Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) — poet, film director, screenwriter and theatre critic, playwright, essayist, journalist, graphic artist, and novelist — was one of the great Italian artistic and intellectual figures of the twentieth century.  Since his mysterious murder in 1975, Pasolini has been reviled; then sanctified. Our goal is to historicize Pasolini. This conference focuses […]

From the Greeks to the present our moral and political philosophizing has been preoccupied with a search for the timeless and the universal: timeless norms of moral action and universal principles of political life. Where this may once have seemed to be a plausible undertaking, it is not obviously so any longer. A clear understanding […]

Michel Foucault's late writings on ethics have been subjected to severe scrutiny by a host of critics. I suggest that these criticisms have for the most part been misguided because of a meta-ethical error too often relied upon in interpretations of Foucault.  I offer a distinction between ethical 'orientations' and ethical 'commitments'.  Rather than offering substantive normative content, I argue, Foucault's […]

This talk is presented as part of the Philosophy Graduate Student Works in Progress series.

Bowles at 100: A Celebration of Multi-Artistry UCSC's Paul Bowles Centennial Festival presents an international group of scholars, writers, filmmakers, and performers to celebrate the multi-faceted artistry of Paul Bowles. Festival highlights include: concerts of Bowles' orchestral and vocal music; an exhibition of images and artifacts from Bowles' six-decade career; a conference with presentations on […]

Philosophy graduate student Christopher Durt will give the following talk, "Galileo and the Emergence of Modern Philosophy," as a Work in Progress. Come join us!