Central States Philosophical Association 2012 Conference Program

For those of you who have been dying to know what I've been doing for the last five months when I haven't been blogging, this conference program represents the fruits of (much of) that activity. 

Central States Philosophical Association 2012 Conference

September 21-22, University of Missouri, Columbia

Memorial Union, South Wing

(Parking available at University Avenue Parking Garage; fee/permit required on 21st only)

Note: Sessions end five minutes before the hour to allow for a short break between sessions.

Friday Morning, Sept. 21—Epistemology (Memorial Union S107)

9:00      Kyle Ray (Oklahoma State), “False Affirmation and Testimony”
             Commentator: John Camacho (UMSL)
             Chair: Bob Fischer (Texas State)

10:00    Richard Fry (Georgetown), “The Epistemological and Psychological Status of Proofs in Hume”
             Commentator: Mary Gwin (Oklahoma State)
             Chair: John Matheson (North Florida)

11:00    Bob Fischer (Texas State), “TRUE is False and Why it Matters”
             Commentator: Joshua DiPaolo (Massachusetts-Amherst)
             Chair: Eric Reitan (Oklahoma State)

12:00    Michael Shaffer (St Cloud State), “Doxastic Voluntarism, Epistemic Deontology and Belief-contravening Commitments”
             Commentator: Christopher Gadsden (Missouri)
             Chair: Brendan Murday (Ithaca)



Friday Morning, Sept 21—Ethics (Memorial Union S207)


9:00      Eric Wiland (Missouri-St. Louis), “Williams on Thick Ethical Concepts and Reasons for Action”
             Commentator: Robert Johnson (Missouri)
             Chair: Thomas Reynolds (Missouri)

10:00    Adam Thompson (Nebraska-Lincoln), “Optimism and Resentment”
             Commentator: MaryEllen VanDerHeyden (Washington University)
             Chair: John Camacho (UMSL)

11:00    Jeff Behrends (Wisconsin-Madison), “Parfit’s All or None Argument and the Development of Normative Hybridism”
             Commentator: Joel Dittmer (MU of Sci & Tech)
             Chair: Thomas Reynolds (Missouri)

12:00    Bekka Williams (Wisconsin-Madison), “What Does Subjective ‘Ought’ Imply?”
             Commentator: Joshua Smart (Missouri)
             Chair: Bryan Stegner (Washington University)



Friday Morning, Sept. 21—Free Will & Philosophy of Mind (Memorial Union S110)


9:00      Philip Swenson (UC-Riverside), “What Can We Learn from Deterministic Frankfurt-Style Cases?”
             Commentator: David Palmer (Tennessee-Knoxville)
             Chair: Kevin McCain (Alabama-Birmingham)

10:00    Open (Session Cancelled)

11:00    Dennis Trinkle (Wisconsin-Madison), “Delusions and Downstream Effects”
             Commentator: Krista Wiley (UMSL)
             Chair: Bradley Rettler (Notre Dame)

12:00    Matthew Cook (Oklahoma), “Extended Perception”
             Commentator: Lynn Chien-Hui Chiu (Missouri)
             Chair: Bryan Weaver


LUNCH: 1-2 PM


Friday Afternoon, Sept 21—The Philosophy of Allan Gibbard (MU S107)


2:00      Tyler Paytas (Washington U), “How Should We Feel about Nursing Homes and Camel Thefts?”
             Commentator: Phil Zema (Missouri)
             Chair: : Thomas Reynolds (Missouri)

3:00      Louis Gularte (Northern Illinois), “On the Possibility of Compatibility Between Moral Objectivity and Plan-based Expressivism”
             Commentator: Jeff Behrends, Wisconsin-Madison)
             Chair: Joshua DiPaoulo

4:00      Bruce Russell (Wayne State), “Parfit and Gibbard on Intuitions”
             Commentator: Allan Gibbard (Michigan)
             Chair: Eric Reitan

Friday Afternoon, Sept 21—Values & Ethics (MU S207)

2:00      Andrew Ward (Minnesota), “A Pragmatic Rapproachment of Facts and Values”
             Commentator: Don Morse (Webster)
             Chair: Christopher Gadsden (Missouri)

3:00      Antony Aumann (Northern Michigan), “The Relationship Between Aesthetic Value and Cognitive Value”
             Commentator: Allison Merrick (Arkansas-Little Rock)
             Chair: Dennis Trinkle (Wisconsin-Madison)

4:00      Donald Wilson (Kansas State), “Herman on Beneficence”
             Commentator: Everett Fulmer (St. Louis)
             Chair: Kyle Ray (Oklahoma State)

Friday Afternoon, Sept. 21—Metaphysics (MU S110)


2:00      Maxwell Suffis (Northern Illinois), “Why We Shouldn’t Think of Souls as Meriological Simples: A Negative Assessment of the Paradox of Increase”
             Commentator: Kevin Sharpe (St. Could State)
             Chair: Bradley Rettler (Notre Dame)

3:00      Bradley Rettler (Notre Dame), “How to Think About Grounding”
             Commentator: Andrew Melnyk (Missouri)
             Chair: Richard Fry (Georgetown)

