Department of Philosophy

In an excerpt from his new book, philosophy professor Randall Curren looks at the Pledge's Rochester roots and traces its evolving use in public schools.

As a computer science major minoring in philosophy, Josh Pachter was ideally suited for developing concepts for programming self-driving cars that behave ethically. His idea: create ethical machines through a process similar to how we raise children.

Growing up in Los Angeles, Matthew Lyskawa ’18 saw no purpose in school. But a teacher saw a spark and lit the fire that set Lyskawa on his journey, first to community college, then Rochester, and now to begin a doctoral program in philosophy at Harvard.

Two recent Rochester graduates are among 92 students chosen worldwide to be Gates Cambridge Scholars—the most prestigious international postgraduate scholarship offered by the University of Cambridge.

When people disagree, and all involved in the discussion believe that theirs is the reasonable position, what’s to be done? That’s a question that underlies a lecture series in September by philosopher Richard Feldman.

In his new book Living Well Now and in the Future: Why Sustainability Matters Curren argues that the core of sustainability is the “long-term preservation of opportunities to live well.”

Each academic year, Rochester faculty members publish books that advance scholarship and investigate questions of broad interest. New Reads offers a selection of some of their most recent work.

Feldman, who has served as dean of the College for the past decade, is also a professor of philosophy in the School of Arts & Sciences and will be returning to the philosophy department following a year of leave in the 2017-18 academic year.