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ONEONTA, N.Y. -- The SUNY College at Oneonta will present its
fourteenth annual Undergraduate
Philosophy Conference on Friday, April 17, and Saturday, April 18, in
the Morris Conference Center on campus. The event attracts talented student
and faculty speakers from a broad spectrum of colleges and universities
throughout the United States. Admission to all presentations in the
conference is complimentary, and members of the community are invited to
attend.
This year's conference will feature keynote speaker Thomas E. Jackson,
Director of the Philosophy in the Schools Project, a joint effort of the
University of Hawaii and the Hawaii State Department of Education. Assisted
by Philosophy graduate students, Dr. Jackson works in public school
classrooms in Hawaii and internationally, helping teachers and their
students develop intellectually safe classrooms where topics that arise out
of their interests are pursued in philosophically responsible ways. Dr.
Jackson's keynote address, which will take place on April 17 at 7:30 p.m. in
the Craven Lounge, is entitled "Children, Philosophy, and the Loss of
Wonder: Who's responsible? What's to be done?"
Conference activities will begin in the Craven Lounge at 9:30 Friday
morning with sessions titled "Love, Death and Absurdity in Existentialist
Literature" and "Metaphysics, Mysticism and Mental Causation." Each session
will feature papers by two to three students as well as extensive discussion
with others.
Throughout the conference, presentations will explore traditional areas
of philosophy such as ethics, metaphysics, the philosophy of religion, and
the philosophy of science. Other presenters will explore controversial
issues such as voluntary amputation, the ethical treatment of animals, and
the existence of God.
At 11:15 a.m. on Friday, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor
Ashok Malhotra will
conduct a yoga session to introduce students to the discipline and help
create a relaxed atmosphere for the sessions to come.
Conference sessions on Saturday will begin at 9:30 a.m. with panels on
"Political Revolution" and "Philosophy of Mathematics."
In all, the conference will feature 28 papers presented by students from
colleges and universities throughout North America, ranging from
Massachusetts to California and Alaska to Hawaii. All presenters were
selected by blind review.
Four students from SUNY Oneonta were selected as presenters for this
year's conference:
Angela Hotaling, who will present "Camus and the Absurdity of Existence in
‘Waiting for Godot'"; James R. Jones, "Roquentin Persistence"; Brian Miller,
"The Illusion of Choice"; and Jeremy Redlien, "What Does it Mean to Define?"
The conference will conclude with an awards banquet on Saturday
afternoon. For several years, the proceedings of the SUNY Oneonta
Undergraduate Philosophy Conference have been collected and published by
Oneonta
Philosophy Studies. The conference is sponsored by Oneonta Philosophy
Studies, the
Philosophy
Club,
Student Association, and Ninash
Foundation.
More information about the conference is available from Distinguished
Teaching Professor Dr.
Douglas
Shrader of the SUNY Oneonta
Philosophy Department
at (607) 436-2690. A preliminary conference program and abstracts of
accepted papers are available at the conference's web site at
www.oneonta.edu/pc
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