Recent News
Open House: Ethics Bowl Mock Debate
Apr 13, 2019
See our Nationally Ranked Cal Poly Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Team In Action!
Open House Saturday, April 13th
11:30 am–1:00 pm
Bldg 26 Rm 223
For Open House our nationally ranked Ethics Bowl Team is hosting a mock debate, fielding audience questions, and providing information to prospective students interested in learning more about Ethics Bowl. We welcome all to come to the Mock Ethics Bowl event.Put our very own nationally ranked ethical debate team to the test! The flyer for the event is found here.
2019 Student Symposium
Mar 8, 2019
Join us on the afternoon of Friday, March 8, 2019 for the 2019 Winter Student Symposium.
Friday, March 8, 2019
1:30 PM – 4:30 PM
Building 38, Rm 121 (Math & Science)
Poly Gives - Cal Poly's Day of Giving
Mar 7, 2019
Join us March 7 for Cal Poly's Day of Giving!
March 7 is Poly Gives, Cal Poly's Day of Giving - a 30-hour digital giving campaign when our amazing alumni, parents and friends give back to the Cal Poly they love, and our incredible students show their appreciation for the thousands of generous donors, faculty and staff who help make Learn by Doing possible.
See the Giving tab above to donate to the Philosophy Department. If you can’t find the specific department or fund you’re looking for please make your gift at giving.calpoly.edu. Your gift will still be included in the Poly Gives totals.
Research Workshop on "Does Hume Solve Skepticism?"
Mar 1, 2019
Jason Collins (UCSB Grad Student)
March 1, 2019,12:10 - 2:00 pm in 33-289 (Clyde P. Fisher Science Hall)
Lecture on "When Social Media Companies, Research Ethics, and Human Rights Collide"
Feb 19, 2019
Dr. Mary L. Gray will offer a new human-data research paradigm for technology’s next wave of social worlds in her talk "When Social Media Companies, Research Ethics, and Human Rights Collide."
Ethics & Emerging Sciences Group
Feb 14, 2019
Ethics & Emerging Sciences Group
Patrick Lin, philosophy professor and Director of Ethics + Emerging Sciences Group, and Zachary Rentz, philosophy lecturer, traveled to Reykjavik, Iceland to attend Emerging Artistic Conflicts, Laws, and Ethics Workshop on June 18-19, 2018. The discussion involved the implications of political and economic competition in the Arctic Region as new land and resources become accessible due to climate change. For more information visit the E+ESG website.
Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl
Feb 14, 2019
Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl
Ethics Bowl is a team-based intercollegiate debate competition covering a range of current events and controversies in applied ethics. Cal Poly sends one or two student teams each year to compete in the a Regional Ethics Bowl competition, where students debate and discuss cases with college teams from California, Utah and Arizona.
Success in Ethics Bowl competition requires students to apply their philosophical training to provide oral arguments on the spot about moral issues on topics ranging from fake news to privacy, gun control, autonomous cars and weapons, international relations and new medical technologies. The team qualified for and was invited to compete in both the 2017 and 2018 Ethics Bowl National Championships. Our students traveled to Dallas, TX in 2017 and Chicago, IL in 2018 and competed against the top teams in the nation.
Professor Patrick Lin and Ryan Jenkins' Fellowship
Jan 25, 2019
Professors Patrick Lin and Ryan Jenkins became fellows at the Karel Čapek Center for Values in Science and Technology, based in Prague where they are also co-organizing a workshop on the ethics of autonomous vehicles, to be held in late June 2019.
Research Workshop on "The Possibility of Permissible Wrong Doing"
Nov 16, 2018
Sherri Lynn Conklin (UCSB Grad Student)
Friday, November 16th from 12:10-2 PM in 22-210 (English bldg)
"Real Knowledge from Made-up Things: Kierkegaard on Thought Experiments"
Nov 11, 2018
Eleanor Helms presented a paper titled "Real Knowledge from Made-up Things: Kierkegaard on Thought Experiments” at a meeting of the Fordham Philosophical Society, held at the annual meeting of the American Catholic Philosophical Association in San Diego on November 11, 2018.
The paper was published in Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook (2018).
Click here to read her paper.