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SPA Student Speaker Series
October 17 @ 5:00 am - 7:00 pm
This FA24, the Student Philosophy Association is hosting the next iteration of its Student Speaker Series. Come join up for snacks and refreshments and student talks. Questions can be directed to SPA President Sam Parajuli <sam.parajuli01@student.csulb.edu>.
The event will take place in LA5–165 at 5:00pm–7:00pm on Thursday November 7th.
Program:
5:00pm–5:30pm: Graduate Student Research Presentation + Q&A
Daniel Mangandi-Escobar (Cal State Long Beach)
Determinism and compatibilism
Determinism and compatibilism
- Abstract: Determinism implies that that every event and action in the universe has been determined by previous causes. I argue that free will is possible, rejecting hard determinism. Compatibilism implies that free will can exist even within a deterministic world. From this perspective, free will is not opposed to determinism. Instead, our choices and actions can still be considered free under a deterministic framework. This paper extends the scope of compatibilism by applying it to the field of gender identity, pulling from queer theory the argument that gender identity is innately performative.
- Areas: Applied Metaphysics, Social Philosophy
5:30pm–6:00pm: Graduate Student Research Presentation + Q&A
Margaret Welch (Cal State Long Beach)
B-theories of time
B-theories of time
- Abstract: The B-theory of time, coupled with perdurantism, provides a comprehensive view of how time works and how
objects persist through it. According to B-theory, all moments in time exist equally; according to Perdurantism, objects
are extended through time as a collection of temporal parts. The challenge arises when trying to account for how each
temporal part is perceived by the whole, particularly regarding the perception of later parts. If we take perception to mean
‘awareness of the present’, what makes it the case that I appear to be perceiving these temporal parts in a specific order?
Following this question, it becomes apparent that there is a need to posit the existence of an additional part outside of time.
The introduction of this additional part also seeks to explain how we feel the sensation of moving through time.
- Areas: Metaphysics
6:00pm–6:30pm: Graduate Student Research Presentation + Q&A
Anna Rikshpun (Cal State Long Beach)
Julien Offray de La Mettrie on the mind/body problem
Julien Offray de La Mettrie on the mind/body problem
- Abstract: Julien Offray de La Mettrie’s philosophical project tends to be overlooked by scholars due to its anti-systematic nature. It is unclear whether his work impacted the development of the tradition of materialism, or how much philosophical significance there was to the project. I argue that L’homme machine and Treatise of the Soul exhibit trademarks of radical materialism that defy the Christian philosophical tradition that has hitherto been prevalent among the thinkers, from whom La Mettrie takes the seeds, necessary for the sprout of his own philosophical efforts.
- Area: Early Modern History, Philosophy of Mind
6:00pm–6:30pm: Graduate Student Research Presentation + Q&A
Brandon Beller (Cal State Long Beach)
Sensorimotor enactivism
Sensorimotor enactivism
- Abstract: There is a debate in the literature on sensorimotor enactivism about whether or not the phenomenon of dreaming poses a significant challenge to that view. Sensorimotor enactivism, in brief, is a framework for explaining how phenomenal experience emerges from and is affected by the implicit knowledge an animal (human or non-human) has about how its own movements produce sensory change. It is opposed to representationalist views of mind which claim that phenomenal experience emerges solely from neural activity. A common criticism of the sensorimotor enactivist view is that it cannot accommodate ‘familiar and apparently highly relevant experiential phenomena, such as dreams and mental imagery’ (Clark, 2012). This is because dreams seem to replicate the phenomenal character of waking experience without any skillful interaction with one’s external environment.
- Area: Philosophy of Cognitive Science