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2025 Program

University of South Carolina - Columbia

Columbia, SC

March 28-29

Most events for the conference will take place on the 8th floor of the Close-Hipp Building on the USC Columbia campus.

1705 College St., Columbia SC 29208

WiFi network: eduroam or USCGUEST (no password)

Schedule at a Glance

Friday, March 28th

1:00-4:00pm Registration and Check-in (UCC lobby)

1:30-2:00pm Welcome Address (Lumpkin Auditorium)

2:30-3:30 Concurrent Sessions 1A-D

3:30-4:00pm Coffee Break (UCC lobby)

4:00-5:00pm Concurrent Sessions 2A-E

5:30-8:00pm Reception and Keynote Address (All Good Books - 734 Harden St.)

                           Keynote speaker: Barry Lam (UC Riverside)

                           in dialogue with Justin Weinberg (USC Columbia) ​

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Saturday, March 29th

10:00-10:30am Registration and Check-in (UCC lobby)

10:30-11:30am Concurrent sessions 3A-E 

11:40am-12:00pm Poster Presentations (Lumpkin Auditorium)

12:00-1:30pm Lunch Break

1:30-3:00pm Concurrent session 4A-C

3:00-3:30pm Coffee Break 

3:30-4:30pm Concurrent sessions 5A-E

5:00-7:00pm Closing Reception and Award Presentation (Proof at Claussen's - 2001 Greene St. Suite C)

Concurrent Schedule 

Friday, March 28th

1A         Clinical Duties and Rights (Eastview)

Chair: Gabriella Hulsey (UNC Chapel Hill)      ​

  • 2:30pm Andrew Garland (Bob Jones University)​

    • "​Three Kinds of Clinicians' Duties"

  • 3:00pm Kristen Hine (Towson University)​

    • "Gestational Surrogacy and Rights"​

​​

1B        AI Ethics (Westview)

Chair: Murray Skees (USC Beaufort)

  • 2:30 Britt Currie (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

    • ​“Why We Cannot Empathize with ChatGPT: Nor Any Agents Lacking Epistemic States, Interests, & Values"

  • 3:00 pm Shaun Respess (NC State University)

    • ​“Intersubjective Social Robotics: Emergent Normativity in Artificial Agents”

​

1C        Minds, Machines, and Skepticism (Summit East)

Chair: George Khushf (University of South Carolina Columbia)

  • 2:30pm Tarik Tijanovic (Independent Scholar)

    • ​“P-Zombies and two potential misconceptions”

  • 3:00pm Parker DuVall (Colorado State University)

    • ​“A Partial Defense of AI Skepticism”

​

1D        Love and Friendship (Summit West)

Chair: Rachel Keith (University of Southern California)

  • 2:30pm Gabriel Vasquez-Peterson (University of Pittsburgh)

    • ​“Loving and Being Loved”

  • 3:00pm Sarah Pressman (University of South Carolina Columbia)

    • ​“Contemplating Friendship” ​

​

1E        Relativity and Truth (Executive II)

Chair: Kimberly Beasley (University of South Carolina Columbia)

  • 2:30pm Hong Deng (Guangzhou University)

    • ​“The Complete Relativity of Space and Time”

  • 3:00pm Chris Weigel (Utah Valley University)

    • ​“Lying as Respect in Dementia Care” 

​

COFFEE BREAK 3:30-4:00pm

​

2A         Aesthetic Truth and Linguistic Injustice (Eastview)

Chair: Britt Currie (University of Illinois Urbana Champaign)​​

  • 4:00pm  Ethan Higginbotham (University of California Davis )

    • "Artistic Assertion and Aesthetic Value" 

  • 4:30pm  Bowen Zheng (Northern Illinois University)

    • ​“Slurs as Gesturing" 

​​

2B         AI, Sports, and Technology (Westview)

Chair: Kevin DeLapp (Converse University)​ 

  • 4:00pm Murray Skees (University of South Carolina Beaufort)

    • ​“A Return to the Cave”

  • 4:30pm  Gabriella Hulsey (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill)

    • ​“Rules of the Game”

