Tags: philosophy

Mike Zahorec and Nick Schuster

Is AI Changing what critical thinking requires?

UGA philosophers examine how people can preserve judgment, agency, and responsibility as AI increasingly shapes everyday decisions.  This story is part of Humanities in Practice, a Franklin College of Arts and Sciences series exploring the value of the humanities in work and everyday life.  Michael Zahorec and Nick Schuster, faculty members in UGA’s Department of Philosophy, study how AI affects human judgment. Together, they are…
Aaron Meskin looking at records

The matter of aesthetics: Why our tastes deserve serious attention

This story is part of Humanities in Practice, a Franklin College of Arts and Sciences series exploring the value of the humanities in work and everyday life. When people argue about whether a movie is brilliant or overrated, they do more than express a preference. They offer reasons, apply standards, and sometimes persuade someone to see the work differently. In other words, they are practicing philosophy. Aaron Meskin, professor and…
Alex Asay in military uniform standing on road in desert

New book links philosophy of play to AI questions

When AI changes the rules  This story is part of Humanities in Practice, a Franklin College of Arts and Sciences series exploring the value of the humanities in work and everyday life.  Long before ChatGPT, philosopher Bernard Suits posed a question that has become increasingly relevant in the age of artificial intelligence: What makes a life meaningful when work and effort are no longer necessities?  For Alex Asay, the rise of…
Philosophy graduate students in graphic

Scott Kleiner awards invest in the next generation of Franklin philosophers

Each year, the Scott Kleiner Awards support graduate students in philosophy whose work stretches across disciplines, traditions, and continents. This year’s recipients are pursuing questions about art, games, ethics, sound, metaphysics, pedagogy, and ancient philosophy while balancing pedagogy, parenting, leadership, and international scholarship. Together, their stories show how targeted support can shape research trajectories and widen access…
Zoe Simmons and Melissa Fahmy

Franklin philosophy student Zoe Simmons receives Horace B. Russell Prize for ethics writing

Zoe Simmons, a rising senior in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and Morehead Honors College, has received the Horace B. Russell Prize from the Department of Philosophy for excellence in undergraduate ethics writing. The Horace B. Russell Prize is awarded annually for the best undergraduate ethics paper written for a philosophy course during the previous calendar year. Simmons is majoring in philosophy and religion and pursuing minors…
Lauren Scaffidi outside

Addicted to philosophy: how one Franklin senior is using philosophy to make an impact

For Lauren Scaffidi, philosophy has grown into a lifelong passion that her family affectionately calls a “philosophy addiction.” As she prepares to graduate with degrees in philosophy from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and political science from the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), Scaffidi is focused on a future where philosophical ideas can help solve real-world problems. Her time at Franklin helped her see how…
Nathan Haynes in red frame

Franklin senior Nathan Haynes explores big questions through multidisciplinary study

For Franklin senior Nathan Haynes, a multidisciplinary education felt like the natural path. He chose philosophy, he said, because it teaches people how to think about life, how we experience the world, and how we determine what has value.He added English as a double major to explore his strong interest in literary theory, where philosophical questions and storytelling intersect. He also pursued a Spanish minor, he said, to engage more…
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Perspective illuminates ethics across disciplines

Rather than a specialized approach to a set of philosophical questions or political issues, ethics presents a way of evaluating choices in an open society. The tools to navigate choices may involve a variety of expertise and disciplinary specialties, but these are also connected simply by the physical world where they are put into practice. Piers Stephens, professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of philosophy, explains…
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New minor in Bioethics

In an advanced, new linkage between the arts and sciences, the UGA department of philosophy is now offering a minor in Bioethics to enhance students’ ability to think and argue in a manner that will benefit them in a variety of careers and areas of post-graduate study.  Bioethics is the interdisciplinary study of ethical and philosophical issues that arise in the context of medicine and bioresearch. The minor in Bioethics provides students…
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Interview with alumnus Gregory Moss

On Wednesday, February 26, philosophy department Ambassadors Zoe Simmons and Nathan Haynes had the chance to talk with UGA alumnus Gregory Moss (A.B. Philosophy '07; A.B. German '07; M.A. Philosophy '07; Ph.D. Philosophy '14), currently an Associate Professor of Philosophy at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. In this interview, we had the chance to speak on his current philosophical work on Absolute Dialetheism, his experiences with faculty…
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Fiction vs. fact: philosophy lecture broadens the cultural distinctions

How do we define fiction? Can these definitions be applied across time and culture? Do we even need an all-encompassing definition of fiction? Hannah Kim, assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Arizona, explored these questions from a transhistorical and transcultural perspective in her lecture “Fiction without Mimesis: A Comparative Philosophy of Fiction” as part of the Kleiner Lecture series at UGA.  On February 27,…
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How Philosophy at UGA Wrote Adam Cureton’s Love Story

Philosophy, at its core Greek translation, is the love of wisdom (philo = love, sophia = wisdom). While Franklin College alumnus Adam Cureton’s life exemplifies that love of wisdom, it also is an example of an old-fashioned University of Georgia love story. Cureton (AB Philosophy `03, AB Political Theory `03, AB Evolutionary Theory `03, MA Philosophy `03) received his ticket into the University of Georgia in 1999, when he learned of the…
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NSF grant to explore philosophical perspectives of human and machine translation

