| Date | Topic | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | ||
| December 2 | “When Do Things Die” | Dr. Cody Gilmore, assistant professor of philosophy at University of California at Davis |
| December 3 | “What Do Quantifiers and Variables Contribute?” | Dr. Cody Gilmore, assistant professor of philosophy at University of California at Davis |
| August 26 | “Zarathustra's Metaethics” | Dr. Neil Sinhababu, National University of Singapore |
| August 27 | “The Gap Between Thought and Ought” | Dr. Neil Sinhababu, National University of Singapore |
| April 15 | “Mathematics: Discovered or Invented?” | Dr. Kit Fine, Silver Professor of Philosophy and Mathematics at New York University |
| 2010 | ||
| April 27 | “Priority Ensemblism” | Dr. Joshua Spencer, Syracuse University |
| March 12 | “Can Science Disprove the Existence of God?" | Dr. Peter van Inwagen, is the John Cardinal O’Hara Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame |
| March 13 | “Causation and the Mental” | Dr. Peter van Inwagen, is the John Cardinal O’Hara Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame |
| November 13 | “Responding Rationally to Religions Disagreement" | Dr. Samuel Ruhmkorff, Bard College at Simon’s Rock |
| November 13 | "How the Pessimistic Induction Begs the Question” | Dr. Samuel Ruhmkorff, Bard College at Simon’s Rock |
| 2009 | ||
| September 10 | "Tracing and Epistemic Condition on Moral Responsibility" | Dr. Kevin Timpe, Northwest Nazarene University |
| May 9 | "Evolutionary Ethics and Wager Arguments" | Dr. Zac Ernst, University of Missouri-Columbia |
| May 8 | "Two Composition Problems in Action" | Dr. Sara Chant, University of Missouri-Columbia |
| April 17 | "An Atheist Defends Intelligent Design" | Dr. Bradley Monton, University of Colorado |
| April 18 | "Against Multiverse Theodicies" | Dr. Bradley Monton, University of Colorado |
| 2008 | ||
| December 5 | "Endless Hierarchies and Morally Perfect Beings" | Dr. Brian Kierland, Boise State University |
| November 21 | "Why Water Isn’t H2O" | Dr. Ken Dickey, Boise State University |
| 2006 | ||
| October 27 | "Perspectives in Imaginative Engagement with Fiction" | Dr. Elisabeth Camp, University of Pennsylvania |
| October 28 | "Poesis without Metaphor" | Dr. Elisabeth Camp, University of Pennsylvania |
| 2005 | ||
| December 6 | "The Ethics of a Politically Correct Christmas" | Mr. Jim Stockton, Boise State University |
| November 11 | "Colloquium on Endangered Species" | Speakers: Mr. Jon Marvel, Executive Director, Western Watersheds Project Mr. Laird Lucas Attorney & Executive Director, Advocates for the West Dr. Tony Roark, Boise State University Dr. Andrew Schoedinger, Boise State University Organized by Dr. Erin Anchustegui, Boise State University |
| April 21 | "Intrinsic Vale and Intrinsic Properties" | Dr. Josh Parsons, Univeristy of Califormia at Davis |
| April 22 | "Some New Zeno Puzzles" | Dr. Josh Parsons, Univeristy of Califormia at Davis |
| April 8 | "Who's your Daddy?" | Dr.Donald C. Hubin, Ohio State University |
| April 9 | "Responsibility for Dependent Life" | Dr.Donald C. Hubin, Ohio State University |
| February 18 | "The Gap of Between Art and Life" | Dr. Arthur C. Danto, Emeritus Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University |
| 2004 | ||
| November 18 | "Protecting Public Lands from Federally-Funded Abuses by Ranchers" | Mr. Jon Marvel, Western Watersheds Project |
| September 1 | "The Saints of Non-Violence: Christ, Gandhi, and Buddha" | Dr. Nick Gier, University of Idaho (emeritus) |
| February 27 | "How to Lose your Leg … Without Paradox" | Dr. Mark Heller, Southern Methodist University |
| February 28 | "The Conventionality of the 3-D/4-D Debate" | Dr. Mark Heller, Southern Methodist University |
| 2003 | ||
| May 2-3 | "The Essentialist Nominalism of John Buridan, and Consequences of a Closed, Token-Based Semantics: the Case of John Buridan" | Dr. Gyula Klima, Fordham University |
| April 25 | " The Quick Talk" | Dr. Hud Hudson, Western Wasington University |
| March 30 | "Vague, So Untrue" | Dr. Theodor Sider, Rutgers University |
| March 31 | "A New Grandfather Paradox?" | Dr. Theodor Sider, Rutgers University |
| 2002 | ||
| April12 | "Truth in Fiction: The Whole Story" | Dr. Frances Howard-Snyder, Western Washington University |
| March 15 | "Oppression and Epistemic Advantage: Why The View is Better From The Margins" | Dr. Audre Brokes, St. Joseph’s University |
