Upcoming Talks
All talks are free and open to the public. Cal State LA is located at the Eastern Ave. exit of the San Bernardino Freeway (10) a few miles east of downtown LA at the Long Beach Freeway (710). For directions or parking information contact the Philosophy Department at (323) 343-4180 or see this page.
Feel free to call the department to ask if we have any upcoming talks scheduled: (323) 343-4180.
Past Talks
David Builes (Princeton), "Nature Never Makes Leaps" (9 May 2024)
Elinor Mason (UC Santa Barbara), "Consent and Consensuality" (2 May 2024)
Dr. Ike Anya, "Small By Small" (11 October 2023)
Ellie Anderson (Pomona), "Is Self-Objectification Bad?" (17 November 2022)
Ann Garry (CSULA emerita), "How to Think About Abortion: Can Philosophy Help?" (27 October 2022)
Donald E. Miller (USC) and Jack Miles (UCI), "The Joseph Prabhu Memorial Lecture" (13 October 2022)
David J. Chalmers (NYU), "Reality+: From the Matrix to the Metaverse" (5 May 2022)
Galen Strawson (U Texas at Austin), "What is Materialism?" (15 March 2022)
Michelle Montague (U Texas at Austin), "Pseudo-Material Shadows Cast by Grammar" (14 March 2022)
Dirk Moses (UNC Chapel Hill), "The Origins of Genocide: An Intellectual History of Conceptual Instability" (4 December 2020)
Ben Futernik and Hannah Hsieh and moderated by Foad DizadjiBahmani (CSULA), "Interpretation in the Law: A Philosophical Look at Originalism" (17 November 2020)
Chip Sebens (CalTech), "What is the Quantum Wave Function?" (4 December 2019)
Mark Balaguer (CSULA) vs. Uri Maoz (Chapman University), "Free Will: Do We Have It?" (29 October 2019) - a Public Debate Series event, presented by the Department of Philosophy and the Philosophy Club
Gabriel Greenberg (UCLA), "Visual Objects" (9 April 2019)
Ingolf Dalferth (Claremont Graduate University), "The Challenge of Being Human in the Age of Technology" (28 March 2019) - a Joseph Prabhu Interfaith Peace and Justice Lecture
Tom Holden (UCSB), "Hume on Modal Discourse" (7 March 2019)
Jose Gandarilla Salgado (National Autonomous University of Mexico), "Moving Out of Neoliberalism? Uses of Law in a Recent Latin America Cycle" (26 February 2019) - a Ricardo Gomez Human Rights and Poverty Lecture
Myisha Cherry (UC Riverside), "Women Breaking the Rules Through Rage" (21 February 2019) - an Ann Garry and Sharon Bishop Feminist Philosophy Lecture
Alyssa Ney (UC Davis), "Finding the World in the Wave Function" (1 February 2019)
Lori Watson (University of San Diego), "Can Sex Be Contractualized?" (28 November 2018)
David Pitt (CSULA) vs. Foad Dizadji-Bahmani (CSULA), "Artificial Intelligence: Is It Real, or Sci-Fi?" (11 October 2018) - a Public Debate Series event, presented by the Department of Philosophy and the Philosophy Club
Roberto Chao Romero (UCLA), "Los Angeles as a Sanctuary City" (25 April 2018) - co-sponsored with the Philosophy Club and the Joseph Prabhu Fund for Interfaith Peace and Justice
Michael B. Gill (University of Arizona), "The Math-Moral Analogy in Early Modern Philosophy and Today" (5 April 2018)
William Morgan (USC), "Spoiled Sports: Markets and the Corruption of Sport" (28 February 2018) - co-sponsored with the School of Kinesiology and Nutritional Science and The Intercollegiate Athletics Program
Father Juan Carlos Scannone (Universidad del Salvador, Argentina), "The Irruption of Poverty in Latin America: A Fact of Life and Freedom" (6 February 2018) - a Ricardo Gomez Human Rights and Poverty Lecture
Ranjoo S. Herr (Bentley University) "Islamist Women and Relational Autonomy" (26 October 2017) - an Ann Garry and Sharon Bishop Feminist Philosophy Lecture
Matthew Leonard (University of Southern California), "What is it to be Located" (14 September 2017)
