News

LeBrun Dissertation Defense and Placement

Congratulations to Alex LeBrun, who has successfully defended his dissertation titled On the Metaphysical Content of Scientific Theories! Alex will be starting as a lecturer at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly SLO) this fall. 

Emeritus Faculty Republishing: Fingarette's Confucius

Herbert Fingarette's (1921-2018) seminal 1972 monograph Confucius: The Secular as Sacred will be republished by Apocryphile Press. Proceeds will go towards the Fingarette Fund, which was created by Professor Fingarette's daughter Ann Fingarette Hasse to support our graduate students. See here for some praise for the reissued edition, and here for a link to the publisher's site.

Allen and Roskies Hires

We are pleased to announce two senior hires: Colin Allen (philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and biology), previously Distinguished Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh, started at UCSB on July 1, 2023. And in addition, Adina Roskies (philosophy of science, cognitive science, and mind), currently holder of a Chair in philosophy at Dartmouth College, will join UCSB in January 2024. We are very excited to welcome both to the Department!

In Memoriam: Herbert Fingarette

Remembering Herbert Fingarette, who joined the faculty of the UCSB Department of Philosophy in 1948. Below is an obituary written by Professor Fingarette's daughter Ann and her husband Erich. 

R. Wolfe Randall Passes Qualifying Paper

Congratulations to R. Wolfe Randall for successfully defending his paper "Why We Should Believe​ Our Controversial Philosophical Views". Passing the Qualifying Paper is the last hurdle in our graduate program before advancing to candidacy.

Flavio Tisi Passes Qualifying Paper

Congratulations to Flavio Tisi for successfully defending his paper "Against Brueckner and Fisher's Solution to the Lucretian Symmetry Argument". Passing the Qualifying Paper is the last hurdle in our graduate program before advancing to candidacy.

Announcing the Fingarette Fund

We're pleased to announce that, in honor of our former colleague Herbert Fingarette, Professor Fingarette's daughter Ann Fingarette Hasse has established for our department the Leslie S. and Herbert Fingarette Fund, with the hope that his work, lasting impact, and the crucial role that he played as a leading figure in our department will continue to inspire. The Fund will be used to support graduate student travel. We are tremendously grateful to the Fingarette family for their generous support. 

2023 Graduate and Undergraduate Awards

Congrats to this year's winners of the Philosophy Department's awards! The awardees were honored at the Department's end-of-the-year barbecue. Our undergraduate winners are:

Girvetz Award: Ashley Alvarado

Church Award: Xixiang Hu

Wilkins Award: Adrian Villarreal

Our graduate student winners this year are:

Siff Prize: Alex LeBrun

Stough Prize: Jiyao Tang

Wienpahl Award for Teaching Excellence: Alex LeBrun