| March 16 | "The Reference Class Problem and Direct Inference" | Dr. Audre Brokes, St. Joseph’s University |
| 2001 | ||
| October 9 | "Is It Stupid To Believe In God?" | Speakers: Dr. Ken Sanderson, Professor and Chair, Department of English; Rabbi Daniel Fink, Ahavath Beth Israel and Saikat Guha, Philosophy Major. |
| April 20 | "Inexplicable Contingency: Is There Any Explanation For Why Things That Could Have Been Otherwise Are the Way They Are?" | Dr. Hud Hudson, Western Washington University |
| April 21 | "Nothing But Dust and Ashes" | Dr. Hud Hudson, Western Washington University |
| March 10 | "Touching" | Dr. Hud Hudson, Western Washington University |
| 2000 | ||
| October 20 | "Notre Dame, Can Science Disprove the Existence of God?" | Dr. Peter van Inwagen, John Cardinal O’Hara Professor of Philosophy, Notre Dame |
| October 21 | "What Do We Refer to When We Say ‘I’?" | Dr. Peter van Inwagen, John Cardinal O’Hara Professor of Philosophy, Notre Dame |
| 1999 | ||
| October 29 | " Morality & the Limits of Technology" | Dr. Clarence Johnson, Middle Tennessee University |
| 1998 | ||
| November 13 | "The Ethics of Physician Assisted Suicide" | Dr. Ralph Baergen, Idaho State University |
| November 14 | "Eptisemic Internalism" | Dr. Ralph Baergen, Idaho State University |
| March 11 | " A Sound Argument Concerning Existence of God" | Dr. Hud Hudson, Western Washington University |
| 1997 | ||
| April 25 | "St. Augustine: Rhetoric and Religion in Roman North Africa" | Prof. Paul Beddoe, St. Andrews University |
| February 27 | "Creationism vs. Evolutionism." | Dr. Andrew B. Schoedinger & Reverend B. Fisher, Boise State University |
| 1996 | ||
| March 8 | "Inevitable Factual, Legal & Moral Errors: A Case Against the Death Penalty" | Prof. Jeff Johnson, Eastern Oregon State |
| March 9 | "Hare’s Internalism" | Mr. Patrick Beach M.A., Boise State University |
| February 6 | "Something Pertaining to Philosophy & Mathematics" | Dr. Randall Holmes, Boise State University |
| 1995 | ||
| November 17 | "Does Technological Progress Prove Our Cosmology to be True?" | Dr. Charles Huenemann, Utah State University |
| October 20 | "Advance Directives for Medical Care: What Are Our Goals and Why Aren’t We Achieving Them?" | Dr. Ralph Baergen, Idaho State University |
| March 17 | "How to Read Philosophy: An Easy Introduction to Foucault and Derrida" | Dr. Terry Mazurak, Albertson College |
| February 6 | "Plato & Friendship" | Dr. Mary Karol Taylor, Montana St. University |
| 1994 | ||
| March 19 | "A Multidisciplinary Look at Biotechnological Advances" | Philosophy/Psychology/Psy Chi/Psy Honorary |
| 1993 | ||
| December 3 | "Moderated Philosophy Club & Campus Crusade for Christ, Freethought Society"[McLuggage/Brandt] | Dr. Alan Brinton, Boise State University |
| 1990 | ||
| October 29 | "Pain and Ethical Naturalism [The Good, The Bad & The Ugly]" | Dr. Andrew B. Schoedinger, Dr. Alan Brinton and Dr. Warren Harbison, Boise State University |
| April 10 | "The Phenomenology of Stupidity as a Factor in Argument and Ethos" | Dr. Laurence Rosenfield, Queens College of the City University of New York |
| March 18 | "The Great Showdown" | Dr. Andrew B. Schoedinger and Dr. Ed McLuskie, Boise State University |
| Other | ||
| February 15, 1989 | "Idealism in Descartes & Malebranch" | Dr. Russell Wahl, Idaho State University |
| June 10, 1988 | "Values Implicit in the Concept of Suicide," and Hume’s Birthday all nighters to see “if the sun will truly rise.” | Dr. Michael J. Wreen, Marquette University |
Q: How does fallibility fit into the picture?
A: Perceptible objects are not epistemically fit to be proper objects of knowledge because (cf. 477a, 479a):
They aren’t purely (eilikrinos) F—i.e., they aren’t simply or unqualifiedly F (cf. Phaedo).
They aren’t completely (pantelos) F—i.e., they are subject to change.
The Argument from Knowledge
- If it’s possible that S knows that x is F, then x is purely and completely F. [Premise – stipulative condition on knowledge]
- If there is nothing that is purely and completely whatever it is, then knowledge is impossible. [1]
- But knowledge is possible. [Premise]
- Thus, there is something that is purely and completely F. [2, 3]
- But no perceptible object is purely and completely F. [Premise—cf. 479a,b]
- Hence, for every property F that can figure in a case of genuine knowledge, there is something that is purely and completely F (call it the “Form of F-ness”), distinct from any perceptible object, that is the object of knowledge concerning F-ness. [4, 5]