For the second year in a row, graduate students in the Department of Philosophy are hosting a graduate conference in epistemology on the University of Rochester's River Campus.
The success of last year's event, developed by the students themselves to draw favorable attention to the University's philosophy department, encouraged the organizers to plan another conference, according to graduate student and conference finance chair Todd Long.
"We wanted to celebrate the fact that our department is one of the highest ranked places anywhere to study epistemology," Long said. "We'd like it to be the case that when people think epistemology, they think UR."
In addition to graduate philosophy students, undergraduate philosophy majors and minors as well as other interested students are expected to attend this year's conference on Friday, Nov. 8, and Saturday, Nov. 9.
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies knowledge. Last year, graduate students from Brown University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins University, and Cornell University attended the conference.
Richard Fumerton, professor of philosophy at the University of Iowa and a distinguished epistemologist, is the keynote speaker for this year's conference. He will present his talk, "Epistemic Internalism, Philosophical Assurance, and the Skeptical Predicament," from 4:15 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 9, in room 2-162 of Dewey Hall. Fumerton is the author of Reason and Morality: A Defense of the Egocentric Perspective, Metaepistemology and Skepticism, and most recently, Truth and Correspondence.
Earl Conee, professor of philosophy at the University of Rochester, will be the commentator for the talk. A general question-and-answer session will follow.
For more information, contact the philosophy department at (585) 275-4105 or consult the conference website at mail.rochester.edu/~nobs/conference/index.html.