism in Plato and Vasubandhu".
  • Nov. 23, 3:10-5:00: (Lapland). Title: "Indigenous Self-determination and the Norm of Integrity."
  • Dec. 7, 3:10-5:00: (Toronto) "Listenening to Indigenous People In and On Their Own Terms."
  • Mar. 8, 3:10-5:00: (Concordia). Title: "Why are Women Less Likely than Men to Study Philosophy?" []
  • Mar. 22, 3:10-5:00: (Toronto). Title: "Mundane or Sublime? Hume and Kant on Morality."
  • Mar. 29, 3:10-5:00: (University of British Columbia). Title: "Once Were Maoists: Third World Currents in Fourth World Anti-Colonialism."

  • Oct. 27, 3:10-5:00pm:  (Colgate) Title: "Of Carts and Horses: On the Explanation of Right Action in Virtue Ethics."
  • Nov. 10, 3:10-5:00pm:  (Texas A & M) Title: "When Philosophy Learns to Sing:The Case of Nietzsche鈥檚 Nachgesang"
  • Nov. 24, 3:10-5:00pm:  (Glasgow) "Suffering and Meaning in Life"
  • March 26, 3:10-5:00pm: Dr.  (Brown): 鈥淓xercise in Plato鈥檚 Parmenides鈥�
  • April 13, 3:10-5:00pm: Dr.  (Innsbruck), "The Loyalty of Religious Disagreement"
  • April 21, 3:10-5:00pm: Dr.  (George Washington): "Translating Lived Experiences Across Multiple 鈥榃orlds of Sense鈥�: Decolonizing and Depathologizing the Clinical Encounter"

  • 鈥淎fter Arendt: The Stakes of Narrative in the Age of Big Data鈥�,  Julian Park Professor of Comparative Literature, Tuesday, March 3rd, 3:00-5:00 
  • "The Role of Order in Kant鈥檚 Justification of Morality鈥�,  (Philosophy, Dartmouth College), Tuesday, November 26, 3:00-5:00.
  • "Where the Living Live: New Questions for Phenomenology and Religion",  (Theology, St. Paul's University), Tuesday, November 12, 3;00-5:00,
  • 鈥淲ampum Diplomacy in the Early and Middle Encounter Period鈥�,  (Faculty of Law, University of Toronto), Tuesday, October 22, 3:00-5:00pm.

  • Tuesday, March 26, 3:00-5:00pm,  (Stockholm), 鈥�Rethinking the Temporality and Imaginaries of Death - Some Philosophical Considerations.鈥�
  • Tuesday, March 5, 3:00-5:00pm,  (Windsor), 鈥�Notes Towards a Humanism from Below.鈥�
  • Tuesday, February 26, 3:00-5:00pm,  (Binghamton), 鈥淭he Unfolding of Empiricism in India.鈥�
  • Tuesday, November 20, 3:00-5:00pm:  (Brock), "Against Understanding, Or How to Refuse 'Planetary Thinking'."
  • Tuesday, October 2, 3:00-5:00pm:  (McGill), "Marx's Politics of Freedom".
  • Tuesday, September 25, 3:00-5:00pm:  (Kentucky), "Myth and Concept in Ancient Greek Philosophy." 

  • Tuesday, April 18, 3:30-5:00,  (Universit茅 du Qu茅bec 脿 Montr茅al), 鈥淎rtificial Intelligence and Moral Decision-Making.鈥�
  • Tuesday, April 10, 3:30-5:00,  (Toronto), "Higher-Order Evidence is the Wrong Kind of Reason."
  • Tuesday, November 21, 3:00-5:00,  (University of Leipzig, Germany): "Kant鈥檚 Theory of Radical Evil".
  • Friday, November 17, 11:00am-1:00pm,  (Department of Classics, Dalhousie): 鈥淕oodness, Beauty, and the Tragedy of Language: How to Read Agathon鈥檚 Speech in Plato鈥檚 Symposium鈥�. []
  • Tuesday, October 17, 3:00-5:00pm:  (Universite Paris Nanterre): "The Invisible in Secular Society: Emmanuel Levinas".
  • Friday, October 13, 3:00-5:00pm:  (Vanderbilt) "Detaining Refugees: Deconstructing Carceral Humanitarianism鈥�.  and

