This issue edited by Anne Hiskes
            Designer:  Shelly Burelle 

Welcome to the eighteenth issue of Cogitamus!  This issue covers news for the period of Jan. 1 - April 30, 2002.  The next issue of Cogitamus will appear Fall, 2003.  

Highlights:  Focus on Len Krimerman.  Also read about recent retirements and our new Ph.D.'s!  

• Congratulations to Joel Kupperman for being named as a University of Connecticut Humanities Institute Fellow for 2003-04.  As a fellow Joel will teach one seminar of his choice and devote the rest of his time to completing two book projects: the monograph  Ethics and Qualities of Life which is a study of the place of ethics in judgements of value, and Six Mistakes About the Good Life which is intended for a general audience.  In addition he plans to complete "Morality, Ethics, and Wisdom" for Handbook of Wisdom: Psychological Perspectives, eds. Robert Sternberg and Jennifer Jordan (two Yale psychologists), to be published by Cambridge UP.

• Paul Bloomfield's book  Moral Reality was chosen by Oxford University Press to be one of the "core" philosophy texts  (roughly 200 titles per discipline) for its new  Oxford Scholarship Online program that will make "scholarly and research level" books available over the internet.

• Tim (aka "Crawford") Elder has published two articles: "Destruction, Alteration, Simples and World- Stuff" in Philosophical Quarterly, 53 (2003), pp. 24-38, and "Alexander's Dictum and the Reality of Familiar Objects," Topoi, 22 (2003), pp. 163-71. He is also happy to announce that his book Real Natures and Familiar Objects has been accepted by M.I.T. Press / Bradford Books and will appear in early 2004.
• Margaret Gilbert's  new book Marcher Ensemble: Essais sur les Fondements des is now available from the Presses Universitaires de France. She will be signing copies at a bookstore during her April visit to Paris.

• Ruth Millikan has written "Teleological Theories of Mental Content" for the Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, published by Macmillan. In addition, her lecture "Vom Augeblichen Siegeszug der Gene und der Meme" ["On the Rumored Takeover by the Genes and The Memes"] for the lecture series "Wissenkultur und geselschaftlichen Wandel" at Wolfgang Goethe University has been  published by Suhrkamp Verlag, Hajo Greif translator.

• Diana Tietjens Meyers has published "Gendered Work and Autonomy" in Recognition, Responsibility, and Rights: Feminist Ethics and Social Theory, ed. Hilde Nelson and Robin Fiore (Rowman and Littlefield).

• John Troyer's edited volume The Classical  Utilitarians  Bentham and Mill has been published by Hackett.  

• Susan Anderson presented the keynote lecture " The Current Crisis in American Morality: How Big Business and Philosophers Have Contributed to, and Must Address, the Crisis"  for a conference on "Ethics and Business in the 21st Century" at Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota on April 12^th. , and also addressed two classes while there.  On April 8 she presented a version of her keynote lecture at the Stamford campus as part of a week-long celebration of the fifth anniversary of the new downtown campus.
• Paul Bloomfield traveled to the University of North Dakota to present his paper "Opening Questions and Following Rules" at the 31st Conference for Value Inquiry on April 11.
• Tim (aka "Crawford")   Elder gave a talk "On the Place of Artifacts in Ontology" at the Central Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association, in Cleveland, on 24 April 2003.

• Margaret Gilbert has been busy with presentations this past Spring.  She gave an invited talk "Shared Values, Social Unity, and Liberty" to the Philosophy Department at Yale University early in the Spring semester and to the Institute for European Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, on March 7.  On Feb. 14 she In April Margaret traveled to Paris to give an invited talk on collective belief at the Sorbonne. Shortly afterwards she visited Oxford University to present a paper on the understanding of teams at an international, interdisciplinary workshop on Teamwork.  As a Fellow of the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute this past year, Margaret ended her tenure there by presenting &pquot;Rights Reconsidered&pquot; on April 24.

• As one of three presenters along with Rae Langton (Edinburgh) and Stephen Darwall (Michigan) at the Duke University Workshop on Intrinsic Value May 2-3, Joel Kupperman presented and then defended for two hours his paper "The Epistemology of Intrinsic Value".

• On Nov. 21 Bob Luyster served as a presenter and discussant for a panel discussion "War in Iraq: Ethical and Human Rights Considerations," at the University of Connecticut.  He also chaired a panel discussion on "Representations of War" for the conference "Aggressions, Transgressions, Repressions: A Conference on the Representations of Violence" at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute on April 12.