Friday, 5-6 PM: Keynote by Allan Gibbard: “Meaning and Normativity.” Introduction by Paul Weirich (MU S107)

Banquet: 7 PM, Reynolds Alumni Center



Saturday Morning, Sept. 22—Political Philosophy (MU S207)


9:00      Joshua Anderson (St. Louis), “What is to be Done About the Rabble?”
             Commentator: Roxy Green (Arkansas-Little Rock)
             Chair: Bekka Williams (Wisconsin-Madison)

10:00    Christopher McCammon (Drake), “How to be an Instrumentalist about Political Legitimacy”
             Commentator: Peter Vallentyne (Missouri)
             Chair: Regina Schouten (Wisconsin Madison)

11:00    Regina Schouten (Wisconsin-Madison), “Citizenship, Reciprocity, and the Gendered Division of Labor.”
             Commentator: Stephanie Hull (Missouri)
             Chair: Joshua DiPaoulo (Massachusetts-Amherst)

12:00    Dustin Nelson (Tennessee), “(Mis)Understanding Rawls’ Wide View of Public Political Culture”
             Commentator: Sheng Zhang (Missouri)
             Chair: Tyler Paytas (Washington University-St. Louis)


Saturday Morning, Sept. 22—Decision Theory and Epistemology (MU S203)


9:00      Ashton Sperry (Missouri), “On Defining Strategy”
             Commentator: Seth Kurtenbach (Missouri)
             Chair: Andrew Spear (Grand Valley State)

10:00    Tanya Kostochka (Northern Illinois), “Intention and Resolution in a Two-Stage Newcomb’s Problem”
             Commentator: Ashton Sperry (Missouri)
             Chair: Andrew Spear (Grand Valley State)

11:00    James Beebe (SUNY Buffalo), “Gettierized Knobe Effects”
             Commentator: Kevin McCain (Alabama-Birmingham)
             Chair: Mary Gwin (Oklahoma State)

12:00    Brendan Murday (Ithaca College), “Dissolving the Problem of the Criterion”
             Commentator: Andrew Spear (Grand Valley State)
             Chair: Mary Gwin (Oklahoma State)


Saturday Morning, Sept. 22—Metaphysics (MU S206)


9:00      Kenneth Boyce (Notre Dame), “On Believing in Neutrons but not Numbers”
             Commentator: Eric Hiddleston (Wayne State)
             Chair: Andrew Melnyk (Missouri)

10:00    Justin Remhof (Illinois-Urbana Champaign), “Object Constructivism and Unconstructed Objects”
             Commentator: Kenneth Boyce (Notre Dame)
             Chair: Jonah Goldwater (Missouri)

11:00    Eric Hiddleston (Wayne State), “Semantic Ineliminabilty, Fictionalism, and Ontology”
             Commentator: John Collins (East Carolina)
             Chair: Richard Fry (Georgetown)


LUNCH: 1-2


Saturday Afternoon, Sept. 22—Moral Problems (MU S207)


2:00      Philip Mouch (Minnesota State-Moorhead), “Self-Defense and the Castle Doctrine”
             Commentator: Crystal Allen (Principia College)
             Chair: Phillip Zema (Missouri)

3:00      Crystal Allen (Principia College), “Justifying War and the Boundaries of Territorial Defense”
             Commentator: Isaac Wagner (Missouri)
             Chair: Philip Swenson (UC-Riverside)

4:00      Owen Shaefer (Oxford), “Moral Disagreement and Moral Enhancement”
             Commentator: Wenwen Fan (Missouri)
             Chair: Ron Glass (Wisconsin-LaCross)


Saturday Afternoon, Sept. 22—Epistemology (MU S203)


2:00      Jonathan Matheson (North Florida), “Is there a Well-Founded Solution to the Generality Problem?”
             Commentator: Casey Swank (St. Cloud State)
             Chair: Mary Gwin (Oklahoma State)

3:00      Ted Poston (South Alabama), “Coherence, A Priority, and Logic”
             Commentator: David Henderson (Nebraska-Lincoln)
             Chair: Jonathan Matheson (North Florida)

4:00      Kevin McCain (Alabama-Birmingham), “In Defense of the Explanationist Response to Skepticism”
             Commentator: Ali Hasan (Iowa)
             Chair: Ted Poston (South Alabama)


Saturday Afternoon, Sept. 22—Philosophy of Religion (MU S206)


2:00      Andrew Moon (Kansas State), “Religious Disagreement, Epistemic Circularity, and the Cognitive Science of Religion”
             Commentator: David Alexander (Iowa State)
             Chair: Dennis Trinkle (Wisconsin-Madison)

3:00      Billy Ramey (Missouri), “Why We Cannot Go On to Infinity: A Hybrid Cosmological Argument”
             Commentator: Eric Reitan (Oklahoma State)
             Chair: Antony Aumann (Northern Michigan)

4:00      Open (Session cancelled)

Saturday Sept. 22, 5 PM: Business Meeting (chaired by Eric Reitan) followed by Presidential Address by Paul Weirich: “Simplifying Choices” (MU S203)

Saturday, Sept 22, 6-7 PM: Closing Reception (MU S206)