Chair's Welcome Fall 2011

Welcome to the Philosophy Department at Simon Fraser University. The Philosophy Department prides itself on its excellent academic programmes at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Undergraduates can complete a major, an honors major, an extended minor or a minor in Philosophy. If you are thinking about pursuing a degree in Philosophy, but are concerned about how to answer the inevitable question, “What are you going to do with that?” here are some things to keep in mind. First, Philosophy is in the business of thinking outside the box -- that is what articulating and questioning basic assumptions is (see What is Philosophy?). Further, in philosophy courses you will learn how to understand very complex and abstract material, and to think critically and write clearly about it. With these skills, undergraduate Philosophy students have pursued successful careers in law, business, and the public sector, as well as other professions, and of course some have gone on to academic graduate programmes. A recent study by Payscale.com shows that while starting salaries of philosophers might be less that that of business students, by mid-career, the salaries of philosophy students surpass those of business students.

The 2010-11 Peter Horban Undergraduate Essay Award winner is Filipa Lopes. Ian Davis also received commendation for the best paper in a lower division course. Congratulations Filipa and Ian!

At the graduate level, we offer both MA and PhD degrees. We have strengths in metaphysics and epistemology (especially those subspecialties related to the cognitive sciences), ethics and the history of philosophy. Our MA students (as well as our top undergrads) have succeeded in gaining admission to top PhD programmes internationally, and The Philosophical Gourmet has recognized ours as one of the top five terminal MA programmes in North America. Students interested in public policy issues might also find pursuing an MA helpful.

The 2010-2011 Graduate Essay Prize was awarded to Jane Chen, for her paper, "Knowledge and Opinion in Republic V". Congratulations Jane!

This Fall look for a new face in the Philosophy Department. Dr. Dai Heide will be joining the department as a Lecturer. Dr. Heide earned his PhD at Ohio State University, and his research interests have focused on Kant’s account of our representation of space, and other aspects of Kantian and early modern philosophy. In addition to offering some of our core course offerings, he will be teaching an upper division course in the Spring term. Welcome Dai! 

Also, we are happy to welcome Prof. Phil Hanson and Dr. Jill McIntosh back from their study leaves. Prof. Kathleen Akins will be off on study leave starting in Fall 2011, and Prof. Martin Hahn will be on study leave starting in January 2012. Both will return in Fall 2012.

There’s quite a bit going on in the Department this year. For up to the minute information follow SFU Philosophy on Facebook and Twitter (who said philosophers were out of touch with popular culture?).

Let’s start with this summer. Prof. Kathleen Akins, along with Prof. Berit Brogaard (Missouri-St Louis), hosted an exciting multi-disciplinary workshop and conference on Human Cortical Colour Vision, taking place in Vancouver August 4-7, 2011. The conference was supported by both the McDonnell Foundation and a SSHRC Workshop Grant, as well as the SFU Philosophy Department and others.

Starting in the Fall the new Institute for Values in Policy and the Sciences will be hosting its inaugural lecture series on Climate Change, Ethics and Policy. The lineup is very exciting, with Prof. Michel Loreau (McGill) speaking on climate change and biodiversity; Prof. Mark Jaccard (SFU) speaking on the economic impact of climate change; and Prof. Dale Jamieson (NYU) speaking on climate justice. Look for details at the VIPS website. Next year the lecture series will take on issues concerning Privacy (in technology, health policy, genetic information, and other contexts).

We’ve got a full slate of colloquia planned for the Fall and Spring. You can find the schedule on our events page. And planning is underway for our second annual Alumni Conference, to be held in late March 2012.

You can read about the research some of our faculty have been up to here.

Dr. Lisa Shapiro
Chair, Department of Philosophy
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, BC  V5A 1S6
CANADA 

Email: chairphi at sfu.ca

Phone: 778.782.3343
Fax: 778.782.4443