Speakers Program
The Department brings each year a number of outstanding philosophers, representing a wide variety of philosophical styles and traditions, to the Vanderbilt Campus. The current list can be found on the speakers page. The range has extended from Quine to Ricoeur, from Searle to Gadamer. Recent speakers include: Henry Allison, Robert Audi, Robert Bernasconi, Debora Black, Richard Boyd, Walter Brogan, Judith Butler, Stanley Cavell, Ed Casey, Daniel Conway, Ed Curley, Jacques Derrida, Ronald DeSousa, Dan Garber, Rodolphe Gasch, Ian Hacking, Karsten Harries, John Heil, Lynn Joy, Robert Kane, David Krell, Jonathan Lear, John Llewelyn, Helen Longino, William Lycan, Alasdair MacIntyre, Ruth Millikan, Calvin Normore, David Pears, Adriaan Peperzak, Robert Pippin, Nikita Pokrovsky, Holmes Rolston, Richard Rorty, Dennis Schmidt, John Searle, Kristin Shrader- Frechette, Marcus Singer, Robert Solomon, John Stuhr, Nicholas Sturgeon, Jacques Tamineaux, Merold Westphal, Bernard Williams and Margaret Wilson. Conferences are also organized by faculty, recently on topics such as the nature and role of the emotions, and new work on Kant's Critique of Judgment. Vanderbilt hosts the Tennessee Philosophical Association meeting each fall, and several national societies have held their meetings at Vanderbilt in recent years, including the Metaphysical Society of America, the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, the Central States Philosophical Association, the Academy for Jewish Philosophy, and the International Neoplatonic Society.