• Ruth Millikan has given three presentations this past Spring. On Feb. 25 she visited Connecticut College, presenting "Crossing Purposes" to the faculty, and leading discussions on her articles "Biosemantics" and "In Defence of Proper Functions" for Derek Turner's seminar on Philosophy of Biology. On March 15-16 she gave the keynote talk " Blackboard Talk on Representations" for the  Graduate Student's Conference, University of Pittsburgh.  On April 11 Ruth presented "On Crossing Purposes" as a public lecture for the fourth annual Tamara Horowitz Memorial Lecture.

• Diana Tietjens Meyers delivered her invited paper "The Personal, the Political, and Psycho-Corporeal Identity" at the SWIP session at the APA Pacific Division Meetings in San Francisco in March 2003. While occupying the Laurie New Jersey Chair in the Women's and Gender Studies Department at Rutgers University she  presented the talk "Bumpy Lives, Smooth Stories" to the Douglass College Honors Students and other guests on March 24, and she gave her Laurie Lecture "Body Image/Body Misery: What About Emancipatory Embodiment?" on April 1. While at Rutgers, she is participating in a weekly faculty/graduate student seminar on "Reconfiguring Class and Gender:  Identities, Rights, and Social Movements," sponsored by the Institute for Research on Women and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. On April 24 she will present her paper "Narrative and Moral Life" to the seminar.

• John Troyer was an invited participant at the Rutgers Epistemology Conference May 2-4.

Service

• Paul Bloomfield has designed UConn's first on-line philosophy course (Philosophy 104) which he will teach this summer through  Continuing Education. He views this as an experiment in education. We are all waiting to see if the null hypothesis is confirmed.

• Anne Hiskes has been appointed Chair of the General Education Oversight Committee at the University of Connecticut which is charged with implementing the new general education requirements and curriculum.

• Diana Tietjens Meyers is a member of the FEAST (Association for Feminist Ethics and Social Thought) Program Committee, and has been refereeing papers submitted for the fall 2003 conference.

Fun and Other News

• Rob Grover (Emeritus) reports that he and his wife Nancy have been given a two page spread in "Art and Antiques" for a story on the "Top 100" collectors in the US.  Rob and his wife Nancy treated the philosophy department to a reception at the space that houses their art collection several years ago.

• John Troyer looks forward to his sabbatic leave during the year  2003-04. He hopes to write a book about teleological accounts of rationality, and promises to gratefully plagiarize any ideas on the topic that you provide.

GRADUATE STUDENTS

• Congratulations to Tim Nulty for being one of only two graduate students in the humanities to win a Humanities Institute Fellowship for 2003-04. The fellowship provides full support for dissertation research. In addition Tim served as session chair at the Hawaiian International Conference for the Arts and Humanities in January.  He presented two papers at the conference, both of which are published in the conference proceedings. His paper on the relationship between Heidegger and Davidson's accounts of truth is forthcoming in Idealistic Studies.

• Congratulations to Jim Phelps for his admission into the MS program in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.  Jim will also continue to write his Ph.D. thesis on evolutionary psychology in the Philosophy Department.

• Congratulations to Adam Potthast who, along with one other person, has won the "University of Connecticut 2003 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award" for excellence in teaching. The award comes with a $500.00 stipend to be used for professional development.  In addition Adam served as  facilitator (with Len Krimerman) for a campus discussion on the Iraq War.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR PH.D. GRADUATES

• Lisa Cassidy (advisor: Meyers) successfully defended her dissertation "Different Bodies" on April 11. Lisa has a tenure-track position at Ramapo College in Mahwah, NJ.

• On April 22 William Cornwell III (advisor: Millikan) successfully defended his dissertation "Knowledge Without Justification".  William has a teaching position at West Point.

• Weimin Sun (advisor: Troyer) successfully defended his dissertation "The Concept of Probability" on April 28.  Weimin will be moving to California this summer to begin his tenure-track position at the California State University, Northridge.

Alumni News

• Congratulations to Andy Aavatsmark and wife Lee Newton on the birth of their son this past spring.
• Steve Lahey reports that he has published entries on Gaetano de Thiene, William Arnauldus, and Thomas Bradwardine n Blackwell's Companion to Medieval Philosophy, ed. Gracia & Noone. Says Steve, These are three figures about whom nobody can have enough philosophical information. Also, he has resigned from LeMoyne University to pursue the episcopal priesthood.

Retirements

Several members of the Philosophy Department found the governor's latest "Golden Handshake" retirement inducement too good to turn down.  The Department of Philosophy is sorry to lose Len Krimerman, Scott Lehman, and Ruth Millikan as fulltime faculty. Len, Scott, and Ruth have served their students as dedicated teachers and mentors, the university as wise advisors, the department as supportive and stimulating colleagues, and the profession as innovative scholars. Each leaves a niche that can never again be completely filled.  Scott has served the department as its chief logician and environmentally literate member.  Len has linked the department to real- world social and political issues. Ruth has endowed our department with a degree of visibility not previously enjoyed by inventing a new paradigm for understanding language and thought.  Although Len, Scott, and Ruth leave the state payroll, they are not really leaving the department.  Each will be back in the Fall teaching students, supporting colleagues, and doing their research.