Brian Treanor (Loyola Marymount University), "Ecological Conversion in a Threatened World (27 April 2017) - presented by the Joseph Prabhu Fund for Interfaith Peace and Justice, the Department of Philosophy, and the Philosophy Club
Sheiva Kleinschmidt (USC), "Fusion First" (8 March 2017)
Tina Fernandez Botts (CSU Fresno), "The Concept of Intersectionality" (15 November 2016) - an Ann Garry and Sharon Bishop Feminist Philosophy Lecture
Philip Clayton (Claremont Graduate University), "Towards A Sustainable Civilization: New Directions in Environmental Philosophy" (21 April 2016)
Teresa Blankmeyer-Burke (Gallaudet University), "HOOKING UP: Viral Videos and Cochlear Implants as a Case Study of Deaf Feminism" (5 April 2016) - an Ann Garry and Sharon Bishop Feminist Philosophy Lecture
Enrique Dussel (Metropolitan Autonomous University), "Legislation, Legimination, and New Rights" (16 February 2016) - a Ricardo Gomez Human Rights and Poverty Lecture
Michela McSweeney (Princeton University), ""Metaphysical Equivalence" (28 January 2016)
Gavin Lawrence (UCLA), "Aristotle and Mental Markmanship" (19 November 2015)
Talia Bettcher (CSULA), "From Embodiment to Empersonment: Starting Points for a Theory of Transgender Discontent" (22 October 2015)
Rachel Briggs (Stanford University), "Chances and Impossible Worlds" (15 October 2015)
Lara Buchak (UC Berkeley), "Inequality and Relative Priority" (14 May 2015)
Alia al-Saji (McGill University), "Cultural Racism: Muslim Veiling, Embodiment, and the Nature of Culture" (23 April 2015) - an Ann Garry and Sharon Bishop Feminist Philosophy Lecture
Tim Crane (Cambridge University), "Words and Concepts" (9 April 2015)
Katalin Farkas (Central European University), "Know Where, Know That, Know How" (7 April 2015)
Enrique Del Percio (University of Buenos Aires), "Fraternity/Sorority: The Unbearable Power of a Concept that Helps Us to Rethink Poverty and Human Rights" (5 March 2015) - a Ricardo Gomez Human Rights and Poverty Lecture
Khaled Abou El Fadl (UCLA), "Islamic Law in the Age of Human Rights" (19 February 2015)
Helen Longino (Stanford), "Sex, Race, and the Sciences of Human Behavior" (26 January 2015)
Katrina Elliott (UCLA), "Explanation, Swamping, and the Principal Principle" (15 May 2014)
Serene Khader (Stony Brook University), "Do Muslim Women Really Need Freedom?" (21 April 2014) - an Ann Garry and Sharon Bishop Feminist Philosophy Lecture
Heather Logue (University of Leeds), "Extending Phenomenal Character" (10 April 2014)
Richard Falk (Princeton University), "Surveillance, Security and the Future of Human Rights" (27 February 2014) - a Ricardo Gomez and Joseph Prahbu Human Rights and Poverty Lecture
Terry Horgan (University of Arizona), "Injecting the Phenomenology of Agency into the Free Will Debate" (13 February 2013)
Ioannis Votsis (University of Dusseldorf), "Logic as Ultra-Physics" (10 October 2013)
Ned Markosian (Western Washington University), "Do You Know You Are Not a Brain in a Vat?" (23 May 2013)
Kristie Dotson (Michigan State University), "Black Feminist Epistemology: Three Paradigms" (25 April 2013) - an Ann Garry and Sharon Bishop Feminist Philosophy Lecture
Sara Bernstein (Duke University), "Omissions as Possibilities" (14 March 2013)
Steven Salaita (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University), "Liberal Discourses and Colonial Practices: How Israel Uses Human Rights Language to Justify Human Rights Abuses" (31 January 2013)
John Martin Fischer (UC Riverside), "Omniscience, Freedom, and Dependence" (17 January 2013)
Roman Frigg (London School of Economics), "Laplace's Demon and the Adventures of His Apprentice" (13 November 2012)
Peter Lewis (University of Miami), "Quantum Mechanics and (Hyper-) Cartesian Doubt" (10 May 2012)
