Publications

William Lycan on Mind, Meaning, and Method

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Mitchell Green, Co-editor

Palgrave MacMillan, 2024

William Lycan is an internationally renowned American philosopher whose work since the late 1960s has been not only extensive but also influential, particularly in the areas of philosophy of mind, epistemology, philosophy of language, metaphysics, and more recently metaphilosophy. This contributed volume features high-quality contributions by prominent or up-and-coming philosophers who critically examine many aspects of Lycan’s work; it also contains an essay by Lycan responding to these contributions. In this way, not only is the importance of William Lycan’s work appreciated, it is also made accessible for further research. The book is also suitable for teaching purposes at universities.

Cover of William Lycan on Mind, Meaning, and Method.

Law, Politics, and Responding to Injustice

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Ting-an Lin, Contributor

Taylor and Francis, 2024

Chapter 9: “Acting Together to Address Structural Injustice: A Deliberative Mini-public Proposal”

Structural injustices exist when the impact of social structure exposes some groups of people to undeserved burdens while conferring unearned power to others. It has been argued that the responsibility for addressing structural injustices is shared among all the participants of the wrongful social structures and can only be discharged through collective action; however, the proper form of collective action does not happen easily. This chapter contributes to the discussions on addressing structural injustice in two steps. First, it categorizes three forms of practical challenges encountered by existing proposals for discharging shared responsibility for structural injustice. Second, it proposes an alternative proposal based on a type of political institution named deliberative mini-publics, which involves a diverse group of people convening to deliberate on issues of public concern and produce results that can be used as guidance for the greater public in responding to those issues. The deliberative mini-public proposal suggests establishing multiple deliberative mini-publics and making participation in the mini-publics a civic duty to address issues of structural injustice. This chapter argues that the deliberative mini-public proposal has the potential to complement existing proposals in mobilizing structural change and overcoming the identified practical challenges.

Cover of "Law, Politics, and Responding to Injustice."

Lewis Gordon: Featured in Spectrum Magazine

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Check out Spectrum magazine’s reviews of Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor Lewis Gordon‘s book Freedom, Justice, and Decolonization (Routledge 2021). Each article reviews a chapter of the aforementioned book. There are currently four installments in the series, which you can read below:

Africana Thought: Adventist Philosophers Review “Freedom, Justice, and Decolonization” – 1 by Yi Shen Ma

Re-Imagining Liberations: Adventist Philosophers Review “Freedom, Justice, and Decolonization” – 2 by Marlene Ferreras

The Problem with Justice: Adventist Philosophers Review “Freedom, Justice, and Decolonization” – 3 by Yi Shen Ma

Neighbor Love, Political Love, and Divine Love by Zane Yi

 

Congratulations, Lewis!

Thomas Meagher: On the Notion of Philosophy

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UConn Philosophy Alum Tom Meagher’s (’18) new article, “On the Notion of Black Issues in Philosophy,” was published on the APA blog, Black Issues in Philosophy, last Friday. Among some names mentioned is our very own department head: Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor Lewis Gordon. Check out an excerpt from the article below:

In taking on Black issues, philosophy manifests its care for the maturation of knowledge by realizing philosophy’s significance to those who confront black issues not only as intellectual exercises but as impositions that imbue existence with tragic responsibilities that knowledge alone is insufficient to transcend. In short, black/Black issues are among those where the philosopher’s effort to deal with them may, in turn, make the philosopher’s work and labor more genuinely philosophical.

You can read the full article on the APA’s blog.

Congratulations, Tom!

Ting-An Lin: Democratizing AI and the Concern of Algorithmic Injustice

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Assistant Professor Ting-An Lin’s recent article “Democratizing AI’ and the Concern of Algorithmic Injustice” was just published in Philosophy & Technology. In this article, Dr. Lin examines the notions of democratizing AI in relation to lessening algorithmic injustice. You can read an excerpt from the abstract below:

 

My examinations reveal that while some versions of democratizing AI bear the prospect of mitigating the concern of algorithmic injustice, others are somewhat limited and might even function to perpetuate unjust power hierarchies. This analysis thus urges a more fine-grained discussion on how to democratize AI and suggests that closer scrutiny of the power dynamics embedded in the socio-technical structure can help guide such explorations.

 

Congratulations, Ting-an! You can read the full article by clicking here.

Hady Ba and Gregory Doukas: Academy of Advanced African Studies

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Congratulations to visiting research fellow Hady Ba and part-time faculty member Gregory Doukas on being rewarded with a fellowship at the Academy of Advanced African Studies in Bayreuth, Germany. This fellowship is for next year, 2025.

 

Ba and Doukas are also co-authors of a book in African philosophy and decolonial theory; in which an article about their work will be published in Philosophy and Global Affairs this summer.