Alvin Goldman, Board of Governors Professor at Rutgers University, will deliver the second annual William P. Alston Lecture in Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences. The lecture, “Naturalizing Metaphysics With the Help of Cognitive Science,” is Saturday, Feb. 22, at 4 p.m. in the Kilian Room (500) of the Hall of Languages. It is free and open to the public.

The lecture is named for the prominent professor who taught in SU’s philosophy department during the 1980s and ‘90s. Alston was an active member of the SU community until his death in 2009 at the age of 87. The series is supported, in part, by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation and by donations from friends and former students of Alston’s.

Goldman is one of the world’s preeminent philosophers. Among his 12 books are A Theory of Human Action (Prentice-Hall, 1970), Knowledge in a Social World (Oxford, 1999), and Simulating Minds (Oxford, 2006). He has published more than 150 essays, primarily on epistemology and cognitive science. Many of his articles, including “What Is Justified Belief?," “Discrimination and Perceptual Knowledge,” and “A Causal Theory of Knowing,” are classics that have been widely anthologized.

Goldman is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is former president of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association and of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology. He also held the Romanell-Phi Beta Kappa Professorship in 2000-2001.

Earlier in the day are two other philosophical presentations in 500 HL:

“Circularity and Rational Persuasion"
Michael P. Lynch, professor of philosophy at University of Connecticut
10:30 a.m.

"Varieties of Epistemic Vice"
Heather D. Battaly, professor and chair of philosophy at California State University, Fullerton; with a response by Pierre Le Morvan, associate professor of philosophy at The College of New Jersey
2 p.m.

For more information about these events, contact SU's philosophy department at 315-443-2245.

Housed in The College, the philosophy department has a rich tradition of philosophical teaching and research in a collegial environment. The department offers a variety of graduate and undergraduate degree programs, and maintains a strong relationship with other philosophy departments around the country, including those at Cornell University and University of Rochester.