Focus on Len Krimerman

by Anne Hiskes

Len Krimerman is not a stereotypical "arm-chair" philosopher, and Len's Thursday afternoon meeting of "Social and Political Philosophy" this past April was not a stereotypical undergraduate philosophy class. True to his joint commitments to grassroot direct democracy, social activism, and the unification of theory and practice, Len had invited students from UConn's anti-war "Tent-City" to discuss the war in Iraq and their experiences as protestors. By discussing points of agreement and disagreement with each other, Len hopes that students will discover for themselves what they should believe about current social institutions and issues. In a typical Krimerman course, students choose the topics for study, select the assigned readings, and lead class discussions.

Len's life, teaching, and scholarship cannot be separated. Although he grew up in Manhatten, the seeds of Len's social activism may have been planted not far from UConn at a progressive summer camp in Gilman Connecticut where the campers fell asleep every evening with memories of left-wing campfire songs sounding in their heads. Len didn't know it, but his destiny as a philosopher had been set. Feeling empowered and liberated by the questioning, critical stance of philosophy after taking undergraduate courses with E.A. Burtt and Irving Singer at Cornell University, Len decided to major in philosophy rather than psychology. Keith Donnellan, then at Cornell, served as the advisor for Len's Ph.D. thesis defending Mill's utilitarianism.

Len's history as a campus activist began in earnest in the early 1960's with his first academic position at the University of New Orleans then known for its radical integration of black and white students. It was here that Len first became an object of interest to the FBI because of his "links" with Lee Harvey Oswald. The FBI had come to New Orleans to get pictures of people involved in some protest or other. Agents caught Len's face on film not too far from the face of one Lee Harvey Oswald who had stopped briefly in New Orleans on his way to Dallas.

No doubt the subsequent appearance in 1964 of Len's highly regarded anthology Patterns of Anarchy (with Lew Perry) stimulated even more FBI interest.

Soon after Len joined the UConn philosophy faculty in the late 1960's, he and Bob Luyster created the "Inner College" whose purpose was to provide an alternative to the standard authoritarian and book-oriented structures of the academic world. Students of the Inner College determined their own curricula and hired faculty. One student traveled to Costa Rica and Cuba to make a film on child-care. Several Inner College students created a learning program for children in Willimantic. Much to the consternation of several administrators, Inner College students, on occasion, even painted their own classrooms. Seven years after this episode of "creative vandalism" a judge dismissed the civil suit brought by UConn against Len to pay for costs of repainting. (Hell hath no fury like an administrator scorned?) Len boasts that graduates of the Inner College entered graduate school at a higher rate than other UConn graduates. In 1974 Len took a Sabbatic Leave, and when he returned the Inner College had disappeared.

Disenchanted by the response of the administration to the Inner College, after his sabbatical Len chose to teach half-time at UConn in order to devote more time to his political and social projects. In 1975 Len began planning "International Poultry", a worker-owned and democratically organized poultry processing plant which operated briefly in nearby Willimantic. In the late 1970s, he and others began the enterprise that became the long-lived and thriving Willimantic Food Cooperative. In 1984 Len founded and then edited the periodical "Changing Work". In 1991 he helped found the GEO (Grassroots Economic Organization) Newsletter. In recent years Len has returned to fulltime teaching and his long-standing interest in integrating radical democratic theory and philosophy of social science. His 2001 article on Participatory Action Research as a model for social science (in Philosophy of Social Science) pursues the integrating project begun in his other important anthology of the 60's The Nature and Scope of Social Science. Most recently Len has turned his focus on the idea of working for peace through Study Circles and other forms of robustly participatory democracy.

Although Len is officially retired from the Philosophy Department as of June 1, 2003, he is not retired from university teaching or social activism. Len will return in the Fall to teach "Philosophy and Current Issues". Having just returned from a conference in Victoria Canada on "Cooperative Studies", Len anticipates continuing his work on integrating theory and practice, social science and participatory democracy.

As a parting message, Len says that he is most proud of his teaching and relationships with students, many of whom have remained friends over the decades. Len also wishes to thank the members of the Philosophy Department for their support over the years in spite of his unorthodox scholarship, clashes with the administration, and two arrests for protests on campus. Len has many fascinating stories to tell. Ask him.

 

This newsletter was designed by the Philosophy Department's Program Assistant Shelly Burelle. Please visit our website at: "http://vm.uconn.edu/~wwwphil" where this newsletter is located for miscellaneous links, including links to abstracts, and colloquium updates.

Any questions or comments should be directed to Shelly at philos1@uconnvm.uconn.edu.