​​

2C        Early Modern Philosophy (Summit East)

Chair: Andrew Garland (Bob Jones University)

  • 4:00pm Nathan Sasser (Greenville Technical College )

    • "Hume's Copy Principle and the Concept of God" 

  • 4:30pm Patrick Brissey (University of South Carolina Columbia)

    • ​“Descartes's Provisional Morality"

​​

2D        CANCELLED 

Chair: Kristen Hine (Towson University)

  • 4:00pm [CANCELLED]Sofia Koukia (SUNY Binghamton)

    • ​“She Was Asking For It: Blame-Shifting and Guilt-Tripping”

  • 4:30pm [CANCELLED] Michael Dickson (University of South Carolina Columbia)

    • ​“Appropriative Musical Covers"

​​

2E        Virtues and Norms (Executive II)

Chair: Gabriel Vasquez-Peterson (University of Pittsburgh)

  • 4:00pm Alok Tiwari (University of Missouri)

    • "Can One Be Virtuous to a Fault?" 

  • 4:30pm Liyun "Tori" Hui (University of South Carolina Columbia)

    • ​“What is an Epistemic Norm?"

​

KEYNOTE ADDRESS 

5:30pm Dialogue on Fewer Rules, Better People The Case for Discretion (Norton, 2025)

by Barry Lam (University of California Riverside)

Discussant: Justin Weinberg (University of South Carolina Columbia)

Location: All Good Books, 734 Harden St.

​

Saturday, March 29th

3A       Moral Normativity (Eastview)

Chair: Justin Weinberg (University of South Carolina Columbia)

  • 10:30am Dario Cecchini (NC State University)

    • ​“Moral Progress Through Better institutions: A Dyadic Framework”  

  • 11:00 Allen Coates (East Tennessee State University)

    • ​“Moral Worth and Moral Normativity"

​​

3B       Bias, Thought, and Discourse (Westview)

Chair: Alok Tiwari (University of Missouri)

  • 10:30am Jennifer Baker (College of Charleston)

    • ​“What Good Critial Thinking Can Do Us"

  • 11:00am Joseph Erickson (University of South Carolina Columbia)

    • ​“On Prejudice: Fricker and Gadamer”

​

3C       Pluralism and Perspective  (Summit East)

Chair: Austin Gray (University of South Carolina Columbia)

  • 10:30am Mangesh Patwardhan (National Insurance Academy)

    • ​“Mathematical Pluralism - Full-blooded Platonism, Multiverse View in Set Theory”

  • 11:00am Raja Rosenhagen (Fresno State University)

    • "Non-one-sided many-sidedness"​

​

3D        Emotion (Summit West)

Chair: Kristen Hine (Towson University)

  • 10:30 Charles Starkey (Clemson University)

    • ​“Emotion and Phenomenal Binding”

  • 11:00am Anderson Harris (University of South Carolina Columbia)

    • "The Role of Expressions in Caring Activities"

​

3E       Explanation and Knowledge (Executive II)

Chair: Eric Scarffe (Florida International University)

  • 10:30am Katherine Valde (Loyola University Chicago)

    • ​"Temporal Discordance: An Alternative Explanation for Dating Discrepancies"

  • 11:00 am Jonathan Dixon (Wake Forest University)

    • ​“Closure on Underdetermination”             ​

​

​

Poster Presentations 11:40am-12:00pm (Lumpkin Auditorium)

 

Lunch Break 12:00-1:30pm

​

4A        Laws, Rules and Ethics (Eastview)

Chair: Katherine Valde (Loyola University Chicago)

  • 1:30pm Eric Scarffe (Florida International University)

    • ​“What's In A Name?: Philosophy of Law and Collective Bargaining”      

  • 2:00pm Alonso Villarán (Universidad de Pacífico)

    • ​“The New York Times Rule of Ethics”

  • 2:30pm Christopher  Tollefsen (University of South Carolina Columbia)

    • ​“Artistic Liberty”

​

4B        Philosophy at the Extremes: Reflection on Metal (Westview)

Chair: Murray Skees (University of South Carolina Beaufort)

