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.
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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