News

Ethics Bowl Earns Spot in Nationals

On Saturday, December 6th, two Ethics Bowl teams at UCSB competed at the California APPE (Association for Practical and Professional Ethics) regional competition. Both of our teams competed in the semifinals, and our school was one of four that earned a spot at the nationals competition, which will take place in March in St. Louis. The coaches this year were Jon Charry and Zhidi Chong.

Group Photo: (Back row from left to right): Alexander Ballantyne, Rose Li, Kaitlyn Johnson, Chinmay Khaladkar, Baden Rosales, Grace Lu, Chaya Haugland, Karina Schwartz

Daehwi Jeong Publication

Congratulations to Daehwi Jeong, whose paper "A Stone Should Not Be Music: Abstract Artifacts and Social Practices" has been accepted for publication at British Journal of Aesthetics!

Alex LeBrun Publication

Congratulations to Alex LeBrun (PhD 2023), whose paper "Equivalent Theories and Ontological Commitment" has been accepted for publication in Philosophy of Science!

Just Published: Allen and Roskies on the Evolutionary Functions of Consciousness

Adina Roskies and Colin Allen, along with Tecumseh Fitch of the University of Vienna, have a special issue out in Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society B about Evolutionary Functions of Consciousness. Read More Here.

2024 Leslie S. and Herbet Fingarette Award Winners

Thanks to the generosity of the Fingarette family, graduate students in the Philosophy Department are able to travel and attend conferences, workshops and other programs worldwide. In 2024, seven students embarked on meaningful work that contributed to their professional development. 

Please go here to read about their travels and how their Finagrette award supported them. 

Jordan Neidlinger Dissertation Defense

Congratulations to Jordan Neidlinger, who successfully defended his doctoral dissertation Temporal Experience and the B-Theory of Time on October 27th!

Welcome to the New Graduate Students!

The department warmly welcomes four new graduate students for the Fall '25: Laura De Santis, Elinor Gerbracht, Haoyi Li, and Sofia Ochoa.

Studying Philosophy Makes You a Better Thinker

A recent article discusses how studying philosophy makes you a better thinker. You can find the article here.