  •  (Notre Dame / Duke): "What Are We Talking about When We Talk about Free Will?", Friday, April 28, 2017.
  •  (University of Toronto): " 鈥楾he Problem of Life鈥�: Wittgenstein on the Difficulty of Honest Happiness", Wednesday, March 15, 2017.
  •  (Oklahoma State): "When the Better it is, the Worse it is: On Architecture and Moral Agency", Tuesday, March 7, 2017.
  •  (Toronto): "The Essence of Truth", Tuesday, Feb 28, 2017.
  •  (Emory University): "The Future of Bioethics: Ableism and the Life Worth Living", Tuesday, Feb 7, 2017.
  •  (Salisbury): "(A Very) Weak Martyrdom: The Comic as Public Philosophy", Tuesday, Jan 24, 2017.
  •  (Toronto) "'Our Heritage Was Left to us Without a Testament鈥� 鈥� or is it the Other Way Around?鈥�, Tuesday November 15, 2016.
  •  (UWO), 鈥淓thics and Our Early Years: Making Decisions for Children as if Childhood Really Mattered", Thursday November 10, 2016.
  •  (Auburn), "Reconciling Practical Knowledge with Self-Deception", November 1, 2016.
  •  (Concordia), "Do Gifts Obligate a Return? Indirect Reciprocity in Deconstruction and Intergenerational Economics", October 4, 2016.

  •  (Birmingham), "Consent and the Justification of Defensive Harm", March 24th, 2016.
  •  (Northwestern), "Experts and Peer Disagreement", March 22nd, 2016.
  •  (Maine), 鈥淭he Living Arena of Existential Health: Space, Autonomy, and Embodiment", March 15th, 2016.
  •  (Ottawa), "The Other Plato: Heidegger's Reading of the Parmenides, the Phaedrus, and the Theatetus in the 1930s", February 9th, 2016.
  •  (Princeton), "How to Justify Religious Accommodations: A Liberal Egalitarian Approach鈥�, February 2nd, 2016.
  •  (University of Toronto), 鈥淧ublic Space and Walter Benjamin's Philosophy of Cities鈥�, December 1st, 2015.
  •  (McGill), 鈥淭he Mathematical Method from Leibniz to Kant鈥�, November 24th, 2015.
  •  (McGill), 鈥淎 Past that Lines the Present: Bergson, Merleau-Ponty and the Politics of the Past鈥�, November 18th, 2015.
  •  (Arizona), 鈥淧utting Ideals in Their Place鈥�, November 3rd, 2015.

  • Asaf Angermann (University of Toronto), "The Exile of Metaphysics: Adorno and the Language of Political Experience", April 7, 2015.
  • Deborah Cook (University of Windsor), "Resistance and Freedom in Adorno and Foucault", March 3, 2015.
  • .

  • David Rondel (University of Nevada, Reno), 鈥淟uck Egalitarianism and Deweyan Pragmatism鈥�, March 18, 2014.
  • Robert Mann (Physics, University of Waterloo), 鈥淧uzzled by Particularity鈥�, November 26, 2013.
  • Lisa Guenther (Vanderbilt University), 鈥淪ocial Death and Living Resistance: A Critical Phenomenology of Solitary Confinement鈥�, November 12, 2013.

  • Jennifer Hornsby (Birkbeck University of London), 鈥淥n What's Intentionally Done鈥�, April 16, 2013.
  • Nathan Ballantyne (Fordham University), 鈥淓vidence We Don't Have鈥�, April 9, 2013.
  • Neera Badhwar (University of Oklahoma), 鈥淚s Realism Really Bad for You? A Realistic Response鈥�, October 16, 2012.

  • Joan Tronto (Political Science, University of Minnesota), 鈥淒emocracy and Care鈥�, March 13, 2012.
  • John Lysaker (Emory University), 鈥淭he Constellational Self: An Outline鈥�, February 28, 2012.
  • John Hacker-Wright (University of Guelph), 鈥淗uman Nature, Virtue, and Rationality鈥�, February 7, 2012.
  • David Morris (Concordia University), 鈥淪ense, Development, and Passivity: Merleau-Ponty鈥檚 Transformations of Philosophy鈥�, November 25, 2011.
  • Adrian Haddock (Stirling University), 鈥淪elf-Consciousness and Rule-Following鈥�, November 22, 2011.
  • John Turri (University of Waterloo), 鈥淪uberogatory Assertions鈥�, October 18, 2011.
  • Bruce Gilbert (Bishop鈥檚 University), 鈥淐ontradiction and the Fluidity of Life: Case Studies from Logic and Ethics鈥�, September 27, 2011.
  • Sarah Stroud (McGill University), 鈥淭hey Can't Take That Away From Me: Restricting the Reach of Morality's Demands鈥�, September 20, 2011.