Amie Thomasson, Daniel P. Stone Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, Dartmouth College, will speak on “What Can Philosophy Do?” Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022.

Abstract: Philosophy has traditionally been presented as aiming to discover deep facts about what exists, or about what the world is really like. But today, those seem like projects better pursued by the natural sciences. So what (if anything) is left for philosophy to do? I will argue that we can do better by thinking of philosophy as addressing questions about what we should do, including how we should think or talk. On this way of reconceiving philosophy, the work of philosophy remains deep, interesting, and important--and capable of reshaping how we think and how we live.