Asian Philosophy Reading Group

The Asian Philosophy Reading Group is a reading group for graduate students who are interested in the philosophical traditions of Asia (esp. Chinese and Indian).

ECOM Reading Group

We will continue our reading group from Fall 2020 of Christine Korsgaard's book, Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to the Other Animals (2018), Oxford University Press. For the Spring Semester, we will pick up with Chapter 8.

The book gives a Kant-inspired defense of the claim that humans have direct obligations to other animals. The first section discusses morally salient similarities/dissimilarities between humans and non-human animals. The second section discusses Kant's own view, and provides a Kantian case for our obligations to animals. And the third section examines a number of moral issues, including predation, habitat loss, eating animals, companion animals, and the use of animals in scientific experiments. I expect the book to be relevant to those working on the origins of human morality/language or other related ECOM themes, as well as to those with interests in ethics, metaethics, and Kantianism. For more information contact Drew Johnson (drew.johnson@uconn.edu).

Epistemology Reading Group

This group focuses on theoretical epistemology. For Spring 2021, we will mainly focus on Sarah Moss's Probabilistic Knowledge. Contact Ahmad Jabbar (ahmad.jabbar@uconn.edu) for more information.

Logic Reading Group

We will be reading Shoesmith & Smiley's Multiple-Conclusion Logic for the beginning part of the semester, and texts TBD by the group for the latter half. Contact Chris Rahlwes (christopher.rahlwes@uconn.edu) or Eric Berg (eric.berg@uconn.edu) for more information.

Negation Reading Group

We will be reading Déprez & Espinal (ed) The Oxford Handbook of Negation. Contact Chris Rahlwes (christopher.rahlwes@uconn.edu) or Eric Berg (eric.berg@uconn.edu) for more information.

Asian Philosophy Reading Group

The Asian Philosophy Reading Group is a reading group for graduate students who are interested in the philosophical traditions of Asia (esp. Chinese and Indian).

ECOM Reading Group

We will be reading Christine Korsgaard's book, Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to the Other Animals (2018), Oxford University Press.

The book gives a Kant-inspired defense of the claim that humans have direct obligations to other animals. The first section discusses morally salient similarities/dissimilarities between humans and non-human animals. The second section discusses Kant's own view, and provides a Kantian case for our obligations to animals. And the third section examines a number of moral issues, including predation, habitat loss, eating animals, companion animals, and the use of animals in scientific experiments. I expect the book to be relevant to those working on the origins of human morality/language or other related ECOM themes, as well as to those with interests in ethics, metaethics, and Kantianism. For more information contact Drew Johnson (drew.johnson@uconn.edu).

Logic Reading Group

We will be reading Shoesmith & Smiley's Multiple-Conclusion Logic. Contact Chris Rahlwes (christopher.rahlwes@uconn.edu) or Eric Berg (eric.berg@uconn.edu) for more information.

Negation Reading Group

We will be reading Gabbay & Wansing (ed.) What is Negation? Contact Chris Rahlwes (christopher.rahlwes@uconn.edu) or Eric Berg (eric.berg@uconn.edu) for more information.

Asian Philosophy Reading Group

The Asian Philosophy Reading Group is a reading group for graduate students who are interested in the philosophical traditions of Asia (esp. Chinese and Indian).

ECOM Reading Group

We will be reading Christine Korsgaard's book, Fellow Creatures: Our Obligations to the Other Animals (2018), Oxford University Press.

The book gives a Kant-inspired defense of the claim that humans have direct obligations to other animals. The first section discusses morally salient similarities/dissimilarities between humans and non-human animals. The second section discusses Kant's own view, and provides a Kantian case for our obligations to animals. And the third section examines a number of moral issues, including predation, habitat loss, eating animals, companion animals, and the use of animals in scientific experiments. I expect the book to be relevant to those working on the origins of human morality/language or other related ECOM themes, as well as to those with interests in ethics, metaethics, and Kantianism. For more information contact Drew Johnson (drew.johnson@uconn.edu).

Logic Reading Group

We will be reading Shoesmith & Smiley's Multiple-Conclusion Logic. Contact Chris Rahlwes (christopher.rahlwes@uconn.edu) or Eric Berg (eric.berg@uconn.edu) for more information.

Negation Reading Group

We will be reading Gabbay & Wansing (ed.) What is Negation? Contact Chris Rahlwes (christopher.rahlwes@uconn.edu) or Eric Berg (eric.berg@uconn.edu) for more information.

Comparative Philosophy Reading Group

The Comparative Philosophy Reading Group is a reading group for graduate students who are interested in engaging with "global philosophy." It focuses on Chinese and Indian philosophy, but there is room for discussion of other cultures (e.g. Mayan, Egyptian, etc.) as well.

ECOM Reading Group

Logic Reading Group

The Logic Reading Group is a reading group of graduate students who are eager to learn logic. The reading group consists of one weekly ninety minute session. It focuses on the technical and mathematical aspects of logic, and secondarily on philosophical aspects. Our goal is to improve our technical skills (stating definitions and theorems, doing proofs, etc.), but also to survey the main developments in the literature in the field. Our approach is both model-theoretic and proof-theoretic. Topics we have or will explore in a given year include: meta-theoretical results such as the Compactness, Completeness, and Lowenheim-Skolem theorems; second-order logic; non-classical logics, such as relevance and intuitionistic logic; free logic; the sequent calculus for various logical systems; plural logic; conditionals. We have, from time to time, guest lectures from faculty members who are experts on the topic discussed that week, from the Philosophy, Mathematics, and Linguistics departments.