Amie Thomasson (University of Miami), "Carnap and the Prospects for an Easy Ontology" (8 May 2012)
Foad Dizadji-Bahmani (LSE), "Why Fodor's Argument Against Reductionism Fails" (1 May 2012)
Uma Narayan (Vassar College), "Who Doesn't Want to Rescue and Empower Third World Women? Some 'Suspicious Centerings' in Contemporary Feminism" (18 Feb 2012)
Michael Tamir (University of Pittsburgh), "Knowledge and the Impossibly Ideal: The Universality of Motion in Einstein's Theory" (26 Jan 2012)
Bryan Roberts (University of Pittsburgh), "When Does Quantum Mechanics Distinguish Past From Future?" (23 Jan 2012)
Joel Velasco (CalTech), "The Consequences of Tree-Thinking: A Phylogenetic Perspective on the Species Problem" (18 Jan 2012)
Kenny Easwaran (USC), "Testimony & Autonomy in Mathematical Epistemology" (17 Nov 2011)
Michael McKenna (University of Arizona), "Freedom of the Will; A Hardliner Takes it on the Chin: Resisting Pereboom's Four-Case Manipulation Argument" (29 Sept 2011)
Amy Kind (Claremont McKenna College), "How Imagination Gives Rise to Knowledge, or, 'Elementary, My Dear Watson, Elementary'" (12 May 2011)
Kimberlé Crenshaw (UCLA), "Racing to Post Racialism: Critical Race Theory, Constitutional Law, and Sustaining Communities" (14 April 2011)
Tommy Lott (SJSU), "Race, Panethnic Identity, and Group Solidarity: A Critical Examination of the Reconstruction of Race in Public Policy" (3 March 2011)
Robert May (UC Davis), "Leibniz's Problem, Frege's Puzzle"
Shamik Dasgupta (Princeton), "Absolutism vs. Comparativism About Physical Quantities" (18 Nov 2010)
Jay Conway (CSULA), "Deleuze's Problem" (1 Nov 2010)
Mariana Ortega (John Carroll University), "Home, Belonging, and Multiplicitous Subjectivity" (20 May 2010)
Richard Dean (CSULA), "Respect for the Undeserving" (30 April 2010)
Gregory Fried (Suffolk University), "Torture, Privacy, and Executive Authority after 9/11" (5 April 2010)
Anna Carastathis (CSULA), "Identity Categories as 'Potential Coalitions'" (5 Mar 2010)
Barbara Herman (UCLA), "Kantian Commitments" (3 Feb 2010)
Shaun Nichols (University of Arizona), "On the Psychological Origins of Dualism: Dual-Process Cognition and the Explanatory Gap" (19 Nov 2009)
James van Cleve (USC), "Berkeley vs. Reid on Three Puzzles of Vision" (2 Nov 2009)
Shahin Izadi (University of Wisconsin-Madison), "Well-Being and Childhood" (2 June 2009)
Voula Tsouna (UC Santa Barbara), "Anger and Revenge in Greco-Roman Philosophy" (28 May 2009)
Kayley Vernallis (CSULA), "Courage and Childbirth" (6 May 2009)
Louise Antony (UMass), "What Do We Need to Know about Human Nature?" (23 April 2009)
Joe Levine (UMass), "Consciousness and Self-Knowledge: Getting Acquainted With Our Thoughts" (20 April 2009)
Margret Grebowicz (Goucher College), "Posthuman Pornographies: On the Animal in Woman" (1 April 2009)
National Self Determination and Global Justice: An American Communities Program Works-In-Progress Colloquium with Professor Mohammed Abed (18 Feb 2009)
Alexa Schriempf (Penn State PhD), "Powercharged Communication: Testimony, Speech, and Disability" (28 Jan 2009)
Lauren Ashwell (MIT PhD), "What Do Women Want in a Meta-ethical Theory?" (26 Jan 2009)
Karen Frost-Arnold (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), "Trust, Power, and Betrayal" (22 Jan 2009)
Anna Carastathis (Universite de Montreal), "Patriarchalization, Western Feminism, and the Imperialist Gaze: Revisiting Okin's Argument about Multiculturalism and Women's Rights" (20 Jan 2009)
Myeong-Seok Kim (National University of Singapore), "Emotion and Moral Judgment in Mencius" (15 Jan 2009)
Manyul Im (Fairfield University), "Courage and Context: Making Sense of the Greeks, Chinese, and the Likes of Us" (8 Jan 2009)