A new interdisciplinary project at the interface of philosophy, linguistics, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence seeks to explore the complicated relationship between human and machine translation. The project, led by professor of philosophy Yuri Balashov, is supported by an NSF Scholar's Award. "Translation from one language into another is a difficult and cognitively intense process requiring a broad set of linguistic and non…
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Jordyn Faucette named Beinecke Scholar

University of Georgia senior Jordyn Faucette was one of 19 students across the nation to be awarded the Beinecke Scholarship this spring, UGA's third winner of the scholarship and its first since 2019. A first-generation college student and a McNair Scholar, Faucette is majoring in philosophy and English in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and political science in the School of Public and International Affairs. She is also working…
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Franklin College departments advance their commitment to undergraduate writing

Over the course of the 2023-24 academic year, four departments in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences took writing in their programs of study to the next level. In collaboration with the Franklin College Writing Intensive Program (WIP), the departments of anthropology, mathematics, history, and philosophy developed plans that articulate characteristics of writing in the discipline. These include desired writing abilities of students in the…
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Franklin College to enhance 2023 Presidential Seed Grants

The newest round of 10 Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grant Program awards chosen from 70 proposals reflect a commitment of $1 million from UGA President Jere W. Morehead. In a follow-up to the success of UGA research teams to pursue work initiated through the seed grant program, the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences announced additional support for the Presidential Seed Grant projects. Franklin College Dean Anna Stenport announced…
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AI symposium highlights interdisciplinary research and scholarship

Advances in Artificial Intelligence, both the capability of machine learning and the cultural impacts of large language models, took center stage at a UGA symposium at the end of November. Key note speaker Ian Bogost shared many of his experiences utilizing new AI tools and grappling with some of the challenges they present. Our colleagues share the story: Bogost, Barbara and David Thomas Distinguished Professor at Washington University in St.…
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Divisional Spotlight: Humanities

Much like the Earth has five oceans, teeming with life and mysteries in its great depths and powering the Earth's natural systems and cycles – it is the Blue Planet after all – the Franklin College has five divisions powering UGA's unprecedented march to excellence. We continue to welcome 2024 by highlighting this element of our organizational structure and the academic units contained in each division. Today, we highlight the HUMANITIES:…
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Mentoring + Law School

The UGA Mentoring program connects students with alumni to gain insights into the connections between campus and career. This invaluable exchange allows our alumni to give back in ways that help individual students during their educational journey.  Coordinated through the UGA Career Center, the Mentoring program is a critical asset for both alumni looking to stay involved on campus – no matter where they are – and students looking for…
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Franklin students, alumni lead UGA as top producer of Fulbright students

For the fifth time in 11 years the University of Georgia has been named a top producer of Fulbright U.S. students, a recognition given by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to the U.S. institutions that received the highest number of Fulbright offers. Eleven UGA students and alumni were offered Fulbright awards for 2022-2023, with 10 students able to accept. Seven are teaching English in countries…
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Graduate Student Excellence-in-Teaching Awards

The Excellence-in-Teaching Award was established by the Graduate School to recognize those students who have demonstrated superior teaching skills and have contributed to teaching beyond their own classroom responsibilities, making a significant contribution to the instructional mission of the university. Three of the five 2022 Graduate Student Excellence-in-Teaching awards went to Franklin College students: Elise Robinson is a Ph.D.…
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Amazing student Joshua Williams

Double Dawg and triple Franklin degree holder Joshua Williams is finishing up the requirements for a master’s degree in communication studies. He followed two older sisters to the University of Georgia. When it came to pick a major, he was inspired by his sisters and his hardworking single mother to major in women’s studies. Next up, he’ll pursue a Ph.D. to “foster the next generation of interdisciplinary scholars.” Williams shares some terrific…
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New service-learning course, Philosophy for Children

The Department of Philosophy is excited to announce a partnership with the Office of Service Learning to introduce the new course, Philosophy for Children (PHIL 3900S). Developed by PhD student Michael Lindquist, the course allows UGA students an opportunity to do philosophy with K-12 students in programs at the Athens-Clarke County Library as well as at the East Athens Community Center, enabling them to fulfill UGA’s…
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Angela Tsao named 2020 Udall Scholar

UGA junior Angela Tsao is working to advance research at the intersection of computer science and sustainability, and her focus has earned her national recognition as a 2020 Udall Scholar: She was one of 55 undergraduates selected from across the nation and U.S. territories for the scholarship, which is awarded to sophomores and juniors on the basis of their commitment to careers in the environment, Native health care or Tribal…
cartoon book cover with toad reading book to frog

Wartenberg: teaching philosophy to children

Some great opportunities this week to think and learn about introducing the big questions to a younger audience: The UGA department of philosophy and the Office of Service-Learning present a lecture by Tom Wartenberg, “Doing Philosophy with Frog and Toad,” on Thursday Feb. 13 at 3:30 p.m. in room 115 of Peabody Hall on UGA’s North campus. A professor emeritus of philosophy at Mount Holyoke College, Wartenberg is one of the leading scholars in…
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