  • 1:30pm Aaron Simmons (Furman University)

    • ​“Rise, Resist, Revolt: Finding Metallic Resonance in Chantal Mouffe's Left Populism”      

  • 2:00pm Kirk Mishrell (University of South Carolina Columbia)

    • ​“Mimesis of the Mad: How Death Metal Corrupts the Soul”

  • 2:30pm Benjamin  McCraw (University of South Carolina Upstate)

    • ​“Talk Shit Get Kissed: Death Metal, Misogyny, and Epistemic Resistance”

​​

4C        Ancient and Modern Philosophy (Summit East)

Chair: Ryan Kulesa (Oxford University)

  • 1:30pm Peter Seipel (University of South Carolina Lancaster)

    • ​“Socrates on the Advantages of Death”      

  • 2:00pm Tyke Nunez (University of South Carolina Columbia)

    • ​“The Aristotelean Lineage of Kant’s use of “Actus” and “Function,” and his rejection of Leibniz’s “Entelechia””

  • 2:30pm Kyle  Barnes (Colorado State University)

    • ​“Akrasia and Scientia Intuitiva in Spinoza’s Ethics”

​

COFFEE BREAK

​

5A       Foundations of Morality (Eastview)

Chair: Anderson Harris (University of South Carolina Columbia)

  • 3:30pm Ryan Kulesa (Oxford University)

    • ​“Misfortune and Moral Status”  

  • 4:00pm Patrick Tully (University of South Carolina Columbia)

    • ​“Incommensurability, Comparability, and Arrangeability of the Basic Human Goods"​

​​

5B       Self-Directed Duties (Westview)

Chair: Nathan Sasser (Greenville Technical College)

  • 3:30pm Rachel Keith (University of Southern California)

    • ​“Could You Justifiiably Kill Me to Prevent Me From Killing Myself?: On Self-Directed Duties and Liability to Defensive Force"

  • 4:00pm Joseph Porter (University of Colorado Boulder)

    • ​“The Duty to Avoid Preventable Bad Health" 

​

5C       Metaphysics  (Summit East)

Chair: Peter Seipel (University of South Carolina Lancaster)

  • 3:30pm Christabel Cane (University College London)

    • ​“Statuses, Lumps, and the Properties That Distinguish Them”

  • 4:00pm Nick Danne (Independent Scholar)

    • "Powers, Blueprints, and the Glue of the Universe"​

​

5D        Metaethics (Summit West)

Chair: Murray Skees (University of South Carolina Beaufort)

  • 3:30pm Kobi Korankye (University of Georgia)

    • ​“Manipulating Gorin’s Theory For a Reason"

  • 4:00pm Kevin DeLapp (Converse University)

    • "Smells Good!: Olfactory Experience and Response-Dependent Metaethics"

​​

5E        Imagination and Seemings (Executive II)

Chair: Alonso Villarán (Universidad de Pacífico)

  • 3:30pm Marc Biemiller (Florida State University)

    • ​“Acquaintance and Knowledge Through the Imagination"

  • 4:00pm Derek Green (University of Central Florida)

    • "Unsettled Beliefs as Doxastic Seemings"

​

Closing Reception and Award Presentation

5:00-7:00pm  Proof at Claussen's (2001 Greene St. Suite C)

Undergraduate Poster Presentations

  • Camilla Axland (Wofford College)

    • "How Daoism Could Help Alleviate the Gender Binary"​

  • Mclain Connors  (Utah Valley University)

    • "Untruth in the Marketplace of Ideas​"

  • Madalina Gilca (College of Charleston)

    • "Case Study: Blame and Moral Standing in Political Contexts​"

  • Samuel Hart (Furman University)

    • "From Description to Prescription: A Gitaic Response to Hegel’s Philosophy​"

  • Orpheus Isom (Utah Valley University)

    • "The Half Life of Consciousness​"

  • Darcy Phillips (Wofford College)

    • "Nietzsche & Arendt on Purpose​"

  • Seana Ruane (Bob Jones University)

    • ​"Reviving Courtesy Titles to Respect Others"

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