Western Washington University

Department of Philosophy

Newsletter 2006

Department Awards

The 2006-2007 Paul J. and Rebecca Ann Olscamp Philosophy Scholarship was awarded to Aaron George, as was the 2006-2007 Departmental Tuition Waiver Scholarship. Congratulations, Aaron!

Faculty News

Daniel Howard-Snyder The highlight of my year was my raspberries and tomatoes. I was eating off the vine from July through October. It was incredible! I coached William’s and Peter’s soccer team last spring and this fall; they went undefeated, doubtless due to the excellent coaching (perhaps not keeping score was relevant too). In August, Christian Lee and I set out from White Pass intending to make it to Barlow Pass, south of Mount Hood, 186 miles away, in ten days. Unfortunately, I twisted an ankle thirty miles in, and had to bail out. I plan to pick up the walk again in early September. I also discovered the fall salmon runs, in the Vedder and Fraser Rivers (just north in British Columbia), as well as the Stillaguamish River (just south in Arlington): several sockeye and chum regret the fact. Winter steelhead are next! “Three Arguments Against Foundationalism: Arbitrariness, Epistemic Regress, and Existential Support,” co-authored with E.J. Coffman of the University of Notre Dame, came out in the December 2006 issue of the Canadian Journal of Philosophy. “Theodicy,” a chapter in the second edition of Readings in Philosophy of Religion (Broadview), edited by Kelly Clark of Calvin College, came out as well. “What's Wrong with Skepticism about Arguments from Evil?” was accepted for publication in a book entitled New Waves in the Philosophy of Religion (Ashgate), edited by Yujin Nagasawa of the University of Birmingham and Erik Wielenberg of DePauw University.

Frances Howard-Snyder In August, I took my sons, Peter and William, to England, where they played chess and tennis and soccer with their Grandad, cooked and read with their Nana, and where I spent a day with each of them in London. Also in August, Peter won the Bellingham chess GrandPrix. (This sounds grander than it was--since he accumulated more points than anyone else in the tournament by playing against others of his own moderate ability--but it was a very special time and a nice trophy.) William came second in a couple of chess tournaments. Both boys are flourishing in first grade at St. Paul's Episcopal School, where I try to volunteer once a week. In July, I traveled to Syracuse to attend a conference on value theory, and had a chance to see Bill and Valeria Alston. I traveled to Vancouver to comment on a paper on truth in fiction. In the Fall, I had a sabbatical, during which I wrote a paper on "The Principle of Normative Invariance" called "Damned if you do; damned if you don't" which I hope to present at a conference in England next summer. I also worked hard on problems concerning our responsibilities towards future generations.

Hud Hudson In 2006, my book The Metaphysics of Hyperspace was published with Oxford University Press. I also had a number of papers accepted for publication: "Confining Composition" The Journal of Philosophy, "Simple Statues" Philo, and "Lesser Kinds Quartet" The Monist. Frances, Ned, and I edited another special issue of Philosophical Studies with selected papers from the 2004 Bellingham Summer Philosophy Conference. And in addition to a handful of talks in the US, I had a wonderful month in Australia and New Zealand where I gave papers at the Australian National University, Monash, Sydney, Auckland, Canterbury, Otago, and Victoria of Wellington. Aris (now 16) is a junior in high-school and is very interested in politics and history. Eli (now 11) is a sixth-grader in middle-school and continues to be devoted to his guitar and performing. Brody (now 10) is still a beautiful black lab and wonders why the newsletter readers aren't sending her more dog treats.

Ned Markosian reports that he is woefully behind on a number of research projects, including his book, Things and Stuff (for which he had to take an incomplete). He has also been working this year on his chapters for a new metaphysics textbook that he’s co-authoring with John Carroll. And he has several papers that have been in various stages of near-completion for far too long. (But his paper “A Defense of Presentism” was reprinted in an anthology on Persistence published by MIT Press, so that’s something.) Meanwhile, Ned presented papers at conferences in Arizona, Slovenia (it’s a country near Italy), and New Jersey, and commented on papers at conferences in Oregon and Italy. (The conference in Arizona was at a dude ranch, where all the philosophers rode horses in between philosophy sessions. You can see pictures here, including this one of Hud Hudson.) In the real world, Ned reports that his wife, Nahid, their kids, Zane and Leila (now 10 and 8), and he are all thriving. (Zane and Leila always enjoy interacting with philosophers and philosophy students when they show up for Pizza Night or department barbecues, so if you ever get a chance to chat with them, they would appreciate that.)

Ryan Wasserman My son Benjamin had his first birthday party in May and began walking soon after that. My wife and I have been trying to catch up ever since. Benjamin enjoys climbing where he shouldn't, playing with dangerous objects and emptying the bathtub one splash at a time. It's no surprise that one of his first words was "no". In July, my wife and I found out that we'll be having another child this year - we're hoping for a nice, quiet girl. 2006 was also a busy year academically. I published "The Problem of Change" in Philosophy Compass, "The Future Similarity Objection" in Synthese and a critical study of E.J. Lowe's most recent book in Notre Dame Philosophical Review. I also wrote several papers on intentional action and moral responsibility, one of which I presented at the University of Manitoba in November.