W&M Hosts Virginia Philosophical Association Conference
This past weekend, philosophers from across the state of Virginia gathered at William & Mary for the 72nd annual meeting of the Virginia Philosophical Association, hosted by the W&M philosophy department.
Five talks were given on Friday Oct. 21, including a keynote presentation by Richard Burian (Virginia Tech) on philosophy of biology, and three more talks were given on Saturday Oct. 22, including a keynote presentation by Brie Gertler (UVa) on self-knowledge. (The philosophy department was especially glad to have Gertler back in the halls of James Blair, since she is a former faculty member of the W&M philosophy department.) Other talks ranged widely over the philosophical terrain, including the metaphysics of time travel, the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, epistemology, environmental ethics, and the nature of moral obligation. W&M philosopher Noah Lemos provided commentary on Saturday morning's first talk.
![VPA logo](../../philosophy/images/news/vpa.gif)
The Virginia Philosophical Association was founded in the late 1930s by Professor Albert G.A. Balz of the University of Virginia, though former W&M Dean and philosophy chairperson James W. Miller played a pivotal role in arranging the first meeting of the VPA in 1939. Since then, the VPA has held a conference each fall (with the exception of some years during WWII) to help sustain a thriving philosophical community in the state of Virginia. The current president of the VPA is Adam Kovach (Marymount).
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