Tag: philosophy
The late Andy Rooney once said that most of us end up with no more than a handful of people who remember us, but teachers have thousands of individuals who remember them for the rest of their lives. This April and May, during Celebrating Excellence, NIU honors four professors who will undoubtedly leave a lasting...
Like many college students, Steven Daskal didn’t have a specific career in mind when he ventured off to Amherst College in 1991. Reflecting on his time in college, the Mt. Prospect native recalled having fleeting thoughts of becoming a novelist. However, after taking a broad range of classes, he found himself being drawn to philosophy....
With the help of a substantial donation from the John Templeton Foundation, NIU’s philosophy department is teaming up with Wi-Phi, an open access philosophy web site that aims to increase the role of philosophy in the public sphere. Launched in 2013 by Gaurav Vazirani, a graduate student at Yale, Wi-Phi publishes videos on philosophical topics...
Growing up in Walnut Creek, Calif., Geoffrey Pynn had fleeting thoughts of becoming a musician, a poet, and even maybe an artificial intelligence researcher. He was admittedly a little flaky in his younger years, never really settling on a specific career path; he was intrigued by seemingly everything. A philosophy major at Bates College in...
The College of Education’s Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology and Foundations invites the campus community Thursday, Oct. 3, to the 2013 James and Helen Merritt Distinguished Service Award Lecture. Thomas E. Wartenberg will present “Does Teaching Children Philosophy Educate Them?: Anti-Platonic Reflections on Doing Philosophy with Young People” at 4 p.m. A reception featuring complimentary...
When one considers what the practice of philosophy involves, one thing that springs to mind is its employment of the Socratic method of instruction, so brilliantly illustrated in Plato’s dialogues. Many people have a rudimentary notion that this method is intended to enhance understanding through dialogue. A more complete description recognizes that the Socratic method...
Valia Allori, a professor in the NIU Department of Philosophy, will speak at noon Wednesday, Jan. 30, in the next brown bag luncheon presented by the NIU Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society. The lunch takes place in the Illinois Room of the Holmes Student Center. Bring a lunch; light snacks, such as cookies and chips,...
On the topic of computers, artificial intelligence and robots, Northern Illinois University Professor David Gunkel says science fiction is fast becoming “science fact.” Fictional depictions of artificial intelligence have run the gamut from the loyal Robot in “Lost in Space” to the killer computer HAL in “2001: A Space Odyssey” and the endearing C-3PO and...
NIU philosophy professor Jason Hanna recently has received the Young Ethicist Prize from the Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress (RoME) for his essay submission titled, “Doing, Allowing and The Relevance of the Past.” Each year, RoME offers the prize to the top paper written by an non-tenured ethicist. As a winner of the award, Hanna will receive...
Issues ranging from the use of social media to sharing confidential information with friends will be in question when the NIU College of Business puts students in the hot seat during its second annual NIU Ethics Case Competition from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, April 13. Hosted by the BELIEF Initiative (Building Ethical Leaders...
Over the most recent five-year period for which data are available from the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the NIU Department of Philosophy is the largest producer of M.A. degrees in philosophy among all public universities in Illinois. Moreover, the program is also the largest producer of graduate degrees in philosophy among all public universities in Illinois.