Mind Discussion Group

The Mind Discussion Group is an interdisciplinary discussion group about mind and cognition, broadly construed. The aim is to bring together those with a passion for theoretical and empirical perspectives on the mind in order to share and develop ideas across disciplines. We have attendees from the departments of philosophy, linguistics, psychology and cognitive science and meet biweekly. Contact Michael Hegarty (michael.hegarty@uconn.edu) for details.

Ethics Reading Group

The Ethics Reading Group (ERG) Ethics Reading Group is reading Martha Nussbaum's book From Disgust to Humanity.  Contact Suzy Killmister for any questions and/or information.

Expression, Communication, and Origins of Meaning Research Group

The Expression, Communication, and Origins of Meaning Research Group (ECOM) has a bi-weekly reading group.  Meeting times and readings can be found on the ECOM website ECOM under Events.

Rumfitt Reading Group

We will be reading Ian Rumfitt's recent book The Boundary Stones of Thought: An Essay in Philosophy of Logic.  We meet Thursdays 1-3PM in the Manchester Hall Basement Lounge. Our schedule, with readings, this semester is as follows:

1. 9/10 - Chapter One: Introduction
2. 9/17 - Chapter Two: Logical Laws
3. 9/24 - Chapter Three: Logical Necessity
4. 10/1 - Chapter Four: The Argument of Dummett's "Truth"
5. 10/8 - Chapter Five: The Verificationist Attack on Classical Logic
6. 10/15 - Chapter Six: Possibilities
7. 10/22 - Chapter Seven: Challenges from the Infinite and from the Infinitesimal
8. 10/29 - Chapter 8: The Challenge from Vagueness
9. 11/5 - Chapter 9: On the Use of Classical Logic in Set Theory
10. 11/12 - Chapter 10: Conclusion

Contact Nathan Kellen for any questions and information.

UConn Wittgenstein Group

This fall we will be reading  Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. We'll be meeting Tuesdays 4:30-5:30PM, in Manchester Hall 227. Contact Andrew Parisi for any questions and information.

Category Theory Reading Group

The Category Theory Reading Group (CTR) is reading "Categories for the Working Mathematician" by Saunders Mac Lane. This is a textbook on category theory, a branch of mathematics which acts as a unified conceptual framework for discussing abstractions in other areas of mathematics.  Contact Morgan Thomas for any questions and information.

Ethics Reading Group

The Ethics Reading Group (ERG) Ethics Reading Group is reading Simone de Beauvior's book The Ethics of Ambiguity.  Contact Paul Bloomfield for any questions and/or information.

Expression, Communication, and Origins of Meaning Research Group

The Expression, Communication, and Origins of Meaning Research Group (ECOM) has a bi-weekly reading group.  Meeting times and readings can be found on the ECOM website ECOM under Events.

Medieval Reading Group (MRG)

The Medieval Reading Group meets Thursdays from 11-12:30 to discuss various papers on work from medieval philosophers. Focus so far has been on medieval approaches to issues in logic, e.g. supposition theory (roughly corresponding to modern questions of reference and truth conditions), consequentia (questions regarding the nature of logical consequence), and solutions to paradoxes like the Liar and the paradox of validity.  This semester we've discussed selections from Terence Parsons' recent book Articulating Medieval Logic as well as papers by Stephen Read among others. Contact David Pruitt for any questions and information.

UConn Wittgenstein Group

This fall we will be reading Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. We'll be meeting weekly starting in January. Contact Nathan Kellen for any questions and information.

UConn Wittgenstein Group

This fall we will be reading more selections from Wittgenstein's unpublished and oft-overlooked Big Typescript (TS 213), which includes chapters on nearly every topic Wittgenstein was interested in during his career. We'll be meeting weekly starting in September. Contact Nathan Kellen for any questions and information.

Medieval Reading Group

The Medieval Reading Group (MRG) meets  (TBD) to discuss various papers on work from medieval philosophers. Focus has been on medieval logic, in particular Buridan's notion of consequentia and the Liar Paradox. The group will meet this semester to discuss issues in medieval logic, discussing a numer of different papers by people such as Klima, Perini-Santos, Read and Dutilh Novaes. Contact Andrew Parisi for any questions and information.

Reading Group on Ruth Garrett Millikan's work

The Millikan Reading Group gathers bi-weekly (schedule for fall 2014 TBA) to discuss the work of Ruth Millikan. We are currently reading her latest manuscript, and in the past have read parts of Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories, as well as various articles. Contact Nathan Sheff for any questions and information.

Reading Group on Ruth Garrett Millikan's work

This summer we are organising a reading group on Professor Emerita Ruth Millikan's influential work in the philosophy of mind, language and biology. Readings include seminal papers, sections from Language, Thought and Other Biological Categories as well as chapters from a draft of a new book manuscript. We are meeting every other Wednesday (starting 21 May) at 4.10 in the Manchester Hall 227. Contact Nathan Sheff for any questions and information.

UConn Wittgenstein Group

This summer we will be reading selections from Wittgenstein's unpublished and oft-overlooked Big Typescript (TS 213), which includes chapters on nearly every topic Wittgenstein was interested in during his career. We'll be meeting weekly starting in July. Contact Nathan Kellen for any questions and information.

Reading Group on Hue Price’s 2013 Book

This summer we’ll be meeting 4 times to read Huw Price’s Expressivism, Pragmatism and Representationalism (Cambridge, 2013).

Contact Nathan Kellen for any questions and further information.

Ethics Reading Group

This semester we're reading TM Scanlon's What We Owe to Each Other, a highly influential book in both metaethics and normative ethics, in which he develops his buck-passing account of goodness and contractualist normative theory.

UConn Wittgenstein Group

This semester we're following the Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics with his earlier Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics. The Lectures were delivered at Cambridge in 1939 and represent Wittgenstein's middle period thoughts on mathematics, with intervening comments by Turing and others in the audience.